When we walked into the casino, Max and Mason were in awe of the lights and the slot machines (which they were only permitted to ogle from a distance). Max was looking in wonder at the actual casino and said, “I wish I was 18!” Richard and I don’t gamble so we dragged the boys upstairs for some food.

Our first choice was Rodizio, a Brazilian steakhouse. We love those. They bring around huge skewers of meat to your table, over and over again. We don’t eat much meat but we do indulge when we go to a Brazilian steakhouse! Unfortunately, the hostess said they couldn’t seat us for another 45 minutes. She said she could call any of their other restaurants to try to get us in more quickly. I chose Wildflowers, their fine dining restaurant, which is “AAA Four-Diamond-rated” (that means expensive).

Sure enough, the hostess looked up, and said, “It’s, um, very expensive.”

Okay, maybe we looked like weary travelers because WE WERE. But I also looked around me and saw lots of retired folks dressed in shorts and the like. Maybe she suspected we couldn’t afford a fine dining restaurant because we have small children? (A waiter I once knew – not a friend – said he hated serving families with kids because the tips were always smaller. We ALWAYS tip very well.) I replied, “I don’t care about the cost. Can we eat there with children?”

She replied, “Oh, sure! Kids eat there all the time.” She then called them and they said they had an immediate table for us.

We took quite a stroll to get there (that casino is HUGE!!!) and were given a nice table with two chairs and a booth. Max and Mason took the booth. I reminded Mason (age 4) to be on his best behavior. Max (age 9) is always on his best behavior but Mason is still in SST (Social Situation Training).

Here are some examples of the entertainment Mason provided to our fellow diners that evening (ahem):

Yes, he’s pretending to smoke a wine cork…

Mason’s Menu Telescope

Mason didn’t like the appetizer…and he obviously forgot to wash his hands!

I took Mason to the bathroom to wash his hands and he got fingerprints all over the mirror trying to make a stationary stool spin.

He wanted to know if he was supposed to eat the warm washcloth the waiter brought him.

He convinced the kind waiter to bring him a whole bowl of cherries.

Mason convinced Max to give up his own cherry but then Max then go into trouble for almost getting his hand stuck in the glass. He blamed Mason, of course.

There was a lively table of three men sitting behind Max and Mason. One of them had on a light blue leisure suit (no kidding) and reminded me Steve McQueen (a loooooong time ago). While we were doing our best to constantly remind Mason to sit still and be quiet, we were shocked when a wine cork flew over the booth between Max and Mason, soaring under our table. We burst into laughter, breaking the hushed atmosphere of the restaurant. The rowdy boys at that table also started laughing, and apologizing profusely. Seems one of them tried to flick it toward his buddy…but missed by about 12 feet. I assured them it was just fine and told them how happy we were that missiles were incoming instead of being launched by our youngest boy.

After dinner, the waiter told us the rowdy boys had picked up the tab for our dessert. As they were leaving, Blue Leisure Suit passed by and thanked us for being good sports. We thanked them for livening up our evening! You can kind of see them in the background here:

(And, don’t miss Mason forgetting his table manners above…)

Dinner was absolutely amazing – truly the best food we’ve had in all our travels over the years – and we highly, HIGHLY recommend Wildflowers at Turning Stone Casino.

