NYC⇢MA Adventure, Day 5: The Lost Day

We can call Monday "the lost day" since it was spent largely threading our way from New York City to Lexington, Massachusetts.

Actually, we did hang around with Drew and Fiona for much of the morning. Or at least, everyone else did while I made my way up to the Brooklyn Avis at 211 Atlantic Avenue. By the time I got our Ford Fusion back to Drew and Patty's place, it was nearly noon. We said our goodbyes, stopped at the local grocery for food and drinks and headed into the labyrinth that was our escape from New York, laughing out loud at jokes about the seven dwarves.

Dirty, Stinky, Ugly, Wingnut, Blanket, Dish Rag…

Up I-95 through Connecticut where a big accident held us hostage outside of Milford for hours. And so it was late, late, late - maybe 8 pm - when we finally landed at the 1860s Homestead House in Lexington where we would make our home for the next ten days.

Pam and I brought pizza and ice cream back from the nearby Stop & Shop and we all had a relaxing evening.

NYC⇢MA Adventure, Day 4: West Village, Berit! , Biking Central Park, Sea Shanties and Times Square

Back to the West Village! We rode the R  and F trains to 3rd Street at 6th Avenue (the Avenue of the Americas) so that we could reinsert ourselves firmly into the West Village.

There, we found the Scandinavian Sweet Shop, a vast expanse of clean white space lined with bins and bins of exotic, eclectic candy.

With unparalleled restraint, the four of us purchased small amounts of assorted Scandinavian candies - I really liked the salted black licorice and Rowan enjoyed something called an Energy Shot. Griffin however proved the sweetest of all by running back in and buying us all additional pieces of our favorites.

I descended back into the subway for my long journey through Manhattan, through Queens to JFK airport to meet Berit who is flying in by herself today. It's Sunday, and she's been on her own since Thursday - sitting Payton's dog and house and participating as a leader in the group that welcomes the incoming Freshman to her high school.

Berit and I rode the E train back into Manhattan and got burgers at Five Guys before finding ourselves smack in the midst of the residual pedestrian traffic of the annual Dominican Republic parade. Bazillions of people, many of the clothed in the DR flag, and we even saw a man with a giant boa constrictor wrapped around his shoulders.

We dropped Berit's luggage off and headed North to rendezvous with Pam, Rowan and Griffin to rent bikes and ride in Central Park. Pam, Berit and Rowan took a left turn down a one way street and we were separated for the rest of the ride. Berit and I had a nice time though, and we stopped to take a photo of the Manhattan skyline across this lake, both on the phone and with her Polaroid.

We caught a ride with a Turkish cabbie down to the East Village where we watched a short performance by buddy Scott's puppet theater troupe in a bar called Jimmy's 43. It was just a snippet of a show that they are working on for next year and was an utterly unique blend of pirates, shadow puppetry and sea shanties.

The kids got gipped on dinner, having had pizza before the show, because Pam and I held out and grabbed the best barbecue down there at a place that was as delicious as it was affordable.

Another cab ride landed us in Times Square, where we did not provoke the people dressed as superheroes. We took a picture for a nice Japanese girl who took ours in return before we departed to grab Berit's bags and head back to Brooklyn for our final night at Patty and Drew's.

NYC⇢MA Adventure, Day 3: Summer Streets, Lower East Side, St. Vincent

This morning we are up and out late. It's already 10:50 and we're on the 4 train to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge where the New York Summer Streets festivus takes place. I think we expected a lot of a festival in which the New York Streets were closed off, but there wasn't really much to it. There was a climbing wall.

The last bit of the festival involved the Park Avenue tunnel that had been closed to traffic so that pedestrians could walk through it and experience the sounds of the ocean, accompanied by eerie subterranean lighting.

We had hurried to make it, to be able to enter the tunnel and experience this before it closed, but the experience didn't rise to the hoopla made of it.  Some liked it though.

We visited Grand Central Station, and lunch happened at the food court in the lower level where it was every man, woman and child for themselves.



Followed by a visit to the New York Public Library where there was a children's book exhibit comprising everything from Good Night Moon to Marvel Comics.

