Monday night I was bummed out because I wasn't going to be able to see some friends of mine that I graduated high school with in Arkansas. I hadn't seen them in 15 years and it would have been nice to spend some time catching up. They were going to be in NYC on Tuesday and that is certainly within day trip distance so I was trying to figure out how to get down there for the day. I could drive but it's about a 4 hour trip and I knew I'd have trouble staying awake on the ride home late at night. I could take the train or the bus but that's pretty hard for a day trip since they each take so long. I could hop on a JetBlue flight but that would cost too much money and a lot of commuting time from the airport into the city. I had pretty much given up on it when it hit me, at 10:30 p.m. Monday night, that my little sister Shani is home from college and loves to go to NYC. I sent her a text to see if she wanted to drive down with me and she was ecstatic about the idea. I had an appointment early in the morning so I said I'd pick her up about 9 a.m. and we'd head down to the city to meet the guys for lunch.
When I was heading home after my appointment it was about 8:10 a.m. and it occurred to me that there was no reason - other than school, of course - that Hannah couldn't go with me. I called Link to make sure he was okay with it and he just reminded me "You better hurry. The bus comes in 5 minutes." I zipped over to his parents house - where Hannah catches the bus - and asked her what they were doing in school that day. She has been bummed out with school lately because according to her they're not learning anything new the rest of the year and only doing review at this point. I asked her if she wanted to go to NYC with Shani and me and of course she said yes.
When I asked her about this I was a little worried that Jake would want to go too and there was no way he'd be able to do a whole day down in NYC. It's a lot of walking and not that much fun for a 5-year old. (Although, to be honest, I first took Hannah when she was five but they're totally different people.) I should have known better though. I think he was more concerned that I might even suggest that he go with us then he was about being left behind because he was very concerned it would mess up his carefully planned routine that he has at Grandma and Grandpa's house three days a week.
After picking up Hannah we ran back over to our house and this is when the perfect day started. Hannah is truly my daughter. She is a little me. My "mini me" if you will. Within five minutes of getting to the house she had a backpack packed with water bottles, NYC guide books, activities for the car, her wallet, sunglasses and sunscreen. Yes, my daughter can switch gears and be packed and ready to go on a trip in under 5 minutes. She's amazing. She even looked over at me and noticed my slip-on sandals that I was wearing and said "Mommy, those aren't very sensible walking shoes for our trip." I just laughed and told her that I had my tennis shoes in my backpack.
We left the house, gassed up the car, and went to pick up Shani. The drive down to NYC was a ton of fun. For the first half of the trip Shani and I got a chance to catch up while Hannah read some books and just chilled out in the back seat. The second half of the trip we played the "Alphabet Game" in the car. Hannah started off a little slow because it takes her a little longer to scan billboards for words starting with each letter of the alphabet but she creamed us in the end. We actually ended up playing the game two more times that day. Once in Central Park and once on the subway.
We arrived in Manhattan around 1:30 and met up with the guys for lunch. It was a nice leisurely lunch and I got to catch up with the guys while Shani and Hannah entertained themselves. After lunch the guys were heading over to meet up with some other friends and then go to a baseball game so we said good-bye and headed out to explore the city a little bit before meeting up with another friend of mine for dinner. Maria and I used to work together (her in the NYC office and me in the Boston office) and we try to hook up whenever I'm in the city. I emailed her that morning and asked if she was free to meet us for dinner. Luckily she was.
It was a gorgeous day and the weather was perfect. Since we were pretty close to Central Park after lunch we decided to walk around in there. Shani had never been to Central Park and since she's a huge film freak she wanted to find some of the most used sites in Central Park that are seen in movies and Hannah wanted to go to the Central Park Zoo. We wandered around and eventually made our way over to the zoo. Unfortunately it was 15 minutes before closing time so we didn't get to go in but we decided to just keep walking through the park. Shani wanted to find Bow Bridge which is one of the most common film sites. Eventually we came across the Central Park Boat House (also seen in a number of movies) and there were a number of people out rowing on the lake. I figured it would be too expensive for us to do but it was actually only $12 for all three of us to rent a boat for an hour. Well, you couldn't beat that for price. Especially in Manhattan! The three of us climbed in the row boat and rowed around the lake for about 40 minutes. I started out doing the rowing and it was hilarious. I haven't rowed a boat in YEARS with the exception of some kayaking Lincoln and I did a few years back. It took me awhile to get the hang of it and get us out of the dock area but eventually I got it under control. Hannah wanted to give it a try so she moved over to sit next to me and do the right oar while I did the left one. Once she had that mastered she wanted to take over completely. I moved back a seat and let her take charge. She was amazing! She mastered that boat in no time and had us cruising all over the lake. It was such a gorgeous day and there were a lot of people on the lake so she had to maneuver us around other boats which is much harder than it sounds since so many of the people out on the water are novices. We had a few near misses but so did everyone else on the lake.
After about 40 minutes we had to head back to the dock because we were meeting Maria for dinner at 6:30 down in Little Italy. We walked out of the park, grabbed a cab, and headed out for dinner. The restaurant was one that Maria had taken me to years ago and I had always wanted to go back to. I was a little worried because it wasn't the type of place that would have a kids menu but Hannah adjusted pretty well. She didn't really like the food but she found enough to eat to fill her up and she never complained. She did however practically eat an entire loaf of Italian bread by herself. I'm glad she loved the stuff but I was about ready to Google "can you die of a bread overdose" on my phone.
We finished dinner a little later than we had hoped considering we had a 4 hour drive back to Upton but we stopped at a few souvenir shops anyway down in Little Italy before hopping on the subway and heading back to where we had parked our car. We had parked in an area known as Hell's Kitchen, which is near Times Square, and hit a few more souvenir shops there since Hannah hadn't found anything she wanted to buy down in Little Italy. She finally found a t-shirt that she bought herself and then we got in the car and headed home. We had to drive through Times Square on our way out of town and that was the only time we were there all day but that was okay since that's where we usually start our journey. We're very familiar with Times Square.
The drive home was fairly uneventful but there was an amazing amount of late night construction traffic coming through Connecticut. Hannah slept the entire way home and Shani did a good job of keeping me awake. We got home about 1:30 a.m. and all immediately crashed. Shani spent the night and Link took her home the next morning.
So, as you can see, it wasn't that "special" of a day but it was one of the most extraordinary days of my life. Hannah was so amazing and so adaptable. Even when we were just sitting by the fountain at Columbus Circle she was perfectly content just to be in NYC. She made me laugh and it was great spending such a nice day down in NYC with her and Shani. I got to see friends that I haven't seen in 15 years and I got to spend an incredibly pleasant time just floating around a Central Park lake in the warm sun, taking in the beautiful scenery with Hannah and Shani. It was just a great day. Considering the overwhelming number of bad days that I've had lately, this was just a gift. A really, really great gift.
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1 comment:
Absolutely adorable pictures! What a fun day. I'm glad it worked out so well!
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