Last Day in NYC: Central Park Zoo & The Yankees

It's taken me awhile, but I am finally going to finish the Manhattan series.

We had a fabulous brunch at the loft. Said a sad goodbye to our friends, and then we checked out of the hotel. I was ready to drive to Central Park to meet my cousins. I thought I had my route rather well planned out. Oh by now I know all the cabdrivers secret shortcuts. My plans were to get out of lower Manhattan via Pearl Street to Houston Street to 6th Avenue and go up to the zoo. I was doing great until there was a street fair on 6th Avenue and 42nd street and the road was closed! I was in a tizzy at this point. The only way to go was to drive around an extra 30 minutes. Finding parking put me into another tizzy. I wish I didn’t get so tizzied out but driving in Manhattan is all its cracked up to be- not for the easily tizzied!

We had a wonderful time at the zoo. And my cousins are so sweet. It was great to spend some more time with them. My cousin C, he is just insane. He doesn’t appreciate organic bread! he asks, "How can bread NOT be organic"?

The polar bear was sunbathing in 90-degree weather- it just seemed plain wrong! Andrew decided that the bear was really a grizzly and they painted it white. Then we saw the penguin feeding. Holy Mackerel! They sure are cute and I had no trouble herring the zoo worker’s talk. There was a fish tank, filled with evil marine fauna, but with fronds like that, who needs anemones?


Polar Bear catching some rays






My cousin explained to us the story of the Cardiff Giant. My friend Diane, really did have her facts wrong, but that is a story for another blog entry. Cousin C walks around as an encyclopedia of fascinating useless historical facts so it is always a hoot to hang out with him. My other cousin, Miss F, actually used to work at the Central Park Zoo. She had a real paying gig wearing a Butterfly or Turtle costume. That’s right they paid her to hang out on a rock in costumes-Show people! She was really happy to see her old friends the goats and llamas. My cousin took that picture of us outside the zoo. At that point I was feeling a little like I might have over-exerted myself. In the Beth Jablonsky philosophy of vacation rules, it was time for a treat! Lunch at the Zoo Cafe was excellent, I must say.

After that we drove through Harlem toward Yankee Stadium. We then came to a bridge that I had never seen, a drawbridge called the Macombs Dam Bridge, that crosses the Harlem River and takes you straight into Yankee Stadium. As we crossed it there was a magnificent view of the House that Ruth Built and that Steinbrenner is tearing down!


Macombs Dam Bridge

The Yankee game was awesome. Except for the $22 I spent on 4 hotdogs, it was a lot of fun. Here are some pics.

Stepford Dentist

The highlight of my week was my trip to the dentist. Now I hate going to the dentist with a passion, but this place is bliss. My new dentist is exactly like Mr. Rogers. He says "now how are you today?" and "This may hurt a tiny little itty bitty bit but I'll try to go easy" "I hope that didn't hurt you too much". His assistant is a former Miss Georgia or a Runner-Up Miss USA (I think). People don't look like her, she is absolutely stunning. She also has a sugary sweet manner about her that does not exist in my world. My world of negative energy and constant stress. She is just like Baby Bop.

Email me if you want to get your teeth worked on by Baby Bop and Mr. Rogers. Smile and show us those pretty teeth!

The Vacation continues

Third Day in Manhattan: Super-Tourists

I took the car out of the $40 Idiot Lot and we roamed around looking for a legal spot to park in. It was supposed to be easy since it was the weekend. The signs are very ambiguous and I have enough tickets to last a lifetime so it took awhile because I wanted to be 100% sure.

Then we walked around Lower Manhattan a bit and Tommy shopped at a huge music store. We went over to St. Paul’s Chapel, the famous church across the street from the World Trade Center. They have a September 11th exhibit inside the church. On display there are remnants of the cards and letters and photos they got from children around the world. My children sent letters and cards to the fireman from their classes and Cub Scout dens so it was educational for them to see those and this building with such an intense history. But Gregory really wanted to leave the church and warned me that we were “going to miss the Subway”.

ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL

We took the subway to Penn Station and then walked around 10 blocks to the Empire State Building,. They said there was an hour wait. I have never been to the top so I felt we should do it. I was in the basement once. My friend and I decided that since everyone goes up, we would go down.

The place was packed! It was this huge crowded line, but extremely organized with employees ushering the mobs of humanity to the proper place. Every time you thought you got somewhere, you were on a new line. As I was queuing to pay for tickets, an employee pulled me from the line (oh what did I do now?) and whisked the 4 of us away to a special VIP elevator. He explained that he had observed Gregory and was concerned that with his disability, all that waiting might be a burden. That is something that never happened to us before! So we got VIP treatment up to the top and missed the one hour wait!

Here are some pictures from the top of the Empire State Building:

Then the boys were begging me to go to Madame Toussauds Wax Museum in Times Square, tourist rip-off joint extraordinaire, royally overpriced. With coupons it was $102 for the 4 of us! As we were leaving the first room, there was a “Chamber of Horrors”. Gregory was absolutely freaked out and threw a major panic attack. He was not budging. He almost knocked down The Donald. He threw himself on the floor behind Nicholas Cage and John Travolta and was kicking and flailing, making a real scene. I told his brothers to finish the tour. Finally, as I was in tears, some employees helped us out and helped me to find the boys. After an argument, I was able to get a refund for the admission for me and Greg since we didn’t see anything

ANDREW WITH SHARON AND OZZY OSBORNE

ANDREW WITH SAMUEL L. JACKSON

TOMMY WITH WAXY DUDE SAMUEL L. JACKSON

Then we took another subway them to Washington Square Park. I wanted to go to the East Village to see the Punks, but H told me that the punks were run out of there by high housing prices. At Washington Square there was a contortionist that was unbelievable.- he folded his body into this tiny plastic box and walked on his but cheeks with his legs on his shoulders and stuff. The boys really, really enjoyed that. This guy was unreal.

WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK

It suddenly started raining. We tried for a long time to hail a cab. Finally a cab stopped. Some other people got in and started yelling at us to get out, that they had hailed the cab from the other side of the street, and it was their cab. The cab driver told them to get out, since he told them he stopped for us.

After that it was more walking around Times Square. My feet were shot at this point. We took the Subway back to our hotel to spruce up for the party at my friends house in our honor!

The party was beyond fabulous with a beautiful waiter, wonderful food and my best friends in the whole world! They had not seen the boys in a long time. The boys were very well behaved at this adult party. Greg got to pet Juanchi, my friends little dog. My sons were absolutely beside themselves over the Guacamole dip and said it was the best they had ever eaten.

2nd Day in Manhattan: The Museum of Natural History

Second Day in New York City

In the morning I head out to Long Island to pick up Gregory who had spent the last few days with my sister. Determined to drive properly in the city, I mapped out my route paying special attention to one-way streets on my map. Whoops, I didn’t realize Broadway only went south! I was going to head north on that. I just left and already I was driving in circles. I was heading to the Queens-Midtown tunnel. After the initial fiasco it was all going great. I was flying up First Avenue. There was a sign for the tunnel where I got in line to turn left and get on. I was waiting 45 minutes from that point to get onto the tunnel, one block away. People were cutting in. Finally it was our lanes turn to move. The man in front of me kept getting cut off and allowing it to happen. He seemed very non-aggressive and unable to move even when it was his turn. Finally he had a green light and the other cars were letting him in (shock!). I assumed he was going to go so I started to go. He stopped and I tapped the back of his bumper. He then got out of the car and told me I had a problem and called me an obscenity. I was so stunned that I did not say that I did not bump him on purpose. He assumed I bumped him on purpose! Honestly, I cannot imagine. I am sure he is blogging right this minute about the maniac who hit him while entering the tunnel.

I made it back to the hotel with NO MISTAKES, no wrong one-way streets, very smooth sailing. I felt like and NYC driving pro. Gregory wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History. We hopped on the subway, Gregory did great with the steps and I had been rather concerned. The subway arrives underground directly at the entrance at the basement of the museum. I was expecting to walk a few blocks to the entrance so that was a real treat. I paid a reasonable entry fee of $43 for the 4 of us to get in.

