Sunday, August 12, 2007
 For one of our outings this summer we had scheduled to go into New York City and meet up with Mark's sister Anne Marie and her husband Toby who were en route to Portugal. So Mark spent a good deal of time Friday figuring out what we should do and where we should go. Originally I wanted to take the boys up the Empire State Building and over to see the Statue of Liberty. Mark wanted to hit a good restaurant and I wanted to hit a french fry place we'd seen spotlighted on the Food Network. After a little bit of research, we decided to skip the Empire State Building which has a bad reputation for lots of long lines and do something different.
We rode the train into NYC and as soon as we set foot in Grand Central I started labeling our kids, just in case we lost one. The idea of writing on their hands hit me like a bolt of lightning as we stepped off the train and I must say I felt pretty clever. There was one instance where Hunter was intrigued by something happening across the street and almost got left behind and the first thing he did when he was called to attention was check to make sure the phone numbers were still on his hand. And even though I still felt pretty nervous about taking six kids into such a big place, it gave me at least a little peace of mind.
Our first stop was to the top of the Rockefeller Center and as a parent of lots of young children I can hardly give it enough praise. Sure it's not the Empire State building and you get docked a whopping 16 floors of height, but other than that, the Top of the Rock couldn't have been a better idea. There were absolutey no lines, the ride up the elevator is almost better than a ride at Disneyland complete with lights and music, the view was amazing, you could actually get a picture of the Empire State Building which is one thing you can't do standing on top of the ESB and probably best of all, there were no crowds.
We all started getting hungry around 12:30pm and after much deliberation, we decided to walk to a restaurant not far from Central Park. Mark had eaten at Rosa Mexicana before and had nothing but good things to say about it. So we started off walking and the kids started complaining and I must say even I was getting a bit fussy. Guess that's why I wasn't born back when the Saints marched across the country. I so totally would have been fired. So we paused for a Snapple and endured the rest of the walk to the restaurant. Mark called ahead of time to ensure we had a table upon our arrival and except for one customer who so totally got there after us but so totally wanted to fight us for our table, we were seated right away. They make their own fresh guacamole there, at your table, and I must say it was excellent. So good we actually had to order seconds. And of course, by then we were so full of guacamole it was hard to eat the rest of our food. Mark had a hair on his lunch and the boys started finding mousetraps hidden in various places and the combo of the two made it difficult for me to stomach the rest of my lunch. But I must say, all in all, it was worth the walk and I highly reccommend their guacamole and their black beans. Yum-o!
After lunch we forced ourselves out of our seats and headed for Central Park, one of my favorite things in New York. There's so much to do there and it's really quite pretty. Maybe it's just because I have boys and there are lots of large boulders for the kids to climb on but I love it there. The kids played and climbed and got wet and dirty and generally had a lot of fun. Then Anne Marie and Toby had to leave (much to our dismay) and we decided we'd better head out as well. So we started walking and walking and walking again and I got lost and Noah got lost and we had to turn back for cotton candy and punching balloons but eventually we made it to the subway station which just so happened to be Hunter College--totally cool for Hunter and totally good for us because this particular subway took us directly to Grand Central. So we had lots of time to fetch us some water and make it to our train without stressing out about not catching the next train and having to sit around for another hour with six exhausted children. And all of that was a blessing in disguise because as we pulled into the driveway two hours later, Hunter was in tears due to what we think was a migrain headache and barfed. Kind of a weird happy ending but a happy one nonetheless. Oh. . . and Mark took me to get a Peanut Butter Oreo Blizzard upon our return home and what could possibly be better than that?
posted by Shana # 2:46 PM 
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