The trip to Brooklyn went well. It was tiring -- the drive up on Friday, drive back on Sunday weekend blitz is always a bear -- but it was really fun. I gave myself a stomachache with my terrible eating, however. My main meals were pizza, sausage and beer, hamburger and french fries, and pizza again. Even in the morning, at the free continental breakfast from our hotel, I ate chocolate-filled croissants for breakfast. It's weird, they had oatmeal and hard-boiled eggs, which is what I normally eat, but somehow since I wasn't in my house I felt justified in eating crap. Then on the drive back I started to get drowsy (meanwhile S and Lil' S were sawing logs in the backseat), so I stopped to get an iced coffee at a rest area, but the line at the Starbucks was so long that I got annoyed and got a Coke instead (it was a Cherry Coke Zero, if you want to get technical). It was my second soda of the day, and I normally don't drink any soda, so it made me feel like my gut was rotting. It felt like -- you know how there's that urban legend that if you put a penny in a glass of Coke and leave it overnight the penny will be completely dissolved in the morning (or something like that)? -- well, my stomach felt like that apocryphal penny. So now I'm in "junk food detox" for a few days, which has been quite hard, as one of my coworkers who makes pastries as a hobby (very deliciously, I might add), decided to bring in a giant pan of blueberry cobbler on Monday morning, and a tub of vanilla ice cream. I love pies and cobblers a la mode. I pretty much had to avoid the break room.
But anyway, about the trip. We got in to NYC Friday afternoon, and we first went to Manhattan to meet one of S's friends who had a baby a few months ago. We met at a cool park, and I realized that New York is a good place to take a toddler in the summer because there is seemingly a decent park on every other street corner. Lil' S is almost to the point where I can just set him down and watch him with one eye, but he's not quite there. He still gets stuck sometimes climbing, and I have to steer him away from swinging things (like swings) lest he get knocked over wrecking ball-style. But he's pretty good. I know I've said it before, but that kid can climb. He did this monkey bar thing, fairly easily, that this little boy who looked twice his age could barely do. The kid's dad was funny, once he saw Lil' S do it, he became determined for his son (Leon, I learned) to do it too. He started passionately coaching him in a foreign accent I couldn't discern: "Go Lee-Own! Go Lee-Own! Go all dee way to dee top! Put down dee flower (the kid was holding a leaf) and GO! All dee way to dee top!" But hey, credit where credit is due, the kid made it all that way to the top.
Later that night we went over to our friends K's and B's place to eat pizza and see their adorable 11-week old boy. It was babymania. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Or rather S and Lil' S went to sleep. I stayed up and read depressing articles about Ferguson on my iPad (free wifi at the hotel -- at least that wasn't depressing) and followed the Mariners game on my phone. Speaking of depressing, is there anything more pathetic than treating the ESPN GameCast display as if it's a live-action telecast? I'm following the blip on the screen, screaming to myself, "C'mon! C'mon! Get out of that stadium icon!"
The next day we met some friends for brunch. And then at night we met my brother and his family -- just barely. One thing about being a visitor to New York is that it's easy to get stymied by transportation logistics, especially if you have a toddler. But after some difficulties -- missed calls, wrong subway trains, cranky kids, hungry wives, selves that had to pee -- we all made it to Brooklyn Bridge Park, where we met my bro A, his wife M, their kid Lil' Q, and M's dad L. We moseyed around the waterfront, talking and herding our children for an hour and a half or so, before we had to start heading back to the hotel -- it was almost 8:00 pm, after all. Much of the time we we walking around, we were half-looking for a playground the Internet said was near us, but we couldn't see. And of course, as soon as we start to leave we notice that it's on the other side of some bushes roughly 20 feet from where we spent the bulk of our time. Oh, well.
We made plans to go to Coney Island the next day, but those plans got scrapped because S didn't really want to go. This caused a mini fight, as although I was fine with not going, I didn't understand why she didn't say something earlier; I was under the impression that she wanted to go when we made the plans. So then she said, "Fine, let's just go then." But then I didn't want to go because I didn't have my heart set on it in the first place, and so if she doesn't want to go, then we're going when one of us doesn't want to go and the other one doesn't really care one way or the other, which doesn't make sense.
