New York, New York

enjoying the view

able to leap tall buildings in a single bound...

We just returned from a great trip to New York City. We drove, and it was painless both ways-- just about three hours, right through the Lincoln Tunnel, and up 10th avenue. Michael dropped us at the hotel and parked the car for the duration of the trip. We'd stayed at this hotel before, because it is has small suites-- a separate bedroom and living room, and a small kitchen-- perfect for traveling with kids. It's old and charming, has a fabulous location on the Upper West Side, and is remarkably affordable and slightly shabby. But since we were last there they had redecorated it, and it was so pretty! Beautiful sea-green paint everywhere and nice new furniture. (Also, unfortunately, lots of shiny metallics and glass; Agatha had a run-in with a glass end table and got a bruised cheek.) And huge-- we had our own room with a king-size bed, Henry slept on the fold-out in the living room, and the closets were so huge that we put Agatha's crib into one and she had her own dark and quiet room. As a result, we all slept very well, which is the key to happiness for our family. We were only a couple of blocks from the Natural History Museum and Central Park. Michael and I each had research business, so while one parent was off at the NY Public Library (me) or the Met (Michael), the other took the kids to the park and/or the museum. We got a family membership at the museum so that we could keep going back-- I think we went there about five times! It has huge dinosaur skeletons and dioramas and a giant blue whale suspended from the ceiling, among many, many, many other things. Tuesday morning the kids and I went all through "The Rambles" in Central Park, and it was a stunning, crisp, blue-sky day-- unfortunately Michael had the camera at the Met, so I don't have any photo evidence. But we saw turtles in the lake, and Henry scrambled up a tall cascade of boulders with a stream running through it. We ate well, of course. Henry discovered that he loves shrimp and all kinds of sashimi, and Agatha ate a huge sushi roll filled with glowing red salmon roe. ("Aggie want that! Aggie want that!") We rode the subway for fun, ate cupcakes from the special cupcake bakery, drank "coconut champagne" from Gray's Papaya (Henry: "It's weird! and good!"), and bought trinkets from the DinoStore in the museum (glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs, rock candy, and tiny rubber butterflies). I even shopped a little!

At first it was very stressful keeping tabs on Henry; he's used to a lot more freedom than he can have in Manhattan, and we had to repeatedly explain that he was not allowed to run ahead of us or leave the hotel room ("why not?" he asked in complete bafflement). And if you think it's bad taking two kids to the supermarket in your town, imagine doing it in a packed, gourmet grocery story in Manhattan at 5 pm. No! I do not recommend it! We compensated by going often to the park where he could run and explore more. Agatha was completely easy and adaptable, as usual, and rode in the backpack happily most of the time.

One puzzle: Henry wore his Superman t-shirt two days, and every third person seemed to comment on it ("Hey, Superman, are you going to share that cupcake with your sister?"). This only rarely happens in Lancaster. Why? Do New Yorkers love Superman? It can't be that they aren't used to children, because the Upper West Side is crawling with them. Are they just chatty and extroverted people? I don't know, but Henry noticed it-- the second morning, when we left the hotel and had walked for about two minutes without anyone commenting, he said, "Why isn't anyone saying 'hey Superman,' Mom?" We also met up with some of our former students who live in New York, and had a lovely time with them. So, a big, big success. New York!