It sure was nice to come home to such happy kids. We are very appreciative of the grandparents who took such good care of them. We had only good reports, and were told the kids never complained of missing us. I guess I didn't need to feel guilty for the two weeks leading up to our trip. Being a mother is just one giant guilt trip for me. I can't help it. But I will keep working on it.
Being a parent also affords you with a lot of comedy relief, Emma's vocabulary has been quite entertaining lately. She is using words like receive and defeat, instead of get and lose. At the moment she is performing an opera with the PlaySchool castle. She is singing the entire story while acting it out with little figures. I wish I could record it for you all. It is hysterical. I can't let on that I'm listening or she becomes self conscious and stops.
The other day the kids called me back to the bedroom where they were having an argument about the word moderator. I have no idea where they picked up this word.
Emma: What is a moderator?
Me: Well, a moderator is someone who helps people solve problems or arguments.
Emma: I want to be a moderator when I grow up.
Harrison: Ugh, I knew it. She just always likes to be right. She likes to be the judge.
These are the strange and silly discussions that keep me laughing.
]]>Our trip to New York would not have been complete without eating at the third and final Iron Chef restaurant, Mesa Grill. We love watching Bobby Flay add the southwestern flare and mix up his incredible sauces on Iron Chef. We made brunch reservations, since he loves to work with grits and eggs.
Knowing that the American Airlines provides no food on their flights, even the ones that last for 5 hours, plus an hour stuck on the runway, we decided to eat to our hearts content.
First we shared a tuna and avocado tartare with a micro green salad surrounded by those signature spicy sauces.
We also shared a caramelized grapefruit with mint and strawberry salad. For the main course I had eggs tostada. This was accompanied by white grits with fresh cilantro (no picture). Jeremy had a pressed pork sandwich (tasty, but nothing special for a picture).
The dessert was outstanding! The pineapple chocolate napoleon was filled with a chocolate mousse infused with bits of pineapple. The dark chocolate pineapple sauce was so intense! The pineapple granita was cool and refreshing. I would love to experiment in making this.
I love taking pictures of the courses. People either think you are a freak, or they look at you knowingly. As it turns out our flight home took us about 20 hours due to thunderstorms. So it is a good thing we stocked up at Mesa Grill.
]]>On Saturday we joined a group of four women for a Culinary Tour of Little Italy and Soho. When we emerged from the subway we found ourselves at the edge of Chinatown, on Seuss' favorite, Mulberry Street. We enjoyed walking by a city park and watching the young and old playing soccer, throwing a baseball, going through karate motions, and brandishing large swords. We walked past lots of interesting seafood and amazing vegetables as we made our way to Little Italy.
We met our tour group at Ferrara's bakery and had some delicious chocolate covered, cream filled, cannelloni.
Our tour guide explained the history of these cultural areas based on immigration trends. After our day at Ellis Island this information added a whole new layer to our appreciation and understanding of the American immigrant. Over the years Little Italy has shrunk to just a few square blocks, while Chinatown has expanded to become the largest in our country.
We enjoyed sampling cheese and sausage and bread from several small shops. Our tour guide, Naomi, knew all of the shopkeepers, and they were ready for our visit. In her words and actions you could see the admiration for these locals and their crafts. She explained that she likes to keep her tours small and intimate and on foot. This is in contrast to the "Sex in the City" tours, based on the TV show. The women who created these tours has huge buses with screens for watching scenes from the show while driving pst the actual New York location. She made 30 million last year on these tours. Naomi smiled, "She's my antithesis."
We took a few minutes to walk through a large Chinese Market. There were some very unusual ingredients on display.
In Soho, an upscale area of Manhattan, we visited several shops with pricey kitchen gadgets and dishes. This area was rescued from becoming a freeway and preserving the historic cast iron buildings is a priority to the community. In contrast to Times Square, where every sign is required to be illuminated, there are no signs allowed on these buildings. Only small banners hang from flag poles along these cobblestone streets.
Our tour ended with lunch at a restaurant with a Caribbean flare. Naomi ordered several dishes to be served family style. I have to say that a culinary tour is a really good idea. I wonder if they have them in Portland?
After a long bath and a short nap, we were ready for our dinner at Morimoto's. This restaurant has only been open for two months. We had made reservations at the Omakase Bar and were hoping to see Iron Chef Morimoto.
