NYC

I know.
We're crazy.
I know this because when a friend from England called to say she was coming to NYC for a week and wanted to see us
not just me
not just me and him
me and him and him and her
I said- yes definitely.
Not really thinking it through.
I mean, that's a good thing I guess because no matter what I was going to go.
So maybe if I had known it just would have been anxiety anxiety leading up to the day - that's right, day- trip to NYC.
We live in RI.
Yes, 3-4 hours (according to google, it really took us 4-5 due to traffic).
and yes
yes being up for 20 hour straight is tiring (the kids were not up for 20 hours straight, more like 15), but was it worth it?
absolutely.
100 - no, 1000 times yes!

 

It was so great to see Kelly and her (new-to-me-but-not-really-new) boyfriend, David.
We tried to impress upon Ark Boy the coolness of seeing a friend I went to school with.
Yeah.
He didn't get it.
Oh well.

 

We spent most of the day in Central Park checking out playgrounds (awesome, btw!). I was feeling guilty that we didn't do more NYC-y things but then realized that if we had it would have not only been more stressful but I would have gotten less hang out time with Kelly. We did go to a yummy pizza place and a Greek Restaurant, (Ren Man's request -he's still in love with Greece post-study abroad... maybe Athens is better than Thessaloniki?). It was a delicious end to a long day... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

See, tiring day - Ark Boy got his last-ever-probably wrap experience. I thought he was going to pass out but no go.

 

Probably the funniest part of the day was that David was all sad for dogs in NYC because he feels like it's unfair to keep dogs on a leash when humans can't run as fast so they never get freedom to run at full speed. As we were walking back to the car at dusk a bike rode by a tough looking dog (pit bull?) and the dog went nuts barking and lunging at the biker. So yeah, that leash law. Good thing.

 

After all the outdoor fun we walked
reluctantly on my part because it meant saying bye to my oh-so-good-but-long-distant-friend to the parking garage
that's right, Ren Man insisted driving IN TO the city made more sense (it did, and it wasn't as bad as it could have been -ie no accidents).

We realized also that the kids went to Chicago last year, have gone to Boston on more than one occasion (and we're due for another visit soon, I feel), and now we've done NYC-- all while both kids are under 5.
I'm campaining for the next big city (LA? San Fran? Seattle? Houston? Miami? Atlanta?) asap but Ren Man is reasoning that the kids will remember more when they're older. And the previous visits to cities haven't been conciously planned... it has just sort of worked out.