Heading Home - Day 9

We were up at 4am, got ready and packed, and said goodbye to Lesley and Truffles.  (I seriously want a little dog now!)  Dad I. was nice enough to drive us to the airport at 5:10am - that's love.

We had a bit of a security snag because I had accidentally packed our tiny snow globe from NYC into our carryon bag.  Our first flight was super short - Albany to Newark 6:36am to 7:44am.

When we landed, we headed straight for our next flight that had already boarded - Newark to San Francisco 8:30am to 12:09pm. This flight was super long because of the time difference.  Luckily it was a huge plane with TVs for every seat.  I napped for the first part of the flight and then watched Jack & Jill and 1/2 of The Help.  Bob was awake the whole time and watched 3 movies - Tower Heist, In Time and Contagion.  We had breakfast on this flight - mini cinnamon rolls and diet coke.

After this flight we were annoyed to realize they had 'short checked' our carryon bag - and Bob had to go down to baggage claim to get it and bring it back thru security.  Some people only do carryons to avoid having to pay bag fees, but I'd rather pay bag fees than have a carryon ever again. Not worth it.  My silly snow globe gave him problems again, but he made it thru.  We had a short layover here and had Subway sandwiches for lunch.

Our next flight was shorter - San Francisco to Boise 1:35pm-4:19pm.  We landed about 10 minutes late and came out to find that my dad had brought the kids to greet us.  Braden had even made a cute welcome back sign!  Clark wouldn't have anything to do with us until we got home though.  Silly kid.  

I forgot to mention that we got to talk to the kids almost every night through Face Time on the iPhone and Grammy's iPad.  One night - Clark kept trying to look behind the iPad - he couldn't figure out how we got inside that box.  hehehe.

New York - Day 8

Today, we slept in a bit.  Me more than others.  I love sleep.  Lesley made us a yummy hot breakfast and we made plans for the day.  We decided to just stay close because we had done so much traveling the day before.

Dad I. took us to see this house that he said he lived in when he was about kindergarten age.  I think they lived in the 2nd floor apartment.  Then for some reason we put the camera away and didn't get it back out until after dinner.

Dad I. then showed us the way he walked to his school and then the school he attended.  I wanted to check out another antique store, so he took us to a huge one - Coxsackie Antique Center.  There was so much to see there and so much that I would have loved to take home with me if we lived closer.  Bob picked up 3 more vintage ads for his collection and I bought a pretty glass dish.

It was later in the day when we were done, so we decided to stop at Stewart's for some ice cream to tide us over until dinner.  They had 50 cent scoops for St. Patrick's day.  Dad I said that his favorite thing about Stewart's is that their cash register makes a "ca-ching" noise at the end of every transaction - mimicking old cash registers. Love it!

We drove back towards Dad I's house, stopping in Albany to check out Washington Park, but really all we saw was tons of litter from the aftermath of their St. Patrick's day parade and tons and tons of people all dressed in green and already bar hopping.

We got home and Lesley had dinner ready for us.  A few minutes later, Dad I's sister, her daughter and her daughter's husband came over to visit and brought pizza to have dinner with us.  It was nice meeting another of Dad I's siblings and her family.

Bob - Dad. I - Cathy - Amber - Mark

That evening while I started packing, Bob walked around the house and took some pics:

The computer room

Living room. (Lesley and me)

The workshop

More of the workshop, storage on the end, and a future powder room at the back.

The man cave.  This is where Dad I. works on computers and cash registers, a little room off the workshop.

Little tiny networking room.

More of the networking room, look at all those wires.  He also keeps his air compresser in this room to buffer the sound.

Dining room and peek into the kitchen.

We weren't ready for the day to end even though we had to get up super early the next morning, so we watched a new episode of Fairly Legal before heading to bed.

New York City - Day 7

The big day!  We were so excited to be heading into the big city today!

Lots of pictures here, so I will try not to say too much.

Thanks to Dad I. and Lesley for taking us on this amazing trip to NYC!

waiting for the amtrak going from albany to penn station

Lesley and Dad I.

us.

inside the train

just a fun shot. that white headed guy is Dad I.

Statue of Liberty through the fog. we could have taken the ferry to get closer, but it was too cold.

