I started typing this on the train back to DC from New York City. My sister in law – who lives in Amsterdam – has a workshop in NYC this coming week and brought the whole family, so we went up to see them and spend some time together. The Husband went up on Friday morning with the two little kids and the 13 year old and I went up that evening after camp and work.
The trip up was a little tedious – we had a bit of a tight turnaround between getting home in the afternoon and having to leave to catch the Metro to the train station. There might have been a few rough teen moments involving a screen not being unlocked and threats of not coming along. But we did make it to the train station with barely enough time. Only to find the train was delayed; the trains were running a little more slowly due to the high heat. That was certainly frustrating. If I knew we were going to have an extra hour, I might have not felt as rushed and might have handled the unlocking of the tablet with a bit more patience. Oh well. We made it to NYC eventually and were at the hotel by midnight- we were staying at a Residence Inn in midtown – not the cheapest option, but very convenient and the rooms were nice and more spacious than I had expected for a hotel in midtown.
(Side note – the train just made an announcement reminding people to lock the doors if they use the bathroom. !!! I’m so curious if there was an incident or if this is a standard announcement they make???)
The next day, we had quite a fun, packed New York Saturday. (I’m not a travel blogger, so I didn’t take a lot of photos, but I’ll dump a few into this post… ) We started by having hotel breakfast. It was the usual fare – waffles, hot bar of eggs and sausage, cereal, toast, oatmeal, etc. One nice surprise, though, was that there was a big bowl of raw spinach. And it was really tasty spinach too. I don’t suppose raw spinach screams “Breakfast food!”, but I did appreciate being able to start my day with a serving of something green. Sometimes I find when traveling it’s hard to get greens into me.
After breakfast we met up with my Sister in law and her family at a lovely shady park on 42nd and 2nd – Mary O’Connor Playground. I love how there are all these playgrounds tucked in between building in New York, giving people a bit of green space and air in a very dense crowded city. We sat on benches and chatted while the kids played – my SIL has two kids about the same age ast the littles. Even though we only see my SIL and her family once a year or two, the kids love hanging out and get along so well together.
We let the kids play for a while then we headed to Brooklyn. We had planned to spend most of the day in Brooklyn because it just seemed a little calmer than Manhattan and very family friendly. Also since my SIL’s family would be in NYC all week, they already had plans for exploring Manhattan itself. We took the Subway to Brooklyn Bridge Park, and took in views of the Brooklyn Bridge and then went to year another playground. Then we wandered to Montague St. for lunch, picking up sandwiches and eating at picnic tables on the sidewalk. I had a delicious Ham, Brie, and Fig Jam sandwich with arugula. Brie and jam is such a delicious combination!
Following lunch we went to the New York Transit Museum. Here we learned all about the NY Subway system, how it was built, how it has evolved. There is also a whole other room devoted to bus/ trolley/ cable car transit. And then on the lower level there was a huge collection of retired subway cars that you could go into. I really loved this museum – it was a good bleand of history and nostalgia for me. And while the kids weren’t really into all the informational placards, they loved getting to play in the ticket boots, subway cars, and the fake buses. I think this museum is all good blend of interesting for adults and fun for kids – highly recommend. Also – the tickets are cheap: $10 for adults and $5 for kids. We also got shirts and magnets at the gift shop because we discovered that there is a subway line for each of our first initials, so we each got a shirt and magnet with our corresponding subway line on it. It was incredibly nerdy, but made me so happy.
After the transit museum, we went back to our hotel to rest a little until dinner time. Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant – my SIL says that the Mexican food in Amsterdam is terrible so whenever she comes back to the States we go out to Mexican food. The Husband and I split and order of grilled octopus tacos and an order of fish tacos and they were both delicious. The octopus was so tender and slightly smoky from the grill.
