Just after we'd digested our turkey and had enough of family fun and togetherness, we decided to take a little rendezvous to New York City. Why? New York is big and fun and a good excuse to buy things. Plus, Hanson goes there a lot which gives the city sightseeing opportunities well beyond the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. So, we set out to hit all of the important Hanson Landmarks in the city, and we did quite well, and even had a few surprises along the way.

Ah, a favorite New York destination of the Fabulous Three. First, in our usual obsessed manner, we put in our name as "Hanson," so when they called us over the loud speaker, we were "Hanson, party of four." Oh, the things we do to amuse ourselves. Our waiter was pretty neat. Besides the fact that he immediately associated Boston with the New Kids on the Block, he also said "mm hmm" after every sentence. A basic example would be…
Waiter : Can I get you anything? Mm Hmm?
Corinne : Yeah, can I get you a diet Coke?
Waiter : Sure. Mm Hmm.
We thought this was pretty amusing. Then we ate our meal, surrounded by some movie-type memorabilia. (Let me state for the record that the half-nude statue of Sylvester Stalone "swimming" on the ceiling is totally unnecessary and frankly grossed me out.) Then they played Mmmbop. Kidding? Oh no my friends, I am not. It was the background music for a video montage of "kids in film" that was shown on large distracting monitors around the dining room. We giggled and spazzed for a few moments, as you can imagine. Then we decided to do something neat for Meghan's birthday, (It was her birthday. Did I mention that? OK. Well I just did.) so we got our waiter to bring her a brownie with a candle in it. And the waiters, Mr. Mm Hmm included, sang happy birthday to her. Now which Happy Birthday song did they choose? Did they choose the silly and oh-so-conventional Happy Birthday Dear Meghan version? No sir they didn't. They sang the very same Happy Birthday that the Sly and the Family Stone gospel choir sang to Zac on his birthday. More reasons to be a big spaz. Yes sir. Planet Hollywood. It does a body good.

Now, what trip to the Big Apple would be complete without a visit to the local Hanson theater? We walked there from Planet Hollywood, which wasn't nearly as traumatizing as we thought it would be. When we got there, we took pictures of ourselves in front of the signs that said "No cameras in this theater", peeked into the lobby, and hung out for a few minutes. It's a rather pretty little theater. (Well, from what we could see through the doors. Yes. The very same doors that Isaac smashed into. We touched them a couple of times.) I'm not sure how suspicious we looked, but Corinne says she overheard the woman at the box office say something about calling security. Yeesh. I didn't think we had that hoodlum aura about us, but I guess you never know.

Well, we were actually on our way to the Ritz, (Don't ask.) but as we were passing along Central Park South, something occurred to me. In the park, there was a familiar-looking outcropping of rocks. So I said, "Hey guys. Those are the rocks where Hanson did the Seventeen Magazine photo shoot." Now I said this innocently enough. I was sure that it was the general vicinity where they had done the shoot. I wasn't sure if it was the exact rock. As we approached, I started to remember the pictures. Do you know what we found? We found a tree. Now it wasn't a similar tree, a comparable tree, a reasonable facsimile of the tree that the boys had hung all over in the shoot - it was the exact, actual tree. It's sort of low and spindly and has a single branch that goes off to the right, a perfect angle to facilitate hanging from, especially if you're 11 years old, and a boy. What did we do, you ask? Well we hung off it of course! And hugged it and took pictures of ourselves doing so. Teenies? Yes.

• We visited the spot where Hanson played the Today Show, which is right in Rockefellar Center, and pretty hard to miss if you're a tourist wandering around New York City.
• We saw a man who was selling a random illegal framed picture of Hanson on the sidewalk. The picture was on the sidewalk I mean, not the man. Although I suppose technically, the man was too…
• We accidentally stumbled upon the building that houses the Universal Music Group. It was exciting to think that a meeting regarding the new Hanson album could have been going on at that very moment. It gave us a chill or two.
• We saw the Trump Hotel, which was used for the exterior shots when Hanson was on Saturday Night Live. We took pictures. Sure we did. You would too. Admit it.
• We took a large coach-like bus into the city, and my sister made an impromptu HANSON RULES sign to hold up to the buss window. (OK. So it wasn't all that impromptu. She brought markers and pieces of paper specifically for that purpose.) It's amazing the perplexed looks you get when you do that to white-haired old ladies.
• We played "What would Tay wear?" in the Gap.