The Weinberg Three have finally returned from their road trip up and down the East Coast. In the past four, almost five, years since we became parents we've realized that the best way to visit with friends and family and have an adult conversation is to meet at a playground. Make that a playground with a public bathroom and snack-providing facilities (preferably ice cream) nearby. And so, on our two-plus week vacation up North this July we did just that, with certain (possibly regrettable) exceptions.
Following our long weekend in Williamsburg we had a quick visit in Washington, DC, with cousins Bruce and Mary, and our friends Matt and Joe, respectively. While we met Bruce and Mary in the Union Station food court, rather than a playground, Milo and Calder played in the food court as if they were in a playground, possibly to the chagrin of other food court patrons. I could say that was a result of the ice cream they scarfed down immediately upon our arrival, but I would then be buying into the whole sugar-hyperactivity myth.
While in DC we took the boys to another non-playground, the National Air and Space Museum, which they enjoyed for about an hour and a half before they expressed disappointment that they could not actually touch the controls on most of the airplanes and space vehicles. The boys otherwise loved the rockets and space stations and airplanes.
Following our time in DC we headed up to New York City. I must say, the boys were real troopers in all of the long car rides during this vacation. During these rides we listened to books on tape for the first time. The boys, Milo especially, really enjoyed "The Spiderwick Chronicles." On the drive home we started listening to "The Thief Lord," which, according to Milo, is "good but not as good as that other scary story," i.e., "The Spiderwick Chronicles."
We spent the bulk of our vacation in New York City playgrounds or their like. No joke.
We spent two days visiting the Bronx Zoo (which is, for all intents and purposes, a giant playground for children and adults alike), where I spent much time as a child growing up in the Bronx. The zoo is fabulous with huge exhibits, lovely habitats, a great variety of animals, beautiful old buildings, and many neat attractions such as the Wild Asia monorail and the Skyfari (which was closed during our visit as a result of visitors being stuck in a car in the sky for five hours the previous day!). Sadly though, the zoo has become just a wee bit too commercial for my taste. Everywhere you go they are trying to sell you something, a photo of your children doing this, a stuffed animal, etc., and many of the exhibits charge additional admission fees. Perhaps it was this way during my childhood too and I just don't remember. Anyways, the kids had a lot of fun, despite a 45 minute wait for the monorail and tons of walking (our Riverbanks Zoo is a whole lot smaller).
We were fortunate to have the chance to catch up with good friends and family while in New York City. The boys took in the space show "Cosmic Collisions" at planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History and afterwards played in the splash park on the terrace outside the museum while we picnicked with our friend Kim and her daughter Chloe (soon to be one year old!). We met our friend Cori's new baby Tyler in Central Park at the East 72nd Street playground. Zola also got to spend time later in the week with her baby buddies Tyler and Chloe at Kim's and Dave's apartment (they mostly ate, slept, and watched Milo and Calder wreak havoc). Chloe, a playground pro, also took us to the John Jay park, which the boys absolutely loved.
We also got to visit with our friends Mike and Lynn and their kids Sam and Sally. Sally is yet another brand new baby just a few months older than Zola whom we met for the first time. After swinging together for a while, Sally and Zola napped quietly in their strollers while their older brothers ate bagels and goofed around in Hippo Playground in Riverside Park.
We met our friends Sharon and Serrin and their son Oscar to pick up wonderful felafel and doner kabab for lunch in the West Village, which we then took to, you guessed it, the Downing Playground in Winston Churchill Square to eat while the kids played.
But that's not all, another day we met Justin's cousin Marc and his family, as well as Uncle Spencer, in Central Park. We traipsed all over the park that day. Milo was smitten by the Heckscher Playground and practically had to be dragged off the climbing equipment so that we could make our way to Belvedere Castle and then grab pizza for lunch.
And, on this trip, we returned to one of our favorite spots, the Vesuvio Playground in Soho, where the boys ran wild, chasing one another (and me) on the labyrinth-like climbing equipment, and splashed around in the sprinklers. At the same time, Zola and her Daddy visited Downtown Music Gallery in relative peace and quiet (although I don't think the kind of music played in and sold by that store could ever be characterized as "quiet").
One of our best afternoons as a family (and not at a playground) was spent at Jacques Torres' Chocolate Haven. Justin and I love dark chocolate and apparently, so does Calder, who downed an (my) iced hot chocolate, which is almost bitter like coffee in its dark chocolately goodness. Aside from JT's delicious standards, such as the hot chocolate and homemade ice cream sandwiched between decadent chocolate chunk cookies, who knew that chocolate-covered Cheerios could be so yummy?! The boys, well heck, all of us were on a chocolate high that afternoon.
One of our less enjoyable moments as a family was spent at the Guggenheim Museum. True to his nature, albeit incongruous with his name, Calder squirmed (that may be a polite word choice) throughout the museum, especially since the place does not allow strollers! Milo, however, was enchanted by the architecture of the building, if not the odd current exhibition of Louise Bourgeois's work, and at times danced about as though he were inspired by the setting.
I suppose another note on strollers may be warranted. I suspect the insular nature of some people from various neighborhoods in Manhattan (West Side vs. East Side, Uptown vs. Downtown, etc.) may be the result of the New York subway system and its unbelievable lack of elevators working or otherwise. During the first half of our time in New York City we took the train into Manhattan from Queens and then traversed Manhattan by subway. The majority of subway stops do not have elevators. So those of us with strollers must either exit the train at a stop with an elevator, often 2o city blocks or more from one's destination, or lug the strollers up multiple flights of stairs. Try the latter with both a single stroller and a double stroller! As more than one of my friends indicated during our visit, if they can't walk there or use an elevator to exit the subway when they get there, they just won't go there.
We had one final stop in New York, out to Jones Beach in Long Island. The boys loved playing in the sand but were a little frightened by the large waves and surf. Justin, a veritable beach bum in his earlier years, relived his youth on our drive to the beach, blasting old Yes tunes, perhaps trying to drown out the shrieks and guffaws of the Weinberg Three in the backseats.
On the way back from New York we stopped in Durham, NC, to visit with my childhood friend Suzanne, her husband Craig, and their son Hudson. After breakfast, and before my children could create any further chaos in Suzanne's house, we quickly headed to a playground where my boys promptly wore themselves out for about two hours. Just in time for the ride back to SC!
Just a note on the different characters of my boys. A number of times during our trip Calder asked when were we going home, home to his "bunk beds." When, upon leaving NC, we indicated that we were going home, Calder smiled deeply, clutched "Blue" and his blanky and drifted off to sleep. Milo, on the other hand, asked "Where are we going now?" and was very disappointed (read whiny) when we replied "home." It's always interesting to see Justin's and my character traits surfacing in our children. I'll leave you guessing as to who has wanderlust and who likes to head home promptly after being away for a week or more.
No comments:
Post a Comment