My Sister In Law’s family went back to their hotel after dinner, and the Husband and I and the kids wandered around NY a little bit. Went to Bryant Park, and visited Kinokuniya, the Japanese Manga/Stationary store across the street. We had visited that store in January when I had brought the kids to see Hadestown and I was eager to go back. The Husband bought something that was perfect for his Secret Santa group. I’m dying to post a picture of it here, but I’ll keep mum in case someone from his group reads this blog (VERY unlikely…) Myself, I bought some Coleto Hi-Tec-C multi pens. They are customizable multi-pens; you buy the barrel and then you can pick what colors and size point you want in them. I’ve been wanting one for our family calendar so I can color code each person’s activities – I have multi pens, but there are five people in the family and all the conventionally available multipens of decent quality have only four colors so I was using two pens with different colors to cover our family. Coleto pens come in barrels of 3 to 5 inks so I could customize one pen barrel that would work for the whole family. I was going to order them from jet pens, but it is so much more fun to buy them from an actual store.
We left Kinokuniya and wandered up to Korea Town. I had read that there were some fun stores and an amazing dessert place in Ktown, so I thought we’d check it out. New York City is CROWDED! I’m always amazed at how busy the town is even later in the evening when a city like Washington DC would be winding down. DC is pretty dead after, say, 8pm, but it was almost 8pm by the time we got to Ktown and it seemed like the night was just starting. In Ktown we checked out Teso Life, a Japanese convenience/ drug store that is loaded with all sorts of Asian snacks, beauty supplies, toys, housewares, etc. Browsing the snacks is always a lot of fun – of note were the scallop chips, the matcha Oreos, the orange and chocolate Kit Kats.
We also swung by a K-pop store, but it was kind of a madhouse and we’re not really K-pop fans, so we didn’t stay long. Then we went to a dessert cafe called Grace Street. We ordered strawberry and grape tang hulu (the candy coated fruit that we tried to make earlier this summer, and which is very popular in Taiwan), a Nutella mochi waffle, and mango shaved ice. It was all amazing. Korean shaved ice is different from Taiwanese shaved ice because it is finer and often made from milk. This was my first time having Korean shaved ice and it did not disappoint. Sweet and creamy yet not too heavy, with mango, banana, mango popping bubbles, and mango syrup. The mochi waffle was also delicious – crispy on the outside with that mochi chew in the inside, not too sweet and covered with Nutella, strawberries and whip cream. If you are looking for an NYC dessert, I highly recommend Grace Street Cafe!
After we finished dessert, we headed home. This time, we took the bus back to the hotel. The bus was a nice change from being on packed subways all day. We were actually the only ones on the bus to start, though only one other person got on while we were riding. It was nice to see the city from the bus as we drove back to midtown – the people and the lights and the beautifully lit shop windows and neon signs. The ride was a calm way to get home after such a packed day.
The next morning, I got on the 9:05am train to make it back to DC in time for rehearsal. Well, not quite in time. As I was getting off the metro at home, the heavens opened up and there was a veritable deluge. I was unprepared for this and had to walk home with nary an umbrella or raincoat. It was the wettest, most miserable walk of my life. But I got home, quickly changed and headed to work, though I ended up being forty minutes late to rehearsal.
So that was our trip to New York City! Like I said, I’m not a travel blogger so there aren’t any gorgeous vacation photos from our little jaunt, but rest assured the food was tasty, the sights were iconic, the people watching was colourful, and the city bustle was energizing. Every time I visit New York, I leave feeling that I only saw a teeny tiny bit of it and that there is so much more to see and do, and at the same time, I’m glad I don’t live there – the pace would be overwhelming for me to live every single day. All in all, though, it was a nice little break from a week of work and camp and commuting.
Some fun and frustrating things last week:
-Field Trip with he 13 year old’s theatre camp group. I got to accompany the campers to a production of Midsummers NIghts’s Dream by the Synetic Theatre. Synetic Theater specialized in wordless theatre – everything is told through movement, dance, acrobatics, stage combat, etc. The performance was so beautifully precise and over all show was amazing – how the actors were able to tell the story, to make us laugh and gasp and sigh, just by using their bodies. I knew the story going in, but I think even still the storytelling was so clear. Afterward, the 13 year old said, “Not having to think about the words made it easier to think about the story and the characters.” I thought that was such an interesting point.
