After yesterday’s hectic pace today was supposed to be a normal day with a little bit of sight seeing and dinner with family. It ended up being an episode out of Seinfeld – we hed on to one word from the English dictionary “basic” and it became comical.
After four days of getting up at 8:30 or 9 AM during summer holidays I let the kids sleep in. Till 9:30 AM. We had brunch with my aunt’s family and carried on our morning chores very slowly. We finally left for the train station ~12 noon.
Our first stop was Midtown – Rockefeller Center. It doesn’t hold much value for the kids, but back in the day (c2004-2011) I was completely in sync with the morning beat of NBC’s Today show. Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Al Rocker, Meredith Viera, Ann Curry, et al. Talk about having a personal morning routine. It was good to see Rockefeller Center, the Plaza, the NBC studios, Radio City. We went to Magnolia Bakery only to find out it was a large chain. It was still very good.
As we started heading to our next destination – United Nations HQ we took some detours and stopped by St Patrick’s Cathedral, a Cuban sandwich shop, Chrysler building, The Grand Central Train Station.
We were definitely in awe of the city, the food but the fatigue of walking had started to kick in. We managed our way back to The Grand Central and hopped on the train connection to Columbia University.
Seeing The Alma Mater and The Steps was cool. We searched for the Departments of Archeology and Anthropology, found their buildings and just walked around the campus. It was a unique experience for kid #1 – she seemed awestruck.
From Columbia we stopped by the Central Park. For most part it felt like a normal park or garden. Atleast now we can say we have been to Central Park – 😂.
Next stop was a surprise – Times Square. I thought we would be here for 10-15 mins. We ended up staying for almost 1.5 hrs. In the past when we had visited kids were way too young, so I could herd them. Now that they are older, they wanted to see the the street shows, spend time at souvenir shops, go to M&M stores – basically do everything that tourists do.
We got into the Times Square at the beginning of this show. The two guys were talking to each other, doing acrobatics and interacting with the crowd to make it fun. Their act was not stellar, but to see it live was very cool. Kid #2 got a huge kick out of it.
Finally we took the train to go meet my cousin and his family. We were late and afterwards me and kids were left thinking – wish we would have come sooner so we can spend more time with them…. As we introduced myself and kids to the 3 yr old member of our family we got to learn that she wants to be a ballerina – she even wore her tutu, showed us some spins and twirls. We got her a little present. Bhabhi asked her “what do you say?” And then she let us in on her secret in the cutest little 3 yr old voice “I’m sorry. I am a little nervous right now.” It made us melt and laugh at the same time.
It was time for kids’ favorite – pepperoni pizza but New York style. It was super good. We also learnt about an “inside secret” of my cousin – its personal so I wont mention here. But Kid #2 picked up on it. He and cuz went back and forth teasing each other as “Basics”. The rest of us had way too much fun with their camaraderie. Needless to say, we were all laughing hysterically. I came to realize that Kid #2 is not so sensitive and can hold his ground in a match of sarcasm.
Fun experiences of 2 kids and their dad 