Extracting Rowan from the building took some time so we waited in the courtyard outside the library where Griffin vaulted the chairs and tables.

Worn out from playing tour guides, Patty, Drew and Fiona left us to our own recognizance and off we went to find Manhattan's Lower East Side and Chinatown.

On the Lower East Side, a group of people opening a restaurant had a table set out where passersby could sample their wares, or at least what their wares might be in the future. Griffin had a slider and we all had shrimp. I also had a crab cake, washed down with lemonade.

We went into the Essex Market where I bought a Kombucha from the Japanese stall called Ni. Everyone was pretty unimpressed with the Essex Market. I think they were expecting something more than a grocery. We also went to Economy Candy, which was a bit more of a hit.

We took the 6:30 pm F train from Essex and Delancey Streets into Brooklyn, to the Prospect Park Bandshell where St. Vincent is giving a free concert in the park.

Once on the train, Pam asks me repeatedly who we are going to see perform, and its like Abbot and Costello's Who's on first?

"St. Vincent," I reply.

"Who?"

"St. Vincent."

"Not where. WHO?"

Sigh. It's St. Vincent.

Drew brought blankets from the house and we set up on the lawn across the street from the fenced off bandshell area. We had long since given up on standing in the miles long line to enter the bandshell area proper and anyway, this was a more laid back spot from which to enjoy the music and the food that Drew and I grabbed at the local market. We also played the guessing game that Rowan had learned while working as a Junior Ranger this summer which was so much fun, it continued into the walk home to Drew and Patty's.

NYC⇢MA Adventure, Day 2: Greenwich Village, The High Line, Matilda

The cab driver from Pakistan took us through the West Village to The High Line, a service for which we paid him. Pam of course decides at this point is that what she wants to do is walk around the West Village. We don't do that, but it becomes a sticking point which will arise later in our visit.

We'd trained in earlier from Brooklyn to Union Square, where we enjoyed the farmer's market in Union Square Park. We bought apples and peaches and assorted other delicacies before heading southwest on Broadway towards the National Debt Clock. We coursed south through Greenwich Village, landing briefly in Washington Square Park to find this amazing garage percussionist with dancing accompaniment.

At 1 min 15 sec he sends the dancing kid away - big mistake as the kid, who left with his parents, was half the act. It occurred to me too late that I should have tipped the kid as well as the drummer.

The High Line is an elevated public park that winds through Chelsea on the West side of Manhattan. Great views of the area abound, as do rail-mounted lounge chairs, foot fountains, popsicles and benches over which Griffin flies.

We walked its length from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 11th Aves.

Once back on the ground, we happened upon the filming of an episode of The Blacklist - camera crews, actors, extras filled this side street, and we stopped for a bit to watch. The crew moved us out of the shot, but Pam surreptitiously stayed perched on a high step. Rowan, armed with her book waited patiently for her gawking family on a stoop down the street. I didn't see James Spader.

We met up with Patty, Drew and Fia and communed for food at the Chelsea Market smorgasbord - Griffin and Rowan had Nam Pang BBQ sandwiches and Drew and I both had Ramen from the Japanese place, which was really really good.

From there we grabbed a cab over to the teeter district. Matilda is playing at the Shubert Theater, between 7th and 8th avenues on 44th street. It's a good time to mention here that Berit's not with us yet. She's active in a leadership opportunity at her high school for which she ended up staying in Colorado. She'll fly out on Sunday, and I'm really sad that she's not here for Matilda.

Patty accompanied us in Berit's stead; the show was amazing, and we were in the front row. Pam was actually dodging spit from the Trunchbull's exhortations, and I'm pretty sure I could have reached out and touched a couple of the characters as they knelt by the edge of the stage. Here is a great bit from Harry Wormwood, Matilda's father, during intermission:

After the show our route back to the train takes us through Times Square and Bryant Park.

NYC⇢MA Adventure, Day 1: Travel, DUMBO, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Our 8 am flight from Denver to JFK is three and a half hours, getting us into New York at 1:30 pm.

