Family travels 2017

June - July 2017
A 24-day adventure by Rachel Travels 2019
  • 21footprints
  • 5countries
  • 24days
  • 96photos
  • 0videos
  • 41.0kkilometers
  • 39.1kkilometers
  • Day 1

    From home to NY we go

    June 28, 2017 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    What!!! You're taking two children on a 25 hour plane flight to NY? I hear you say. Well yes, yes I am. Did I not learn from the torture of last year's trip and want to test my levels of endurance again? Well no, it seems that its true what they say; the memory doesn't hold on to the pain, it only remembers the beauty.

    So here we go. There is so much of the world to see, so many exciting cultures to experience and enjoy. What a lovely opportunity to create beautiful memories with my darling children. Let's see if they appreciate it.
    Read more

  • Day 4

    Getting there

    July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our alarm woke us at 5:30am and we were off and running; showers, breakfast, taxi, airport. Even with Saturday morning airport traffic and airport self check in machines that ALWAYS require us to line up again and speak with a "helpful customer service officer", we still made it with plenty of time.
    It turns out I am a nevous flyer. It's not that I'm scared or worried about the plane crashing, I'm scared and worried about being trapped in my seat, locked in with my children for hours and hours. Tom bought me a stomach calming juice which was heavy on ginger, but it didn't really ease my anxiety.
    We boarded our flight through the business class entry and followed the business class path to the top entrance of the plane. Tom loved it! Unfortunatley that's where the glamour ended. We had great cattle class seats upstairs on an A380. Upstairs is all of first class, business class, premium economy, then about 8 rows of economy, that's all! So we felt a bit special.
    Since our trip last year, Adalia has fostered an enormous fear of plane toilets. I think she thought she was going to be sucked down with the loud swoosh noise they make when you flush. So you can imagine my joy when I needed to take her for the first time. She SCREAMED, placed her hands on either side of the door to block both and would not budge. I somehow got her in and closed the door, but there was so much screaming. I assured her that I wouldn't flush until after she had gone back to her seat and somehow I got her to go. I was so embarrassed to find waiting outside the door was a flight attendent and Tom who were worried about all the screaming!!
    The kids would not sleep on the first flight so my anxiety was growing, we wanted to keep them up on the second leg to get them a bit better adjusted to the different time zone. I think in the end they both slept maybe an hour at the most.
    When the "cabin crew were preparing for landing", Adalia had a sudden onset of stomach cramps and was once again screaming. I don't know what the other passengers thought of us, but that child sure likes to attract attention. There was nothing I could do, but she was making me feel so stressed. Tom seemed to block the screaming out and continued watching his movie. She didn't really stop screaming until we were off the plane. We realised that she hadn't eaten anything on the whole flight and was probably starving! I tried to force feed her some biscuits and muslie bars that I had packed, but she wasn't keen
    Our change of planes at LAX went smoothly and quickly, apart from them wanting us to declare the bread rolls I had packed for the flight, telling us to throw them out, then saying they were fine because I packed them at home?!?! Don't quite get the logic.
    The next flight we were crammed into economy once more. Flying truely is the only time I wish I were filthy rich and could afford to waste money on first class tickets. It was so hot, Adalia who had overcome her fear of the toilets needed to go every two minutes and we were nowhere near them, and lets face it plane food is ordinary, especially kids meals, and I really needed Adalia to eat something.
    We were all so tired, Against my better judgement I dozed off, Adalia fell fast asleep, Tom nodded in and out, but Samuel stayed glued to his screen. This in itself was a bad thing. Our flight ended up being unable to land due to terminal congestion following bad weather, so we had to fly around for an extra hour, at which point Samuel hit the wall. He didn't fall asleep, he decided he was plane sick. He was white in the face, loooked awful and said he felt like he was going to be sick. The seatbelt sign was on, so in my mind, vomiting wasn't an option. I calmed him down enough to sort of doze, but he wasn't happy.
    It seemed like this day would never, ever end. The plane took forever to get clearance to land, then the taxi to the terminal was like slow motion, it seemed like our luggage was last onto the conveyer belt (which gave us plenty of time to discuss whether a Meghan Markle look-alike really was her or not) then our taxi to our hotel was stuck in the worst traffic jam. My travel sick sleep deprived boy did not appreciate the taxi drivers windows staying down when we were in an underground tunnel in a traffic jam.
    We finally reached our hotel at about 8:30pm. The kids had passed through fatigue and into delerium. They were hyper. We dumped our luggage in our room to find dinner. To ensure adalia would actually eat something at dinner we found the nearest maccas, ordered happy meals for the kids, laughed that the thick shakes we ordered were literally soft serve in a cup, then I high tailed back to the hotel, only stopping to get cranky with Tom who thought we should be sight seeing at 10pm at night when we were all beyond smashed.
    Read more

