Continuation from our recent trip to New York, back in May of this year.

Dinner at Gasho's

Saturday started off a little late. It was nice to sort of sleep in. Because of the time change Skyler wasn’t getting up until 8am. That was pretty cool, only thing about that is that we had a late starts in the morning. This morning Skye had some errands to run with Charlanne, so Skyler and I headed to some random park. It wasn’t the best of parks but it served it purpose. When we got there we were the only ones there. By the time we left there were like 10 other older kids running looking for trouble. A few days earlier we had bought Skyler a sand pail and shovel from Target. I brought that with us to the park here so Skyler could play in the sand box. There were kids that were circling us like vultures because they wanted to play with Skyler’s sand toys. Mind you, these kids weren’t 2 years old or 3 or even 4 years old. They had to have been at least 8 or 9 years old. At one point, one of the kids tried to reach for the pail and I said, “I don’t think that’s yours.” That made him back off to regroup.

Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

Soon after that Skyler was done with the park and so was I so we got back in the car. It was hot so we headed to the mall. When we got to the mall there was a little carnival set up in the parking lot with the usual cast of strange “carnies” manning their stations. We walked around but there was really not much for Skyler to do so we headed into the indoor mall. We found a smoothie stand and ordered a peach smoothie. Skyler loves those. He pretty much finished the whole thing.

On our way home we drove past a White Castle. Skyler had fallen asleep in the backseat so I pulled into the drive-through. I ordered some sliders. Those things are greasy, but good. I think a couple of greasy sliders every couple of years is all right.

Skyler looking for a rabbit

After the nap Skye was free for the rest of the day. We decided to drive up to Cold Spring Harbor. Charlanne had told us there was a fish hatchery up there that one of her patients goes to with her boys. It was only about 20 minutes away but seemed like it should be farther. We drove though the town and it reminded me of Vermont.

We found the fish-hatchery but it had just closed. The parking lot was connected to an old church that sits on a large pond. We decided to walk around and check out the scenery.

Skye and Skyler at Cold Spring Harbor

As we walked up to the side of the church there was a very nice sight. Canadian Geese were swimming around the pond as a mother and daughter looked on. The mother had to have been in her late 80s or early 90s, the daughter in her 60s or 70s. There were just sitting on a bench looking out over the beautiful, picturesque landscape; it was such a nice memory being made for them.

Skyler at Cold Spring Harbor

We walked around the fed the geese, chased a rabbit and Skye and Skyler found some old Easter eggs. It looks like the church must have had an Easter egg hunt and not all of them were found, until now…

Skye and Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

We had a dinner reservation at a Japanese steakhouse called Gasho’s where we were to meet up with Charlanne’s Mom, Ruth and Step-Dad, Neal. It was a restaurant like Benihanas, where the cook cooks in front of you. There was some minor drama involved when we got there but things worked out and we had a nice time. It was entertaining.

Skye and Skyler - Cold Spring Harbor

We came back to the hotel. Had a swim in the pool and went to bed.

Skyler's New Drums

Here is a short video of Skyler when he first saw his new drum set for his 2nd birthday. He really loves them. Even though it’s for a 3 year old, the next day he had figured out how to use the bass drum pedal. Enjoy!

I created a 20 minute slide show for my son for his 2nd birthday.  This is just one of the songs that is in the slideshow.  He really loves drumming so here is a little show case of that. The music is great; it’s performed by The Dirty Sock Funtime Band. They have so many other great songs too.

Friday, May 22nd

The Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Skyler Under a Tree

The morning came much too fast.  Skye had things to do with Charlanne to prep for the wedding on Sunday so Skyler and I were on our own in a “foreign land.”  At first we just got in the car and headed out to go find a park.  Luckily we had the GPS and there was a listing for parks.  I popped in the closes park and we were off.  We arrived 10 minutes later.  The park where we arrived was an equestrian park.  It looked kind of creepy so I just made a U-turn and headed right out of there.  Skyler was happy enough just looking out the window.  I sifted though the listings in the GPS and came upon an arboretum, the Bayard Cutting Arboretum; it was only 15 minutes away.

