Harlem Walk – churches and soul food!
This ended up being a pretty good walk and so I thought I would record it in case we ever wanted to do it in the future. Particularly since we didn’t make it to everything on our list, but we put in a great effort!
Lee and Helen came to stay in Maplewood and were spending a few nights on the Upper West Side not far from Harlem and so I thought this would be a good way to show them how to get to their hotel from Maplewood, and to see an interesting part of New york. Little did they know what they were in for!
A rough map of our walk was….
First stop the subway on 125th st. My first above ground subway in New York!
The Riverside Church (which has stunning views from it’s tower)
Trying to find my way out of the mammoth place, I accidentally went up the tower (on the recommendation of the security guard) which had a superb view…
A detour through Columbia University…
The unfinished Cathedral of St John Divine…
Morningside park and pond…
(note the walk is best walked in this direction so that you can go down the hill! Make sure you don’t miss the cute turtles who were happily sunning themselves the day we were there)
Mt Neboh Baptist Church…
We saw a church service here, which was thoroughly entertaining but definitely felt like a bit of a show particularly with the forced $20 pp donation. Next time I would try one of the Plan B churches. We didn’t go to the most well known service at the Abssyinian Baptist Church as we didn’t want to queue for up to two hours and then go to a 2.5 hour service. We weren’t quite that dedicated!
Lunch at Amy Ruth’s. We had planned on Sylvia’s Soul Food but we were way too hungy by this point. Amy Ruth’s by the way was excellent which is supported by the amount of fried chicken walking out the door each day. We had to try the specialty of waffles and fried chicken, but the highlight surprisingly was their delectable corn bread.
We had a quick look for the Malcolm Shabazz market but it wasn’t where Google said it should be! and walked past Masjid Mosque (which was once a casino apparently)…
Mt Morris Historical District and Marcus Garvey Park…we couldn’t find the Acropolis with the view?
The Lennox Lounge…
Finally the Apollo Theater…
And exitted via the subway. All in all whilst it was a busy walk it was a great overview of Harlem 🙂
(Helen really won her stripes on this walk with her committment to the schedule!)
Memorial Day aka Rubber Duckie Day
Some love Memorial Day as it is the official start of Summer…
We love it because we picnic in the local park (along with the rest of the village) for the annual rubber duckie race…
Either way it is a great day 🙂
Like last year summer came in with a hot gusto, and so we finished it off with a sprinkler run 🙂
Baby Prairie Dogs
Back to our favourite zoo with Tracey, Emma + Sam, to see the baby prairie dogs…
We saw some baby dinosaur eggs 😉
we had a great day 🙂
and made some new friends
Rain Stomping
There is nothing more fun than stomping in puddles…
If you find a good puddle, you definitely should do it a few times 😉
There’s a Bear Out There
Even in Australia, you don’t normally receive an email notice like this about your kids day care center:
A bear was sighted this afternoon in the woods adjacent to the [childcare center]. Employees are asked not to walk or jog in this area as the Raritan Police Department and Animal Control officers are dealing with this situation.
Security made us aware of the situation early this morning and have a guard posted on site in our parking lot. All teachers were informed that children are not permitted on the playground or on walks until we receive notification that we are allowed to go outside.
So, the kids have matter of factly reported to us over the last couple of days that they couldn’t play outside because of the bear.
Thankfully we’ve not seen a bear near home (so far), although I think I saw one while driving to a work meeting in the south of NJ one day.
Don’t worry – Dwight will protect us.
Eli’s Party: jumping, hurricanes and cake
We were revv-ed for a party:
Like Lachie she also had it at Jumpzone. Fun was had by young and old (but particularly the young!)
First there was jumping and sliding time:
Time for some ball games…
The highlight of the party was the hurricane machine. (Luckily these are very different to New Orlean’s style Hurricane Drink Machines).
We played so hard, we needed to slip in some moments of rest..
As was the cake and pizza…
Not to mention us all getting a go in the birthday chair!
We all had a great time 🙂
(A special big thank you to Dora (the twins Christina and Ester’s mom) who took most of these pictures. It is fantastic to have them as a memory of the day.)
Eli @ 5.0y: our bear turns FIVE
Guess what I got for my birthday? A big girl’s barbie bike!
I was delighted with my pressies – THANK YOU!
Surprisingly, Lachie was a very patient helper…
Dad brought cupcakes to daycare to share with my friends…
Plus of course there was chicken nuggets (and later cake) at home…
The bike had to have a first ride too. I did a pretty good job!
Although all four of us had the flu, we didn’t let that stop our fun!
From a five-year-olds perspective it was pure heaven!
A special mention goes to dad who battled man-flu to front up at daycare with cupcakes, so that all of the kids in Eli’s room could share her birthday delight.
A separate special mention goes to Lachie who was the master present helper on the day. He brought each present to ELi one at a time and patiently helped her open them. He then let her play wiht each one first. Such patience in Lachie we haven’t seen before. Mum was impressed!
Annual Strawberry Pilgrimmage with Dom
Aunty Dom is here staying with us at the moment and so we took her on the annual pilgrimmage to Peddler’s Village Strawberry Festival. (Poor Eli was sick at home with dad)
We checked out the village…
Ate some Strawberry Shortcake…
Bought a balloon…
Found out that balloons and grass don’t mix 😦
Played on the grass…
It was another fun outing made extra special having Dom here 🙂
Thanks for coming to visit xx
You’ve Been Flocked
You’ve Been Flocked!
Not as scary as it first sounds!
The local high school floods gardens with pink flamingos and you have to pay to have them taken away. Our gorgeous blond kind neighbour Julie is a senior at the local high school and so we’re thinking she may have been a prime target…
For those who don’t want to be flocked…you can take out Flock Insurance for $25 😉
Such a brilliant idea!
All good things must come to an end
All good things must come to an end. As Eli’s travel journal told us, time was up!
The boat docked in New Orleans overnight and we had to high-tail it off the boat at the first opportunity. Mum had defied recommedations (oops!) and booked us an early flight. Luckily after all these late nights we were still early risers…not!
On the way to the airport there WAS however time for a little sightseeing past Metairie cemetary as we hadn’t made it there earlier in the trip.
(photo borrowed from: http://2lostsoulsotheroad.blogspot.com/2010/03/caching-around-outlying-new-orleans.html)
Then the flights (we went via Houston) home went off without a hitch and we were very happily home-sweet-home!
Where to next?
Wallamble 