The following day, we head further southeast as a hurricane is barrelling northwest! Will we have a collision? But of course!

~~~~~

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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He called around and found a place that could replace the tire the next day. If they could get it done early enough, we could still get some driving in the next day. We were in a rush to get to Connecticut and a hurricane was bearing down on the East Coast so timing was crucial.

We had dinner that night at The Pufferbelly, which is located in an old fire house. The food was excellent and we had a great time! The next morning, we got up and drove the RV to the truck repair place. The manager and employees were super nice. We were going to buy a new set of tires before our big trip in January anyway so we decided to go ahead and have it done then, since another tire had problems as well. We had two blowouts a few years ago and I never, ever want to experience that terror again!

We took our tow vehicle for breakfast and, while we were eating, I thought I heard a guy yelling “TAXI!” outside. I looked up and he was standing outside the restaurant, looking up, apparently to a window above the restaurant. And, he was actually yelling, “LEXI!” He kept yelling for her and I guess she kept ignoring him. Perhaps young men who are trying to attract young ladies should wear shirts?

After breakfast, Richard called the repair place and learned the RV was all fixed! With had six new truck tires and we were $2,000 poorer…

We hit the road to see how far East we could get by dusk. I love driving through upstate New York and it was a beautiful afternoon. We don’t gamble but Richard was curious about what’s reported to be a really nice campground at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. I called and they were available so we stopped there.

We unpacked and called the shuttle to pick us up to take us to the casino for dinner. They told us to wait at the end of our road for the shuttle that it would be there in 5 minutes. What they didn’t tell us is that we’d get eaten alive by mosquitoes. As they started buzzing, we started walking (quickly!) to the campground office in an attempt to stay ahead of the buzzing, hoping we’d meet up with the shuttle (we didn’t). I kept Mason busy by telling him to “call the bats.” I figured there must be plenty of them with all those mosquitoes buzzing at dusk. Mason started making kissing sounds with his mouth and saying, “Bat! Here bat!” Within a few minutes, sure enough, a bat swooped by, having his dinner. What a treat! We also saw several Canada Geese in V formations, flying low. So, despite the bug bites, it was a very unique stroll!

We arrived at the campground office and they once again called the shuttle. That time, they showed up very quickly. We walked into the casino and it was very impressive. Max could see all the slot machines in the distance and said, ‘I wish I was 18!”

Dinner was quite interesting! I’ll tell you all about that next time.

~~~~~

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

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The KOA we stayed at had a HUGE sandbox and Max and Mason spent two hours ensuring they’d leave with sand in every nook and cranny. Needless to say, they both took showers before bedtime. Good news is the sand didn’t back up the RV pipes.

We didn’t pass any restaurants in town that appealed to us so, for dinner, we ordered pizza to be delivered to the RV. That’s always nice. No dishes!

We all took a walk at dusk. The early afternoon air had been really humid and warm but the evening breeze was perfect. This afternoon, Frank sent pictures of my pumpkins back home. I’ve been lovingly tending to them for over a month and Frank volunteered to try to keep them alive during my absense. If you’re a fellow gardener and are curious, click HERE.