So I made new plans with A to meet in the morning at a park that is about a mile from our hotel that we could walk to. But then those plans got scrapped because the forecast was calling for rain and S didn't want to get caught pushing the stroller in the rain. This caused another mini fight (one other thing I noticed about having a kid: vacation fights go up approximately 375%; back in our carefree Vanuatu days we almost never fought), so we changed the plans again and just met A and M at their hotel. And actually it all worked out quite nicely. It did rain, heavily, so S was vindicated. But it was just a quick cloudburst, and then it got beautiful, so we had a nice day to enjoy. And as it just so happened there was a cool playground right by A's and M's hotel (I'm telling you, there is one on every other corner), so we got to let the kiddos run around, and in Lil' S's case get soaking wet (Lil' Q was a bit unsure of the splash area). We also ate lunch (pizza), and a great time was had by all. The end.
Well, not quite the end. We still had to drive back to D.C. There was traffic almost the entire way, and it took five and half hours. It sucked, and I was annoyed the entire time. OK, now it's really the end.
Until next time...
But anyway, about the trip. We got in to NYC Friday afternoon, and we first went to Manhattan to meet one of S's friends who had a baby a few months ago. We met at a cool park, and I realized that New York is a good place to take a toddler in the summer because there is seemingly a decent park on every other street corner. Lil' S is almost to the point where I can just set him down and watch him with one eye, but he's not quite there. He still gets stuck sometimes climbing, and I have to steer him away from swinging things (like swings) lest he get knocked over wrecking ball-style. But he's pretty good. I know I've said it before, but that kid can climb. He did this monkey bar thing, fairly easily, that this little boy who looked twice his age could barely do. The kid's dad was funny, once he saw Lil' S do it, he became determined for his son (Leon, I learned) to do it too. He started passionately coaching him in a foreign accent I couldn't discern: "Go Lee-Own! Go Lee-Own! Go all dee way to dee top! Put down dee flower (the kid was holding a leaf) and GO! All dee way to dee top!" But hey, credit where credit is due, the kid made it all that way to the top.
[Here's Lil' S going up a ladder: "I climbing, Daddy! I climbing!"]
Later that night we went over to our friends K's and B's place to eat pizza and see their adorable 11-week old boy. It was babymania. Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Or rather S and Lil' S went to sleep. I stayed up and read depressing articles about Ferguson on my iPad (free wifi at the hotel -- at least that wasn't depressing) and followed the Mariners game on my phone. Speaking of depressing, is there anything more pathetic than treating the ESPN GameCast display as if it's a live-action telecast? I'm following the blip on the screen, screaming to myself, "C'mon! C'mon! Get out of that stadium icon!"
[C'mon, ump, are you blind? How is that second pitch a ball? It's right in the zone!]
[Brooklyn Bridge as seen from Brooklyn Bridge park]
We made plans to go to Coney Island the next day, but those plans got scrapped because S didn't really want to go. This caused a mini fight, as although I was fine with not going, I didn't understand why she didn't say something earlier; I was under the impression that she wanted to go when we made the plans. So then she said, "Fine, let's just go then." But then I didn't want to go because I didn't have my heart set on it in the first place, and so if she doesn't want to go, then we're going when one of us doesn't want to go and the other one doesn't really care one way or the other, which doesn't make sense.
So I made new plans with A to meet in the morning at a park that is about a mile from our hotel that we could walk to. But then those plans got scrapped because the forecast was calling for rain and S didn't want to get caught pushing the stroller in the rain. This caused another mini fight (one other thing I noticed about having a kid: vacation fights go up approximately 375%; back in our carefree Vanuatu days we almost never fought), so we changed the plans again and just met A and M at their hotel. And actually it all worked out quite nicely. It did rain, heavily, so S was vindicated. But it was just a quick cloudburst, and then it got beautiful, so we had a nice day to enjoy. And as it just so happened there was a cool playground right by A's and M's hotel (I'm telling you, there is one on every other corner), so we got to let the kiddos run around, and in Lil' S's case get soaking wet (Lil' Q was a bit unsure of the splash area). We also ate lunch (pizza), and a great time was had by all. The end.
[Fowler square in Brooklyn. We ate "brunch" (sausage, kraut, and a pilsner for me) at a delicious nearby German pub.]
Well, not quite the end. We still had to drive back to D.C. There was traffic almost the entire way, and it took five and half hours. It sucked, and I was annoyed the entire time. OK, now it's really the end.
Until next time...
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