Photo-A-Day 2.0 – #00020

Eva and I were invited to New York City to participate in an experiential press event around the movie The Kid Who Would Be King. This movie is a modern take on the King Arthur legend. 20th Century Fox provided us with travel arrangements and a hotel plus meals for the event. We were up very early this morning and ready to take on the day. Eva and I got dressed and went down to breakfast. We were early because the hotel restaurant hadn’t even opened. We only had to wait a couple of minutes and then we were the only people there for most of the meal. Eva continued to look over her questions for the cast and we had a carbo load breakfast of pancakes and french toast plus bacon of course. Then back up to the room to finish getting ready and packing to go home. Eva wanted to make another livestream.

After our livestream we met up with Tessa and Ivy again and we walked around the corner to the movie theater. We dropped our stuff into a shuttle and off we went to see the movie.

Outside of the theater there were some activities for the kids. They each got to make crowns and shields. Eva made a nice shield and we got another set for Andrew so that he could make one as well. Eva also made a crown for Andrew. They also had heralds outside the theater who would blow their horns announcing the arrival of everyone. We picked out seats out and came back to participate in the activities. (Thanks Adam of Dad Rocks for that tip). We were blown away by the movie and I may or may not have cried several times during it. Our full review will be in another video. After the movie we got in the shuttles and headed over to Xavier High School to interview some of the members of the cast.

When we arrived at the school we were ushered upstairs to the press conference room. Tessa and James saved us a couple of seats so that we could set up our gear and I was able to livestream the whole thing. The second question was asked by Eva and I was very proud of her insightful question that sparked some good responses from the cast. I think we were all blown away by one revelation by Sir Patrick Stewart. I know that I was. You can see the whole press conference below. I was able to livestream the whole thing.

After the press conference we went row by row to take photos with the cast. We were lucky to be in the seats with Tessa and James and their kids. All three girls spent some quality time together and Tess and James are my friends so I am glad that we were in the photo together. After the photo was taken we went for lunch but I had to come back in to get my audio recorder, which was sort of a backup if the livestream did not work. When I was back in Adam and I got to take a photo with Joe Cornish and I got to see Andy Serkis taking photos of his son, Louis Ashbourne Seriks after the press conference. What I loved about this was that Andy was just being a dad in this moment. There are several photos I have seen of him taking photos with Louis around New York or taking photos of him around New York.

At lunch there were all sorts of fun treats like a hot chocolate bar and some chocolate covered fruit. There were also copies of the Guide for Young Knights all over the tables. There was a magician doing some closeup magic. We did not see too much of the magic because there were other stations to go to.

There actually ended up only being one station. The owls were stuck in the storm so no falconry and there was no baking event either. I don’t know what happened with the Armor kit activity either but there was still knight training in sword fighting and This was something that Eva did very well.

We did get some fun photos of the dads in this one, too. Me James and Adam. But the big stars were the kids doing sword fighting moves. You can see Eva’s dance training come into play in the video.

After our day of fun Knight related activity we headed over to FAO Schwarz for one last Kid Who Wold Be King surprise. Each of the kids was able to pull the sword from the stone. They had a great set piece there with the sword right in the stone similar to the movie. It was more like a footing for a building that had been smashed apart revealing the sword and there was even rebar hanging out of it. Each of the kids got to try out pulling the sword from the stone. They all had a lot of fun doing that.

We were given a $25 gift card to FAO Schwarz and so we put it to good use getting a gift for Andrew and some fashion items for Eva’s Barbies. Then a chocolate bar for us to share on the trip home. We were also lucky to catch up with Optimus Prime while walking the store.

Instead of taking a ride right back to the train station we decided to walk. We walked until we were a bit tired and around Times Square we found The Counter, a burger joint where you could make your own burger. You pick out everything to make the burger like cheese and toppings. It was a nice lunch and just what we needed to make the last few blocks back to the train station.

At the train station we crashed. We were so tired from the exciting couple of days. We were fortunate also that the train that we were on was not cancelled like many others because of the snow and ice that we had up North Our ride was pretty smooth, too. We did have to stop to get a Diesel engine added to the train to get us all the way to Boston. There must have been some spots where the electricity may have been out. We got home around midnight and were happy to get to our own beds.

This was an amazing experience and I was so lucky to do this with my polite, thoughtful and insightful daughter. She make me proud every day.