Tomorrow, we’re heading further west, into Ohio. Come on along!

~~~~~

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

Braised Shoulder of Lamb; Heirloom Beans, Black Olives and Parsnips at Gramercy Tavern

Lightly Smoked Artic Char; Savoy Cabbage, Sunchokes and Mussels at Gramercy Tavern

Need I say more? There are more pictures from our delicious meal HERE. The boys were stunned when the discovered the towels in the bathroom were REAL towels! After use, they get tossed in a basket under the sink. We have nothing like that in Bangor, Maine!

After lunch, we took a looooooong walk through the city to the Empire State Building. Max had been waiting weeks for this and he was not disappointed! We must have been there on a slow day, during the slow season, because we didn’t have to wait in any lines. The weather was, once again, perfect and the view was breathtaking. Max took lots of videos of the visit, even taping himself as the narrator. Of course, we had to stop by the gift shop so Max could buy a tiny statue of the building. Mason was also excited about visiting the “Pirate State Building.”

We took another marathon trek through the city after that, walking to the Apple Store and the toy store, FAO Schwarz. Richard and Scott went to the Apple store while I took the boys into the toy store. When we walked in, I realized Mason was holding Big Bird, a gift Scott had given him the day before. I quickly tucked him under a jacket on top of the stroller so nobody would think we stole him. Sure enough, we saw identical Big Birds in the store!

We were limited on how much we could carry (I mean, on how much we could hang on the stroller) so I told the boys they could only choose small items. Max chose some Star Wars action figures. He wanted specific characters and light sabers but the characters he wanted didn’t have light sabers so he had to buy Jedi’s that did have light sabers….and he must have spent 20 minutes standing there, trying to make up his mind. That was okay. There were plenty of other things to look at, like this life-size statue of Chewy made out of Legos.

Mason was surrounded by every toy imaginable, and many he didn’t even know existed…but he still wanted another Thomas the Train character (sigh). Richard and Scott caught up with us and, before we left, we bought some interesting candy for the loved ones back home. As we left, I was thinking about Big Bird, hidden in the jackets hanging on the stroller, wondering if some alarm would go off as we walked out. So, I turned to Scott and said, “You wanna push Mason?” Heh…

I’d whispered the Big Bird quandary to the guys at the register so he knew what he was up against when he bravely agreed to push Mason through the double doors. We all pretended not to heave a sigh of relief when no alarms sounded and no men in dark blue jackets gave chase.

We walked a bit more and then caught a cab to the hotel. We dropped off our goodies and then took a stroll to a small Italian restaurant for dinner. A famous author was eating there alone. I didn’t even notice him but Scott did. Apparently he eats out in that area a lot. I won’t mention his name to respect his privacy but I thought it was funny that we were sitting right next to a celebrity and I didn’t even notice. I was too busy trying to get tiny Mason to eat something (anything!) nutritious for dinner. In case you don’t know, Mason is the pickiest eater on earth. The restaurant didn’t have anything he was interested in. They were good sports, making him some homemade macaroni and cheese but he wouldn’t touch that, either. He was very happy with the bread basket, however, and I think he may have eaten five pieces.

After dinner, we stopped by a tiny grocery store and bought Mason some milk and cereal so he would at least get some vitamins that evening. We already had juice in the hotel room.

On Thursday morning, Scott arrived with chocolate cookies, much to the delight of the boys. We told them they had to save them for after dinner because we were heading to an organic restaurant, Josie’s, for lunch. The food was delicious!

Lemon Ribbon Ice Cream Pie – graham cracker crust with layers of lemon curd and vanilla bean ice cream topped with meringue at Josie’s in NYC

Organic Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie Plate served with organic milk for dunking at Josie’s in NYC

After lunch, we took a taxi to the Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that’s been turned into a museum. Max had been studying flight and air travel for a few weeks and this was an exciting field trip for him. He even got to see a real Blue Angel airplane! While we were there, Scott, Max and I rode a 4D ride.