I want to see more by Synetic Theater now, but I heard they actually just lost their space so their future is a little bit up in the air. Bummer.
-In the category of frustrating, but resolved – I had a jury summons last week. The notice had come before I booked the current job, and to be quite honest I had forgotten about it until the weekend before. I had no little amount of anxiety about this – I’m not the most important person in the rehearsal room, but it is inconvenient to miss rehearsal, plus I was missing a day and a half of rehearsal already to go to New York. I was mostly frustrated at myself for not taking putting in for a postponement sooner. Anyhow, I called the Jury Services office Monday morning ( I was to appear on Tuesday) and they said I needed a letter from my employer to request a postponement. I feel really bad asking people for things last minute because I messed up, but I took a deep breath and called my boss. He was actually great and very understanding and wrote me a letter saying that I was working on a one night only show and that it was important that I was available for rehearsal. I managed to get to the Jury Services Office an hour before they closed. Thankfully their turnaround time was quick, and now I’ll report for Jury service in October. But it was a stressful day for sure as I wondered if I would be able to postpone service.
I’ve been summoned maybe three or four times in the past couple of years, and did get to serve on a jury once. I was an assault case, where someone intentionally rear ended someone else. Being on the jury was such a fascinating process. Truth, I found it flabbergasting that twelve people with no law degree got to argue about the definition of “deadly weapon”, as the charge was actually “assault with a deadly weapon.” Eye opening for sure.
-I’ve been trying to run in the mornings these days. I realized that I can leave the kids at home with the 13 year old for 30 minutes while I run and I’ve been taking advantage of it. Last summer I would run at work on my dinner break, but it’s been so hot this year that it’s more appealing to run at 7am than at 1pm or 5:30pm. I still don’t love running, but being able to do it when there is shade and the sun is not blazing makes me dislike it less.
Also – super fun, on two of my runs last week, at least one kid came with me. The 8 year old and 5 year old had asked me one morning as I was lacing up my shoes if they could come too. I’m all for anything that will get the kids outside and moving, so I said yes. The second time was they Friday they were to drive up to NYC; I hadn’t even been planning on going for a run and the 8 year old said, ‘Can we go run? I’m going to spend all day in the van so I want to have some exercise today.” Truth – they are SLOW. I tried to do 2 min walking/2 min running intervals, but it was more like 1 min run/ 5 min walk. Oh well, I’ll take what I can get. It was also really fun to see all the other runners giving them encouragement as they ran past us. One runner said to me, “I like your run team!”
-The kids are obsessed with the sountrack to Kpop Demon Hunters lately. I guess the 8 year old watched it at Taiwan camp. (The 5 year old reports that all they got to watch was Bluey in Mandarin.) Okay, I have to admit it is helluva catchy. I ran to the song Golden one day at it kept me going at a good pace. The frustrating aspect to that fun thing is that it is the ONLY THING they will listen to – it sometimes feels like extortion because they won’t do their chores unless I put the soundtrack on for them.
-Traffic traffic traffic. I am seriously considering if I ever want to do this gig again, the traffic is soul sucking. One day I left at 8:30am, dropped the 5 year old at camp and didn’t get to work until 10:30am, moving along the whole time at a slow crawl. Google Maps took me through some parts of the city that I’d never seen before – so I guess that’s a plus, I got to see some beautiful neighborhoods.
Grateful for:
-Tap to pay on NYC subway. You can now just tap your credit card (or phone) to pay on the subway. It’s so convenient – no having to buy tickets and try to swipe them. I”m all about seamless transit. (Interestingly, the Transit Museum had a placard that talked about how tap to ride was the wave of the future – guess they can now update that display, because the future is HERE!)
-Audiobooks.
