Harbour Cruise

We began this morning with a tour of Federal house where George Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States. Ken was rather peeved at the Park Ranger's historical take on things - and I was proud of him for not publicly correcting the Ranger. Such restraint deserved a treat, and we sent Ken off to look for board gaming shops and comic stores after a harbour tour. He happily enough obliged us, and returned several hours later carrying his loot, and much calmer for the effort.

Outside Federal Hall with their newest Junior Ranger badges

That statue

SoHo

Shopping today with Michelle. That woman can shop! No time to be wasted on lunch ... go, go, go. It was a great day.

Abby, our sales assistant, only too happy to help sell me these snake skin boots at Miz Mooz Shoes

Michelle with her shoe purchase

at the deli for a brief lunch

In the big yellow bus at the Scholastic Bookstore

waiting for the C to go home

mainly Michelle's loot ... really!

Finished the day with a rather intense, hot, sweaty workout! Time for a beer!

The Met

So this morning began with a surprise visitor from Boonah arriving on our doorstep! Michelle had been in contact with Ken in very covert ways over the past month in preparation for her surprise visit to New York. Ken is very good at keeping secrets, and I am just plain gullible so it worked out very nicely for them.

We headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the morning and spent most of our time in the Egyptian section and the Armoury section.

Afterward we wandered through Central Park to find FAO Schwarz (very expensive, lots of colour and noise, and surprisingly not as much variety as we expected) and The American Girl Store (horrifying really...). We ended up at Barnes and Noble, where Victoria spent her spending money to purchase a Nook (e-reader). She is very proudly sitting on her bed reading it now.

Finished the day shopping on 5th Avenue, and managed to find a superb handbag at Aldo.

our family has expanded to 7 for a week!

Queen Victoria and young Victoria

in Central Park

Funky lunch joint in downtown Manhattan - Tori and Phi enjoyed shrimp cocktails!

Make your own muppet, FAO Schwarz

American Girl Store - very, very unsettling place to be ....

boys not happy to be there....

Miss Michelle and the American Girl gymnast doll

Museum of Natural History, NY

"This is where the movie 'Night at the Museum' is!"

That was the excited cry of the kids as we walked up the stairs to the museum. We had spent some time in Central Park before heading into the museum - it was very humid. The air-conditioning of the museum was very welcoming. http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/

We have purchased membership to the museum, and already we know it will be money well spent. We spent six hours there today, and have barely scratched the surface of things to see. We saw the 'Creatures of the Light' exhibit - glowing creatures and amazing glowing mushrooms and rocks. It was a superb exhibit. Then we went through the 'Beyond Planet Earth - the future of space exploration' exhibit. This too was fabulous and captured our imaginations. We finished the day at the Rose Centre for Earth and Space - including the Hayden Big Bang Theatre and the Scales of the Universe.

Oliver's quote of the day, "I'm pretty sure that museum is about everything!", really sums it up for us all. We will probably revisit it nearly every day we are in NY if we can. Ken and I can hardly wait to share the concept of clades with the kids!

In Central Park, slowly melting...

Kids and bridge in Central Park

cute little red bird

Oliver!

Teacher Dad

Benedict!

Waiting to go into the Hayden Big Bang Theatre

Sophia on Mars - Phi's world!

Washington Heights, NY

So we made it. It was a long day, returning vehicles, and getting a town car to our apartment in NY. Spent the afternoon doing some online reconnaissance. I ended up doing a Zumba class which was great fun. Rose, the instructor, is a Haitian dancer and boy can she move. I thought I was coordinated, but I ended up being the clumsy little white girly up the back! Still, it was heaps of fun - particularly the Haitian warm up we did.
Eating in tonight. Tomorrow sees us possibly bike riding through Central Park - who knows what tomorrow will bring!

Insectropolis - Jackson, New Jersey

So yesterday was spent cleaning and packing up the RV for its return today in New Jersey. This took several hours, and thankfully the kids played in the park, and did their English studies mostly unattended.

As a treat, once we were done, we took the kids to the Insectropolis! The kids got to hold a scorpion, a millipede, a tarantula, and a huge cockroach! Yuck! I stood safely behind the camera. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11969

Millipede

scorpion

Afterward we went out for dinner for my birthday to 'Sushi by Kazu' a high end Japanese restaurant. It was divine!

King of Prussia Mall

Yesterday we spent shopping! We began in Lancaster at Rockvale Mall Outlets to warm up, then onto King of Prussia Mall. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory was delicious - but brief ... didn't want to eat into shopping time!

At Rockvale Mall

King of Prussia - the mall, not the kid!

hunted and gathered

Philadelphia

traffic death!!!

Yeah!

double yeah!!

new running tops, and (not pictured) new running pants

So we are now in Jackson, New Jersey for another night. Today sees us cleaning and packing up our belongings in readiness to return the RV tomorrow. Looking forward to spending 14 days in Manhattan! Cannot believe we have driven so far already (6000 km?) and seen so very much!