My dad & Steve visited over the Columbus Day weekend. It was nice to catch up and also see their familiar faces. On Saturday, we drove into Staten Island then took the ferry to Manhattan. We did a lot of walking & picture taking, covering the Wall Street area, World Trade Center site, & Central Park. There was a great playground in Central Park with a water playground. Since Andrew wasn't equipped with his swimsuit we stripped him down to a diaper and soon enough he & Lauren were frolicking in the water with all the little Manhattanites. We then trekked over to the carousel and my dad & I took A & L on the fastest spinning carousel ever. I swear, the centrifugal force seemed strong enough that if you let go you'd probably go flying off. It was also Andrew & Lauren's first time experiencing the NYC subway! We were surprised to find out just how un-stroller friendly the subway system is. There were very few stations that had elevators which meant we had to carry the stroller down several flights at each station. Thank goodness there were 4 of us adults. I can't imagine how parents traveling alone manage the strollers by themselves. And wheelchairs or walkers, how do they do it?
Sunday we took a drive down south to Seaside Heights to see the Columbus Day parade. We had an unobstructed view of the parade which was unusual. I'm used to San Francisco parades where you have to stand on your toes because there are 4 rows of people between you and the parade. Seaside Heights is a small beach community with a long boardwalk & amusement park. After the parade we walked up to the boardwalk and onto the beach. We parked the stroller at the bottom of the stairs in an out of the way and took the kids out. We thought the stroller would be safe for a few moments while we went to the see the waves come in. After walking about 100 feet from the stroller I turned back to see a shady looking guy standing right next to the stroller looking directly at me. He then leaned down like he was tying his shoe. I took a few steps towards him & the stroller and he walked away. I have no doubt that he was going to try to steal something. The diaper bag was on the stroller with my wallet in it. I feel lucky that I caught the situation in time but I would have felt so angry at myself for being naïve and leaving it all there had he actually taken something. It was a good reminder of just how quick you can be victimized. The rest of our visit we stayed local and showed them our neighborhood, the park we play at, and checked out some of the antique shops in Red Bank. We couldn't have had better weather for their visit. It warmed up to 70's or 80's most days and the rain held off until the last eve of their visit.
We're looking forward to our next visitors arriving this weekend! Nick's dad (aka Mike) & stepmom (aka Vicki) arrive Saturday and will be here through Friday. They haven't seen Andrew since he was 7 months old and they will be meeting Lauren for the first time!
We are so grateful that our families are making the effort to come out this way to see us. Thank you!