And we were not disappointed! He made several dishes for us, including frozen grapes in a mango sorbet. In the above picture he is stirring the grapes in liquid nitrogen. The two chefs in the picture with us, have also been on Iron Chef with Morimoto. We enjoyed watching all of the food preparations and one of the chefs asked, "Have you been to Japan before?" When I answered no, he stated that we acted as if we knew Japanese customs. I took this as the highest of compliments.
We did not get off the ferry at the statue, but went straight on to Ellis Island.
The museum at Ellis Island takes you through the experience of an immigrant arriving between 1880 and 1920. Beautiful photographs and interesting artifacts, along with reflections and explanations, really give you a sense of the frightening and heart wrenching adventure. It was an emotional experience to say the least, and the return trip on the ferry had us viewing the Statue of Liberty with a deeper sense of awe.
Upon returning to Manhattan we began another audio tour of the financial district beginning with the bronze bull -- both ends.
We paused to have some street food - grilled italian sausage with peppers and onions served in a warm pita. A great meal for a few dollars.
The contrast between old and new architecture in New York is fascinating. We saw Fraunces Tavern, the secret headquarters of the Sons of Liberty, the New York Stock Exchange, and many other significant and beautiful buildings.
When we finished the audio tour we were just a couple blocks from Ground Zero. This was not on our list of sights to visit, but we were so close we decided to walk past.
We also visited the small church directly across the street from the WTC, that miraculously withstood the destruction unharmed, and served as a center of solace for all of the rescue workers and volunteers for nine months. The church contains lots of memorabilia. An hour, and many tears later, we left the area emotionally drained.
Thank goodness our evening plans called for lots of laughing. We went to see the Mel Brook's Broadway hit, The Producers. It was sensational!
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We decided to check out some museums and went first to the Guggenheim, but quickly found out that it is closed on Thursdays. As we had been walking along the edge of Central Park and the weather here is gorgeous, high of 68ยบ, we decided to go for a stroll. We walked up to a bluff and looked around. An elderly woman approached us and asked if we would like a map of the park. "I never go the park without a few extra maps," she said, and drew out one of several maps from her bag. We were happily surprised by this act of kindness. She also gave us specific directions the Museum of Natural History. As we walked through the park, to the museum, I was astounded at the number of park volunteers pruning and weeding and tending to the grounds. All of the spring bulbs are up here, and the forsythia and cherry trees are in bloom. Feels like home.
The Natural History Museum and Planetarium were impressive and enormous. Upon buying our tickets the cashier asked, "Where are you from?" When we told her Oregon she exclaimed, "Oh you must go get a picture in front of the will-uh-met meteorite!" So here I am in front of the Willamette meteorite found in Clackamas, Oregon many, many years ago.
We spent two hours looking at lots of preserved animals, and artifacts, and dinosaur bones. The display on biodiversity was one of my favorites. A huge wall covered with a multitude of butterflies, fish, shells, etc.
After three hours, we decided to move on, and find some lunch -- the one meal every day that has been left unplanned. Across the street from the museum was a subway entrance. We have been encouraged by many to use the subway, so we bravely descended and attempted to read the map on the wall. We decided to buy a metro pass and got a portable map from the man behind the glass. Again as we stood trying to decipher the route a woman approached us and asked if we needed help. She gave us a low down on New York navigation -- uptown vs downtown, streets vs avenues, blue line vs green line. Thank you New York stranger!
When we emerged from the subway we decided to start our iPod tour of Times Square. I found these tours on line at Sounds for Sights. For $12.00 we downloaded four, hour long, tours. We synchronized our iPods and began walking. The narrator explained how to walk with purpose, and without fear among the crowds. He told of the history behind many of the theaters. He had us walk into the lobby to examine the architecture. This was a great way to see Times Square and the Theater District. We stopped half way to share an enormous cheese steak sandwich at Roxy's Deli.
In the picture above Jeremy is listening to the strange sound emanating from the grate. The audio tour explained that one of the subway engineers designed the tunnels to produce natural harmonics. You cannot hear this organ-like sound unless you stand directly over this grate on the sliver of sidewalk in the middle of the intersection.
We enjoyed this tour so much, we decided to take on the next tour of Rockefeller Center. Again an amazing hour spent touring not just the Center, but also the Diamond District, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Statue of Atlas, and Radio City Music Hall.