  • Day 5

    Baptists, Brides and Brambles

    July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Our first night's sleep was so much more successful than anticipated. Even though the kids were so tired the night before and didn't get to bed until 10:30, I still gave them Phenergan and it worked well at keeping them sleepy all night. Adalia awoke at 4:30am, and woke poor Sammy, but I told them to lie quietly in their beds until morning, and they both fell back asleep. (Sammy doesn't remember being awake.) I woke everyone up at 8:30!!
    Unfortunately Sammy hadn't quite caught up on sleep after his 30 hours being awake, and he is possibly unwell with a cold, so he was reluctant to do ANYTHING. At the hotel breakfast he lay his head on the table and cried, and not even a croissant could cheer him up.
    We made our way Uptown to Redeemer Baptist Church for their 11:30am Classical Sunday Service.
    Along the way we caught a Subway Train and I watched Adalia's terrified eyes find mine when she heard the clatter of the train approaching. We meandered through Central Park where Samuel rediscovered his fascination with Squirrels, and we crossed the road out of the Park and the contrast between the uniquely bent branches of threes and the spectacle of the straight towering buildings is striking.
    We coax the kids along in an effort not to be late to church as they have "lock outs" like at the theatre, you wait outside until and appropriate interval before you can enter. We made it just in time and sit to the left hand side. As this is our second time at Redeemer (we are practically regulars) I'm not as overwhelmed by the "production", but once again I am impressed with its polish. Every word that is spoken on stage has been thought through and provokes a stirring in my heart. The explanation of the prayer of confession; that we confess our sin before God not to show Him or us how terrible we are, rather we rejoice that our sin is forgiven because Jesus took it away; makes saying the words so much more meaningful. The bible reading was more a dramatic monologue and was so moving, so powerful. And the musicians were amazing to watch.
    However all good things must come to an end, as it was time to take Adalia to the toilet. A lady kindly let us go before her in the line that was rapidly growing behind us, forming an audience to the drama that is my daughter. We discovered that the toilets were auto flushers; ADALIA's WORST NIGHTMARE!!! I don't know what people thought was going on behind the closed door but the dialogue went something like this;
    Adalia- "I don't want to, I'm scared"
    Me - "It's fine, it won't hurt you"
    Adalia screaming- "NO! I DON'T WANT TO"
    Me- "Just do it would you"
    Adalia -NOOOO!!!!"
    Me- "I'll give you an ice cream, just do it"
    This scenario was only mad worse when Tom attempted taking her after me. Imagine the same dialogue, but in male toilets...
    We hightailed out of there and found some street markets to camouflage into. We were contemplating our next adventure when we realised it was 1pm and we should eat lunch even if we weren't hungry, to help our bodies adjust.
    We were close to shake shack and while we had maccas for dinner last night, we embraced the beef sandwich and fries and went again. This time we took our food away, and dined in Central Park amongst the finches and the rats.
    After lunch we strolled around the park counting squirrels and rats. We walked through a section called "The Ramble" and it was brambles of berry bushes. Adalia of course got too close and immediately broke out in a rash, but how was I to know she was sensitive to brambles.
    It seemed that at every turn there was a bride having wedding photos. We even saw a girl get proposed to on an the iconic Bow Bridge with a Tiffany's box. Adalia loved all this, and was particularly overwhelmed with an incident in the toilets. We found the Central Park public toilets which were in every way disgusting, including an overflowing toilet, I tried to hurry my toilet phobic girl through the process so we could get out of there, but our exit was blocked by a lone bride, with no bridesmaids or helpers of any kind trying to get out of her dress. A lady who couldn't speak much English was helping her unbutton the back as the bride tried to shimmy out of it whilst gripping on to a large bag. I offered to hold the bag which she flung at me, and she peeled off her dress to reveal underwear that said "dreams can come true!!!" The whole situation was absolutely mind boggling. What was going on?! I wouldn't want my wedding dress to be within 100m of those toilets, I didn't want my scrappy old dress I was wearing to be in there. Adalia had no idea what was happening but animatedly described the whole thing to Tom and Sammy.
    Poor Samuel was fading quickly, but it was too early to return to our accommodation and go to bed. We tried taking them to two different playgrounds but Sammy just sat next to me and watched Adalia play. Not even a stop at Grand Central Station could distract Sammy from his misery.
    We slowly made our way back, opting to walk as it would take a bit longer, but in the end poor Tom was carrying both children.
    We returned to our room at 5:30pm and the kids happily watched TV for an hour before it was time for bed.
    Read more