Our Bangladeshi taxi driver regales us with the virtues of living in Jamaica, Queens but I'm drifting off, having awoken at 5 am after staying up too late helping to finish preparations for our house exchange.

We arrive in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Patty is still at work, so after we get settled in, we all head out with Drew and Fiona. Fiona (Fia) is four years old now, cute, precocious. As we walk through the Brooklyn streets, she's trying to imitate Griffin, who is parkouring the street lamps and various sidewalk obstacles. This involves us occasionally lifting her up onto and taking her down off of things.

After a stop at Grumpy Coffee, we grab a train to to the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

We walk down to the East River, Brooklyn Bridge Park which is beneath the Brooklyn Bridge (as in, "If you believe that...") where Rowan rides the carousel with Fia.

Patty meets us there, and we all get burritos at a nearby food truck. After food in the park, we grab cabs to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.

There, the great, young Brooklynite ice cream baristas - the one with the long green hair and the other with the cap and Fidel Castro beard are playing one of my favorite albums of all time, The Kinks "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround," on an actual turntable. They also serve us delicious ice cream.

Back at their apartment, we lay around talking with Drew and Patty late into the night. Actually, we do this every night during our visit. We can't help it.

Is this the real life or is this just fantasy?

Today is Berit's 16th birthday. There's pizza. And cake. C'mon over.

It's our first day home from England. Hard to believe it's over. A whirlwind of English adventures that I hope we'll all remember fondly as we negotiate everyday life, which while most excellent, can also be mundane. I guess the trick is to view the every days as adventures in themselves. Except it's easier to do that when you're in a foreign land and around every corner is something new to smack you upside the head.

Monday night we went to see We Will Rock You, the long-running Queen musical at the Dominion Theater in Soho. The story is set in a dystopic future in which rock is dead, replaced by repetitive electronic constructs controlled by the government. The only chance to revive and save music on the iPlanet is for a pre-ordained hero to pull a sacred axe from a stone. The axe was left there by none other than Freddy Mercury. The protagonist is Galileo Figaro. Need I say more? Awesome. 

On the same day, the new heir to the throne was born - George Alexander - and so after the show we walked down to Leicester Square. Yes, people were partying in the street, but it didn't seem to be any more than usual. We'd expected more, actually, not just because of the royal birth but also because Johnny Depp was reported to have been in Leicester Square that night promoting a new movie. The kids went into M&M World before we left for Snog, the groovy, all-natural frozen yogurt shop.

Oh, and on Monday night it rained. It was our last night and the first rain we saw in England. The first rain anyone had seen in London for a while, and cheers in the streets went up with each thunderclap. Unideal for sleeping.

Did I happen to mention that while we were in England, Rowan spent every spare moment of down time reading? It's true. In the car, reading. In line at castles, reading. On the underground, reading. During the 20 days that we spent in England, Rowan read nine books - the entire Harry Potter series (the British versions) plus two others.

Tuesday we packed, we shopped, and we left. Our flight was at 4:05, though I misremembered it as being 4:30, depriving us of an essential 25 minutes as we tried to milk the last moments from London. It was probable 1:15 pm by the time we got to Piccadilly Circus to catch the tube to Heathrow, and it wasn't looking good for getting there two hours prior to departure. So at the last minute, we bit the bullet and caught a cab. At Heathrow just after 2:00 p.m. to check our bags, negotiate the airport, write some postcards, and fly.

Some sort of clerical error at the home office found us in business class rather than coach. We didn't complain. And we slept like babies when we got home.

It's Berit's birthday, but it's mellow. We're all wicked tired. And tomorrow I have to go to work. A different sort of adventure, altogether ("A different sort of adventure!")

Japanese Restaurant

"Someday, when I have a Japanese restaurant, I'm going to call it 'Japanese Restaurant.'" - Rowan

East London Markets

It is 6:30 am on the last full day of our trip, and I am standing in the kitchen of our London apartment typing this while the rest of the family sleeps. Sounds of hustle and also of bustle can be heard in the streets below. I can't believe it's almost over - our travels in England - and soon we will return to real life. Three weeks (almost) and each day a different adventure.