View photos at SmugMug

On our way there Skyler fell asleep.  Jetlag is a pain.  We pulled into the parking lot and all you could see were so many huge trees and green, green grass. It was great.  Skyler had only been asleep for about 10 minutes so he woke up a little groggy but once he saw all the trees and grass he was ready to just run around and explore.  We took a lot of pictures here.  There were gaggles of Canadian Geese walking around the grounds.  Skyler really found it fun to run after them.  There was this one huge tree that must have been a hundred years old.  It just stood out among the other trees with a sort of majestic aire.  Skyler ran over to it and I was able to fire off some amazing shots.

View photos at SmugMug

I got to talk to a mother with her three children and she told me about the other side of the property.  Apparently this used to be a private residence in the early 1900s and where we were was just the backside of the house.  She said the front lawn was much better because it lead to the water.

View photos at SmugMug

I went back to the car and put Skyler’s lunch stuff in the Sherpani Kid Carrier, Skyler jumped in and we were off to explore the other side.  The trail led to the front of the mansion.  Beyond us lay an expanse of grass, trees and the Connetquot River.  There was a weeping tree that was so big.  We found a way inside and under the tree branches; without exaggerating, you could fit a house under that tree, it was so big.

View photos at SmugMug

We had lunch under one of the big trees on the front lawn.  Soon it was time to head back.  Skye called to tell me she was back at the hotel.  We packed up and headed back to the car then back to the hotel.

That evening we had a pizza party at the hotel.  Charlanne invited all the out of town guest and people in the wedding to come.  It was a nice time.  Skyler has been working on his different faces so he did some showing off on how he can make his surprised look, his sad look and his serious look.

View photos at SmugMug

Day 2 – Thursday, May 21st

New York Arrival – JFK Airport

Waiting for our stuff.

We landed and waited for everyone to filter off the airplane.  It is much easier that way.  It always cracks me up how when the lights in the cabin announces you can take your seat-belt off, everyone jumps up and grabs all their stuff only to wait until the slower people in front of them get ready.  The other kicker is how they all rush off the airplane only to wait for their luggage at the carousel and the carousel hasn’t even started yet.  It reminds me of the idiots that race from one stoplight to the next only to arrive at the same time as you.

Rental Car

Working on about 3o minutes of sleep and a year of adrenaline, we picked up our luggage and headed out the airport doors to find the Hertz rental office.  Funny thing, the people who were racing off the airplane were still standing there waiting for their luggage.

There was a bit of confusion as to where the rental office would be, eventually we found it by way of some parking structure that happened to be connected to some sort of elevated train call the AirTrain.  Halfway to the AirTrain my luggage handle bent because of all the weight that I had on it.  I had to do some minor field surgery on my new suitcase to keep pushing forward.  I’m sure the amputated aluminum pull-handle still sits sadly abandoned in that random parking structure outside the elevator.

We took the AirTrain to Federal Circle.  Federal Circle is the stop where all the rental car offices are.  Our reservation was with Hertz.  I had reserved a Ford Edge to drive for the week mainly for the size, it wasn’t too big and it wasn’t too small for our roadtrips around Long Island.  Also, Skye I have been on the lookout for a new car that is kid friendly, not a minivan, not too big, and not too ugly.  It was a perfect time to test this out.

The car came with a car seat and a GPS.  I plopped in the address to the hotel and away we went.

Holiday Inn, Hauppauge, New York

Luckily we were able to check in when we got there; it was 9am.  We took a 2 or 3 hour nap, I really don’t’ remember but it was well needed for all three of us.  When we woke we had a list of things to do.  One of those things was to go to a store and buy what we needed for the week.  We found a Target store, got what we needed and then ate at a Panda Express.  Outside we found a small fountain overlooking a small lake.  Skyler really likes water so we hung around there for a little while so Skyler could have a snack and enjoy the fountain.

The day went by pretty fast.  After coming back to the hotel and putting everything away it was already time for Skye to head off to Fire Island with Charlanne and the girls to go out for some drinks.  Skyler and I stayed at the hotel and went swimming in the indoor pool.  Bedtime for Skyler and me came early; I don’t know how Skye did it, she was back at the hotel at close to midnight.

That was a long day.

Okay, I’ve been working on this travelogue for the past few weeks.  I have decided to publish these stories in a few sets, this way, I’ll be able to update more frequently and not have to worry about rushing the writing.  So here is the first installment of our family trip to New York back in May of 2009.

