Sunday June 16
Today is Fathers Day in the US. The kids are quite excited that their dad gets to have two Fathers Days this year, and think he is quite deserving of it!
Hence we let Ross choose our agenda today. He wished for a sleep in so we all complied, and didn’t go to breakfast downstairs until 10am. I then took the kids to the hotel pool while Ross took our washing to a laundromat – now you know I love washing, but I was not ALLOWED to do it because Ross doesn’t want me wandering the streets of NYC and was not convinced I would find my way home again safely! While I am slightly disappointed I didn’t get to experience a laundromat, I was happy to stay here and supervise kids swimming, and it gave Ross a chance to explore a bit on his own.
We both agree that we love this city but it is not made for a family of eight! I would not recommend it for young families, and while we definitely want to come back, we both want to do it with adult children or just each other (or friends!). Four days here has been quite costly as well (ok, that was partly my fault for taking everyone to Broadway but the kids are calling it their best day ever!). I gave away my hope to attend an off-Broadway play, so that remains on the ‘to-do’ list for the next visit here 🙂
Ross returned from the laundromat with sausage rolls for lunch – real sausage pieces in pastry – and after eating in our hotel room, we walked the 15 blocks back down to the Hudson River intending to go to Intrepid, the Air, Sea and Space Museum on the waterfront. This looked impressive and was recommended to me by a workmate. However, it was expensive for a party of 8, and the space shuttle section was closed, so we took the free option of wandering along the pier between the warship and submarine and looking from there. A Concorde plane sits on the pier as well, but is not open for viewing. I took a photo of it up close for Uncle Bill though!
From there we walked back up to Broadway in search of milkshakes for afternoon tea – another thing Americans do not do readily like decent cappuccinos. We found a store called the “Shake Shack” – which did thick shakes and (drumroll please) burgers and fries!! We shared four thickshakes between us and then stopped in a few souvenir shops for the kids to spend some of their spending money – Zac wants to be decked out in NYPD gear, and Sam of course in FDNY gear so with their funds they bought a baseball cap each and tshirt. We stopped in at a fire station on the way back to the hotel, and while the firefighter at the door wasn’t overly interested in giving us a tour, he did give us the opportunity to explore the station and fire trucks for ourselves.
We considered going to Grand Central Station (which incidentally turns 100 this year) or doing the High Line (an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side, owned by the City of New York) but the kids have done a LOT of walking here, so we opted instead for a quiet night and another decent meal in the hotel restaurant. There will be a lot more to explore on my next visit to NYC, but I feel we have achieved a lot here in the last four days. I checked with Sam at dinner if this was still his favourite city now he has actually been here, and he assures me it is!