The movie part was a roller coaster. Max really enjoyed that! After we left, it was rush hour and finding a cab proved to be quite a challenge. I’d wanted to go to Soho that day and we were far, far away from that part of town. So, we walked and we walked and we walked some more. We found ourselves outside of Macys – the one you see in the Thanksgiving Day parade. On that block, during rush hour, I saw more people than I’ve ever seen on any city block in my life. It was amazing and the energy from all those people was invigorating! I felt quite exhilarated and I usually don’t like crowds. Max’s homeschooling got even more well-rounded a bit later when he was one man sleeping on the sidewalk and another man getting arrested. I could tell we’d somehow moved from one part of town to another but Max wasn’t afraid or nervous. He was far more interested in taking pictures of graffiti.

Beauty is in the eye of…

Shortly thereafter, we finally found an empty cab, and headed for Soho.

In Soho, we did some window shopping. There seemed to be lots of designer stores but I really don’t like shopping for clothes. However, the window displays in the clothing stores were amazing.

I mainly wanted to find some goodies for the loved ones back home. We did find one store, The Evolution Store, which looked interesting. And, boy oh boy, was it! Downstairs, they had fossils and stuffed critters galore. Frank, who loves geology and has a large collection, would have been in heaven! I chose a beautiful freshwater pearl for him and a 4 million year old chunk of amber with insects in it. Earlier in the week, Richard said there was a human body exhibit, BODIES: THE EXHIBITION, in New York. We decided Max was too young to be looking at real, dead human bodies. Seeing a wrapped dummy is one thing. Seeing a real body or bones…well, that would be too much for him. Why am I telling you this? Well, because we went upstairs in The Evolution Store and there was an entire glass case of human skeletons, from an adult, to children, and right on down to a fetus, with the skull still noticeably unfused. I wasn’t happy seeing that because adults have the opportunity to donate their bodies to “science” if they want. The children and babies who previously inhabited those skeletons obviously did not. Max was a bit upset but I think I was far more so. We went downstairs and left.

I wasn’t going to let that ruin our evening, and wanted to get Max’s mind off it, too. So, I quickly changed the subject to, “What does everybody want for dinner?!” We found a small French restaurant, Felix Bar & Restaurant, with all the doors open. So, even if you sat inside, it was like sitting outside. It was very loud and the evening air was cool and perfect. The people all seemed to be on a collective high from the Spring weather and there was much merriment and laughter. The atmosphere was great!

On Friday, we got up early and Richard went out for Starbucks. Mason drank a good bit of his Frappuccino, and was jumping all over the place so we decided to take a walk before meeting Scott for lunch. I was looking for a new backpack purse because mine had a broken zipper. I’ve been carrying the same purse for about a decade, and I was looking for one that looked just like mine, and around the same size, and I hadn’t been having any luck. I finally found one store that had more purses than I’d ever seen. I found four backpack purses that would have worked quite nicely. Problem was, they ranged from $365 to $425. Call me cheap but I’m not going to spend more than $20 or so for a small black backpack! I gave up and we went to meet Scott for lunch. The restaurant where we’d planned to eat was small, and didn’t have any tables large enough to accommodate us, so we walked around the corner to an Italian restaurant we’d seen, the Arte Cafe. We ate a very nice lunch, outside, in the still-gorgeous Spring weather.

After lunch, we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Max had been waiting for this homeschooling field trip for weeks! We looked at the medieval outfits first, chainmail, suits of armor, etc. Max had recently studied medieval times and was really enjoying seeing real armor and other protective clothing that people wore back then. He also thought the real swords and other weapons, laden with gems, were pretty cool.

He was having a great time! Mason, on the other hand, was bored out of his mind. He likes museums but he wanted to see some trains…and he kept asking about trains, over and over again. I figured out a way to placate him. I told him, “They have lots of paintings here, Mason. Let’s hunt for a train painting!”

That seemed to work. Now, admittedly, I was sure we would NOT find a train painting but hunting for one would keep Mason busy until we got to the gift shop, at which time he would most certainly forget all about trains. But, we didn’t plan on visiting the gift shop until the end of the day.

This is NOT a train painting.

As we were leaving the medieval display and moving to another, Mason was once again saying, “Where’s the train painting? I wanna find the train painting.”

I said, “Keep looking, honey.”

