Month: August 2018

Today is Carson’s 10th Birthday. We spent it taking multiple modes of transportation from our campsite into New York City. It was amazing, hot, fun and exhausting.

We left a little after 6 am to drive to the ferry station so we could take the ferry across the Hudson River. We crossed as the sun was rising over the river and hills. Jeff is amazing in his planning, isn’t he?

Then we walked across the street and hopped on the train. This express train is supposed to have a beautiful view as it follows the Hudson River. Unfortunately, great planning can be easily foiled when the only seats left on the train are the ones in the corner that does not have windows. You can see our lack of view. Oh well!

We disembarked from the train in Grand Central Station, and found a donut stand so Carson could have his birthday breakfast and I could get some coffee.

After we took the subway south to the financial district, we walked around a bit. We saw the New York Stock Exchange, walked through Trinity Church graveyard to see Alexander Hamilton and his wife’s gravesite. (I just finished reading My Dear Hamilton and am fascinated by the lives of the women during the Revolutionary War period.) FYI, the Kline family ancestors provided the beautiful stone for Trinity Church.

We made it to Wall Street and saw the Bull and I got a couple photos with the Fearless Girl. We continued down to the water to see the Statue of Liberty. We weren’t taking the time this trip to stand in line and take a ferry to the island, but we did take a few photos from the shore.

We made it to the 9/11 Memorial Museum at 10:30 and spent the next few hours going through the museum. It’s definitely a must-see if you haven’t been there yet. Very emotional in spots and takes you back to that horrible day. We also had a lot of good discussions with the boys as we went through, and some of their questions were the ones we asked back then too. How could people do that? Why? What if?…

Many of the people exhibit areas do not allow photography but here are a few. The staircase that allowed many people to escape, exposed parts of the foundation, beams from the ruins, and a fire truck (one of a couple they had on display).

The subway station at World Trade, also called Fulton Ave, was designed by the same architect as the Milwaukee Art Museum. It had lots of high end stores in it too, but we couldn’t find the food court so ended up eating lunch at a Bueger King across the street that served beer and where they took your order a a table. Still Birger King food though.

After lunch, we took the subway back up to Midtown and started walking around. We stumbled upon the greatest place ever, the New York Public Library!! Jeff sat and figured out our plan for the day, while I took the boys to the children’s room. We found that the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal and friends are on display there! Love it! I told the librarian that I was a school librarian and she gave me a (non registered) NYC library card! The boys settled in to their natural habitat and started reading until we finally pulled them away so we could keep going. It was one of the best surprises of the day!

During our walk, we happened upon a long established fire station and as we were taking pictures, a fire truck returned from a call. Very cool! We thanked them for their service and continued on our way.

We also passed by the Empire State Building. We chose not to go to the top because we had already recently done an observation deck of the John Hancock Building in Chicago.

We finally made it to Times Square and it was impressive. So many different things to look at!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was playing on Broadway right off of Times Square. Someday, I will get to see that show!!

Next we headed to the NBC studios. We wanted to show the boys the SNL and Jimmy Fallon studios, but the line was for the observation deck at the top, not for the studio tour so we left. The kids were beginning to protest all the walking (20,000+ so far) and we were all getting tired, so we started making our way to the subway station, stopping at Radio City Music Hall on the way.

We got back on the train and made sure to get a window seat. It was a beautiful train ride back to Beacon.

Long, hot day but we saw a ton of New York landmarks.

The Kline Family Reunion ended as all the Midwest families headed off in different directions to continue their vacations. We headed out about 10:30 with only about 2.5 hours of driving to do for the day.

We made the short drive, dropped off the camper at the campground and then went to our friend’s house for lunch. It was great to catch up with Chris and meet Jordan. Our boys had a blast playing Transformers on the Sony PlayStation 4 while we talked and toured their house. It is breathtaking both inside and out!

Jordan is an amazing cook and we had one of the most delicious luncheons ever. Salmon and chicken with a home made BBQ sauce, corn on the cob smothered in maple butter, with an Israeli cold cucumber salad on the side and then finished off with rhubarb crumble and home made olive oil basil ice cream made from goat’s milk. It was wonderful!!

They also have a great dog named Kenji. He is huge and was very interested in the boys and followed them around the second they walked anywhere in the house.

After we said our good-byes, we headed over to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. We learned a lot about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt going through the museum and then walked around the property to look at his house and gardens and stopped to pay respect at both Eleanor and Franklin’s burial site.

Then back to the campsite for showers and bedtime. Tomorrow is our day in New York and we have to leave for the train at 6:00am!

Such a fun weekend of memory-making!

On Friday, as everyone woke up and got moving, we all had a wonderful breakfast with pancakes, eggs, muffins, and bacon. Jeff was very excited because he got to help in the kitchen, one of his very favorite things to do. Everyone was able to eat at the same time at the two large tables, one on the deck, and one in the kitchen. It was loud and boisterous and awesome!

The boys were very excited that their cousins were into video games too, especially Terraria, so they all joined the same game and collaborated on building stuff. Terraria is a game similiar to Minecraft, but has more options and tools, I am told.

Once screen time was over, the kids all piled in the boat to go tubing and cliff jumping. It’s amazing that all the kids got along so well. No arguing, or bickering happened and not even any jostling for leader of the group. They helped each other and cheered each other on as kids tried something new in the water or new in their video games (at night or early mornings). It was great to watch!

Later on Friday, the rains came, and it rained and rained. Adults and kids sat around and visited, read books, played board games or video games, and some even got a nap in, I think.

The weather was much better on Saturday, which was great because our hosts rented a large pontoon boat so there would be enough room to take the whole gang of 20 to an island in the lake for a picnic cookout and swimming.  On the way to the island, both Jeff and I took our chance and went tubing. As you can see, we even went airborn! Jeff may have gotten a little sea sick after his tubing time as you can see from the look on his face. Muscles that I didn’t even know existed are sore today, but we both thought it was worth it! So much fun!

At the picnic, we were able to get all the grandkids in one spot, facing the correct direction and mostly looking at the camera.

After the picnic, both boats went back to the cliff jumping site to watch the kids (and a few adults) jump off the “cliff” which is about 10 ft above the water.

The pontoon had to go back to the marina, but the speed boat stayed at the cliffs for a bit longer, then took the kids tubing on the way back. The lake was really busy with boats so it was very choppy and so a lot of fun for the kids.

We got back just in time for dinner and relaxing a bit and more visiting before we all collapsed into bed, exhausted but happy.

Thank you to all the Kline’s and Hoffmann’s for their hospitality for the weekend. We had so much fun and and it was great getting to know everyone better and to watch all the kids have fun and make memories together too!