Friday, 7/15/16
2.5 miles
A few housekeeping
items keep us busy as we wait for our guests to arrive.
They may be driving,
it might take 10-12 hours to get here, and one of them has an exam on Monday
morning, but you know what? Uncle Wigwam and Aunt Janine are coming to visit
anyway!!
R and J arrive. Our
evening consists of Indian take-out, Pokemon hunting, gelato, and the 8th
wonder of the world, Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. (The
accent! The mullet!).
**Full disclosure,
Dani is not only a HUGE KC fan (everybody muffs an accent now and then!), she
also loves Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (and the Brian Adams song that comes
with it). And isn't afraid to share it with everyone who might venture onto
this blog.
`
Saturday, 7/16/16
6.6 miles
In the early
afternoon, we venture to Manhattan via ferry.
M and D to R and J:
the ferry is so fast, so efficient!
The ferry: I'll show
you.
We find ourselves on a
bigger, more crowded boat that takes quite a bit longer to disembark (and
embark?).
Delicious noodles and
garlic bok choy for lunch.
Rich and MR pluck the ukuleles in the Sam Ashe music
store.
Rain forces us to
rethink our plan to get to Chelsea Market. We wait out the worst of it over
steaming coffee.
As the rain clears, M
and D realize that MJ's bedtime is only an hour away. The next ferry leaves in
25 minutes, and we are determined to catch it.
We leave R and J to
bee-bop around the city some more, and HOOF it down 34th Street at top speed.
The Avenues flash by.
9th, 8th, 7th. We're crossing 2nd at the moment the ferry should be arriving.
We press on, on the
off chance that it's late. It is! We make it back, just in time for bed.
When R and J get back,
we order pizza from Fornino's and hash out our game plan.
We will party in
shifts.
M will go out with
them until 10:30, D will take the later shift.
Ever in control of
their mental faculties, R and J take us both (separately) just down the street
to the edge of the dark water.
There, we see the
glittering NY skyline for the first time on this trip.
Top notch cocktail at
Alameda. Barely cared what the one at that other bar tasted like.
Sunday, 7/17/16
6.2 miles
Or
how we might feel the next morning. Moving right along…
The
Bedford strip of Williamsburg is bustling with people, vendors, outdoor café
seating.
We
eat ramen, and Richard surprises and delights the wait staff by calling out
some parting words in Japanese.
After
lunch, our guests must leave. As is, ETA
is very, very AM on Monday.
R
and J leave too soon, but arrive home just in time for Rich to take his exam.
We're in awe of their pluck.
Monday,
7/18/16
8.5
miles
This
morning, we count up our mileage. 146 miles to date.
We're
off to Chelsea Market. It's a delight for the (tourist) senses: beautifully
arranged flea market stalls, a walk-in closet sized shop of goodies from
Morocco, an Italian food market, gelato, chocolates, seafood, coffee, books,
spices, and much more.
Breakfast
(technically second breakfast, as we started with steel cut oats) of avocado
toast, fried eggs and potato hash.
Sufficiently
fueled, we head up to the Highline, a 1.5 mile walkway on an old, elevated
section of the West Side Railroad Line that starts at Gansevoort Street and
goes all the way up to 34th. The vegetation is in its full glory and we walk
amid lush yellows, greens, and purples, enjoy the shade of tall, leafy trees.
People mosey, lounge, sleep, stretch, visit, hydrate, and drip popsicle juices
of every color. The very last section is in full sun, but looks out onto the
glimmering Hudson (we made it to the far West side of the island! Certainly
this is how Balboa felt…).
 |
Hips don't lie...camera does. Dani meets Picasso and loses half her body weight.
|
As
we approach the end, we spy the tower of a massive ship in the distance. It
slowly comes into focus.
It's
an aircraft carrier.
Called
the Intrepid.
That's
a museum.
Which
houses a SPACE SHUTTLE.
And
THE Concord.
And
an A-12 (looks like onesie SR71 Blackbird).
An
F4 Phantom II (type dad flew).
We're
dead on our feet but now we know what we're doing tomorrow.
Tuesday,
7/19/16
6.5
miles
Coffee and beakfast at Bakeri.
The
Pulaski Bridge takes us into Queens, the 7 takes us all the way to Hudson Yard.