My legs were extremely tired. We rode the very smelly subway back to our hotel. After a long hot soak in the tub and a short nap, we were ready to head back out to dinner. We had made reservations last week at Po, Mario Batali's first restaurant. We selected the chef's tasting menu, and were not disappointed. While the tables around us received massive plates pasta, we were given small plates of a variety of dishes. We began with a marinated white bean crostini. Then we had a wonderful salad of asparagus, roasted red peppers and slivered almonds. Our first pasta course was one large butternut squash ravioli in a sage cream sauce. Our second past course was a small bowl of gnocchi in a meaty red sauce. Our entree was a filleted leg of guinea hen on some sort of round little pasta with scallions. The we had a wonderful cheese course. Finally for dessert Jeremy had an apple tart with vanilla gelato. I had a dark chocolate terrine flavored with amaretti cookies and criss-crossed with an espresso caramel sauce. One of the best desserts ever! Sorry no pictures, I forgot the camera at dinner.
We are running out the door for another full day. Please excuse all the typos. This entry was done in haste!
]]>Walking through the airport, I was overwhelmed with the diversity of the people around me. So many colors and costumes, so many different cultures represented, so many different languages being spoken. We're not in Oregon anymore!
My cab rides, three so far, have all been wild and included lots of honking and near misses. I was happy to arrive at our quaint hotel on the upper east side of Manhattan. The staff at The Franklin are very experienced in customer service.
I love to hear kids, and adults too, sharing their musical talents at church. One of my favorite musical moments included a flute and a tuba in a Christmas carol duet.
The music should be good at the Easter service. Julian is leading a small choir. Last Sunday we practiced while the kids rode their scooters around the church sidewalks, periodically sneaking into the sanctuary to wave and listen.
At home Emma informed us that on Easter she would like to sing in the Great Balls of Fire Choir. She is referring to the traditional singing of The Angel Rolled the Stone Away. In the song the bases sing out "Great God Almighty." Away from church, Jeremy often replaces this phrase with "Great Balls of Fire." I love Emma's twist on this phrase.
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A couple of weeks later the kids run around the yard barefoot and eat an ice cream cone on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
On Saturday morning the kids were showing off, in stocking feet, the moves they would perform while skating. Harrison was speeding around the corners, while Emma performed a double toe loop. I tried to explain that skating is a lot harder than it looks. They found out for themselves once their skates touched the ice. However, they were not deterred or discouraged by the number of times they fell on that hard ice. It's nice to have tough kids.
Thanks to my dad, who made himself the official photographer. You can watch the kids, and their parents, in action, if you'd like. Ice Skating Antics
Harrison and Emma learned a new word too, Zamboni!
You certainly can't call them couch potatoes!
]]>Aunt Carolyn noticed the other day that Baby Carrie has some plastic boy parts under that little red dress. Emma doesn't seem to care about, or know about, the gender issue yet.
]]>On Saturday the four women escaped to the spa for a day of pampering. My mom and I started with pedicures and mimosas. Then I had a facial, while others had manicures. This was my first facial. It was absolutely wonderful. First of all there was this bed loaded with soft covers that I sunk into. The room was dimmed, filled with candles, and soft music was playing. Then my hands and feet were slathered with silky lotion and slid into little heating pad mitts and booties. For someone with extremities that are always freezing, this is pure heaven! The facial lasted about an hour with many different substances being applied and removed from my face. There were long intervals where I just relaxed and even fell asleep. I will do this again.
The rest of the afternoon was not so relaxing. The hour long massage was the weirdest experience. The masseuse was very into his craft. He held his hands over me for a while to feel my stressing points. He asked me to take lots of deep breaths. He took the breaths with me. In fact he continued to breath deeply and loudly during the whole massage. He talked quite a bit about the light. "Feel the light." "Imagine the light." He ended with the statement, "Take the light with you. I'll see you on the outside." The massage was a little painful and I was a little freaked out by his behavior. Not relaxing.
We had little time after our day of pampering to get ready for dinner. We also decided to walk the few blocks (it turned out to be ten blocks in heals and mist) to the restaurant for my mom's birthday dinner. The food was fabulous, and the conversation wonderful. The alarm going off the next morning at 5:45 am was brutal. Karen and I both had early morning flights to catch. I had a technology conference at 9:30 am in Portland.
]]>Mom, I am so proud of you. I hope I can pass on some of your big ideas to my kids. Speaking of your grandchildren, they also wanted to say Happy Birthday. Click on the link below.
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