Having done the State, it was time to do New York City!
We left home with Jim and Gwen at 6am on Friday 21 September to catch the bus from opposite our house and the Metro train through the city to Union Station where we were booked on the 7.30am AMTRAK train to NYC. This was a 3.20 hour trip to Penn Station where we hailed a mini van cab to take the six of us to the Park Central hotel on 7th Avenue, just down from Central Park.
Friday: Walked down 7th Avenue to Times Square via several shops including the massive Toys 'R' Us in Times square, lunch at TGI Fridays, up the Empire State Building, wandered back to our hotel via Bryant Park, the Rockefeller Centre and dinner at Applebees.
Saturday: 7th Avenue has turned into a long street market so our walk downtown was very slow. Shopping attractions of Time Square area again proved too strong to resist including the Hard Rock Cafe, until we got caught in a 2 - 3 hour downpour, partially saved by the purchase of some $3 umbrellas from an opportunistic street vendor who suddenly appeared. Highlight for Olivia and Kieren was a visit to the world's biggest Build A Bear Workshop where they eventually left with a NYC police bear and a white rabbit wearing a I [red heart] NYC t-shirt. Dinner at the Times Square Planet Hollywood, complete with souvenir purchases on the way out of Planet Hollywood and the Virgin Megastore next door concluded a long day.
Sunday: If we thought Saturday was long ... Caught a taxi after our usual breakfast at Fluffy's down to catch the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. More souvenirs, circumnavigating the Statue and too many photos later, we caught the ferry back past Ellis Island to subway back up towards Times Square to catch the 1pm matinee of The Lion King. Rushed there, grabbed some food in the foyer and all of us enjoyed the fantastic production. We then tried to get the subway down to Ground Zero Eventually got there and walked around the reconstruction site. We should have done some research on this first as we were too late to visit the Ground Zero Museum Workshop which looked very worthwhile from what we could see in their window. After more subway dramas, we got back to our hotel and changed for a late dinner at [insert name of restaurant in theatre district].
Monday: Intended catching subway up Central Park West to 72nd Street but ticket machine was out of order and rather than walking two Avenues to buy tickets, we decided time was better spent walking up Central Park. Found the Dakota Building where John Lennon was living / shot, and visited the Imagine tribute in the Strawberry Fields part of Central Park. Walked back through the Park and the kids had a good play on one of the playgrounds in the Park. Then rushed over to FAO Schwartz toy store for a quick ten minute visit (kids played a $250 000 'walk on' piano and two more stuffed toys were added to the luggage to get home) before rushing back to the hotel, getting a limo to get all six of us back to Penn Station and the AMTRAK train back home. That trip seems to be the only time we stopped and relaxed in the whole four days. Walking into home around 7.30pm was nearly as much of a relief as was dropping the 25 kilograms of luggage that I was carrying.
Photos here.
Malcolm
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Lancaster, Intercourse and Gettysburg
Donna's mad tour continued on Saturday 15 September as we visited markets and museums in Lancaster in the morning and spent the afternoon in the shops, mainly Amish related, in Intercourse.
After spending the night in Lancaster, we drove down to Gettysburg on Sunday 16 September and spent most of the day visiting and touring the Civil War attractions of Gettysburg.
Malcolm
After spending the night in Lancaster, we drove down to Gettysburg on Sunday 16 September and spent most of the day visiting and touring the Civil War attractions of Gettysburg.
Malcolm
Baltimore and Air & Space Museum (Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center)
Donna's parents, Jim and Gwen arrived in Washington late on Thursday 6 September 2007 after the usual joys of the trans-Pacific flight. Everything has been hectic and crazy since then as Donna has had the six of us on an agenda that ensures they see as much as possible and never have time to stop and enjoy themselves, or so it has seemed!
So here goes a series of short posts to start getting the blog back up to date, with good intentions of fleshing out a bit more later on ...
Saturday 8 September was planned to be a day in Baltimore. However we first had to pick up the mini van (people mover in Aust terms) from Budget that we had booked for the period over the next two weekends. With the usual efficiency of rental firms here, there wasn't a car waiting for us. We ended up being taken up to an Avis depot who matched the rate we had but it meant our morning was gone.
We still headed up to Baltimore which is around 45 minutes north of our home. Eventually found an expensive park (don't go to the Harbour late on a Saturday lunchtime!) and somewhere to eat. Wandered around the Harbour and the shops on an oppressively hot / humid day when we were all glad to get back home.
On Sunday 9 September, we headed out towards Dulles Airport to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. Collection was impressive with the first large hangar having three levels of aircraft and suspended walkways to see them. There's also a large collection of aircraft engines. Collection includes an Air France Concorde and a 'Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet in the world'. (Yeah right, a 40 year old design hasn't been improved since - I don't think so!) The second hangar has a space theme, with the space shuttle Enterprise taking centre stage. This one was used to test atmospheric flights and landings and was never taken into space.
