Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the extended Memorial Day weekend having fun in New Jersey and New York City with Brandy and Yuri. We couldn't have asked for better weather. On Friday afternoon, the temperature was in the nineties and it stayed warm the rest of the weekend. Traffic was wonderful for the most part as well. We had expected a parking lot all the way from Boston to New York, but that didn't happen until we hit the Bronx. Once we hit bad traffic though it was bad, making a four hour trip take over seven hours. We learned that the reason New York is referred to as "the city that never sleeps" is because no one can get home; they're all stuck in traffic.

Our plan while in the city was to visit the Natural History Museum, as neither of us had been.

Here we are in front of the museum's statue of Teddy Roosevelt.

The main lobby

The museum is quite large. So, as not to overtax Avonlea Jane, we stuck mainly to looking at critters. Avonlea Jane was quite interested in them and she stayed entertained and awake the entire time we were in the museum.

This tiny vampiric deer was our favorite critter.

It wasn't easy getting a shot of the blue whale, but its size was quite impressive.

The squid and the whale were frightening and only lit by the flash of the camera, otherwise they were in nearly total darkness. Small children must be petrified of this exhibit.

Mommy and baby in front of the walruses

Brandy and Avonlea Jane, who took off her shoes to better eat her feet.

Everyone took a turn carrying the baby. While Yuri was wearing her in Central Park, Avonlea Jane kept unbuttoning his shirt. We were quite impressed by her manual dexterity.

Central Park

We had a good laugh over this pair of pets.

A sleepy baby in Yuri's sunglasses

I kept hoping we would come across the statue of Balto in Central Park. Neither Brandy nor Yuri had heard of Balto the sled-dog , nor did they believe his story of inspiring the Iditarod until Yuri looked it up on his phone. We didn't see Balto, but we did find a monument to the Plymouth Pilgrims. The humor in coming from Massachusetts to New York, only to see a pilgrim monument was not lost on us.

After walking through Central Park and some of the Upper East Side, we went to the south tip of Manhattan to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. On our next trip, we hope to visit the island.

Ellis Island at dusk, as seen from Battery Park

A memorial in Battery Park to all of the American sailors who have died along the Atlantic Ocean. This week was also Fleet Week, so we saw American and Canadian sailors everywhere we went.

The international soldier

On the way down, we were discussing Memorial Day and how you rarely see tributes or mention to the Merchant Marines. Then we saw this moving memorial in Battery Park, which was inspired by a photograph of unrescued victims of a submarine attack. The memorial is for "America's merchant mariners resting in the unmarked ocean depths." You can see the Statue of Liberty on one side of the monument and Ellis Island on the other, and if you look closely, you can see a hand reaching out from beneath the water.

This statue, "The Sphere," sat in the lobby of the World Trade Center as a symbol of world peace. After it was damaged in 2001, it was transferred to Battery Park to serve as a temporary memorial.

We left Battery Park to have dinner at a family-style restaurant in Little Italy, where the street was packed due to a St. Anthony festival.

A tuckered baby on the train back to New Jersey

We spent nearly all day Sunday at Sandy Hook National Park, a part of the Jersey Shore, just south of the city.

While busy playing Frisbee, David was approached by a group of women seeking his manly services in fixing one of their beach chairs. Fortunately, they were not also seeking help with applying sunscreen.

Avonlea Jane happily lying under the umbrella watching Daddy and Yuri and play Frisbee

Playing with Sophie

We tried at two different times while at the beach to put her in the water, and she wasn't having it either time. The water was a bit cooler in New Jersey than it was in Massachusetts. Hopefully as the summer progresses, she'll be happier getting in.

You can just make out the skyline in the distance.

Avonlea Jane got the biggest kick out of pulling Brandy's curly hair.

Avonlea Jane got along really well with Brandy and Yuri's dogs Abby and Eliot. In fact, they were both very protective of her and went to her any time she made the slightest peep. She found out that puppies are much more generous with kisses than pussy cats. Any time the dogs would lick her she would giggle, but she's apparently camera shy.

This photo was taken a week before we left, but was too cute not to share. Avonlea Jane spends around ten minutes a day in her jumper. This day after being in it for a minute she went quiet, and I turned to see her fast asleep. It was the first time she had fallen asleep on her own, when not in a carrier, the car, or her carriage.