Let me begin with a disclaimer: we saw Quinn's doctor before the trip. She advised to feed her during take-off and landing, keep her under a light veil if people near her are coughing or sneezing, and always wash your (us adults, that is) hands. So for those of you bashful readers, there will be photos with boobies.
We set our alarm clocks to 3:30AM. Plenty enough time for our 6:05AM flight, right?
NOT! We were flying down the freeway so fast we made it to Seattle in eleven minutes! We barely made it with thirty minutes minutes to spare; thank goodness for pre-check-in online! Quinn was asleep and snug as a bug while we adults sprinted to the boarding gate, the very last ones to board. "It was the baby's fault," I explained. As if!
And I breast fed the Mighty Quinn, and she was good!
Newark, New Jersey.
No comments.
Our hotel, City Club Hotel. Very nice.
But do NOT touch the condiments. (Is that what they're called?). Which, of course, 5-Star Scotty did. "It's been a long day, I need to relax a bit!" he said.
Times Square. Bright as day at 10PM.
There were plenty NYC's finest everywhere we went. So when we were at a loss for where to have dinner, Scotty asked them.
"What kind of food?" asked the uniformed young man.
5-Star told him Italian.
"There's an Olive Garden two blocks that way."
What?! Give me an old timer to show us to a REAL Italian restaurant. Needless to say, NYC is not a place for infants. We dared not enter a nice, sit-down restaurant with our SUV of strollers and screaming baby.
Next day, Battery Park, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island.
I was Madonna's biggest fan in Truk when her career started to take off. I watched all her movies, starting with Desperately Seeking Susan. The park looks just like in the movie where Susan answered Jimmy's ad in the newspaper personals.
It was a very cold and blustery day, and the white caps on the river attested to it. We walked onto the Miss Liberty like a bunch of drunks. And thank goodness for Dramamine.
Yaya: "The statue is HUGE! Way bigger than I imagined!"
As you can tell by our hair, the wind blew hard that day.
This is where we would have entered into the United States if we had arrived about a century ago. Did you know that an estimated half of all Americans today can trace their family history to at least one person who passed through this port?! 5-Star looked up his name on the wall of recorded immigrants, and there were half a dozen of them!
And of course, you haven't experienced New York City until you take the subway. I was so glad we brought a baby carrier, for it would have been a nightmare hoisting the BOB (stroller) up and down the stairs. There was one family who dared to do it, and I think they gave up that idea as soon as they went back to their hotel. Either that, or they opted for the more costly taxis for transportation in the city.
Day two: the Empire State Buidling, Ground Zero, The Horses of Sable Island studio, Central Park.
I always think of the original Spider-man movie with Nicholas Hammond. The sharp down-turned hooks of the fence atop the building saved him - Peter Parker - from committing suicide by inadvertently knocking off the mind-control gadget pinned to the collar of his shirt.
For lunch we had pizza at this little hole in the wall right around the corner from the Ground Zero Memorial. The old man that ran the place was rather grumpy. In fact, when we were taking longer than usual in the bathroom (because we were changing Quinn's diaper and going to the bathroom ourselves) he knocked on the door saying, in his thick foreign accent, "Other customers are waiting to use the restroom!"
When we came out, we were the only ones in the restaurant.
Then we visited The Wild Horses of Sable Island Gallery. Quinn was fascinated by the photos! We met the artist. He is a dad himself. He said children are more drawn to horses than to any other animal.
I've made it a requirement to run at least an official 5k race in every city I visit. So I hooked up with the Flash Mob 5K benefiting St. Jude's Hospital. There were seven total participants who showed up. We had a very late start because the race owner had to deal with his towed-away car right before race time. Then we got lost - yes, the park is that big! Finally, I had to cut the race short by 500m because I received a phone call from 5-Star in an all-out panic that we had run out of formula, and that Quinn was in a full-on rage about it. "She needs your boobs NOW!"
When I got to them inside the Plaza, she was happy as a clam, cooing and smiling.
We got a good night's rest for the drive to Washington D.C.
This was somewhere in Baltimore. Quinn had had it with the five-plus hours of being on the road.
And the highlight of Washington was seeing the Alba girls! We met up for dinner in Arlington, just a stone throw away from D.C.
The next morning, there was a 5k race right outside our hotel that morning, but I did not know about it!!! Besides, we got our three miles in while touring the National Mall.
World War II Memorial
Our hotel is the black building on the right edge of this photo. Cousin Kimmie worked in one of the buildings behind our hotel.
In fact, she used to get her espresso fixes at this Starbucks inside our hotel! "And if you knew your way around, you would get here by 'secret' tunnels that connected the buildings!" she said.
The Drive back to NYC. We were on the New Jersey Turnpike forever. Forever!
Turnpike is a term for a toll road. And indeed, we passed through so very many plenty mucho toll booths!
And to settle her down from another five-plus hours of driving, the Mighty Quinn got an extra long bath.
Next morning, we caught a plane back to our Pacific Northwest, where the trees are greener, and the only tolls are on the SR-520 and Narrows Bridges and on the SR-167 HOT lanes.
And the Might Quinn slept. And slept. And slept. Thank goodness for boobs, Yaya, and Daddy.
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