Interesting factoid about my mom: She loves 50s bubblegum music with the fire of a thousand suns. She actually owns poodle skirts … and likes to wear them more frequently than you can imagine. One of her favourite pastimes is sitting down at the piano with songbooks of 50s music and belting out Tears On My Pillow and other such ditties at top lung capacity. She also loves Broadway tunes with an equally burning love. The reason we’re in NYC in the first place is so Mom can see some Broadway.

So it should come as no surprise that one of the top items on her list of things to do in the Big Apple was not the Empire State Building, not the Statue of Liberty, not Central Park, but … wait for it … Ellen’s Stardust Diner near Times Square. She heard about it from her first cousin (shout-out to YOU, Alma Singleton … whoo hoo!) and immediately declared that no holiday to NYC would be complete without a trip to this famous diner.

Allow me to set the scene for you. There are singing waiters. Their stage is your table. That’s right, there is a possibility that someone will be standing on your table singing 50s bubblegum music or Broadway show tunes while you wait for your meal. Like, for example, something like this could happen:

This gal can seriously belt out a tune!

Sounds yummy, right?!

So off we went this morning for breakfast. Who am I to deny my mother this once-in-a-lifetime experience? It would take a braver person than I.

And in all seriousness, OMG can the waitstaff ever sing!!!! They are some seriously talented people. Mom’s socks were rocked. And one of the waitresses/singers gave her a little special birthday treatment, which gave Mau a chance to rock the mic right!

Serious birthday discussions.

After brekkie, we wandered down to Times Square … in the rain. Mau hates the rain and her inside-out umbrella was not doing the job it was supposed to (despite being hilarious!), so after a couple of obligatory snaps (see below!), we decided to head back to our apartment for an hour before our afternoon and evening adventures.

Mama in Times Square!

Moi in Times Square.