I'm going to backtrack a bit and post about our two family summer vacations, not all at once, just daily increments. On June 25th, we went back East for two weeks to visit Tara's side of the family in New York. We decided to splurge and fly back after driving it last year. I'm on a crusade though to come up with a way that we can do this trip for under for 4k next year so that we can go on other vacations as well...like say a cruise without kids. We spent some time in NYC as just the five of us before heading Upstate. The flight was...hmmmm...well, as much crying as Morgan did last year in 36 hours of driving he was amazingly able to compress into a five-hour flight. Kudos to Alan for struggling with him while I tended to Dagan and Logan who were flying angels anyways. They were so excited when the pilot invited them into the cockpit post flight.
It was quite challenging transporting our family around NYC. When I went growing up, we always had a chartered bus. I thought that a cab would be more convenient with children and we wouldn't be on someone else's schedule. Our hotel was a Marriott Residence Inn in Long Island which shuttled us to the subway. We then took them on the NYC subway into Manhatten where we picked up a taxi that took us to a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. I couldn't do the taxi scenario justice. You have to experience it for yourself...again, with kids. Evidently kids don't need to be in a carseat (or even a seatbelt) in taxis there. My anxiety was at an all time high between the bumper-to-bumper traffic, and being as germ conscious as I am, inconspiculously barking at them not to touch a thing (and I thought the plane was bad with the recycled air) while Alan pleasantly carried on a conversation with the cab driver. We were able to see Ground Zero on our way to the Statue. The Statue of Libery was not as big as Alan and I expected but magnificent nonetheless. The kids were pretty amazed. Dagan took a bunch of pictures of the Statue by himself from the ferry, such as the one at the opening of this post. Below are Dagan, Logan and I on the ferry to Staten Island and Alan and Morgan on Staten Island.
I was afraid that I hadn't planned enough for us to do for the day. I neglected though to take into account that 3 taxis would take up a huge chunk of time, which is not pleasant when you're watching the meter go up by the dollar as you creep through rush hour traffic. I also was unaware how long it would take to hail a taxi when you have 3 cranky,overtired, children waiting right next to you on the curb. Alan joked about how easy it looks in the movies to just put your hand in the air and they pull right over. No kidding, it took us almost an hour one time to get a taxi to pick up the Howard Family Circus! Our last stop was FAO Schwartz where we let the kids each pick out their own toy. Dagan and Logan picked out classics that you don't see in other toy stores anymore.
Then came the really eventful part...driving Upstate in our Chrysler rental van (which I loved for having lots of hidden storage but made me certain we'll stick to being SUV owners). So Alan did a great job driving but I blinked once after we went over the George Washington (I think eight lane) bridge and we missed our exit off of the New Jersey Turnpike. (Flashbacks from 6 years ago in Newark, NJ with Dagan as a baby in a shady--as in crime--area at 2 a.m. asking for directions.) Once you miss your exit on the Turnpike there's little hope. You can't just go to the next exit and turn around. We were frantic for a couple of hours or so (thankfully the kids slept through most of it). We were ridiculously relying on our own plotting and others directions--which they assume you know the area--before we decided to pull over and say a prayer. It was not more than a minute later that we noticed a Marriott which fortunately had Internet access. So for $8 for 5 min. Alan got us a new map from Yahoo Maps. Note to myself for the future: No matter how much I prefer a desktop over a laptop, invest in a laptop before next trip back East !
I'm going to backtrack a bit and post about our two family summer vacations, not all at once, just daily increments. On June 25th, we went back East for two weeks to visit Tara's side of the family in New York. We decided to splurge and fly back after driving it last year. I'm on a crusade though to come up with a way that we can do this trip for under for 4k next year so that we can go on other vacations as well...like say a cruise without kids. We spent some time in NYC as just the five of us before heading Upstate. The flight was...hmmmm...well, as much crying as Morgan did last year in 36 hours of driving he was amazingly able to compress into a five-hour flight. Kudos to Alan for struggling with him while I tended to Dagan and Logan who were flying angels anyways. They were so excited when the pilot invited them into the cockpit post flight.
It was quite challenging transporting our family around NYC. When I went growing up, we always had a chartered bus. I thought that a cab would be more convenient with children and we wouldn't be on someone else's schedule. Our hotel was a Marriott Residence Inn in Long Island which shuttled us to the subway. We then took them on the NYC subway into Manhatten where we picked up a taxi that took us to a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. I couldn't do the taxi scenario justice. You have to experience it for yourself...again, with kids. Evidently kids don't need to be in a carseat (or even a seatbelt) in taxis there. My anxiety was at an all time high between the bumper-to-bumper traffic, and being as germ conscious as I am, inconspiculously barking at them not to touch a thing (and I thought the plane was bad with the recycled air) while Alan pleasantly carried on a conversation with the cab driver. We were able to see Ground Zero on our way to the Statue. The Statue of Libery was not as big as Alan and I expected but magnificent nonetheless. The kids were pretty amazed. Dagan took a bunch of pictures of the Statue by himself from the ferry, such as the one at the opening of this post. Below are Dagan, Logan and I on the ferry to Staten Island and Alan and Morgan on Staten Island.
I was afraid that I hadn't planned enough for us to do for the day. I neglected though to take into account that 3 taxis would take up a huge chunk of time, which is not pleasant when you're watching the meter go up by the dollar as you creep through rush hour traffic. I also was unaware how long it would take to hail a taxi when you have 3 cranky,overtired, children waiting right next to you on the curb. Alan joked about how easy it looks in the movies to just put your hand in the air and they pull right over. No kidding, it took us almost an hour one time to get a taxi to pick up the Howard Family Circus! Our last stop was FAO Schwartz where we let the kids each pick out their own toy. Dagan and Logan picked out classics that you don't see in other toy stores anymore.
Then came the really eventful part...driving Upstate in our Chrysler rental van (which I loved for having lots of hidden storage but made me certain we'll stick to being SUV owners). So Alan did a great job driving but I blinked once after we went over the George Washington (I think eight lane) bridge and we missed our exit off of the New Jersey Turnpike. (Flashbacks from 6 years ago in Newark, NJ with Dagan as a baby in a shady--as in crime--area at 2 a.m. asking for directions.) Once you miss your exit on the Turnpike there's little hope. You can't just go to the next exit and turn around. We were frantic for a couple of hours or so (thankfully the kids slept through most of it). We were ridiculously relying on our own plotting and others directions--which they assume you know the area--before we decided to pull over and say a prayer. It was not more than a minute later that we noticed a Marriott which fortunately had Internet access. So for $8 for 5 min. Alan got us a new map from Yahoo Maps. Note to myself for the future: No matter how much I prefer a desktop over a laptop, invest in a laptop before next trip back East !
1 comment:
Tara, I think your blog looks great! I would love to visit New York. Dagan took one amazing picture! Let me know if you need any more tips or helps...anytime!
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