Tuesday, Oct 14th, 2014
My mom, Fred, the boys and I headed to New York City for the MEA break to visit Adrea and Tim, who are living in Brooklyn for a year since Adrea took an opportunity to work with the CFO of Stratsys there. We took a Sun Country flight out on Tuesday afternoon, enjoying supper from the airport en route, and flew into JFK landing at about 8:15 PM. We took a couple cabs to our hotel (La Quinta of Brooklyn) where Tim was waiting for us with 3-D name plates for the boys. We grabbed some pizza and a cannoli across the street before Tim took mom and Jacob to their apartment for the night. Mom and Jacob got to sleep on the futon at Adrea and Tim's small, efficient, compact apartment. Adrea flew in from California in the middle of the night and they all slept until almost 8, which is very rare for Jacob.
Wednesday, Oct 15th
We ate breakfast at the hotel. Tim, Adrea, Jacob and mom rode the subway over to the hotel to meet up with us for our adventures. We took the subway to Roosevelt Island where we hopped on the tram and rode across the river to the island of Manhattan. We walked towards Central Park spying Dylan's Candy Shop along the way. We stopped at Dylan's - a 3 story shop filled with all colors and flavors of candy. $30 later we were on our way with a small supply of candy. We wandered into Central Park and found a good picnic spot with some room around us for the boys to run around. Tim fed us a picnic lunch and we enjoyed some of our candy from Dylan's. The boys played with empty bottles and sticks for a while before heading into the Billy Johnson play area to check out the granite slide. Jacob's nylon gym pants made him pretty fast on the slide. We walked back to Times Square, stopping at the Top of the Rock to buy our tickets for later on. In Times Square, we went to Toys 'R Us to ride the Ferris Wheel and enjoy some ice cream. We spent some time checking out toys and somehow set down and lost about $20 worth of candy. We went back to Top of the Rock to ride up 67 floors to the observation deck to over look the city. Tim's butter knife got confiscated, it started to rain when we got out on the observation deck, and the fog rolled in obscuring our view, but mom thought that was cool to see. We checked out the additional 2 floors of observation deck while dodging the rain before heading back down to street level to try out Burger Heaven not too far from Rockefeller Plaza. By the time we arrived back at our hotel we had clocked some 15,000 steps.
Adrea and the boys on the subway
Mom, Adrea, Me and Jacob on Roosevelt Island
The boys in Dylan's Candy Store
Picnic in Central Park
Fred and the boys on the Granite Slide in Billy Johnson Playground
Tim and Adrea on the Ferris Wheel in Toys 'R Us
Wyatt and I on the Ferris Wheel
Our family in Times Square
Adrea and Mom in Times Square
Mom, Adrea, Me and the boys in Times Square
Thursday, Oct 16th
A storm rolled thru during the night and it was still raining in the morning. We met Adrea, Tim, Mom and Jacob on the subway platform at the subway stop closest to our hotel and rode the subway to Manhattan. We donned our ponchos and popped open our umbrellas to head to the Museum of Natural History on the edge of Central Park, arriving there right as it opened. We saw lots of life like dioramas of animals and sea life. The boys liked the discovery room with its hands on activities. We also saw an IMax like movie called Dark Universe about space and the universe. Not the best choice for the boys (and mom and Drea took naps), but Fred enjoyed it. We had lunch at the museum food court before finishing up our exploring and heading back to Brooklyn. A subway ride and long walk got us to the Brooklyn's Children's Museum. It was their free afternoon, which Tim had discovered in his research for our trip, so we enjoyed wandering around and checking out the different exhibits with animals, magnets/particles, water, and sand. We took cabs (one Uber, one yellow) to a restaurant nearer to Adrea and Tim's called Chipshop. It was interesting to see all the Jewish people heading to synagogue as we drove to supper (it was a Jewish holiday). The Chipshop was an English pub where we had things like Mac and Cheese, Shepherd's Pie, and Fish and Chips. We tried a couple desserts - milkshake, deep fried banana with chocolate sauce (the least favorite), and rhubarb crumble with custard cream (yum). It was time to head back to get kids to bed after supper, so we retired to the hotel/apt after only 11,500 steps on the day.
The boys by a diorama at the Natural History Museum
Another shot from the museum
Wyatt took many pictures with different animals at the museum
Adrea grabs another nap while the boys play in the discovery room
Doesn't Gavin make a pretty girl?
Masked and silly
Friday, Oct 17th
The weather was gorgeous on Friday - sunny and clear. Tim, Adrea, Jacob and mom dropped off laundry and then got breakfast at Ladybird Bakery (muffins, scones, milk, coffee). They met up with us on the subway platform again and we headed to Whitehall/South Ferry (subway stop) to ride the Staten Island Ferry to get a better look at the Statue of Liberty. The ferry is free and runs every half hour most of the day. It takes about 25 minutes to get to Staten Island, so once we got there we just switched ferry's and returned to Manhattan. We caught the subway up towards the Brooklyn Bridge. As we were walking towards the bridge we came across some street performers, who were obviously very good at finding the targets that would bring in the most money. They picked Jacob out first and then Adrea and "the tall, sexy white guy" Fred also got picked out. After shaking down the crowd for all sorts of money ($45 from our crew) one of the guys did a front flip over the group of 6 people picked from the crowd. We then proceeded to the Brooklyn Bridge to walk across. We stopped a couple times for pictures and then headed to the Brooklyn Bridge Park to eat. We ate at Luke's Lobster and the No.7 Sub shop for lunch where the adults enjoyed lobster, crab, and shrimp rolls and the boys enjoyed subs. We went to the other side of the bride to Jane's Carousel down by the river and we all took a ride on the carousel, the boys 2 rides. We went back under the bridge to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory where we waited in line for about a half hour to get cones and banana splits. Fred and Tim took the boys back to the park by Tim and Adrea's while Adrea took mom and me to her work for a brief tour. After the boys played in the park for a while, we went to the Mauseth apartment for a pizza party. Gavin wanted a turn staying at the apartment, so Adrea and I helped Fred get Jacob and Wyatt back to the hotel and then we returned to the apartment to teach Tim how to play Scrabble (he'd never played!). Mom won the first and I got a 7 letter word and won the second, it was a lot of fun. Adrea and Tim took me back to the hotel, making a stop at one bar along the way for beer and butternut squash soup. I clocked over 19,000 steps that day.
Tim, Mom, Jacob, Adrea, Gavin, Wyatt and Me on the Staten Island Ferry
The boys on the Ferry
Statue of Liberty
Jacob is the first picked for the street performance, Adrea almost didn't let them take him once they said he had to stand very still. (Still, not being one of Jacob's strong suits.)
The performer making a flip over Jacob.
The performer goofing around with is subjects, later they would all bend down like they were bowing and he would flip over them. I didn't get a picture as I was videoing it.
Walking the Brooklyn Bridge.
Mom, Me and Adrea on the Brooklyn bridge with Manhattan in the background
Almost across the bridge
Mom on the Carousel
Tim and Fred on their ponies
Jacob
Wyatt
Adrea
Gavin and Wyatt got warm from all their running around and decided to chill on this bench while we waited for ice cream
Wyatt enjoying his cone
Tim, Gavin, and Jacob enjoying their ice cream
Gavin and Wyatt swinging in Prospect Park
Saturday, Oct 18th
Time to head back to Minnesota. Adrea and Tim brought mom and Gavin over to the hotel and we took a cab to the airport for an 11:30 AM flight. We gathered some sandwiches, chips, and drinks before hopping on the plane and heading home. Smooth flight and all went well.
