NYC Update V : Central Park
Greetings all, and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there.
Thanks to my father's suggestion, we're going with Roman Numerals from now on. Also, I'll spare you from the New Jersey oddities this time. Though some discussion may be warranted regarding our recently-hired Mexican-American lawn care specialist, whose name is Hans. My father-in-law asked me what language Hans spoke, given his German name and Hispanic, um, pigmentation. I replied "Swiss." My wife responded less sarcastically, assuring her father that Hans speaks English. Hans is from Dover, which is on the other side of a large hill from our town, and which has, for whatever reason, attracted a number of "immigrants" from "Texas" (Mexico). Hans is a very nice young man, and you read that correctly, I no longer cut my own grass (more on that some other time).
On to the update! I know you can hardly wait! Let's see if we can overuse exclamation points!
Aunt Joannie arrived Thursday from Culpeper, Virginia via Amtrak and was met by a throng of adoring fans in Mo-Town, a.k.a. Morristown, a.k.a. Randolph Township. With Joan in town, we decided that this would a good opportunity to go to Central Park, as with the addition of another adult (relatively speaking), we could employ a man-to-man defense on the kids, as opposed to the matchup zone. After much game-planning, they have learned to exploit the zone defense and we certainly don't need to be exposed going into a city of 7 million people. So, we loaded up the van, a backpack filled with food, water and rappelling gear, grabbed two lightweight umbrella strollers, and went over the game plan. Joan, having trained for this mission the last four months in Rome, would be responsible for Jimmy. She would be carrying Regis's spare cell phone in the event of an emergency. Regis, equipped with her cell phone would have Maggie, and I, armed with my Blackberry, would be responsible for Annie. If "responsible" is the right word there...
Today, we took the van down I-80 and across the George Washington Bridge, which crosses the Hudson Tidal Estuary at the north end of Manhattan. To give those of you unfamiliar with NYC some bearings, Manhattan Streets run east and west across town and are numbered from 1st to 200th in ascending order as you progress northward. The Avenues run north and south and are numbered from 1st to 9th in ascending order as your progress westward. The GW bridge is at approximately 190th street. Central Park lies between 59th Street and 110th Street, and between 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue. So, bottom line, Central Park, is Gi-normous (credit to Jess for letting me borrow that word).
Once arriving at the Park, we decided to check things out. As I said, it's huge, so we did quite a bit of walking, which guaranteed us two things -- peace and quiet once the kids collapsed from exhaustion, and crabby kids immediately prior to said collapse. We also needed to find some ducks, because Maggie had her mind set on feeding them, despite our attempts at distracting her. Highlights included a ride on the Carousel, which Annie loved and Maggie didn't love (Joan has the photos of that experience), finally feeding the ducks in the Lake, playing tag on the Lawn, exploring Belvedere Castle, and swinging on some swings in a random little part of the Park. At one point, Joan, Regis, and I were on the swings and the three kids were watching, a proud moment, and quite telling about my maturity level.
After several hours in the Park, we drove down 7th avenue, through Times Square, past the Empire State Building, and down to the Holland Tunnel. We did all this for Joannie, so she could see the sights, and so we could get honked at by about 34 cab drivers. The Holland Tunnel took us back to NJ, and past the backside of the Statue of Liberty. Maggie was not interested in seeing the Statue of Liberty, despite her brother's assurances. "Maggie, she's a lady, and steady, like frozen in freeze tag." They should put that on the brochure.
Yes, Regis has a spare cell phone.
That's plenty for now; pass this along to whomever and please let us know how you are doing.
Take care,
Jim
Thanks to my father's suggestion, we're going with Roman Numerals from now on. Also, I'll spare you from the New Jersey oddities this time. Though some discussion may be warranted regarding our recently-hired Mexican-American lawn care specialist, whose name is Hans. My father-in-law asked me what language Hans spoke, given his German name and Hispanic, um, pigmentation. I replied "Swiss." My wife responded less sarcastically, assuring her father that Hans speaks English. Hans is from Dover, which is on the other side of a large hill from our town, and which has, for whatever reason, attracted a number of "immigrants" from "Texas" (Mexico). Hans is a very nice young man, and you read that correctly, I no longer cut my own grass (more on that some other time).
On to the update! I know you can hardly wait! Let's see if we can overuse exclamation points!
Aunt Joannie arrived Thursday from Culpeper, Virginia via Amtrak and was met by a throng of adoring fans in Mo-Town, a.k.a. Morristown, a.k.a. Randolph Township. With Joan in town, we decided that this would a good opportunity to go to Central Park, as with the addition of another adult (relatively speaking), we could employ a man-to-man defense on the kids, as opposed to the matchup zone. After much game-planning, they have learned to exploit the zone defense and we certainly don't need to be exposed going into a city of 7 million people. So, we loaded up the van, a backpack filled with food, water and rappelling gear, grabbed two lightweight umbrella strollers, and went over the game plan. Joan, having trained for this mission the last four months in Rome, would be responsible for Jimmy. She would be carrying Regis's spare cell phone in the event of an emergency. Regis, equipped with her cell phone would have Maggie, and I, armed with my Blackberry, would be responsible for Annie. If "responsible" is the right word there...
Today, we took the van down I-80 and across the George Washington Bridge, which crosses the Hudson Tidal Estuary at the north end of Manhattan. To give those of you unfamiliar with NYC some bearings, Manhattan Streets run east and west across town and are numbered from 1st to 200th in ascending order as you progress northward. The Avenues run north and south and are numbered from 1st to 9th in ascending order as your progress westward. The GW bridge is at approximately 190th street. Central Park lies between 59th Street and 110th Street, and between 5th Avenue and 7th Avenue. So, bottom line, Central Park, is Gi-normous (credit to Jess for letting me borrow that word).
Once arriving at the Park, we decided to check things out. As I said, it's huge, so we did quite a bit of walking, which guaranteed us two things -- peace and quiet once the kids collapsed from exhaustion, and crabby kids immediately prior to said collapse. We also needed to find some ducks, because Maggie had her mind set on feeding them, despite our attempts at distracting her. Highlights included a ride on the Carousel, which Annie loved and Maggie didn't love (Joan has the photos of that experience), finally feeding the ducks in the Lake, playing tag on the Lawn, exploring Belvedere Castle, and swinging on some swings in a random little part of the Park. At one point, Joan, Regis, and I were on the swings and the three kids were watching, a proud moment, and quite telling about my maturity level.
After several hours in the Park, we drove down 7th avenue, through Times Square, past the Empire State Building, and down to the Holland Tunnel. We did all this for Joannie, so she could see the sights, and so we could get honked at by about 34 cab drivers. The Holland Tunnel took us back to NJ, and past the backside of the Statue of Liberty. Maggie was not interested in seeing the Statue of Liberty, despite her brother's assurances. "Maggie, she's a lady, and steady, like frozen in freeze tag." They should put that on the brochure.
Yes, Regis has a spare cell phone.
That's plenty for now; pass this along to whomever and please let us know how you are doing.
Take care,
Jim
posted by Watts at 6:36 PM
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