Sunday ended with a street party in Underwood Street, complete with a DJ, BBQ dinner and kids' entertainment.
Malcolm
So here goes a series of short posts to start getting the blog back up to date, with good intentions of fleshing out a bit more later on ...
Saturday 8 September was planned to be a day in Baltimore. However we first had to pick up the mini van (people mover in Aust terms) from Budget that we had booked for the period over the next two weekends. With the usual efficiency of rental firms here, there wasn't a car waiting for us. We ended up being taken up to an Avis depot who matched the rate we had but it meant our morning was gone.
We still headed up to Baltimore which is around 45 minutes north of our home. Eventually found an expensive park (don't go to the Harbour late on a Saturday lunchtime!) and somewhere to eat. Wandered around the Harbour and the shops on an oppressively hot / humid day when we were all glad to get back home.
On Sunday 9 September, we headed out towards Dulles Airport to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum. Collection was impressive with the first large hangar having three levels of aircraft and suspended walkways to see them. There's also a large collection of aircraft engines. Collection includes an Air France Concorde and a 'Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest jet in the world'. (Yeah right, a 40 year old design hasn't been improved since - I don't think so!) The second hangar has a space theme, with the space shuttle Enterprise taking centre stage. This one was used to test atmospheric flights and landings and was never taken into space.
Sunday ended with a street party in Underwood Street, complete with a DJ, BBQ dinner and kids' entertainment.
Malcolm
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Build A Bear Workshop
Monday 3 September is Labor Day public holiday here in the States. To keep the kids happy at the start of the long weekend, we took them out to Montgomery Westfield on Saturday afternoon to Build a Bear Workshop.
This is a shop designed to extract maximum bucks from parents. ;-) Basically the kids select a bear 'skin', take it to get it filled (including a heart and a 'voicebox' which the kids can record); name it on the shop's computer (which records your contact details of course); dress it; accessorise it; and let the parents pay for it while the kids enjoy reading their bear's birth certificate.
We managed to get out fairly lightly with just a dressed bear each and some vague promises to return in the future. Olivia has of course picked out extra accessories for Laura Bear while Kieren thinks Liam Triceratops needs a skateboard to make his life complete.
Photos are here - nothing like buying a kid's smile!!
Malcolm
This is a shop designed to extract maximum bucks from parents. ;-) Basically the kids select a bear 'skin', take it to get it filled (including a heart and a 'voicebox' which the kids can record); name it on the shop's computer (which records your contact details of course); dress it; accessorise it; and let the parents pay for it while the kids enjoy reading their bear's birth certificate.
We managed to get out fairly lightly with just a dressed bear each and some vague promises to return in the future. Olivia has of course picked out extra accessories for Laura Bear while Kieren thinks Liam Triceratops needs a skateboard to make his life complete.
Photos are here - nothing like buying a kid's smile!!
Malcolm
Olivia' (Second) First Day in First Grade
Monday 27 August 2007 was back to school day in Maryland.
Olivia had a visit to the school the prior Friday to take her books out, meet her teacher and find her new room. She is in a class with no one from her kindergarten class which was daunting for the 5 minutes it took her to make a new best friend. There were a range of activities set up around the room, like seeing how many times you can find your name, to get the kids familiar with the setup.
Monday went fine with Olivia disappearing on the big yellow school bus with the other local kids to Rosemary Hills Elementary School. The route has been changed with additional of stops before the bus gets to her stop (still the last stop) so she's getting picked up a bit late and getting home a bit late but that's ok.
While I was home for a work hookup on Thursday night, Donna took Olivia and Kieren back to the school for a pizza and ice cream picnic night which Miss 'Social Queen' Olivia just had to go to!
Donna has also found a swim school for Olivia and Kieren so they will start swimming lessons again on Tuesdays after school. Kieren doesn't start pre-school until Tuesday 11 September.
Some photos of Olivia's first day are here.
Malcolm
Olivia had a visit to the school the prior Friday to take her books out, meet her teacher and find her new room. She is in a class with no one from her kindergarten class which was daunting for the 5 minutes it took her to make a new best friend. There were a range of activities set up around the room, like seeing how many times you can find your name, to get the kids familiar with the setup.
Monday went fine with Olivia disappearing on the big yellow school bus with the other local kids to Rosemary Hills Elementary School. The route has been changed with additional of stops before the bus gets to her stop (still the last stop) so she's getting picked up a bit late and getting home a bit late but that's ok.
While I was home for a work hookup on Thursday night, Donna took Olivia and Kieren back to the school for a pizza and ice cream picnic night which Miss 'Social Queen' Olivia just had to go to!
Donna has also found a swim school for Olivia and Kieren so they will start swimming lessons again on Tuesdays after school. Kieren doesn't start pre-school until Tuesday 11 September.
Some photos of Olivia's first day are here.
Malcolm
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