The Crew was in New York May 19th-20th. We originally intended to post the pics this past weekend but the Rocky Road Ice Cream Life Machine was in full churn. As a result, we slept in and had mojitos ;)
We spent the weekend in Waterbury, Connecticut attending the wedding of two of our best friends. We planned on spending several days in New York afterwards but we just couldn't schedule it. Mama said something about going to jail if the kids weren't in school, so we scaled back the trip to two full days and one night ;)
We took the train from Waterbury Station to Grand Central Terminal.
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.
We arrived at Grand Central Terminal in a fog of drowsiness. It seemed to be a relatively light traffic day, presumably because everyone was at home purchasing their New Kids on the Block tickets online.
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!
The incandescent hysteria of Times Square.
More normal? You can't fault the screen for trying but it obviously doesn't know us very well ;)
After that brief introduction to the madness of Times Square, we marched onward to the sanctum sanctorum.
After an exhaustive search, Babycakes had the target in her sights!
Toys 'R' Us, baby!
Babycakes let loose a Howler Monkey like squeal as we approached the ferris wheel ;)
This one went to eleven!
Babycakes was initially surprised by the speed!
Afterwards, the realization that we were spinning at the epicenter of a huge toy store sank in!
The Crew was wrapped in a full-on free market capitalism cocoon!
Following a few laps on the ferris wheel, Babycakes pondered the enormity of the coolness surrounding her.
Ol' Dad was magically transformed into the latest member of the People's Paparazzi.
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.
Mama proved that even dinosaurs aren't immune to toenail fungus.
Ol' Dad made the rounds trying to shore up his LinkedIn network.
Babycakes discovered that spiders require four C batteries that are never included.
Mama discovered the next best thing to a real life Jack Sparrow.
J discovered that Japanese cats in Times Square were not to be toyed with.
Ol' Dad discovered the root cause of female rage.
Master-P will be overjoyed that Ol' Dad found a restoration of Speed Racer's Mach Five in time for next year's Rally!
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.
After leaving the garbhagriha, we decided to plunge further into the chaos of Times Square.
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...
Deciding to stick with the square theme, we made our way to Union Square on the subway.
A depressed New Yorker contemplated the upcoming New Kids on the Block tour.
This Rambo can kick your your Rambo's ass!
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.
Two bags of Cheetos later, Babycakes gave Union Square a big thumbs-up!
Samurai Squirrel protects his nut.
Street urchins were out in force and very convincing ;)
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!
The drinks go down easy at Petite Abeille.
J loves French!
After getting into the appropriate state of mind at Petite Abeille, we walked up 17th and met our friend Rea in Union Square for dinner at Republic. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was crazy-hectic-insane-Manhattan-über-cool!
Din-din at Republic with Rea-Rea.
After noodles, we walked down the street for dessert at Max Brenner, home of Bald Chocolate Madness! Their dessert menu was so chock-full of chocolaty goodness that it took nearly half an hour to select something!
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!
The Bald Chocolate Magic of Max Brenner helped Babycakes pull her first baby tooth!
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!
J and the best slice of bona fide New York style pizza ever.
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! ;)
The hero of chicken parmesan heroes.
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.
Lady Liberty scratches a bothersome itch, otherwise known as George W. Bush, that threatens to detract her from her solemn purpose.
Following a rough and tumble steel cage match with Mr. Itchy, Lady Liberty succumbs to the irksome nature of the intruder, disrobes and hops a plane to Amsterdam where she will be better appreciated and can say whatever she damn well chooses.
We later discovered a plethora of Lady Liberty lookalikes trying to fill the void by offering street magic, performance art and an ounce for three and a quarter.
"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.
The American Merchant Mariner's Memorial silently depicted the sacrifices of freedom.
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.
After hacking through all the wind and rain we could stand, we ducked into the Statue of Liberty National Monument to get schooled on the history of Lady Liberty.
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
Deep inside Miss Liberty.
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 ;)
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