  • Day 6

    Reliving Brooklyn memories

    July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Sammy spent the night moaning with a headache and I was quite worried about how sick he would be when he woke up. Adalia on the other hand woke up early and was starving, so after keeping her quiet for an hour with Paw Patrol on my phone, I decided to take her to breakfast. Thankfully as I was leaving for breakfast Sammy woke up and was eager to eat which I took as a good sign. He was much better, but still not 100%.
    Tom had organised back in Australia, for an employee's daughter who is living in America, to babysit for us on Wednesday night. She was coming to our hotel to meet us and the kids at 10am. To bide our time until then we did a quick lap around the block to find some good coffee (Tom ordered me a Mocha, but the barista couldn't understand what he was saying as he hadn't pronounced it correctly - Tom, don't you know its Mowka?! ;) and a little play at the park, which turned into a slightly longer play as Caitlyn was running late.
    When Caitlyn finally arrived I was wanting a quick hello and goodbye, but it was awkward, I think she didn't want to be rude and leave too quickly, but we wanted to go! We made way too much polite conversation, the kids were practically doing summersalts to get attention and eventually I snapped, got the kids ready, bags packed and cheerfully said; "ok, are we all ready to go?" and we ALL exited the building.
    Kerbside we set out our day's plans and headed for Brooklyn. This meant the Subway. Ahh the Subway, how I loath thee. It is one of the filthiest places I have ever been to. I swear it has not been cleaned since it was constructed. It is exactly like the scene from the movie "Ghost" where Patrick Swayze learns to flick the coin or kick the can, or maybe Will Smith when he camps out down there in that horrible movie The Persuit of Happyness; grimy filth that smells like wee and germs. The poles you hold on to on the train feel damp with bacteria, every external surface masked with soot. It is a nightmare when you have a daughter who constantly puts her fingers in her mouth!!! Today I felt like I was yelling either "get your fingers out of your mouth" or "Stop yelling" (as both children have blocked ears and are speaking at about 100 decibels).
    So anyway, we got off the train at Williamsberg and walked to Greenpoint. We took in the strange and wonderful sights; a firetruck with the big crane on its back that had a separate driver for the crane, Peter Pan donuts where the whole interior of the shop is a counter top snaking it's way through the space so people can eat counter meals, and the closer we got to GreenPoint the grungier it became. I had a tight grip on the children, not for fear that they would be taken, but because I worried they would bump into someone with black fair down one side, white down the other and get yelled at; this was not a child friendly environment.
    Our aim was to revisit an area we stayed in during our last visit to NY and to have lunch at our favourite diner "Coffee Friends", we happily found "The Garden" market filled with interesting delicacies, however our long walk only highlighted that the world does not remain the same to indulge our nostalgia, coffee friends was no more. We drowned our sorrows in a Bialy from a bagel store. It was a completley disgusting bagel with an onion/poppyseed centre. It was so gross it only compounded our missery. Just when we thought all hope was lost, we rediscovered a cafe we had frequented on our last visit, and enjoyed a yummy lunch there.
    The kids would have happily returned to the hotel after lunch, but we enticed them on with endless rounds of "I spy" and another play at a park which sat at the edge of the East River.
    We boarded another Subway filled with questionable individuals; a man covered in skull tattoos, including one of a very feminine butterfly with a skull face, an old man playing music through a speaker and singing VERY loudly along with his tunes, and three teenage guys who thought it was hilarious to brush their hair in different ways. It was so difficult to distract Adalia from staring!
    I gladly leapt off the train, and after a touch of shopping we made our way to the police station that is featured in a show Tom and I watch; Brooklyn 99. We took some silly photos then ducked into the Doughnut Plant for a chocolate doughnut.
    By this time the kids were really tired and it was starting to rain. We headed to the subway which pulled in as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Sammy, Tom and I swiped our cards and ran for the train, while Adalia, who isn't required to pay, just duck under the turnstyle, had a moment of difiance, confusion, who knows what and wanted to push the turnstyle herself. We all yelled at her, with one foot in the train, and in what felt like slow motion she eventually ran on sobbing. She was so scared. But its ok, she has a super mum who assured her we would never leave her behind, and one minute later she was asleep in my arms - a Hallmark moment ladies and gentlemen.
    The walk from the station to our hotel was tricky. Tom was carrying a sleeping Adalia through the crowds, while I tried to steer Sammy through, but he kept bobbing away to pick up abandoned pennies; our professional money finder is back in action people!
    We ordered ribs, hush puppies (fried cornmeal) and sides from the restaurant next door to our hotel and aimed for an early night. While Sammy crashed out, Adalia was energised from her shut eye on the train, and there is a noisy function happening just below our bedroom window. So not sure how the evening will go...
    Read more