Bound for New York

Day 1 – Wednesday May 20th

The Flight to New York

Driving to the airport, the music I could hear in my head was the music from the film Miller’s Crossing, more precisely, the opening credits.  A little strange, since we were humming down the 105 freeway in the car-pool lane through Los Angeles and it’s massive, monumental freeway overpasses.  Through the window my wife was pointing out the airplanes landing in parallel to the freeway as we got closer to the airport to our 22-month-old son. He gazed out the car window awe-struck.  He had never flown in an airplane, but he knew what an airplane was as he would be sure to point them out to us at our house when the airplanes would fly 6,000+ feet above our neighborhood.

LAX - Terminal 5

I need to emphasize, this was the first time for our son to fly.  This had been a worry to me for over a year, as we knew we would be flying to New York in May for my wife’s best-friend’s wedding.  To overcome the unknown is to be as prepared as possible for it.  Months before the trip I jumped on Amazon.com and bought a couple of books, Rough Guide’s Travel with Babies and Young Children and Travels with Baby. Both books were highly recommended and served me well.  The repeating theme throughout both books: “Be Prepared.”

Luggage Check-in

Months earlier I was put in charge of booking the flight for my wife, son and myself.  We normally we fly Jet Blue out of the Long Beach Airport but since the economy has been in the toilet I thought I’d look around for cheaper fare.  I scoured the Internet for a “red-eye” and found the best price from Delta, about a combined $50 cheaper. The only bad part about it was that we’d have to fly out of LAX instead of Long Beach.  Our flight bound for New York’s JFK airport was scheduled at 9:15pm, Wednesday evening.

Being Prepared

By being “prepared” we were at Los Angeles International Airport ready to check in our luggage by 5:30pm.  This was when I found out why Delta was cheaper.  My wife and I each had two pieces of luggage to check in.  Delta charges, per ticket, an extra $15 for the first and another $25 for the second for a combined $40 for two checked-in luggage, each way.  Walking away from the check-in counter and wheeling our luggage over to the TSA’s security X-Ray machines, I found my wallet an $80 lighter; “Hey Delta, thanks for the heads up!”  It is on their website but they do a great job hiding it.  Not technically a bait and switch but pretty damn close.

After watching out our checked-in bags go through we headed up to the security walk-though.  Luckily we were the only ones in line so we were able to take our time practically disrobing and unpacking the carry-on bags for the x-ray machine.  Throughout all this Skyler did great.  He was just watching everything happening and helped in the best way he could, by just going along for the ride.

Dinner in Terminal 5

6:00pm in Terminal 5.  Our flight – 9:15pm.  I think we were a little early, but it gave us time to run Skyler around and tire him out for the overnight flight to New York.  We had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen before we boarded and took some funny pictures.  Skyler is starting to really ham it up in front of the camera.  This is his big smile face, oh yeah and my wife’s big smile too.

Like Mother like Son

As the boarding time approached we assumed they would make an announcement for pre-boarding for passengers with small children.  I’ve always heard Jet Blue announce it, why should it be different.  Oh yeah, because Delta sucks.  The pre-boarding announcement never came and we were left fending off line jumpers.

Mental notes: Delta had already hit Strike three!  The first strike was the bull crap about paying for check-in luggage.  2nd strike: Overbooked! 3rd strike: No pre-boarding for children.  I’ll never fly Delta airlines; not if I can help it.

There are 5 so called zones into which Delta has the airplane divided.  Zone 1 is business class, with Zone 2 through 5 are for the peasants.  We were in Zone 4 that meant we had 3.5 zones to squeeze through to get to our micro-seats.

The Flight

Once we were seated and somewhat settled in for the 5 hour flight things worked out fine.  Skye sat by the window, I sat in the middle seat, Skyler, on our lap.  His travel was free because he was under two years old, however, a word of advice, if you can afford the extra ticket for your toddler, go for it.  It is well worth the price, moderately speaking.  Luckily a very nice lady who was a preschool aide took the aisle seat.  She may have talked a lot but it was fine, she didn’t complain about have to be sat next to a toddler.

One amazing thing that we noticed was when we stepped on board, Skyler automatically realized we were inside an airplane.  He is just barely starting to talk and he mimics us so his word for airplane is a combination of pointing to the sky as if following an airplane with his finger and then he makes the sound of an airplane.

