We went to NYC. Like, a couple weeks ago now. I just kept not having time to post anything about it—but now it's November, and I have an excuse!
So, we went. It was a wonderful trip in several respects:
We drove to Buffalo and flew to JFK from there on JetBlue, about whom not enough good can be said. Oh how awesome was the flight. Free snax, in-flight satellite tv, generous leg room... if I could fly everywhere in the world on JetBlue, I surely would. Sadly, they're just a US domestic carrier—but at least that covers Buffalo-JFK!
...Which meant we were in New York with no car. Which was really nice! Also, subway subway subway. We went all over town on the thing, and got real good at carrying strollers and kids and bags up and down stairs. By the end of it, I had it down to something like a good portage technique on a hard canoe trip: I could bolt off the train, and not break my pace when I hit a stairwell—just stoop slightly to lift the stroller from the sides, bound up or down the stairs as appropriate, stoop to drop the stroller gently, and always keep moving. The stooping motion, when I got it right, felt exactly like delivering a good aikiotoshi—if I found the exact sweet spot where I could use my hip as a fulcrum and propel the stroller up and into the air, it was almost effortless and didn't strain my back at all (the difference being, of course, that instead of then dropping the stroller on its side like an uke, I kept pushing forward with my hips into the aforementioned stair climb/descent).
We went all over town. Brooklyn, Manhattan, Coney Island, Staten Island—we even had a splendid dinner party with my dad's (surprisingly hip) cousins in East Leonia, New Jersey! All on public transit or local commuter buses.
We figured out that our kids will, in fact, sleep on long distance trips now, even in somewhat acoustically porous accommodations. This is a real milestone for us as a family; it means we can ponder further trips without having to constantly worry that the kids absolutely require their own room with their own door, or else they simply will not sleep (which was what we'd experienced on previous trips).
We got to hang out with my excellent brother and his excellent partner in their excellent apartment, with their excellent cat, in their excellently Polish neighbourhood (oh, the bakeries... the danishes for breakfast... I swoon in recollection...).
It was a very good time. M. and I agreed that the whole experience made us feel "intrepid", which was kind of neat, because, being the suburban young family types that we are, we don't really get to feel that way too often these days. Yay us!
Oh, and: photos!
Comments