  • Day 7

    Strike One

    July 4, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    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

  • Day 8

    Yankies and The Piano Man

    July 5, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After a good night's sleep we grabbed our good coffee and set off, first for Washington Square, followed by some growers markets. We saw some squirrels, ate some local produce, had a play in the playground then caught the subway to Yankies Stadium.
    I've seen it in the movies, people going to the ball game, but in real life it is overwhelming to say the least. From the moment you leave the train people are shouting at you to buy fake merchandise and drinks, then in low voices people are offering tickets to the game. It is confronting, and part of me really wanted to help these people as they are just trying to make a living.There are people everywhere and I quickly grab both children's hands. Normally I get opposition from Adalia but the kids are pretty overwhelmed too.
    We had no idea where we were supposed to go, so we joined the throngs of people waiting to get in. So many Yankies fans loved Adalia decked out in her pink Yankies hat. Money well spent.
    Once through the security we caught a lift to our level then up a few more stairs to our seats. They were so high it made my legs wobble. We had made it just in time for the Canadian and American anthems. I had been looking forward to this but in reality it was underwhelming. The organ played, people stood but no one sang! (Well tom did just to show that he knew all the words I'm sure) then we were instructed to say some silent prayers for someone that was shot and killed (not sure who, there is a new one every day...) but the MOST disappointing part was that no one made the announcement to "play ball".
    The batsman missed the ball a few times, hit it, and that was it, Adalia was over it. And after a couple of innings so was I. This game is so slow, nothing like the movies. Hardly anyone even hits the ball. The most exciting part was when theToronto Blue Jays got two home runs in a row and the Yankies coach came on to the field to get cranky with the pitcher.
    We had hot dogs and cotton candy, stayed until after the sixth innings (which was two hours) then decided to collect our first time attendees certificate and leave. In the end the Yankies lost, so it was a bad day to decide to start following the Yankies.
    We caught the train and got off just short of our stop and walked past some of the sights like "The Plaza", "Tiffany's", Trump Towers (where we think trump was actually staying as there were road closures, police and secret services everywhere), them up to Rockefeller. We were willing to go into the Lego store but the kids just wanted to go back to the hotel!
    Once back it was a quick shower and change for Tom and I as we were off to see Billy Joel!
    The baby sitter arrived, she was given instructions and we were off. The tickets advised us to be seated by 7pm, so we high tailed it up 8th Ave and ended up being one of the first people seated. Clearly we were novices, which was also displayed in our clothing, we were so overdressed.
    Since we had so much time to kill we ordered a drink from the bar and we were asked for ID. Tom was on cloud nine, he couldn't believe he had just been asked for ID. But there was a problem, Tom hadn't brought any ID! I on the other hand had withstood Tom's earlier mocking about bringing my credit card and licence and now who was laughing?! So I had to buy the drinks, be served the drinks and carry the drinks away, all the while with tom exclaiming "she is serving drinks to a minor here!"
    When the lights dimmed people started shouting "here comes Billy!" Now I'm not going to pretend to be a big fan, until last week when I did a Billy Joel crash course I only really knew. "Piano man" and "we didn't start the fire" and perhaps a couple of others. My only point of reference of what he looked like was from the album cover I bought from vinnies. So I was a little shocked when a chubby, bald man with a white goatee walked on the stage to screaming, crying fans. But for 68 years old he was incredible! And the sold out audience hung on to every word. It is a rare beauty to see full grown men who aren't drunk, sing with smiles on their faces, and at that concert the room was full of them singing every single word along with Billy, sometimes even louder than Billy for over two hours with no break! But the highlight of the night for every person in that stadium was piano man. It almost brought a tear to my eye.
    The concert ended and the crowds walked down flights and flights of stairs. Tom and I noticed the diversity in age, there was not one predominant age group, however, there were no African Americans. Everyone at the concert was white which we found odd given the diversity of New York City.
    We decided to stroll home through the city, stopping to buy a $1 slice of pizza each and returned to the babysitter at midnight.
    Read more