Yesterday, we left our Soho apartment at around 9ish. We wanted to be at the Spitalfields market early and be able to explore. Surprisingly, it was Pam who suggested that the 10 minute walk to Oxford Circus and the tube might be too long, that we should save our feet. She was right, but I wouldn't realize that until much later in the day.

Spitalfields was not the droids we were looking for. What we wanted was the market at Brick Lane, but we wouldn't have known that had we not tubed to Liverpool Station and put in the hours and pounds at Spitalfields, which was mostly a lot of t-shirts and fashion. I asked the slap watch guy about another nearby market and he sent us in the direction of Brick Lane for something decidedly more gritty. And more happening.

We show up on a side street that at first is a little disappointing - decidedly down-market, resembling nothing so much as a very large garage sale, though you couldn't ask for more when it comes to international people-watching. Buyers and sellers of all ethnicities milled and handled, bought and sold, pressed against each other within the vacant lot of tables. Further down, however, on Brick Lane itself, was the prize - a long venue filled with vendors - art and craft, books, old, broken musical instruments and turntables spinning £2 records, jewelry, and food. Lots of food stalls. We ate fruit cups and Eritrean sambosas and I continued to drink tea, tea - more tea!

On a side alley to the left we entered the something something art and tea garden shops, where Pam bought a card from an artist who looks like Malcolm Gladwell but paints like Ralph Steadman. I spoke with him, got his card, know his name - and he apprised me of the Ralph Steadman retrospective at the Cartoon Museum near the British Museum. 5£50 and I want to go there today or tomorrow. 

It is in this place that my shaggy son finally got his hair cut. Pam paid a barber who had a stall amidst all of the art stalls and Griffin was chopped into a respectable-looking do of a keen British lad. Berit too got her hair trimmed there.

From Brick Lane we walked toward the Shoreditch tube stop, a mistake on my part that wasn't made evident until too much walking was done. So we turned around and did more walking back to Liverpool. We took the tube to St. Paul's where we gave short shrift to the Museum of London. We were tired, our feet hurt, and walking around a museum was just not taking. We wanted to lie around, but we didn't want to go back to the flat. We sought advice. We went to Camden Town.

Hippy and trippy and full of punks and souvenir shops, what we enjoyed most about Camden were the crepes the kids bought and the mixed curry dish (after 6 pm, reduced to £3!) that I picked up along the canal. Dropping out of the street scene into the canal to sit next to the gently moving water and watch the boats bob up and down while the kids ate ice cream was a perfect end to the evening, and we headed back to the Camden Town Station where we caught the Northern Line back down to Kings Cross where we would switch to the Picadilly Line and then back to the flat.

Or so we thought. Because after leaving the Camden tube stop, on the train for Kings Cross, we discovered that Griffin had left a bag of gifts and souvenirs in the station, items Pam had purchased, the evidence of a day at the markets. So with little hope that  we'd see the bag on the seats we had previously occupied, we dashed through Kings Cross to the train returning to Camden, where we confirmed that the bag was indeed nowhere to be seen.  Most likely taken home by a lucky treasure-hunter, but Griffin and I nevertheless ran up the escalators to inquire of the station masters if anyone had turned the bag in. Questioning ensued, and Griffin was able enough to describe the contents so that after some signature-taking, we were able to return to the girls - Pam incredulous that we could recover the bag and a happy ending to the incident, especially for Griffin who had been distraught that he'd left the bag.

Today, we'll go to the Tower of London and, likely, Hamley's, a world famous seven floor toy store in Piccadilly  Circus. 

Down in a tube station at midnight.

Days have passed. Wednesday and Thursday, we spent walking through our nearby wood to tea, at the beach, and at an historic home in Parham. We even got to a fairly large car boot market outside of Climping.

Worlds away from all of that now, as we arrived in London late on Friday - earlier than originally planned due to a spontaneous trip to Oxfordshire for the Art in Action festival - which was in fact one of the coolest experiences here, an art festival with demonstrations, markets and practical classes - HUGE- with attendees from all over.

