Welp. They must know we’re on eastern time because they’re still up just at 6. I’m too groggy to parent so I ditch Derek and let him handle things while I shower myself awake. We go to breakfast at the hotel and pay way too much for a breakfast where they forget the food for the kids and pretend they planned it that way so we could eat. On what planet will my hungry children let me eat my breakfast in peace while they have no food?
We make our way to the battery where we board the Staten Island Ferry with a throng of other tourists who also refuse to pay to stand in a line to walk up the Statue of Liberty. We’ll view our majestic lady from the frozen bow of a dirty boat, thank you very much.
We’re herded like cattle off and back on the ferry where we purell the kids’s hand every three seconds because they want to literally lick the windows full of smallpox or whatever other eradicated disease is back in fashion. But they’re happily being plied with skittles to keep them occupied. To exactly no one’s surprise they are bored after an hour on a boat.
We head to Washington Square park and pretend that arch is the same one in Knuffle Bunny Too because we promised the kids we’d see it and I’m not trekking to Brooklyn for an arch. They care not at all.
However, there’s a playground and no tourists and we’re all happy.
But hungry. So we head to Eataly’s flagship store for some leisurely browsing and some Italian pasta. Mistake. Big mistake. It’s utterly packed. But we’re desperate for food and have come too far. In retrospect we should’ve run but, like mentioned previously, we’re idiots. We find the pasta section and put our names in for seating and browse while we wait. I say browse but what it actually entailed was grabbing sticky fingers every other minute, telling Mouse that I can’t carry him, telling Bug that we cannot get ice cream before lunch, telling both of them over and over, “stay close to mommy and daddy!” in an endless loop. We buy some fruit and I get into a fight with the produce woman because she weighs one apple, walks away without saying anything (true New Yorker), and then bitches at me for weighing the rest myself 5min later. Oy. We’re called for lunch. But it turns out that in my frantic desperation to get a table I put our names in at the fish restaurant. It’s too late to go back. My vegetarian children will have a lunch of cheese and bread. Wait! There’s pesto on a dish and I beg to order off menu to get them some green noodles. They won’t murder me in my sleep now. Whew. All Mouse eats is bread anyway.
After a much too late and too short nap for the littlest we get ready to hit the Central Park zoo, carousel and playgrounds. Then as we’re about to leave we realize the sun is setting. It gets dark at 430ish and I had planned on the sun being on eastern time. Idiots again. So we watch Daniel Tiger and the kids feel like they’re winning this trip.
We end up at an amazing and child friendly Italian place for dinner to make up for the lunch fiasco. Green noodles again! (But they were super good so I ate an entree and a half. You know, because I’m morally against wasting pasta.)
It’s off to bed with full bellies and happy babes.
Travels with Larson and Co 