Re-Entry is Hard...Overwriting is Inevitable.

OH HI!

I feel like it's my turn to pin the tail on the donkey. I've been in line for almost two months and I'm dizzy and have no idea what direction to take.

Of course, I'm talking about where to start after almost two months away from this site! At least I'm not blindfolded.

Let's begin with what I've been doing all this time. Basically, working and devoting all of my free time to the DC Listen to Your Mother Show. Yes - I know that was on May 2nd and it's now June 3rd! But there was a lot of wrap up work to do. And then I just kept putting it off. Like my son on the Spectrum, I'm "not good at transitions." Maybe he just gets that one from me...

I DID book most of our hotel stays (hooray for points!) Now I just have to figure out our Mount Rushmore stay. Apparently, the girlfriend of a family member has a house (or her family has a house) in that area, and we might be able to use it. I have visions of arriving to find "the family" already there and completely unaware that some woman and her THREE children are expecting to stay the night. Okay, so I doubt the people involved would let that happen...but worst case scenarios and all...

So aside from a few loose ends, the big ticket logistics have been pretty much handled. Now I'm getting back to researching our stops and coming up with some draft itineraries. I think I've mentioned before that we HAVE to enter each destination with a plan. If not, we will spend our entire stay in restaurants and touristy shopping areas. Food and Shopping: they are my "death and taxes." And I'm trying to stick to a tight budget.

I'll start posting regularly about that next week. For now, I thought I'd throw in some things I meant to write about this Spring but never did.

We never travel for Spring Break. Every year, I have to put together some staycation plans for the kids and me so we don't end up on our various devices all day. (Because I am just as bad as them. When Oliver wants me out of the way, he tells me that I should go "play on my computer." Ooops!)

Finding things to do in DC is not hard - and since we live in the suburbs, it really does feel like a day trip to go check out a museum or wander around Georgetown. These are things I used to do when I was bored as a kid/teenager. I could walk to culture back then, and that's one thing I super duper miss about city living. Not gonna lie though - getting there is a pain in the ass. The DC metro line is now in my area of Northern VA, but we still have to make the five minute drive and pay to park. THEN we have to go through the complicated and time consuming process of  purchasing multiple fare cards for the 20 minute ride to downtown DC. By the time we find seats on the train, I'm exhausted and ready to go home. But the kids love the metro, so I just carve a few more martyrdom notches in my motherhood cross and get on with it. I also usually ask a friend and her kids to come with us. Solidarity!

Too many words. Here are some pictures...

[WARNING: I am visiting from the future - i.e. about a million words and images later - to say that this is NOT going to be a few pictures of "What I Did Over Spring Break". Be prepared for an onslaught of information. I would delete some, but I'm too deep in it now. Just thought I'd let you know.]

We took a boat ride!

We saw cherry blossoms!

And monuments!

Finally, we forced marched exhausted and dehydrated children over a mile back to the the metro stop because THAT is the price they must pay for fun. Also, they got to absorb city culture like this:

Another day I took my kids plus our neighbors' five and seven year olds to see James and the Giant Peach at Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo Park. If you've never been there, it's very pretty - cool original architecture with several attractions. And plenty of space for kids to run around:

We've been to Adventure Theatre several times. James and the Giant Peach was probably my favorite production - no pictures though since the theater didn't allow photography. Also, my phone died by the time we got to our seats.

Well that covers two days. I can't remember the other things we did that week... Probably played on electronic devices. Mom of the Year!

But our big finale of Spring Break is always Easter. For the first time ever, we didn't stay home for the big day (which in my heathen household is celebrated with chocolate bunnies and brunch). We visited Chris' Uncle Steve, who recently moved to Philadelphia. He's leasing space on an estate that includes a studio/apartment in a barn, where he paints. The walls are covered with his artwork and the deceptively "rustic" looking space features very comfortable living accommodations.

George, in particular was very interested in the set up. We were looking at the paintings, and I told him that I thought these two were my favorites.

He said, "OH! Because they're framed in GOLD." I started to reply, "well no - but now that you mention it...the frames do kind of confine them in a way that directs your focus to..." And he was already standing next to another painting, saying, "yeah - THIS baby needs a gold frame."

So George has pretty much figured out the art world. Internationally too! He picked up Steve's palette and informed me, "French people use these."

But enough about art (and enough pictures of George and his AWFUL bangs - that was one bad haircut...) This is supposed to be a blog about travel stuff. The reason why I even mention the trip is that we got to spend a fun afternoon in Philadelphia!

After seeing how long the lines were for the Liberty Bell and other big attractions, Uncle Steve did the thing that no parent in my lifetime (including Chris and me) has ever done. HE SUGGESTED paying for a horse and carriage ride to take in the sights. Can I tell you how much I wanted to do this when I was a kid? Then I became an adult and realized that my parents would have thought it was too expensive (and probably embarrassing). But Steve is FUN and a grandfather - so clearly he would think this was a good idea. The kids wholeheartedly agreed.

Oh really carriage driver? That was "a good one"?
Maybe take more than ONE next time because my eyes are closed!

Vindication.

Who are those dorks in the...oh yeah - that's us.