  • Day 9

    The things one does for shopping!

    July 6, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    I was hoping today's post would be nice and simple; I went shopping at Woodbury Common, by myself and had a lovely day." But alas, it was not to be.
    We started the morning rushed and cranky after a very bad night's sleep and an early morning visitor in our bed (Adalia). Plus, the bus company we booked to take me shopping asked me to meet them across town instead of their advertised pickup location which was around the corner from our hotel, their reason being traffic?! Surely there is always traffic.
    We needed to catch the subway across town and waited on the wrong platform for a long time before a train conductor advised us of our mistake. We ran to the right one, jumped on board, ran up to the pick up location and waited. After waiting ten minutes past the arranged time of 9:12am I called the company who greeted my call with "don't call me call the driver!" They shouted a number at me and hung up. No hello, no goodbyes.
    I dialled the drivers number and an auto message informed me "this person has not set up their inbox at this time".
    Getting frustrated we called the original number again which answered and hung up! Things were not looking good at all. I wish I had counted my losses and gone home.
    Tom continued calling the only number we had while I entertained the kids who were literally running rings around me. I was stressed and cranky when tom yelled "across the road, run." So into oncoming traffic we ran, and tom pushed me towards a van with an open door. I got into the front seat of a filthy van and had to sit on one of those gross beaded car seat covers. TOm asked where I would be dropped off in the afternoon to which the driver shrugged and said "no English".
    The moment I closed my door the driver took off, cutting off cars and driving through red lights. Only we weren't getting anywhere, we were literally driving in circles. After nearly an hour he took a turn to Queens, then once in queens he pulled over, popped the boot, sat on the edge of the boot and started smoking.
    There were two other passengers in the car who were from a country ending in Stan, cuzbecastan? They were just as concerned as i was and asked the driver what was happening. The driver shrugged again and shook his head. The man from Stan used google translate to try and assertion what was going on. To this the driver laughed (!) and said 4 and used 4 fingers. What the heck did this mean?! We decided that maybe four more passengers were coming?
    After half an hour I was really getting worried, the driver wasn't doing anything. The man from Stan got out to try and call someone who could give us some answers, while he was out of the car, the driver started driving with the doors open! The wife of the man from Stan tried to jump out of the moving vehicle but the driver started yelling at her in Chinese and stopped driving. both the woman and I jumped out of the van as quickly as we could. Once we were out of the van, the driver started removing all of his identification from the dash board and windows. I was on the verge of tears and working out my escape route. The man from Stan stopped me from going. He had learned from his phone call that a bus was picking us up in ten minutes. Ten minutes past, twenty minutes past, the driver continued smoking, it was raining and we had all had it! The man from Stan spotted a police officer and went and got him. The officer came over and started yelling at the driver, no polite chit chat or questioning, just straight to yelling. It was all getting so bad. If I knew exactly where I was or where to go I would have run! The driver was yelling back at the officer in Chinese and hitting his phone on the steering wheel of the car. Nothing was really resolved, all that happened was the Chinese driver had called his boss and let the man from Stan talk with her. However after another ten minutes had past and still no bus, the man asked if he could call her again and the chinese driver laughed and said "no way".
    Suddenly a black minibus arrived, its side door opened and we were pushed in. I thought for a moment we were being kidnapped. The bus took off before I had sat in my seat and drove at breakneck speed. No one said anything to us, the driver just drove flat out. I've been to Woodbury common once before so I eventually recognised landmarks and could slightly relax, but I was still fearful we would crash.
    By the time we arrived at Woodbury common in was 12pm. It normally takes one hour to get there pending traffic. I got off the bus and tears started flowing. There was no way I was going home with those people.
    I tried to enjoy my day but I was so upset and just wanted to go home.
    I bought some of things I was after, bought another bus ticket and was home in one hour and fifteen minutes, on a bus driving slowly!
    I gave tom and the kids a big hug, discovered that Sammy was still quite sick, then took the family to sushi for dinner and heard about their day at the Intrepid museum.
    Read more