At that moment, a nosy man with a kid in tow leaned down to Mason, sticking his nose into OUR business, and said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, young man, but there are no paintings of trains in this museum.”

You should have seen Mason’s face. It was like the man told him there was no such thing as fairies. Mason went from frown to public meltdown. I wanted to have a meltdown, too. I mean, the guy had a kid. He must have known I was trying to divert Mason’s attention for a few hours. I wanted to throttle that man!!! Mason was very cranky the rest of the day…until the gift shop, of course, and it was all that nosy, inconsiderate stranger’s fault!

Anyway, Max got to see mummies (wrapped or in tombs, of course, not the actual bodies) and Roman sculptures. He really seemed to enjoy those. And, of course, the paintings. Sooooo many paintings! Max loved drawing and painting and he was as impressed as we were with the beautiful artwork. I could have walked those rooms for days, gazing in awe at the beauty…but Mason would have none of that!

I kept hoping Mason would get tired and take a nap in his stroller. That didn’t happen. We finally made it to the gift shop, which is actually the museum bookstore, and Mason seemed more happy that it was time to go than he was about buying something. Just before we left, a toddler wandered into the gift shop alone. I realized instantly that she appeared to be lost. I also knew, from instinct, that you don’t pick up a lost child. You try to talk to them and keep them safe while you summon help but you don’t touch them for two reason. One: the child may panic. Two: if the parent arrives, you may be accused of attempted kidnapping. Another woman was standing by me and she did the same thing. We both stood on both sides of her, asking her what her name was, where her mommy was, etc. She continued to ignore us. I summoned one of the cashiers, who quickly came over as well. The little girl looked up at me again, but still didn’t say a word. Then, she reached into a display of magnets, grabbed one, and darted out of the store. I burst out laughing and said, “Shoplifter!!” The other women laughed, too.

I was about to follow her but saw the little girl run right into a woman, obviously her mother, who made her come back into the store and put the magnet back on the display. I said, “I’m sure glad you’re here! We all thought she was lost.”

The woman ignored me, didn’t even look at me, but started speaking to her daughter instead…in French. That certainly explained why neither one would respond to us!

We finally left, to Mason’s delight, and went walking to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a Turkish restaurant, A La Turka, and we had SO MUCH FUN! It was long and loud and awesome! We ate and ate and ate some more, all new, interesting dishes we’d never tried before, like lamb flat bread pizza, cigar fingers (made with lamb, not tobacco), swordfish, steak and lamb kabobs and much more. And dessert! Oh, the dessert! We had the sweetest custard we’d ever tasted and cheese baked in coconut and swimming in honey. My mouth is watering just remembering that awesome night.

There was a table next to ours, separated by a glass partition. Mason was flirting with the woman on the other side of the glass. He even leaned over and kissed the glass when we left. His first crush! We obviously need to talk to him about sticking to his own age group…

On Saturday, we had to pack our bags. It was our last day in New York City and we’d only be there until early afternoon. We were all very sad. We left our bags with the Maître d’ and walked to lunch with Scott. We had brunch at Isabella’s. My meal was great but the
dessert was the most beautiful one we’d seen during our trip.

Dark Chocolate Bag filled with which fresh raspberry mousse, and topped with a variety of fresh berries and whipped cream at Isabella’s in New York City

After lunch, we had some time to visit before our hired car arrived. By hired car, I mean a black car that isn’t a limo. The hotel had helped us find a company that agreed to drive us to New Jersey because the ferry we’d taken in didn’t run that route on Saturdays. The day before, Scott had brought the boys some wind-up chicks. We sat on a bench while the boys wound up one of the chicks and made it hop on the sidewalk as people walked by. It was pretty funny watching all sets of eyeballs watching that small toy as they strolled along. Some people snickered while others smiled but Max and Mason were giggling up a storm!

We finally had to walk back to our hotel and arrived just as the car did. We all shared hugs and Max got very sad and sniffly. Max and Mason both watched Scott walking away through the car’s rear window.

During our drive to New Jersey, we were entertained by the driver’s logical explanation of plural marriage. No kidding! He was a very nice guy, with one wife only (so far) and children. He’d grown up in another state and he was also explaining the difference between the size of “homes” in New York City versus his home state. After staying in the tiniest hotel room ever, we knew exactly what he was talking about. He also talked to us more about his religion but he wasn’t pushy at all. He was very kind and quite entertaining!