Thanks horse!

Before heading back, Chris said we HAD to get a cheesesteak and it HAD to be from Jim's. But OH NO! There was a line around the corner. Here is a picture of Chris who haz a major sad.

That black SUV is in front of all of the people who were willing to wait in line. We are not those people, so we wandered down South Street a bit to find other options.

We didn't go here either. But I was playing "photographer" that day
and while snapping away, thought it made for a good "Philadelphia" shot. Snap snap!

Now Chris is happy! Where did we end up? No recollection - that was months ago!

I was also planning to write a post about an attempted day of cross country skiing that ended in ice and tears... But I think we can now consider ourselves caught up on (almost) all of the travel and touristy stuff of note. 

Tune in next week for more about THE TRIP. Spoiler alert: all posts will be five billion times longer than I intend them to be...so you add THAT to "Death and Taxes".

The City (Winter Edition)

One of my favorite cities - really, my favorite city (shhhh! don't tell DC!) - is New York City. 

I spent a lot of time there while growing up, and there was no question of where I wanted to go to college. I moved back to DC after graduation, but I never missed an opportunity to go up to stay with friends. Even today, I would move there in a minute (a New York minute!) if that was in the least bit practical for my family (which it is not).

Here are two thoughts (of many) that I have about New York City. First - people who live there or in the surrounding areas refer to it as "The City." People in New Jersey don't go to New York to see a show, the go to The City. People in Long Island don't go to New York City to meet a friend for dinner, they go to The City. It's like there are millions of cities all over the world, but New York City is THE city.

Second - New Yorkers are not rude or mean or unpleasant in any way. Or at least no more so than people in other cities. If someone is super rude to you when you ask for directions, they are not real New Yorkers. They are people from other places who moved to The City. Born and raised New Yorkers are some of the friendliest most helpful people I have ever met. Especially when it comes to telling you about their city. A perfect example of this would be the many times that my subway train was re-routed and I had to figure out how to get from somewhere like the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side for my weekend brunch shift. I only had to spend a minute or two examining the subway map (which to the uninitiated, looks something like a map of the vascular system of a human arm) before someone would ask me if I needed help. I would sometimes attract a crowd of New Yorkers competing for who could give me the best directions. And they could never just say "take this train to that stop, and then transfer to this train." They'd be all, "you COULD blah blah blah OR you could blah blah blah, but your BEST BET is to blah blah blah." This was somewhat problematic since I would inevitably just get all of the directions confused. Why couldn't they just tell the best bet!? Confusing or not, I love me some friendly option-giving New Yorkers!

But back to the point of this post (yes I have one!). For a while now I've been dreaming of taking my kids to The City. Sure - it wouldn't be anything like the long lunches, shopping and bar hopping of yore. But one of my favorite things to do in NYC is absolutely kid friendly. I wanted to take them to see all of the holiday decorations. The gigantic tree and ice skaters in Rockefeller Center...the window displays a few blocks away at Saks Fifth Avenue...the smell of roasting chestnuts... They would love it!

Luckily, I have family that lives just outside NYC in NJ. So we could easily plan a day trip while visiting them. Long story short (yes - I can do that sometimes), our day in The City wasn't quite what I had hoped. I forgot how crowded all of those places with holiday decorations can get. Probably because it's much easier to zip through crowds as a single person than as a mother with three children in tow. For the most part, it was a lot of getting crushed in crowds – but I still loved it! And my kids found their OWN favorite thing to do there. Here is a recap in haphazard iPhone pictures:

The kids got to take their very first train ride!

We could see the tree at Rockefeller Center if we stood on our tippy toes and the ice skaters if we peeked through gaps in the crowd.

We even got a family picture (thank you friendly New Yorkers!).  Of course two of us are rocking the double chin look big time and the only scenery behind us appears to be a the draped private area of a statue...but we’re ALL in the picture!

We tried to look at the holiday windows at Saks, but it was a bust. I remembered magical fantasy displays with moving figures and some kind of narrative that unfolds as you view each window. This year it was white evening gowns and crystals. Pretty - but the kids were bored. We should have made a stop at Macy's as we headed uptown from Penn Station. I heard later that they had a Peanuts-related theme. Here are a couple of images I found on www.newyork.com to show you what we saw (and should have seen):

Saks Fifth Avenue: I would have enjoyed this on my own...
but no child stands in line to look at fake Snow Queen banquet tables. 

Macy's: Dammit.

I actually found some images of Saks' holiday windows in 2005 (the last time I saw them - 10 YEARS ago). Can't include them since Getty sues for that kind of thing, but if you are interested (and you should be because they are SO much better than 2015), click HERE.

Takeaway: Saks doesn't have the same holiday window budget these days. Bummer.

At this point I was desperate for my children to find SOMETHING they the loved in NYC. So obviously I made them walk a mile to Central Park. And I will tell you right now that all of that "we're tired" and "can we stop and rest" and "my feet are bleeding" that kids pull on their parents is complete BS. Because the minute my whiners saw the Central Park rocks, they were running.