On the Airplane

We got to our seats and Skyler pointed up and made and airplane sound, he knew we would be flying up in the sky.  While we taxied and took off, Skyler just looked out the window with a look of excitement.  It was really quite cool.  After about an hour he fell asleep, Skye fell asleep, and I fell asleep…right before we landed.

After much consideration, we’ve driven off the lot a brand new 2009 Saturn Vue.  It was time.  A few years back my wife fell in love with the Sebring convertible.  We bought a used one about 7 years ago.  It was a 1999 forest green with a tan top and tan leather interior.  It only had 25,000 miles on it and it was much better than the car she was driving from her college days.  That car was great.  We many road trips with it to the wine country the river but it was unfortunately cut down in it’s prime.

A couple of years back when my wife was pregnant she was driving on the freeway in the rain.  The Yukon driving in front of her slammed on the breaks which made Skye’s car collide with it.  The nose of the Sebring is much lower than the bumper on the Yukon so it slid under and bent the frame of the Sebring.  The Insurance company  called it a total loss and now we were in the market for a new car.

During this time we were neck deep with our remodel debockal.  We need to find a car and we were set on keeping a convertible.  Through many negotiations and driving from dealer to dealer we finally settled on a private seller in Naples near Long Beach.  Long story, short, we thought we bought a good car but ended up having more problems with it than we had anticipated.  You can read about one of the problems here.  Skye was way overdue for a new, SAFE, car.

It sure is pretty.

Here is a nice little side note: as we were signing the documents for the car we realized it was June 24th.  Exactly 9 years ago was when I proposed at Café Piccalo in Long Beach.  Time flies.  It doesn’t seem like 9 years!

Want to bypass the retarded telephone trees and talk to a human? Here’s a website that aims to solve that problem!

http://www.gethuman.com/

Well, much to my surprise, I was roaming around the house after I put my son to bed and came upon a door, the door looked familiar yet somehow different.  Beyond the door I found my office. We have been using it as a storage room since our remodeling fiasco started.

Improvements on the office have been continuing off and on for the past couple of years.  A little history about our house.  The house built in 1961.  It’s original owners were my wife’s grandparents When they passed away in 2005 we purchased it at market value from Skye’s mom.  Skye’s grandfather was an engineer and had a contractor’s license.  He built the “Storage Room” in 1965.

Office before 2006 remodel

We found the drawings in our file at City Hall when we applied for the permits for our remodel in 2006.  It’s about 20 feet long by 7 feet.  It is technically connected to the house since it is behind the garage, but you need to go outside to get to it.

According to the city it is considered “Storage” so therefore not included in the square footage of the house.

Office/Storage Room

It is, however, built as if it were it’s own structure with a poured foundation, power outlets, lights, windows and wood paneling.

Storage Room 12-15-2005

Last September my wife and I made a big push on moving forward in fixing it up.  We started staining all the wood in there, the beams the wood paneled walls and we painted the wall that shares the garage a dark brown.  We covered the 9 x 9 blue and white asbestos tiles with a linoleum wood floor that was laid down in strips reminiscent of laying strips of wood floor.  After that everything sort of stopped.  We we had other projects like tearing out the jungle on the other side of the backyard to put in a new patio, and tearing out the other jungle on the other side of the yard to put in more grass.

So last night I started to set up my game plan.

1. Install New Door
2. Install Biometric Door-lock
3. Get the computer up and running on my newly
4. Set up Home network
5. Find a place for all my crap!

I think my task for tonight is to run some CAT 5 cable through the attic into the garage then into the office.  Our wireless router is in the family room behind the television; I’m going to run a hard line directly from the router to a switch in the office then to my workstation.  This way I can always extend my network in to the backyard by placing an access point off the switch to cover the left side of the backyard.

We’ll see what happens, Skyler wasn’t feeling too well last night, I may have to camp out on the floor by his bed tonight, again.

So here is my plug for my wife’s choirs at Long Beach City College.

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A Mother’s Day Celebration in Song featuring Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem
Sunday, May 10, 2009 2:00 PM
Admission: $10
Students/Seniors: $5

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church
370 Junipero Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90814

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