Day two..
I have been waking up at 4am everyday for the last few days, that is not fun. Today was no different. I finally got up at 6am and got the girls up so we could head down to Rockefeller Plaza to check out the Today show. They were excited, so they were surprisingly easy to round up and get out the door. I decided that the walk would be fun even though it was about a mile. The girls were troopers and it was fun to be out with all the people headed off to work. There is nowhere else in the world that you will see that many people walking on the streets to work. We had a blast on our walk and got to the Today Show Plaza in no time. They were giving out light up head bands to promote the movie Turbo which was fun. What kid doesn't like free stuff. Standing out there is an interesting experience with the newscast blasting from screens in the plaza and the interns running around asking people if they had questions for this or that segment. They then came out giving out books. I wasn't very enthusiastic until I saw that it was Bear Grylls book from Man vs Wild. We love that show and I love that guy because his show has meant less requests for watching disney shows at our house. Jeremy loves to watch any show about wildlife or surviving the wild and Bear Grylls is his favorite survivor guy. She came out with more books and Kaiya and I made a big scene until she gave us one. She let us know that he would be coming out to sign in a few minutes. They then gave out the book that Justin Bieber's mom wrote about bullying. I was less enthusiastic for that one so we were passed up. Bear Grylls came out and signed our book and talked to Kaiya. We let him know how much we like his show at our house. He looked at us funny because not many people there even knew who he was. There were a lot of people asking us who he was. I guess his new show will change that for him. Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie came out, unfortunately Al was on vacation, so we missed him. The girls were starving by that point so we headed off in search of food. We decided to walk back to the hotel and get papa out for some breakfast. He was up and ready and wanted to go to the place on the corner. They had blintzes which always makes papa happy. The girls have been ordering big and eating little lately, so we tried to order less for breakfast, but the portions were still too big for these ladies. I am guessing the heat is getting to their appetites. It was a nice breakfast. We went back to the hotel and woke up Jeremy and gave him his autographed book. He was so excited and bummed (for the first time) that he had slept through it. He loves the book and now wishes he had known about Bear Grylls' new reality show where people compete to survive in the wild. He wants to go on the show. Maybe next time.
My dad wanted to do some writing, so the girls, Jeremy and I headed out to see the sites. We walked West thinking our first destination would be "The Beast" a speed boat on the Hudson that takes you right up to the Statue of Liberty. My cousins Debra and Chris made this suggestion. It was a long walk, about 2.5 miles, but everyone was excited and pumped up. We walked through Bryant Park, walked by the Library, Times Square, where the girls and I stopped off at Sephora to try on some products, we were just taking it all in and it didn't even feel like we were walking far. We finally made it to the River and got our tickets for the Beast. They informed us that if you don't like roller coasters this is not the boat for you. We got on and got all strapped in. Mila was very nervous since they had hyped it up so she was gripping my hand and biting her lip. We took off on the Hudson and it was fast! The views of the city were spectacular. One of the guys on the boat had a huge water blaster and he was blasting everyone with water, which dried quickly since we were going so fast. We were flying over waves and crashing down and all of us had huge smiles and wind blown hair. We quickly got to the statue of liberty and the girls were so thrilled. We took pictures and gazed in awe. We went by Ellis Island which is where both my grandmother and grandfather on my dads side first landed on this country. My grandma walked from the Ukraine to Amsterdam in a caravan of people who she did not know and then took a ship to America. She had small pox when she arrived so they couldn't let her in and they couldn't send her back. She ultimately escaped the island and was then an undocumented immigrant for the rest of her life. Such an incredible story. She escaped the Nazis, but the rest of her family (other than her sisters who went before her) were not so lucky. Anyhow, I think of all these things when I see all the history on the East Coast. It is just so amazing. One our ride back the driver did some crazy donuts that made me feel like we were going to capsize. Not a great feeling for me, but the girls and Jeremy were giddy. It was an awesome boat ride for sure. Thanks to Chris and Debra for the suggestions! We got back to shore and everyone was starving. We went off to find food and came across a park with a water feature. Mila just had to go play and then informed us from the top of the slide that she had to pee, she was trying to continue playing while doing the potty dance and we had to convince her to come down before she had an accident. We talked a doorman of a fancy apartment building with many fancy residents to let us use the restroom. Thank you nice doorman!! We found a delicious diner and I had a yummy salad that I was so craving. I have been eating horribly the last few days. It became quite apparent at lunch that the early start and quick pace of the day had gotten the best of Mila and Jeremy suggested nap time. I was tempted to push it since there is so much I want to see, but he convinced me that the rest of the day would be terrible without a nap. Indeed he was right. We were going to take a cab back, but we started walking and at some point decided that we were too far into the walk to take a cab now. Mila got a neck ride which kaiya was a good sport about. She fell asleep on Jeremy's neck the last few blocks. She was down for a rest. The other two napped and I took papa out for lunch. We found a cute little trattoria around the corner from the hotel, that papa was excited to try. I was not hungry, but had a glass of wine with papa while he had a martini and some delicious looking lasagna. It was so nice to spend time with just my dad. He is truly the most amazing person. I love that he still has his spunky spirit and is so much fun. It was worth passing up the nap to get some time with just him. When we got back to the room everyone was sound asleep. I had to wake them up so we could head downtown to Century 21 and the World Trade Center and 9/11 towers. We walked over to Grand Central Station, which is so much fun to see, then got on the subway across town to transfoer to the E train. Unfortunately a track on the A and C lines had broke which caused a lot of train traffic and issues. Our quick trip then took us over an hour and a half to get to our destination. I got really confused when we finally got there because with all the construction it looks so different. We went the wrong way like 3 times even while looking at a map (Oi!) and finally asked a police officer to help us find Century 21 (my favorite store EVER). We got there and it was so overwhelming. The girls found very cute stuff and Jeremy was in love with the cheap price of the jeans there. We bought another hat for papa and we headed out of there since it was already after 7pm. My phone was dead and we were supposed to meet up with Robin for dinner. I tried to text her Jeremy's number. I was so excited to see that she would be in NYC (she is my first friend from Santa Cruz, our mom's took Lamaze together). We took a cab over to the Brooklyn Bridge to catch the Green line to our hotel. We finally got back after 8pm. I called Robin and unfortunately we were too late to catch her for dinner since my text hadn't reached her .We decided that she would come over to the hotel after we went to dinner. Kaiya and Jeremy were wiped out after our shopping spree so Mila, Papa and I took a cab down to Houston street and the East Village for dinner. We had a great cab driver and he suggested we go to Katz deli ( a Jewish Deli). My dad was very happy with this suggestion and so it was. We had a great little dinner in this funky little Deli. My dad got his pastrami on rye that he said he wanted while in NYC and I got a knish and Mila a hot dog. We got Jeremy and Kaiya some cheesecake (they both wanted NY cheesecake). Mila wanted Gelato so we waited in the long line for gelato and then caught a cab back up to the hotel. Robin came over and we sat in our hotel room and talked for a long time. It is always so great to see her and catch up on life. Robin is like family to me and my dad just loves her too. The girls were so happy to have her there and it was a great visit. She was in town for a conference and had to get some rest before her long day, so she had to go. We will see her in August when we are in Santa Cruz, so our goodbye was a little less painful than the others. Off to bed for all of us. Exhausted!
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