May 19th-20th. We originally intended to post the pics this past weekend but the
Life Machine was in full churn. As a result, we slept in and had
Mama and Ol' Dad saw the writing on the wall and reflected accordingly. When the
revolution comes, we're certainly not going to be the ones undergoing political reeducation in the fields ;)
Meanwhile, J did what J does best.
B is certainly a well traveled
bear!
After waking up and getting organized, we walked a few blocks to meet our friend Rea at her
office. We regrouped, hit the restrooms and planned our day after raiding the office of some poor absent executive. We decided to meet Rea for dinner at
Republic, a noodle shop in
Union Square, then finish off the evening with
Max Brenner's Bald Chocolate Madness!
All the talk of food made us hungry, so we whipped down the
best burger in New York before taking off for
Times Square. Babycakes was anxious to try out New York's famous mass transit system, so we found the nearest hole in the ground and hopped on the
subway.
It wasn't the
Love Train, but it got us where we wanted to go nonetheless ;)
We arrived in
Times Square energized and ready to rock. We marveled at the incredible volume of people moving along the sidewalks. In fact, upwards of
250,000 people cross 7th and 44th on any given Sunday!
More normal? You can't fault the screen for trying but it obviously doesn't know us very well ;)
After an exhaustive search, Babycakes had the target in her sights!
Babycakes was initially surprised by the speed!
Afterwards, the realization that we were spinning at the epicenter of a huge toy store sank in!
Following a few laps on the
ferris wheel, Babycakes pondered the enormity of the
coolness surrounding her.
Meanwhile, five lonely
M&Ms contemplated ending it all after receiving yet another metaphor filled rejection letter from
American Idol.
Sixty feet below, a young
Steven Seagal impersonator contemplated his next career move.
After the sinus clearing excitement of the
ferris wheel, Babycakes wanted to dive further into the
belly of the beast. The size of the place is overwhelming and requires the better part of an afternoon to allow full exploration.
Ol' Dad made the rounds trying to shore up his
LinkedIn network.
Mama discovered the next best thing to a real life
Jack Sparrow.
New York's Finest, the
hip hop sensation, signed autographs in anticipation of the release of their newest CD,
Dangerous and Dazed - Two Ds for a Brave New World.
Something about the street made Ol' Dad feel the all too familiar
foot fetish urge.
Even Mama felt a twinge of the ol' toe stomping blues.
J kept snapping what she ardently insisted were art shots ;)
A
serial killer quietly stalked his next victim, a man who was altogether too concerned with finding his pet
ferret amidst the
horde.
The fury of
Lincoln... at eight miles per gallon.
Hard Rock Cafe sponsored a poetic yet brutally honest musical exhibit entitled
It's Not Going To Strum Itself.
Like any hard rockin' chick, Babycakes geared up to beat someone senseless.
Just when you thought the price of gas was the
biggest problem facing the world...
The curmudgeonly lady behind the table told us, "After the
hippies, come back for a
pita."
Albeit two hours late and incredibly overdressed, the
hippies arrived just in time to provide percussion for the Fourth Annual
Union Square Explorative Horticulture Festival.
Babycakes grooved to the crazy-cool
hippie bongo beat as the sound somehow managed to permeate the omnipresent
patchouli cloud.
After the world stopped spinning, it was almost time for dinner. We made a quick pit stop at for drinks at
Petite Abeille, a hip Belgian place on west 17th. They had a great wine selection and wonderful food!
While some may consider this a bad thing, trust us, it was rockin' awesome and the end justified the means! Any true chocolate lover should head over to their
online shop and pick something. Every single thing they offer is certified tasty by a
Bald Chocolate Madman!
Babycakes flashed a semi-toothless grin.
Max was even nice enough to give Babycakes free chocolate, a candle and a
Bald Chocolate Madman certified porcelain Wish Dish.
Babycakes managed to keep the Wish Dish for free by using the
Jedi Mind Trick on the server, so we've been using it at home. It's much easier for the
Tooth Fairy to orchestrate fetching a tooth from a dish than from underneath the pillow of a slumbering six year old ;)
After a long day of travel and excitement, we headed back to the peace and tranquility of Rea's apartment in
Brooklyn. Of course, peace and tranquility was twenty minutes away through an underground tunnel, so we once again hopped on the amazingly efficient
subway.
Babycakes was now very used to waiting for the train.