  • Day 10

    Musicals and monuments

    July 7, 2017 in England ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Our last day in New York had crept up on us. We were sad as we didn't get to do half the things we had intended, like find Harvey's building,(Suits) or go to the Statue of Liberty-I wanted to get adalia and Lacey those foam crowns that Jess and I got from Aunty Noelene so we could re-stage a photo from our childhoods, torch in one hand, bible in the other! But I was also slightly relieved. I had found New York to be much dirtier than last time, and the people so much ruder! One example was yesterday at Woodbury common I had asked a shop assistant for help. She rudely replied "wait a minute" then turned to her friend and continued chatting about her boyfriend and never helped me, even though I was standing next to her. People shove you out of the way, don't hold doors for you, they are just not nice. there was one exception, the man who worked at our breakfast buffet. He was so helpful and friendly, so I won't make out that everyone was rude.
    We spent the morning packing, as the sky had decided to shed some tears for our departure. It was bucketing down! The concierge even offered to delay our check out, but we had raincoats and umbrellas and were ready to spend our last day exploring.
    We visited a near empty wall street, stared down the bull, tried to keep the kids quiet at the 9/11 memorial site ("but I want a turn of the umbrella" screamed an angry Adalia") then tried to find a PJ recommended diner for lunch. We were running out of time and had been walking in the wrong direction, so we gave up on our diner dreams and tried to get a table at counter burger, but once we were seated we realised that we only had half an hour before we needed to be at "The Lion King" so we had to leave. Tom found a great sandwich place across from the theatre and we had a "picnic" at the theatre doors.
    After nearly losing one ticket and luckily finding it in time, we took our seats and waited to be amazed.
    I never saw the show when it was in Sydney, I was never that into it. But we thought it would be a good one for the kids. And it was visually spectacular. The animal costumes were unimaginably amazing. Every time I looked across at Adalia she had the biggest grin on her face. And she loved that there were kids in the show. Sammy was still quite sick, so I'm hoping that's why he kept asking when it would be finished.
    After the show I wanted to go straight to the airport, but Tom likes to milk every single moment out of a trip, so instead we strolled past shops, went to "the pie factory" for a milkshake (tom had purchased pies yesterday and they were amazing), had some fries from "sticky fingers" THEN went back to collect our luggage.
    We were tossing up between at taxi to the airport (about $100) or the bus ($45) and opted for the bus even though it would require us lugging our bags through heavy pedestrian traffic. The doors of the 6pm bus closed right as we got there, and the next bus was apparently 15 minutes away however, for the ten minutes we stood in the line the 6pm bus moved exactly one metre in the heavy traffic. We decided the best option was the train. We hauled kids and bags through thousands of tourists and car park traffic to Pens station, crammed ourselves in a lift that stank of urine, slowly lowering us to the subway, then tried to work out where to go. We asked two staff members, and thankfully when asking the second (who didn't really know the answer) a pilot happened to be walking past and offered to lead us to the right platform. It was quite a walk, I'm not sure we would have made it on our own, and it would have been interesting to know where in NY we ended up! Thankfully for all the effort it was even cheaper than the bus!
    As with all NY public transport, the train terminal was a shimozel! Everyone stood at a waiting area until the train was announced at which point everyone crammed through a small door (that needed to be held open, there are no automatic doors in all of America or seems!) We wanted to wait for the next train but we/I was getting nervous about the time, so we walked through the mysterious doors and onto an underground tunnel which had the longest train I have ever seen waiting. It was full, barely standing room only but we squeezed in.
    After the train was a monorail, then finally at the airport we discovered the plane was delayed. It was a 9:30pm flight, so by the time we were boarding the kids were hysterical, thankfully with laughter and not tears. And once on the plane they quickly fell asleep which was lucky as we were delayed a further two hours on the Tarmac.
    It would have been lovely had they stayed asleep the entire overnight flight, but that would have been too easy. I ended up giving Adalia phenergan at about 2am, which made getting her off the plane difficult, but that's another story for another day.
    Read more