Looks like I didn't take any action shots of the climbing. I think I was too busy spotting them (or trying to). They could have climbed for hours more, but we had dinner plans in NJ. Once we pried them off the rocks, we looked for a subway to take us back down to Penn Station. This was another bust, as the random station we picked had only one subway fare machine and it wasn't accepting credit cards. And since we are complacent people (or sadistic parents - depending on if you ask my children) Chris and I just kept walking.

This ended up taking us through Times Square where we ran into the Naked Cowboy. I didn't even realize he was behind me. Chris made me stop so he could take a picture.

Then we got a great view of the Empire State Building. Again - Chris made us pose (I think he took more pictures of me with the kids that day than he has during our entire life together as parents!)

Look at how bedraggled poor Eleanor was! It was a long day... AND so much fun that we decided to go back in January! Well, I decided to go back in January. Chris was going to be away on a 10-day business trip.

The kids had a four-day weekend and we had a little more time to stay. So we actually had two outings. The first of which was a visit to the Liberty Science Center...

Wow! Fish! So exciting – almost like we’re at Petco or something.
And nope - no idea what is going on with George's hair...

This turtle was 100 times better at posing for photos than my children.

Eleanor was the only one to get all the way across the rock wall on the first try.

More science stuff!

“Oliver – take off your hood!” “George – put on your coat!” “Eleanor – stop acting so grumpy!”
No one ever listens to me…but this one was pretty cute.
(In Eleanor’s defense – she claimed to have a cracker in her mouth and couldn’t smile. I’ll take it.)

Another highlight was seeing tanks of gigantic fish from the Jurassic age that apparently still live in the Hudson River. Okay - I made up that Jurassic part. But as far as I'm concerned, those were dino-fish. Also - remind me to never fall into the Hudson River. 

My kids said that their favorite thing was The Touch Tunnel, a big, box-like structure that you enter on one end and exit on the other. You basically crawl through a meandering tunnel, in absolute darkness, trying to feel your way out. Oh - and there are infra-red cameras that take pictures of you while you're in there. You can download these to your phone. Handy if you're into social media sharing... #FunInTheTouchTunnel #OnlySoundsDirty #GoodCleanFunExceptForAllOfTheGerms.The line wasn't too long (which was lucky since my Aunt Jan said it's usually packed). But there was just enough time for Oliver to turn to some girls behind us and say, "hi girls, want me to buy you some flowers?" Just a little mashup of the stuff he learns in his social skills group and the cartoons he watches on TV. Never a dull moment with that kid. 

Eleanor was mortified of course, but that didn't last long since she was starting to get nervous about being in the pitch dark. She begged me to accompany her, which I only did because she seemed so scared. As a card carrying "not fun" parent, I would typically say no to crawling on my hands and knees through...well, anything really. Five minutes later when we exited the structure, George was jumping up and down, exclaiming over how awesome it was and asking me what I thought. I didn't want to harsh his buzz, so I stayed neutral, "well - it wasn't my favorite thing I've ever done..." And no - I decided not to download the infra-red picture of my butt.

The last thing we did at the Liberty Science Center was the Titanic Exhibit. This was both fascinating and haunting (I have no pictures of this since cameras were not allowed). The kids were getting museum'd out at this point, so we didn't linger over the displays as much as I would have liked. But they LOVED how we each got a "boarding pass" that gave us a name, class and background story. At the end of the exhibit, we got to look ourselves up on the survivor lists to see if any of us went down with the ship. I am sorry to say that Oliver didn't make it. 

The next day, we went back to The City. Unfortunately, this was also a day that it was supposed to be freezing cold. So we did some extra bundling and decided to drive in. The plan was to grab lunch, go to the Natural History Museum to see dinosaur bones and then hang out in Central Park for an hour or two (or until we turned into icicles - whichever happened first).

Since this post is now ridiculously long, I will keep the rest "pictorial" with brief captions (i.e. copied straight from Facebook):

Night at the Museum star sighting. You can’t walk 10 feet in NYC without bumping into a celebrity….

Dinosaurs!

MORE dinosaurs! Travel tip: when you go to a museum, specifically to see dinosaur bones, make sure to see everything else first so that by the time you get to the bones, everyone is over it and wants to leave.

"No really, Mom – can we leave now?" Also - I think George is giving me the finger. 

We found the bridge where the pigeon lady lived in Home Alone 2!
It doesn’t get any more glamorous than this.

Pigeon lady bridge take 2.

Race to the rocks! George got there first (see tiny figure at the top).

There is no such thing as too many rocks to climb…

She NEVER poses for me anymore (willingly)! Central Park brings out the best in us I guess.
Also – where the fuck are we?!

Right before we realized we were on the wrong side of Central Park... Pretty bridge though!

It’s getting darker (and colder) and it’s really time to leave the park.
It will probably be a 20 minute walk across…so obviously time to wrestle and give piggy back rides.

 
We will definitely go back in the summer to do more touristy stuff. Perhaps even a double-decker bus ride. 

On the drive home, I asked the kids if it was safe to say that New York was one of our favorite cities. Ever practical, Eleanor pointed out that they've never actually been to any other cities (DC doesn't count since it's "home"). "Mom - it's our ONLY city." Unintentionally spoken like a true New Yorker. Now we ALL love The City!