Everyone slept soundly that evening, except for the city workers repaving the street outside the window ;) In fact, J slept like a rock despite keeping her shoes on ;)
The next morning we awoke to a small rain shower that, unbeknownst to us at the time, was destined to grow more vicious. We cleaned up, found two half-opened slivers of chocolate for breakfast (recall that we were staying at Rea's fully functional neo-feminist
bachelorette pad) and got ready to make our way to
Battery Park and the
Statue of Liberty.
By the time we arrived at
Battery Park, that cute little rain shower had grown cold and bitter. We were all a bit chilly, especially Ol' Dad since he neglected to bring a coat ;)
Amidst the chilly wind and rain, Babycakes waits for the
ferry at the entrance to
Battery Park.
While waiting for the
ferry, we decided to grab some food nearby. There's a good amount of truth to the myth that you can walk into any restaurant in
Manhattan and it's going to be good. We simply walked down to
34 Water Street and dropped into
Pranzo for the best
pizza and
heroes any of us had eaten in a good long while!
But it didn't stop there! Everything at
Pranzo was indescribably delicious, especially the sauce, which was so amazing it tasted as if the entire cast of
Goodfellas was in the back with their special
sauce voodoo!
Babycakes chows down on the outrageously delicious pasta with meat sauce with a level of excitement we hadn't seen in over twenty-four hours! ;)
There was a lot of love at that table ;)
After we finished lunch, it was a bit difficult to get back to
Battery Park. Traffic had picked up and the rain was coming down much harder. At the very least, Babycakes and J got a great life lesson in avoiding the
Kamikaze Death Squad, otherwise known as
New York taxi drivers.
Like any rational family, we pushed J out into the fray first. She used the
catlike dexterity acquired from many years of
soccer to avoid certain death.
Thankfully, all of us made it back to
Battery Park intact. We still had a bit of time before the
ferry though, so we decided to walk around and take it all in.
"When I wave zee flag, he will be gone like poof!"
"Et voila!"
All those parlor tricks gave Ol' Dad the
itch.
We were fortunate enough to snag a pic of the cast and crew of
Adventure Hornblower, the new all male Russian romantic comedy, currently in production.
New York Princess waved off the
paparazzi with a defiant scream of, "No more pictures!"
Finally, it was time to board the
ferry to
Liberty Island. We were shuttled through an incredibly long line of people and a curious array of security checkpoints. After deciding that we were merely pale admirers of history, we were given the green light to get onboard.
When we arrived at
Liberty Island, the rain storm was full throttle. We paused for a moment, having neglected to purchase umbrellas from the
umbrella guy back at the dock, then decided to forge ahead into the
maelstrom. "Is that the best you can do?!" Ol' Dad howled as he pushed
headstrong into the wind!
Other people obviously listened to the warnings of the
umbrella guy...
The Crew braving the wind and rain in front of
Lady Liberty. Babycakes paid homage.
There are a few rare moments in a parent's life when they look at their child and truly understand the working mechanics of
DNA.
Kids received a quarter for every ounce of
toe jam they retrieved.
Babycakes pays yet another tribute.
"The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children."
-- William Havard
Believing that our plane was mere hours from departing
JFK, we said our farewells to liberty, both
symbolic and actual, and hopped the
subway for our final twenty minute ride to
Brooklyn. Babycakes considered herself a train riding professional at this point and elected to stand during the entire trip!
Babycakes proudly displays her
subway riding skill.
Back at Rea's apartment, we packed up our things and awaited the arrival of
Legends Car Service, the best flat-fee private car service in the New York area. The folks at
Legends are prompt, courteous and extraordinarily professional.
If you ever need a car, Legends is definitely the way to go. Ask for Nasseem, a great guy and our driver of choice. Naseem gave us a very informative tour of Brooklyn, including the history of the various neighborhoods,
Prospect Park and the
Brooklyn Public Library.
Once we reached
JFK, we learned that our flight had been delayed for two hours! With a ton of time on our hands, we snagged a table at
Deep Blue Sushi and treated ourselves to a nice dinner and a few drinks to take the edge off the wait.
Afterwards, we made our way to the semi-underground dungeon that is
Jet Blue's Terminal 5. Hopefully, the completion of the supposedly
swanky new
Terminal 6 in September, 2008 will kick things up a notch.
Mama summed up the Crew's general mood in Terminal 5 awaiting the flight to
Austin.
And then we were home. We had such limited time and the weather was so bad that we've already started planning a trip for late fall. Perhaps one of these days Mama and Ol' Dad will actually put to rest the rumor that the sun never shines in
Manhattan ;)
After realizing his efforts were futile, 