When we got back to the Liberty Harbor RV Park, we decided to pack up the RV and drive to Connecticut right then instead of waiting until the next day. It was a beautiful day for a drive, once again sunny and in the 70′s, and the excitement about seeing their Godfathers, Doug and Raul, made Max and Mason start hopping all over the RV. Little did we know, we’d end up in the ghetto…

I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trip HERE.

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Liberty Harbor RV Park isn’t anything like a campground. It’s a line of large parking spaces – an RV parking lot, all in a row. You can see the Statue of Liberty from select places there and you can hear the “clang, clang” of the sailboat rigging…but that’s about it as far as aesthetic appeal is concerned. Oh, and the subway/train passes by frequently, too, though I did manage to tune that out at bedtime.  The parking area is just cement and gravel so we didn’t even bother putting Mason’s gates outside.  The boys played inside that night. However, if you want to park your RV and take a trek into the city, this the place to do it. We drove to the Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory in Jersey City, NJ for dinner. It has been featured on the Food Network on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives but we didn’t know that at the time.

The portions were HUGE and delicious! For example, we ordered “dollar pancakes” for Mason (age 3). They brought out an enormous platter of regular-sized pancakes! There were so many that we got them to go and put them in the freezer in the RV. Mason ate them for the next week and a half.

The smothered fries were oh-so-good, swimming in bacon and cheese and a delicious sauce. Even Max (age 8), who hesitates to try new things, couldn’t get enough of them.

I got a California omelet and it was the biggest omelet I’ve ever had. We got so full that we ended up getting our dessert to go. They had an endless assortment of pies and cakes to choose from, as well as ice cream sundaes. We were delightfully stuffed when we rolled ourselves out of there that night. The service was amazing!

It was the dinner rush but you’d never know it from the way our waiter hovered.

After dinner, I accidentally tipped a bag of leftovers, causing a spill, and he ran to the kitchen for another to-go box and bag for me. The manager was extremely polite and gave us huge smiles as well. We’ll definitely be back.

The next morning, after some initial confusion about where to buy ferry tickets (the ticket office closes during the day), we were on board and heading for the city. It was a beautiful, clear day and the boys only needed light jackets. We had a distant but clear view of the Statue of Liberty from the water.

The ferry ride was short and we were the only passengers on board, much to the delight of Max and Mason.

After the ferry, we hailed a cab and headed for the hotel. We checked in right on schedule and called Scott to tell him we’d arrived. The boys were SO excited about spending a few days with their buddy!

The hotel room was small, and I mean TINY. When we unfolded the small sofa at night, we could only get to the bathroom by walking sideways at the end of it. It made our RV look like a castle in comparison. But, it was very clean, nicely decorated, and pretty quiet, too! We would definitely stay there again.

Scott only lived a few blocks from our hotel so he arrived in no time. And, he brought gifts – Sesame Street characters! The boys were thrilled! Mason ended up taking Big Bird with him everywhere we went that week.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was around 70 degrees and sunny. We took a walk through Central Park. At one point, the boys took a swing break and Scott took a pull-up break. I was impressed. I couldn’t even do one of those!

The sun started to set so we headed to dinner. Scott has made reservations at Calle Ocho, a Cuban restaurant. Our stomachs were all stretched out from the night before so we had no trouble putting away another huge meal. Here are just some of the goodies we had that night.

Ceviche Sampler at Calle Ocho NYC – March, 2010

Gallitos – Platter of Traditional Costa Rican Soft Tacos with Grilled Beef, Salsa Verde Shrimp & Chipotle Chicken (serves two) at Calle Ocho – March, 2010

Vaca Frita al Caballo – Cuban Skirt Steak, Latin Fried Rice, Tomato Escabeche, Avocado at Calle Ocho NYC – March, 2010

We give Calle Ocho five stars! Mason tried his hardest to stay awake but he conked out before dessert. Luckily, we were sitting in a booth so he was quite comfy.

On Tuesday, we walked about five miles and had many more adventures! More on our whirlwind tour of NYC next week.