View of the statue from Battery Park

$5.  Thanks Dad I. 

The Sphere. on display in battery park

Musician in battery park.  Pretty cool instrument.

This was one of my must-have stops.  We didn't have much time though and it was sooo crowded.  Can't wait to visit another one.

New world trade center tower under construction.   We didn't get to go on the 9/11 tour, but did walk around it and peaked through the gates.

Bob.  M&M guy. Dad I.  evidently everyone thinks that Dad I. loves M&Ms so we decided that this would be a funny picture to take.

Taking a break after walking 17 blocks in the wrong direction.  Is that a real smile?

Inside the Empire State building.

Empire State building.  No way was I going up there.

Rockefeller Plaza.

 The elusive Lego store.  We loved the pick-a-brick wall!

Waterfall in Trump Tower

Apple store.  We didn't go in.  Maybe Bob would have been too tempted to impulse purchase an iPad? 

Central Park.  I seriously could have just spent all day there.  Such a beautiful place.

Serendipity 3.  1 1/2 hour wait.  We had no idea.  So disappointing.

Grand Central Station.

Empire State building - green for St. Patrick's day.

We left Dad I's house at about 7am.  Rode the Amtrak from Albany, NY to Penn Station.  Took a subway to Battery Park where we saw the Statue of Liberty and The Sphere.  Got our picture taken with a Statue of Liberty guy.  Took a taxi to Ground Zero.  Shopped at Century 21.  Walked around the WTC construction site.  Bob had a hot dog from a street vendor.  Dad I, Lesley and I ate across the street at Burger King (it's what was close).  Walked & Walked.  Took a subway to Times Square.  Bought a snowglobe at a gift shop (and accidentally packed it in our carry-on, but we did make it home with it. Miracle).  Shopped in the Disney store.  Looked around the M&M store.  Looked around the Hershey store.  Walked 17 blocks in the wrong direction.  Took another subway to Rockefeller Plaza.  Shoped at the Lego store.  Went inside the Empire State building and Trump Tower.  Walked to Central park.  Walked to Serendipity 3.  Tired and hungry, so we stopped for dinner at Brasserie 360.  Taxi to Grand Central Station. Taxi to Penn Station. Amtrak to Albany, NY. Home at about 11:30pm.

Side note.  Taxis are not so expensive compared to taking the Subway when in a group of 4.  We paid $10 (2.50each) every time we rode the subway.  But our short taxi trips were usually only about $7-8 and were a lot less stressful.  With the subways, you have to decide which one to get on and what stop is closest to where you want to be - plus they're crowded and smell gross.  Taxis took us from where we stood to where we needed/wanted to be. Nice.


Side note #2.  The locals must think it's funny to give completely wrong directions to tourists.  We asked 3 different people how to get to Rockefeller Plaza and all 3 gave us completely different directions.

New York - Day 6

I got to sleep in today!  Bob and got to go with Dad I. on a cash register service call that morning and I thought it would be fun for the 2 of them to spend some quality time together without me.

When they got back we hung out for a bit, then drove to where Lesley works - Gregory's Barbershop.  She had a few minutes in between clients, so she had Bob hop into her chair and she gave him a quick neck shave.  It looked pretty cool.

We met one of Dad I.'s half-brothers (Ken) for lunch at CiCi's Pizza.  It was pretty cool to meet him and to hear the story of how he found out who his bio-mom was.  Ken had a project for us to help him out with, so then we drove to a friend's house to help clean it out (mostly just moving small furniture).

Our last stop of the day was the NY State Museum.  We'd seen the outside the day before, but today we actually got to spend about an hour inside.  We didn't get through much before the museum closed, but we got to see some interesting things including the 9/11 exhibit.

what's left of some landing gear from one of the planes

police car door 

 Company 6 engine

 huge bent beam

the next exhibit we saw was vintage fire trucks - we thought these 2 were fun 

 Dad I. standing in front of 9/11 exhibit

 Me and Dad I. standing in front of a sesame street set exhibit

Mastodon

That night we relaxed.  Dad I and Lesley made us some pasta for dinner and we watched the movie Serendipity later that night, so Bob could show them some of the sights he wanted to find the next day in the city.