-That the 13 year old still is okay with me sitting with her at lunch when she’s with her friends. I was a little nervous on the field trip that the 13 year old would want me to disappear, but she actually wanted me to sit with her and her friends. I remember when I was that age, I refused to let my mom sit with me and my friends when I went to soccer tournaments. (Why was I such an asshole to my mother? Sorry, Mom!)
-Being home for dinner two nights this week.
-Our Lead Negotiator. We’re in the midst of union negotiations right now and I’m really grateful for the person at our Union who is navigating us through the process. Negotiations aren’t really something I will talk about about specifically here, but it’s taking up a lot of my mental energy right now. Grateful to my union.
-Beautiful weather for our NYC trip. The day before had been in the high 90s so I was a little nervous about our planned day wandering the city. But the day turned out to be in the low 80s and just cloudy enough to take the edge off the sun. That combined with the periodic breeze made it a perfect New York summer day.
-The Husband packing lunches. He’s been packing the camp lunches the past few weeks, and it’s taken such a load off my morning.
Looking Forward To:
-Free day from work and taking the kids to the pool. We haven’t been to the pool since the end of swim season. While the break has been nice, I’m looking forward to going to the pool on our own pace and not rushing because we’re late for practice.
-Tomatoes. Given to us by our friend from his CSA – he doesn’t like tomatoes. What should I do with two large summer ripe tomatoes
-Going to rehearsal every day, and also having the mornings off. I genuinely look forward to rehearsal every day. The director is easy to work with, the other stage managers are kind and competent, and there is just a sense of all of use working together – I just look forward to seeing what we create every day. Also, the current show rehearses in the afternoon and evening, so I have the mornings open. Of course I have the kids with me, yet knowing how much I lamented losing my summer with them when I booked this gig, I do love these pockets of mornings to spend with them. The 5 year old made a summer fun list today:
In case you can’t read the 5 year old’s handwriting, the list says: Hang out; Relax; make popsicles; go to the pool; Mom Dad Lulu (what she calls her big sister) – I think that means she wants to spend time with us.
-The 13 year old’s showcase for her musical theatre summer training program. It’s been a little up and down emotionally this summer because she wasn’t given as many solos as she wanted in musical numbers. On the other hand, she apparently has a big part in the dance number (which, considering that she’s not a dancer, is pretty cool), and she’s playing Rosalind in the scene from As You Like it. It hasn’t been the camp experience she wanted, but I think she’s been learning to stretch different muscles.
-Snacks! I went to Trader Joe’s and went a little crazy with the chips and then also stopped at Giant and filled up on other snacks.
– My next audiobook – I’m almost finished with an Agatha Christie radio play and then I’ll move on to this book:
What We Ate:
Monday: Pork and eggplant stir fry with udon noodles. The Husband cooked. This was really tasty. I ate leftovers wrapped in a tortilla for lunch later in the week.
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday – squash and turkey tacos. Trying to eat up some summer squash that was languishing in our fridge. The Husband cooked.
Wednesday: German potato salad, Brazilian cheese buns, and steamed green beans. I asked the kids
Thursday: Breakfast sandwiches (The Husband cooked at home.) leftovers for me at work.
Friday: Sandwiches from Pret a Manger at the train station.
Saturday: Amor Loco – tasty Mexican food in NYC.
Sunday: Leftovers, eaten at work. Basically I looked into the fridge and grabbed whatever leftovers were available and it happened to be two week old leftover Burmese food. I guess it’s lucky I didn’t get food poisoning…
Welp, I can’t believe August is just about here! School starts in less than a month for us, which is a little terrifying. I didn’t even write my June reflections yet. Oh well… summer keeps rolling, and I hope yours is going well. Have a lovely week!
What is the most unique chip flavor you’ve ever eaten? What colours would you want in a multi-pen? Are you on the Kpop Demon Hunters bandwagon? We don’t even have Netflix and the family is obsessed! Tell me, what little things have made life easier these days?