DAYS 52-55: “Mommy! I’m Scared!”
On Wednesday, we took a hairy ride from our hotel to Gramercy Tavern. The cab driver
might have slowed down perhaps 1/2 MPH when he heard Mason say, “Mommy! I’m scared!” Lunch at Gramercy Tavern was incredible!
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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