  • Day 11

    The long trip to London

    July 8, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    After giving Adalia Phenergan at 2am on the plane and laying her on the floor at Samuel and my feet, she was not keen to sit up for landing. It was so difficult lifting a dead weight off her seat with no head room to get her off the plane.
    Sammy had mentioned he had a funny tummy while landing, which I dismissed...then as we were disembarking the plane he made a funny cough sound. I asked him if he was ok as I pushed him off the plane. Two steps off and the vomiting began! Poor little thing. So glad we were off the plane. And since I was balancing Adalia and a couple of bags, Tom had to assist Sammy.
    We spent some time in the bathroom before joining the hour and a half long(!) border security line. Then to the baggage claim where our lonely bags were circling the carousel. Tom sprinted and caught one just before it went back through the shoot.
    Steve Scott had organised a driver to pick us up. We found him a little disgruntled as we had taken so long to get through the airport.
    A lovely new Mercedes was waiting to drive us to the Scotts. This made me nervous with Samuel's funny tummy, not sure the driver would appreciate cleaning the car on top of us being so late. so I encouraged both children to sleep if they could. Thankfully they were both asleep within ten minutes of driving.
    We finally arrived at the Scotts at about 1pm, at least three hours later than anticipated.
    The girls were at their school fair, and we decided after a quick bite of toast to go and visit. We were all feeling tired and hot, so after a quick walk around and the purchase of some raffle tickets we walked back to the Scott's. The kids love playing with toys, games and other children, so we hung out for the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sunshine in the little courtyard that adjoins the kitchen.
    Towards dinnertime the men folk went hunting for breadcrumbs, this took around two hours, but eventually cooking was underway. Dinner preparation involved a schnitzel production line (wish I had taken a photo), and when we were done we had about 1.5kg of meat! No one was complaining. It was delicious!
    With jet lag and a glass of wine tom and I could barely keep our eyes open and struggled to put the kids to bed. We were all out at 8:30pm
    Read more

  • Day 12

    Soaking up the London sunshine

    July 9, 2017 in England ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We awoke to a beautiful day, the sun was shining and I'm sure somewhere outside the city birds were singing. Liv made pancakes, Steve made coffee, hotel Scott's covered all the bases.
    We decided to spend a quiet day hanging with the Scott's. The moment Adalia had been waiting for was here! (She had even told the guy at border security about this) we were taking Charlie the dog for a walk!!! Liv and Beth rode their bikes, Adalia had Charlie on his lead and the rest of us were following. Sammy and Adalia were soon on the bikes (Adalia competently riding Beth's very big bike and the girls were walking and chatting. We grabbed a coffee and turned home for some left over schnitzel.

    After lunch, while the boys caught up on Le tour, Adalia experienced the second best moment of her life, Beth did her makeup and Liv did her nails in one coat of aqua polish followed by sparkles (does it get any better). Following the makeover was a session of dressups. I'm pretty sure Adalia will cry when we leave. She kept saying how much she loves Beth.

    Liv was keen to go to church (got to love when your God daughter encourages everyone to go to church!) and as there is only one car, the boys caught the train while the girls drove.
    It was so hot and stuffy in the converted factory, and Adalia fell asleep on me which made matters worse, but I was slightly thankful that she was quiet and everyone could hear the excellent sermon.

    Following church the boys bought burgers and chips and we had a picnic at the common. It was lovely sipping wine while the kids played baseball and did handstands. We very quickly lost track of the time, as the late sunsets made guessing the time difficult.

    Bethy read Adalia two stories in her bed but all the children were very hyped up and no one was asleep before 9:30pm.
    Read more