Great to be Eight!

When I was thirteen, my Dad took me to Colorado on a business trip. The first day of the vacation, we drove to Denver, and the second day we went to the Air Force Academy and walked through Denver's Botanical Gardens. The trip was short; my mom flew out to meet my dad for the remainder of his trip and I used her return ticket to fly home. However, it was one of my favorite memories with my dad. Years ago, when I thought through how I wanted to raise my children and traditions that I hoped to have with them, I remembered how much I loved being alone with my dad for those days. So I came up with the plan to fit some memorable alone time in with my children. The plan is, at eight I take them to New York for the weekend, at 12 Steve takes them on a small trip (I keep having to remind him that this is just a quick weekend -- not two weeks in Europe!) and at 16 we both take each child alone together.

So last weekend Jonathan and I ventured down to New York City, just the two of us. We arrived at Matt and Ruth Perkins' apartment, north of the city, late Thursday night. The next morning we left our car at the Perkins' and Matt dropped us off at our hotel in Columbus Circle, on the southwest corner of Central Park, a great location. We jumped on the subway and headed to the Statue of Liberty. Jonathan was fascinated by the amount of security that we went through,and especially the air puffing machine and the policeman who took my lap top and tested it for bomb chemicals. We had reserved monument passes so we headed up into the pedestal of Lady Liberty. Jonathan listened intently to the ranger and his description of climbing up into the torch once a year to experience it first hand so he could describe it to us. He also loved the views of Manhattan.

Our next stop was Ellis Island. We signed up for the audio tour, so we wandered around with headphones from room to room, reliving history.

When we returned to Lower Manhattan, we walked around for several hours. We stopped at Wall Street and watched the workers on the trading floor, with their colored jackets, taking their breaks out on the street. The market was down 400 points, so the mood was somber. We then headed over to Ground Zero. Both stops provided great educational opportunities. Jonathan and I grabbed a slice of New York pizza and sat in a park tucked between huge sky scrappers, discussing the current economy, the Middle East and being American.

Our next stop was the Lower Manhattan Tenement Museum, which provided a guided tour through original immigrant apartment buildings. I knew that the day was a bit educational, but the teacher in me couldn't help but follow our trip to Ellis Island through with a glimpse of where the immigrants ended up. And I knew that, as an added bonus, the best New York gellato, il laboratorie del gellato, is just across the street from the museum. Jonathan loves history, so the museum proved to be an interesting addition to our day.

From the museum we made our way through Little Italy for more pizza at Lombardi's, which offers "the best pizza on the planet", according to Zaggat. We wandered through Greenwich Village, which Jonathan commented, "This looks nothing like a village!", and made our way to STOMP!, an off Broadway production of dancers using such items as brooms, old metal sinks and oil barrels to create music. Jonathan loved the show, laughing and clapping almost the entire time. My favorite part of the show was watching Jonathan's excitement each time the dancers emerged with another random item to bang on.

We took the subway back to our hotel and Jonathan was asleep within seconds of falling onto the bed.

Saturday morning we walked out of the hotel and into a downpour. Most of our day was planned outside and the weather report called or a full day of rain. We grabbed an umbrella from the concierge and ducked into Starbucks for breakfast. The minute we walked out of Starbucks, the rain stopped and the sun began to shine. We walked over to the Intrepid, a huge aircraft carrier that was used in wars ranging from WWII to the Cold War Era, and is now a museum. It just reopened on the Monday before we arrived, Veteran's Day, after three years of refurbishment. President Bush made his Veteran's Day Speech from the flight deck just a few days before. Fortunate for us, the rain scared off the crowds. We wandered through the living quarters, checked out the command room and sat in the captain's chair, climbed up ropes that would have been dropped into the ocean had a crewman fallen overboard, explored the flight deck lined with jets and helicopters, and even climbed aboard the Concord Jet that broke a speed record, racing to Europe from New York in less than three hours. But Jonathan's highlight was the simulated fighter jet ride. He was enclosed in a capsule that twisted and turned completely upside down, as he fought and escaped his computerized enemies. This definitely was pure boy fun!

Our next outing was our highly anticipated Lion King play on Broadway. The production met all expectations. The costumes were creatively designed, the special effects were amazing and the actors couldn't have been better. However, for me the best part was, once again, watching Jonathan's excitement as each new character or scenery appeared on stage.

After the play we wandered around Times Square, with a stop in the M&M store and a purchase of $15 worth of M&M's. (We didn't realize until the check out stand that they must factor their high Times Square rent into the price of their candies!) Jonathan was introduced to street vendor Gyros, which he loved and, upon his request, we ended up searched for for the remainder of our trip. We then stopped at Rockerfeller Square to watch the ice skaters and see the huge Christmas tree. He was reminded of skating there last year with Steve and his sisters over Martin Luther King Day.

Than night, Jonathan requested that we stay with Matt and Ruth again. I canceled our last night in our hotel and Matt and Ruth's friends, who were in the city for the day, picked us up and drove us to the Perkin's. (Two minutes before we jumped in their car the down pour returned -- how were we so lucky with the rain?!) When we arrived back at the apartment, Matt and Ruth had a Japanese katsu curry dinner waiting and surprised Jonathan with a cake to celebrate his 8th year adventure. No wonder Joanthan loves Matt and Ruth!

The next morning we attended church with the Perkins and then Jonathan and I drove into the city for one last day of adventure. We put our names in at Serendipity and then headed to 5th Avenue to look in the fancy shops. Our favorite stop was Dylan's Candy Bar, where the steps and tables are made of candy and there are three floors of any sweet one can imagine, including a chocolate fountain and rows and rows of scoop-your-own candy. Jonathan scooped a box full of treats for his sister's to share. He had fun choosing different candies for each one.

We had lunch at Serendipity, with a frozen hot chocolate for each of us, and then made our way to Central Park for a carriage ride. Although we didn't have time to explore the park on foot, from the carriage, we scoped out each stop we would make with our family over Thanksgiving, when we would be back for the Macy's Day Parade.

We crossed the street to FAO Schwartz, where Jonathan purchased a stuffed panda bear and played on the "Big" piano. When he saw all of the stuffed animals he exclaimed that he wished that this cousin Tanner could be with us because Tanner has the best stuffed animal collection ever!

We then hopped on the subway to the Empire State Building. We timed our last excursion in New York perfectly, arriving just as the sun was setting. Standing at the top of New York City, watching the sun go down and the lights begin to twinkle with Jonathan was a magical moment for me, and definitely one of my highlights from our weekend adventure together. Jonathan had fun pointing out the spots that we had visited together and we were both in awe at the beauty of the city.

After returning to the busy streets of the city, we took one last subway ride to our car and began our journey home. (We were very proud of ourselves that we paid for no Taxi's. We walked and took the subway everywhere! Towards the end of the trip, it was Jonathan's challenge for us to get from destination to destination without taking a cab. He loved figuring out the subway system and following our map as our navigator.)

Once in the car, Jonathan was asleep in the back seat before we even crossed the George Washington Bridge leading off of Manhattan. I drove the three hours home listening to music, with a weekend full of good memories on my mind.