Month: August 2009

When you wake 3 babies and 7 grown-ups at 4 am to catch a shuttle at 5…

so you can get to the airport at 6:30 to stand in line until 8…

to catch the 9am flight back home…

there really should be an agreement of some sort…

that they will not, under any circumstances, delay the flight–

for two and a half hours.

But there isn’t.

So they did.

And the whole building found out the real meaning of the words, “sweet tempered babies” and “darn good sports.”

Till finally, finally they pointed us westward…

grateful that they got that wing screwed back on…

so that we could fly, and fly, and fly safely back…

to our little home…

in the mountains.

 

 

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Week 21 Food Storage Prompt: 10 lbs. Powdered Milk

Day 6

If we’re going to see it–it has to be today. Note the lady in the white T-shirt smiling sweetly at our little herd. Yeah, we got a lot of that.

Aren’t these mounted policemen the guys who chased Santa Claus through Central Park in that Elf movie? I bet that got them on the naughty list.

A shy bald kid at his favorite place on the face of the earth…

Nintendo World! Gee, I thought our front room was Nintendo world. My mistake.

The youngsters were thoroughly enthralled.

Most of them, anyway.

I really wanted to see where the Macy’s Parade takes place on Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m some kind of country chick or something, but I just couldn’t fathom an 8 story department store.

By the time we went up all the escalators–I was a believer.

This place had a McDonalds right in the middle of the store. Yogurt–yum!

Then on to the Empire State Building. We didn’t actually take the tour to the top—

but the ground level was really pretty.

Speaking of ground–apparently New York people spit a ton of gum on the ground. Ewww–ah.

Prepare now for the ultimate Subway experience. First you go in and down…

then sometimes you have to go back up. Hooray for big burly men.

See that gal in the green shirt waaaay up ahead? Well, she is our illustrious leader, guiding us to all things touristy–provided you can keep up.

I’ll admit, I expected the subways to be dark and dirty and full of scary gangs and half dead people. I know, too many movies–but the truth is–they were clean and well lit and full of regular folks…just like us. See? I can be taught!

Our destination was at the very last stop. That why the sign says, “Last Stop.” har har

We found this lush, shady park to sit in and rest our tired bones…

and stare out at the lovely Lady Liberty. This was my very first time seeing her.

We just sat and thought for a very long time. It seemed like the proper thing to do. That’s the bald kid and his mom in between the trees there.

It was really quite peaceful…sobering even. My mother’s family came here from Sweden and my father’s came from Scotland about a hundred years ago. They both saw this very same lovely sight.

We loved the boats…

and the chicken nuggets…

the sea birds…

and the mysteriously matching trees.

We discovered that they are building a memorial visitor’s center for the World Trade Center.

So, for now all we could do was stand back and take pictures of the Ground Zero horizon…

but it was enough.