I (gratefully) dropped the car back at Heathrow Saturday morning and we spent the day walking around London - Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square. We took in the Portabello Market at Notting Hill Gate in the morning, and in the afternoon we took the Thames Clipper up to Greenwich for the Greenwich Market where there were lots of friendly people to talk to. I spoke with a Tibetan man who sold me Sushi, a t-shirt designer who was bringing West Africa to the West, and an older man named Keith, who smoked and sat on a bench next to the Thames and who explained to me the tidal patterns of the River as it went out - East to the North Sea - and the opportunities for mud-larking at low tide.

We went to the Tate - it was late - and the kids joked with me about the minimalist art.

And a walk back to the North side of the Thames, across the Millenium Bridge (best known for the scene in Harry Potter 7 when the dementors cause the bridge to spin and collapse) to St. Paul's Cathedral, to the Tube, and back to our 8 8 Old Compton Street apartment in the heart of Soho, where the streets are thronged with partygoers.

I want to tell you more, but I can't. There's a whole lotta London out there today. And Spitalfields Market opens at nine.

Harry Potter, Bath and Stonehenge Crows

Today is Wednesday, and so far this has been the chillest day yet. Pam and I are researching our entrance strategy for getting into London on Saturday. A chance meeting with a potter here earlier in our travels has sealed the deal for Friday plans at an art festival in Oxford, and now we're scheming to try to stay up there somewhere - Oxford, London, or somewhere in between  - and thus avoid driving back down here to the South coast and up again. Too much driving = bad.

The past couple of days involved a lot of driving and were definitely a mixed bag. On Monday, we drove up to London - actually just North of London to the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. From our arrival in the Warner Brothers parking lot to our exit through the gift shop, the Harry Potter Tour was such a blast. We were all so excited to be there, and from start to finish we went from sets to props to costuming to special effects - all displays surrounding the actual making of the movies. 

It's actually quite mind-blowing when you think about the work they did there - for ten years they filmed these movies - thousands upon thousands of props crafted, hundreds of crew; they had a whole animal team to train the animals. And we got to see a ton of this stuff while listening to Tom Felton's (Draco) audio tour about the making of the movies. Here is a great overview of the Harry Potter Tour which, if you're ever in London and happen to be a Harry Potter fan, is well worth the cost and the trip up to Leavesden.

Berit took this great photo of Pam and I along with a throng sampling of the hundreds of British school children alongside of whom we took the tour. 

We're sitting on Sirius Black's motorcycle in the outside courtyard (the Night Bus is in the background). We'd walked over and asked the kids who were all sitting on and standing around the bike at the time if they would let us in to take a picture and they all just stared at us. So instead we decided to just join them, telling them to "Smile!" while Berit took the picture. 

My favorite part of the tour was just after this where there were a bunch of architectural drawings, concept sketches, paintings and card models, all of which built up to the grand daddy model of them all - a 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts, intricately detailed and added onto throughout the years of film production as new locations (ie: the bridge) were required, used for the wide angle shots of the castle exterior.

Yesterday was our biggest driving day so far this trip - two hours to Bath and two hours back, and if I'd had it do over... well. Seeing the Roman Baths and the Pump Room was something, and the town itself is a great place to walk around. 

Have I become inured to the antiquity? Not sure. What I most enjoyed about yesterday was that we met up with June, a friend whose daughters used to babysit our daughters more than ten years ago and who has been living in England with her husband since then. What I least enjoyed was the amount of family friction. I don't know - the long time in the car? Too much togetherness? We were pretty over each other by the time we got home (Emsworth) last night. Good to have a couple of chill days around town and at the beach before we clean up here and head off to Oxford.

Oh yeah - the other saving grace from yesterday. Guess what's right off the A303 en route between here and Bath. I'll give you a hint: it's 3500 years old and composed of stones that only the gods (or aliens) could have arranged in this way at that time.

A veritable United Nations of individuals circled the stones while we were there, and as you can see the crows love it too. Oh. And I'm pretty sure I saw Jim Morrison.