I’ve posted more pictures of our trip HERE.

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Had a wonderful dinner in town at The Copper Bottom restaurant. Pricey, but very good.

We have to be out of here by Noon, so we are scrambling a bit to get the WritersWeekly.com issue out before we leave.

The strawberry butter they came with them was delicious! I had a crab and asparagus omelette. I was enjoying the conversation too much to pay attention to what everyone else ate. The restaurant was pretty crowded and loud and Mason started to get fussy, so we finished up quickly.

We stopped at the hotel and Harry, Gerry, Mason, Max and I sat in the lobby while Richard and Scott took our luggage to Scott’s condo. We would return later to pick it up.

We then all walked to the American Museum of Natural History. Max was enthralled by the dinosaur bones and accompanying exhibits!

Even Mason, who was once again being cuddled by Scott, was pointing and babbling about all the cool things he was seeing for the first time.

If I had to admit one complaint about that museum, I’d have to mention that there isn’t enough written information with the exhibits. For example, I was looking at an Indian display and there was this really long thing that looked like identical bones attached with something (I don’t know what) and was about 4 feet long. I really wanted to know what it was and what it was used for. I read the plaque underneath the display and none of the items in the display were named or described. What’s the point of putting these objects on display if you’re not going to educate visitors about them? Anyway, that was my beef. And, it wasn’t just that display. The problem was noticeable throughout the museum. That place needs to hire some writers!

After a short stop at the bathroom for a diaper change (for Mason, not for the rest of us), it was time to make our way to Toys R Us in Times Square. Gerry had to leave so we gave her hugs before jumping in the cab…once again hailed by Scott, much to Max’s delight.

The toy store was incredible! It has a ferris wheel, is about four stories high…

…and has a huge, animatronic T-Rex…which terrified Max. We couldn’t leave the floor that housed the dinosaur fast enough! For Max’s mental health, we all quickly made our way downstairs, where the car and truck section was. We were looking for a city bus for Mason as he had become quite fond of them during our stay, pointing and trying to say “bus.” (He did say car for the first time this weekend!) Max had already picked out a Star Wars toy and we then let him also have a small car track. They didn’t have any city buses (Imagine that!) but Mason got very excited when he saw some VW Bug cars. He chose a maroon one and we then had to leave as the afternoon was slipping away from us and we had a train to catch.

We bid Harry a farewell outside of the toy store. We had to go to Scott’s apartment, where we had stored our luggage for the day. I finally got to see where Scott sits each day when he’s writing those English and foreign-language articles for those glossy, glamorous magazines that are published all over the world. I thumbed through a couple of the beautiful magazines that contained his clips and I was impressed! Max and Mason were instantly relaxed in Scott’s condo and were running around, laughing and playing. Mason, who always manages to find the “no no” in every room, got into trouble when he ran his new VW Bug over Scott’s keyboard. (He broke my laptop keyboard doing the same thing not long ago!)

We had a few minutes to rest so Scott showed us the rest of his building, which has marble floors, a weight room, and indoor pool, a children’s play room (when we left that room, Mason bawled), and an incredible top-floor view! It was very, very nice. We realized we had time to grab a quick bite, which was good because we didn’t want the boys to get hungry on the train later. While we walked to the cafe, we passed the shop where the bookstore in the movie “You’ve Got Mail” was located. That was pretty neat! It’s actually an antique store.

The cafe had the biggest menu I’ve ever seen! It even had an index!! Admittedly, we didn’t have time to read the whole thing and I ordered a guacamole burger. Scott had lasagna. We’d told Max the night before, while eating Dim Sum, that rice makes you grow “big and strong.” So, Max ordered…a large bowl of rice. I told him he needed the fruit salad, too, and he also scavenged my french fries later. Richard ordered a gyro. Mason made a huge mess with his crackers, which I later apologized to the restaurant owner for. He was very kind and said no problem.

We went back to Scott’s, gathered our suitcases, and started getting melancholy because we knew we were about to depart and that we wouldn’t see Scott again for another few months. We went downstairs and the doorman snapped our picture while the other doorman hailed our cab. We all hugged Scott, waved a misty-eyed goodbye as the cab pulled away from the curb, and then hung on for our lives for the ride to Penn Station.

