Strike One

Today is 4th of July, Independence Day, and we had plans, so many plans, oh how we had plans on how we should spend this day. And you know what they say about the best laid plans.
So Adalia and I were up at 4am with the sun and ready to roll. Sammy was woken around 5am, and by 6am a sleepy Tom asked why we woke up at 6am. I snapped "it's been hours!!!!"
After breakfast I needed coffee, but getting anyone moving was like pushing an elephant up a hill! The kids wanted to stay and watch PBS for kids and Tom was "planning".
I got them out and headed for a cafe that advertised "Australian Approved Coffee" but of course it was closed. We went next door to Anna's bakery and I received the worst tasting coffee ever!!! Now I was cranky, I wanted to get the day underway but no, we had to stop at yet another playground!!!! Come on kids, we are running out of time in NY! We have swings in Australia. There were so many childless people sitting in the park drinking their coffee. It wasn't a great playground, all asphalt and play equipment, so I assumed they were going to kidnap my children, but I guess if you are surrounded by buildings any space is an improvement.

We walked to the Hudson River, past a museum Tom plans to return to, hopefully without me, then ducked into a supermarket just to check out their different offerings then back to Times Square to acquire some baseball tickets - but wait, we weren't Yankies fans. That problem was quickly overcome after some NY Yankies hat purchases. Phew! We were now Yankies fans (much to Tom's alarm as a Red Socks fan, but hey, he was leading this rebellion) and we were ready to get out tickets.
Strike One! "No cheap tickets left for today's game", said Mr shop assistant. We could only purchase tickets that were $100 each! Wow! I didn't really want to go to the baseball in the first place. Sure I was now a fan, my baseball cap is the nicest cap I've ever own (which isn't saying much, my previous favourite was an ocean earth hat I had in year six) but I wasn't about to sink $400 on one game. Thankfully Tom agreed. We bought cheap tickets to tomorrow's game and amended our plans. We would visit downtown and walk the Brooklyn bridge.
Since we were in Times Square we took an eager sammy to MnM world. I can't believe I have been to this place three times in my life. I can't stand the smell or the crowds, but we keep returning and paying for overpriced MnM's! Oh well, it's what you have to do. Next we grabbed a pizza and returned to the hotel to eat before heading back out.
Again there was resistance to leaving, and Adalia fell asleep on the subway, but we got off in downtown Brooklyn and went to Juniors for some American Baked cheesecake, a thick-shake and a hot fudge Sunday. Mum would have loved the cheesecake, I would have brought some back if I could. Adalia nearly slept through the whole thing, but Ice cream was too much of a lure and she forced herself to eat some.
We were ready to explore downtown, but we were pulled by a mysterious gravitational force to century 21, an outlet store that is famous for top brand bargains. It was like a parallel universe in there that sucked up hours of our day. We didn't get out of there until 5:30pm, then there was Gap to visit and before you know it tom was telling me we needed to return home as it was getting late. Strike two!
I was frustrated and even though we wouldn't have time to see much in the other side of the bridge, I still pushed to walk the Brooklyn bridge which was a great decision. It was crowded but still lovely seeing the whole city.
We caught the subway back, grabbed pad Thai and sushi for dinner (which took 40 minutes to make and the kids said it was all too spicy) then I was seriously ready for bed.
This was a tough call, the Macy's fireworks were on at 9:30, and tom was keen, but I didn't want to take the kids into the crowds, plus we were exhausted.
We decided to walk down to the Hudson and hope something was happening down there, even though the main fireworks were on the East River. Strike Three! You're OUT!
We walked for half an hour to see nothing but the colourful reflection from the East River that bounced through gaps in buildings. The good thing about NY is that the streets are flat and straight so if you stood in the middle of the road you could see moments of fireworks. We rushed towards them but were so far away that by the time we were at Times Square they were over.
We marvelled at Times Square, which the kids thought was Vivid, then walked back to our room. By this stage Adalia was asleep on Tom's shoulders and we had pretty much walked aimlessly until 10:30!!! I found a penny in the ground and as I bent to pick it up, a man said "aren't you lucky?" I thought, well not right now. I think we ended up walking 17km today. Exhaustion is an understatement !!!! But no, despite the cranky start and the foiled plans, it was another lovely adventure.Read more