The
Intrepid!
A
huge Lego version of the ship greets us as we board.
The
Intrepid is speckled throughout 20th century history (Pacific theater of WWII,
Vietnam, recovery for Mercury and Gemini missions).
Demonstrations
of lift and drag, a model of the first ejection seat, pilot gear.
Then
the flight deck: American, Israeli, Polish, French, and Russian fighters,
trainers, spy planes, choppers.
We
approach the giant hangar that houses the starship Enterprise! Ok, technically,
it's never been in space, but it is the Enterprise, it is named for the USS
Enterprise, and it is incredible. Goose bump City just walking next to the
massive landing gear, peering at the nose, the windshield, the wings.
We
exit through the gift shop, working hard to ignore all the cool stuff for
purchase.
The
three kids behind the counter see MJ riding high in the pack and freak out:
"That's the coolest thing in the building!"
With
a space shuttle around the corner.
Kids
these days! ;D
For
once, we navigate the subway like pros. MJ spends most of the ride staring
deeply into the eyes of the guy right next to us.
It's
precious.
Wednesday,
7/20/16
7
miles
We
ferry to the 11th Street Pier on the southern end of Manhattan (this time it's
on purpose).
Today
we join the ranks of the 4 million or so
people a year that visit Liberty Island. It will be hot, crowded, and touristy,
but neither of us have ever been, so we're going.
Long
ticket lines. Security.
We
make a game of identifying as many languages as we can. German. Spanish from
Mexico, Spanish from Spain, Puerto Rican Spanish. Dutch. Japanese. Mandarin.
We
board the boat with what feels like 10 billion other people. It rocks violently
as wake from the incoming boat arrives. Pantomime barf.
We
watch the statue get closer and try to imagine what it must have been like to
have arrived here in the 1890s after weeks at sea.
Back
on dry land, we lay out our trusty Mexican blanket on an isolated spot of
grass, put on some music, and watch MJ roll around while we play gin amid the
amazing breeze, lapping waves, and Lady Liberty's backside.
Though
we're both interested in the role Ellis Island had to play in history, we skip
it in favor of walking in the shade (as opposed to standing in the sun).
Lunch
is at Teri's, a delicious veggie joint.
We
walk North on Pearl through part of China Town and Stu Town. We arrive close to
the pier just in time to see the ferry pulling up. We slap the headphones on
MJ, run past the deafening sounds of three helicopters coming and going.
We
make it, and relax to the sight of
Manhattan slowly slipping into the brightness behind us.
Thursday, 7/21/16
5.6 miles
The first couple
of weeks here, we had weather in the 70s and low 80s. These days, the
temperatures are creeping up.
This afternoon
for Greenwich Village (the west side of Lower Manhattan). Our goals are to: a)
have falafel at Taïm, an itty bitty, middle eastern vegetarian spot that Alex
and Rachel took us to once and b) soak up the atmosphere of the area. It's a
success, and bonus: an icy pear, lemon, and mint smoothie is the perfect
antidote to the heat. We mosey South, enjoying the calm of the neighborhood
before turning around at the border of Tribeca.
We brought the
aforementioned headphones for Michael Jr. in case of really intense noise
(originally purchased for use on the Mooney). Well. With the bus brakes, the
screeching subway, constant construction, honking horns, sonorous sirens,
jumping jackhammers (ok, I'll stop), we have used them every day.
Most of the time,
MJ sits happily up in the pack, looking as though he might be listening to
hip-hop beats and getting looks of
appreciation from passersby. Today, however, he isn't having it. I put
them on, he takes them off. On the subway, he waits until the doors are open
(but not for long), tears them off and throws them. They clatter to the ground,
just outside the doors that will very soon be closing. Time slooooows as we do
the math: Michael is closest to the
door, but encumbered by the pack and can only move so quickly. Dani has her
hands full, and would have to get around Michael.
We snap back into
real time as a passerby breezes past, scoops up the headphones, and tosses them
into the car as the doors close. Crisis averted. With all the
excitement, we almost miss the look of satisfaction on baby's rosy face…
It's an easy day
mile wise, but we're no less happy to climb that last bit of stairs before the
cool, quiet, dark of the apartment.