We only had to wait for 45 minutes before our train was ready for boarding. We didn’t hear an announcement, but noticed people running toward one of the platforms. We figured that was it, and that it was going to be a full train! We squeezed in with the crowd and were actually one of the first people on the train.

So, we got to sit together. The conductor got on the speaker and said every seat would be full so we were lucky. A nice old lady (who I later found out was 70) sat in front of me and a teenager was sitting next to her. He was talking loudly on his phone and was using profanity. I was a bit offended but I couldn’t imagine how uptight that poor lady must have felt. After a few minutes, she leaned over to the teenager and loudly said, “Tell your friend there’s an old lady sitting next to you.”

The teen instantly realized what he’d been doing and, to his credit, instead of being a jerk, he apologized profusely, over and over again. He patted his arm and said it was okay. Later, when she switched seats to be closer to her daughter, he apologized once again. People do make mistakes and apologies work so much better than being defensive and rude. I hope Max learned something from eavesdropping on that exchange.

The train ride lasted a little over two hours. Mason slept most of the way and we were off the train, in the car, and then back at the campground before 11:00 p.m. We’d planned to head back to Maine the following morning, but Doug had hinted that we should stay one extra day so we could see them again. The nice thing about working for yourself and traveling by RV is that you do have that flexibility!

I wanted Dim sum, having had it many years before in NYC’s Chinatown. Scott set us up with the modern equivalent – Chinatown Brasserie.

We had two rounds of Dim sum and sampled a large portion of their menu. Great food.

Max had his own version of Dim sum, pieces of cut up steak.

Afterwards we took a stroll through SoHo. Fortuitously, Max had to go to the bathroom – forcing us to find a restaurant for dessert.

I’d been to Manhattan three times pre-9/11, and Angie had been here once before. But neither Max nor Mason had been. And none of us had ever done much sight-seeing.

On Saturday we took the Amtrak from New London, Connecticut down to Penn Station in Manhattan. We figured Max would be enthralled for the whole 2-1/2 hour train ride down, as he loves trains.

But after about 30 minutes into the trip he started the process, which seems to be genetically hardwired into all kids, of asking every 5 minutes when we were going to be there.

We arrived fine and hopped a cab up to our hotel – The Excelsior – which is right across from the American Museum of Natural History and our itinerary for Sunday.

But that was Sunday. Saturday afternoon was dedicated to penguins.

It is our understanding that while penguins live at the South Pole, the sophisticated penguins live in Central Park… Zoo, that is.

The walk from our hotel to the Central Park Zoo is probably considered short by Manhattan standards, but took a bit of a toll on us as we had the added burden of it being 90 degrees, humid, and carrying a 25 lb. baby, which we started passing around amongst the 3 adults. We had to make a couple of pit stops to cool off.

Turns out Mason loves not only pointing at NYC buses, but snow cones from street vendors as well. (He when through three – snow cones, that is. Not buses.)

Back to the penguins…both Max and Mason thought they were the coolest (pun intended).

We also saw a polar bear…

Monkeys…

And flying rats…

On the way back through Central Park, we caught a glimpse of the rare balloon-animal-making clown.

Herkimer KOA is by far the best KOA we’ve stayed at to date. Beautiful surroundings, plenty for the kids to do, and great WiFi coverage (unusual for a KOA).

Our spot was right in front of the West Canada Creek. It couldn’t have been more picturesque.

You can take the kids tubing for free down the river, which runs the length of the campground.

But the big draw, of course, is the Herkimer Diamond Mine – an place where kids can dig for “Herkimer Diamonds” (which are really quartz).

Herkimer itself is a bit of a depressed town, but there are two places to eat there worth checking out.

The first is the Heidelberg Baking Company, which you pass on the way out to the campground. It looks like an industrial building on the outside, but inside it is decorated in Bavarian-style wood panels and trim. The selection of fresh-baked breads and pastries is well worth the trip.

The second place to try is the Albany Street Cafe, in downtown Herkimer. It is unassuming from the outside, but the food is fantastic (although a bit pricey).

Four out of five marshmallows.

Herkimer KOA
4626 State Route 28 North
Herkimer, NY 13350
http://www.koa.com/where/ny/32224/
315-891-7355