NYC

Friday mid day we were heading to NYC but we weren't really prepared.  The week had been so busy I hadn't packed or thought things out.  After some mad dash cleaning out the fridge and packing we got started on the road late and then near Deerfield (20 minutes from home) I realized I had forgotten my friend's apartment keys at home, so we had to turn around.  No one was very happy with me!

We got trapped in terrible Friday rush hour traffic jams and Georgia got squirmy and foul, the Magic Treehouse book on CD was no longer amusing her.  It sucked.  It really sucked.  The traffic loomed in front of us so we pulled off the highway and took a train from Scarsdale into the city.  We were so late we missed the ticket booth where I was going to get tickets to Mary Poppins on Broadway and leaving the car also meant there was no chance of the Bronx Zoo on the way home and all my tasty gluten free snacks were left in my cooler in the car.  BUMMER!

We finally opened the door to the apartment at 9:15pm.  Home to train to subway to sidewalk to apartment took eight hours.  It was marvelous to be in our friend's apartment but there were paintings of skeletons and looming birds that frightened Georgia so she was a wreck.  She and I went right to sleep while everyone else went out to Chinese food.

Saturday morning crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was bright and sunny and made up for the heinous day of travel.  On the other side of the bridge was chocolate at Jacques Torres.  Even Lily, who is not a chocolate girl, liked the passion-fruit heart.

Then we went to a Carousel in Dumbo (a neighborhood in Brooklyn.  An acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) which was beautiful.

Then we took a ferry back over to Manhattan (Lily's favorite part of the trip)

We walked up to the Morgan Library where I wanted to see an art show.  On the way there someone was skywriting a message in the bright blue sky above us.  It was a long message, too long for us to stand and read, but this was the final image.

The Morgan Library


http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp

was having an exhibit called The Company of Animals.  The library is opulent and gorgeous, so my friend and I wandered through the rooms of books and treasures.  Rob and the girls were tired so they went back to the apartment.

Love this fireplace, imagine how magical it would look with a fire burning!

There was an exhibit about these beautiful cylinder seals that look like beads but are actually a tool to roll in wet clay and make a story.  This one is "Nude winged Goddess holding two gazelles, tree with bird and fish, two kneeling antelopes" was made of marble in 1600-1350 BCE)  So beautiful.



In the animal exhibit there was this model book that artists would use to draw/paint animals.  This one includes unicorns, which were still thought to exist in the 15th and 16th century.

An enormous crystal in a crystal shop.

Rob was back at the apartment trying to rest, "trying" being the key word.  So nice to have somewhere to settle in and relax mid day during a trip.

Out in the world again...
We bought Lily a roll of yarn for her finger weaving and they offered to put it in a ball with this ball winder, which was very exciting.





We were tired and Georgia and Rob tend to get overwhelmed by noise and people, but everyone we met was so friendly and helpful so we were all hanging in there.

We discovered a gorgeous community garden (We and other pedestrians were scattering off the street because a man and a woman were fighting and then one of them threw and broke a bottle.  Akk that was difficult to explain to the children.)  The garden had lush flowers, New York seems about a month before us; leaves and flowers are in full glory!

Eating ramen, Georgia finally got the fake mustache she has been wanting for some time.  The staff were very amused!

City at night from the balcony....