We flew out Thursday night and arrived at the lovely Hotel Beacon to discover that Kevin's sucking up to the manager had paid off, and we had been upgraded to the executive suite. To celebrate David ran naked between the bedroom and living area where he eventually was quite delighted to sleep on the sleeper sofa.
Friday morning we were up early and off to Central Park. After some time walking around the park and playing on an old school playground (sand on the ground, metal slides and things to climb on made out of stone because who doesn't enjoy a filthy child with burns on his thighs and missing teeth?), we took the subway to Brooklyn. We ate some official New York style pizza at Grimaldi's (very good, but I think deep dish definitely wins) and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. We followed this up with David's favorite part of the trip, FAO Schwarz. It was a challenging for him to pick just one toy, but after much debate, Optimus Prime won. And we spent the rest of the weekend listening to, "Autobots, transform and ROLL OUT!" After a break at the hotel, we went to MoMA for some culture.
Me and David at Grimaldi's pizza. The 3 of us (with a comatose David) on the Brooklyn bridge
David running wild in the streets of NYC and sleeping with the cuddly Optimus Prime
Saturday was museum day. We started at the American Museum of Natural History which was fabulous. I would have liked to have some time sans 3 year old to really look at some of the exhibits. We checked out the dinosaurs and the space stuff, but what David liked the most by far were the animal dioramas. He grabbed the camera and took pictures of almost all of them. He was particularly entertained by the vultures, hyenas and jackals posed around a dead zebra (well, they were all dead, but you know what I mean). The room with the life size blue whale was a hit with all 3 of us, and Kevin was enamored with the Screenflex units all over the museum (see the barosaurus/partition picture below), and all over New York for that matter. The family business was represented at multiple museums as well as Liberty Island and Rockafeller Center. They were extensively photographed. Not only do those things partition me from warm weather, now I get to spend time on vacation watching Kevin take their picture.
David was also keen on pointing out the letters on signs. D is for David. M is for Mommy. K is for Daddy (still can't get him to say it's for Kevin). L looks like a gun. T looks like a jackhammer.
After a long day of natural history and a delicious meal at the Shake Shack, we went to the Met. And wow is that one fantastic art museum. David's favorite part? The arms and armor. We had to stop by for a second look on our way out.
Sunday we were up early to take a boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The statue was nice to see, and the climb up the pedestal was really easy. Next time Kevin will get his way, and we'll go up to the crown. Ellis Island is another place I'd like to visit with grown ups only, or at least people who can read. What Kevin and I were able to look at was really interesting, and I left feeling very fortunate for the cushy life I lead.
We did lunch in Chinatown. Naturally, our Chinese child slept through it. Afterwards we met up with some of our friends from my days as a suffering peds resident at Loyola. It was so great to see Katy, Will and Jack. The boys hit it off and had a lot of fun playing in Central Park and trying to out eat each other at dinner.
David and Jack (the big kindergartener!). Sunset over the Hudson as seen from our hotel room.
Later that night we did what Kevin loves best. We went to the top of something to see views of stuff.
Kevin and David at the bottom of the Rock and up at the top of the Rock
View of the Empire State building (and lots of other tall buildings)
Monday we spent most of our remaining time in Central Park. We rode the carousel, climbed on rocks, visited the zoo and let David run around another playground. That child was about as dirty as he'd ever been by the time he was finished. I have a relatively high tolerance for grossness (thank you, Pete and Snoopy), but I could not bear the filth. We had to change his clothes before we left the park.
Central Park carousel
Climbing on rocks. The first picture was supposed to be of the 3 of us, but David refused.
Our grand finale was a trip to Tom's Restaurant, which you may recognize from such shows that Kevin watches nonstop as Seinfeld.
Overall, a really great trip. I think we packed a lot in to 4 days. New York was great, but Kevin's brainwashing is clearly working. New York is huge and fabulous with some of the best museums and restaurants in the world. If you want it, you can find it there. But is also is way dirtier than Chicago (I will never make fun of the people I see spraying down sidewalks again), and at its baseline smells faintly of garbage and often not so faintly of garbage. Great for a visit, but if I have to live in a cold big city with terrible traffic, I'll take Chicago. Are you happy now, Kevin?
And finally, since my sister sort of threw it out there in her comment on my last post, I would like to say congratulations to her and Stanley. There's a cousin on the way, y'all, and we could not be more excited!!!
1 comment:
Looks like fun was had by all!!
Now, we'll all wait for Max and baby Stiles!
XXXOOO,
'Ramma
Post a Comment