There are 4 floors of exhibits and like 40 rooms. We started in Dinosaurs. Gregory was off his rocker with joy.








I was there last in Kindergarten, like uh, 40 years ago. Things are a bit different. All I remember is the T-Rex, so it was great that we began in the T-Rex room. But somehow it was not how I remembered it at all. The T-Rex looked vaguely familiar in a big, big way, but something was off. It turns out that they took him apart, one piece at a time, a remounted him on the ceiling. His tail used to be dragging along the floor, and now it is up in the air, and looks like it could do some serious damage. About the time we hit the 3rd dinosaur room was when it started to hit me how immense this place is.

The Museum and Planetarium facilities consist of 45 permanent exhibition halls housed in 25 interconnected buildings, including the Rose Center for Earth and Space, totaling 1.6 million square feet on an 18-acre campus on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Yes, 45 exhibition halls. Each one JAMMED packed with unbelievable stuff. It is NOT possible to see it in one or two days. If I lived in New York, I would get a membership and take my time until I was done. Of the 45 rooms, we saw perhaps 20. Of those maybe only 5 in depth. And we were there for 4 hours. After I got home and did some research, I could kick myself for not going into the Hall of Human Origins. This is a brand new exhibit featuring Lucy and lots of ape-men and hominid ancestors.

After 3 hours of looking, we were starving. A sandwich at the museum cafeteria was $9. It was just a plain sandwich. In the interest of budget, I bought 2 sandwiches, 2 bananas and 2 drinks for $27.

There was a huge section of the Mark Twain tree with a historical timeline along its yearly rings. Foresters cut down this tree in the late 1800’s. It is 90 feet in diameter. It took 13 days to cut it down with a handsaw. The tree dates from 1300AD.

The taxidermy animals and birds were a lot more interesting than they might sound. Each species is set in a showcase glass diorama, with a background of its natural habitat. The birds, for example, are types you would never see in nature up close or in a zoo, so it is awesome to see them. Yes, the poor things are stuffed. They are arranged in unique and educational poses. There are about 500 of these. We really liked the “mammals of new york city” exhibit which featured stuffed bats and mice and rats of every size!

The new Oceans exhibit was 2 stories, with a LIFE SIZED blue whale hanging from the ceiling. The rooms went on and on an on.


Blue Whale

I have been to New York City so many times as an adult and it has never occurred to me to check out the Museum of Natural History. How could I be so stupid? It took Gregory to beg me to take him! I will be back on my next visit to see the meteorite and my ape men relatives.

Leaving the museum, we walked down Central Park West to Lincoln Center. The same architect responsible for SUNY Albany also designed Lincoln Center! Will wonders never cease. I took this time to ask a passer-by “How do you get to the Met?” But no one got the joke. After a bit, my kids finally got it, but the flower salesman didn't (never mind).


How do you get to the Met?


Then we took a cab to Times Square.


Times Square

At Times Square we met some rappers and they were nice but shysters. I bought 2 CD’s from them.



Shyster Rappers

We went into Toys R Us. Gregory was off his rocker with happiness over the giant dinosaur from Jurassic Park thing.

We went over to Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The to see the famous lions on the steps of the New York Public Library.


"Artsy" picture of St. Pat's



Library Lions

Then we walked back to Times Square to take the subway back down to Lower Manhattan. We rested in the hotel for about 20 minutes and then walked to the South Street Seaport for dinner.

Brooklyn Bridge from South Street Seaport

Let me be YOUR Driving Instructor!

My 15 year old got his learner's permit this week. Last night we had our first lesson.

Of course, I am the perfect person to learn to drive from. In the past 6 months I have had only 2 speeding tickets, scraped up against only one very narrow wall, tapped only one Newjerseyite's bumper, ran into only one metal stake (see below), got white paint on the car and took a chunk out of the garage siding only once, and had one tiny teeny fender bender.
The Training Vehicle - note minor bumper and hood damage

I was very serious and explained how to buckle up, put the car in park, put your foot on the brake and then tear out and see if you can pop a few wheelies.