Wombling the East Coast: 2011

Saturday 30 April 2011

New York, Smith Style!

Okay, so we arrived at 1.30pm on Friday afternoon, with Benjamin falling asleep on the plane as soon as we began our descent into La Guardia Airport (typical!). We managed to disembark the plane with toddler still sleeping and just as our luggage arrived he decided he had had his 40 minute nap and was ready to hit the big apple. Collecting our bags and getting us into a taxi was a doddle, despite our worries about space....as we drove out of the airport I felt uneasy and counted our bags....you guessed it, we were missing one!!! Thankfully the taxi driver was a lovely man who didn't mind circling and waiting whilst Ken ran in to collect the 'extra bag' (bought to accomodate our shopping!), he was tipped according to his easygoing attitude!!

The hotel - The Intercontinental, Times Square, is beautiful. We are on the 16th floor and whilst the room isn't the most spacious we have stayed in it is certainly the most luxurious....with a gourmet coffee maker, super large shower cubicle with drench and normal showers, 44 inch plasma tv and touch screen computer. Jakey is suitably impressed and Benjamin loved the leather swivel chair and pressing the buttons for the lift!!

After settling in at the hotel we hit the streets and headed for Toys'R'Us in Times Square for a ride on the in-store ferris wheel. Then dinner at Virgils BBQ house before walking to the Rockefeller Center and up to the 'Top of the Rock' to take a proper look at the New York skyline.

Jakey proved that he could handle the big city with ease...

Then the boys went to sleep, holding hands and sharing their cuddly toys!

Next morning we have a little lay-in and it is 9am before we leave the hotel. Across one block and up 2 blocks we pop into a little diner for breakfast before jumping a taxi up to Jakey's choice of entertainment for the morning - The American Museum of Natural History. Now I could bore you with all of the 165 pictures that we took in there, mostly of old bones, but I will limit it to 4! One of the obligatory T-Rex:

One of the lucky boy who got his wish:

One of Jakey digging up some bones:

And one of Jakey proving that his head isn't THAT much bigger than the average human brain after all!!!

From there we had a walk through Central Park, and then a 15 block walk back to our hotel (total approx 33 blocks!) poor Jake is shattered!!!

Back at the hotel Benjamin napped and Jakey and I took the opportunity to escape to the Harry Potter exhibition, which I hadn't known when booking the hotel but was just 100 yards from our hotel! Lots of HP excitement, sitting on Hagrid's armchair, planting mandrakes, and scoring quaffles through quidditch hoops later we emerged to join the sleepy ones for an hour of quiet before dinner.

We went for dinner at Lucilles bar and grill, BB King's restaurant on 42nd street, with the hope that we could string out our 6.30pm dinner to see some live music.

The band came on at 8pm and Benjamin (who we worried wouldn't like it) was in his element clapping, dancing and singing along, even getting involved with the guys on the next table high fiving and giving them the thumbs up at every opportunity!!
The day had caught up with Jakey and he was shattered, but he lasted an hour or so listening to the music and playing with Benjamin's dinosaur toys!!

Tomorrow we leave to come home, but not until 8pm tomorrow evening (our time) so we have a fair bit planned to keep us busy until then!!! We are sad to go home but Jakey's mum will be desperate to have him back, we have enjoyed him for far too long...it is probably a good job we don't have another big trip planned for a few years now!!!

Friday 29 April 2011

Goodbye Sunshine State, Hello Big Apple!!!!

Our last day in Florida started with the obligatory 'fwimmin' where Benjamin powered himself around the pool under his own steam wearing his armbands, he also mastered getting into and out of the pool by himself, clever boy!
An early swim led to an early nap, giving Ken and I some time to do some jobs around the house. A quick lunch later and we pottered down to Downtown Disney, where, in 93 degree heat Benjamin was delighted to go on the 'special train', and Jakey loved it too!

Benjamin then met Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Piglet

And Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Before a minor nightmare of a lost (but fortunately found) camera gave us a horrible hour of upset. But all's well that ends well and thankfully this little saga ended well...

We celebrated being back in the digital photography age by snapping Jakey on a particularly hot bronze statue:

Then, to make the most of our tickets to Universal, we went back to re-ride all our favourite rides, after partaking in another Bubba Gumps feast!!!

We made the most of Dr Seuss Land, and then enjoyed dusk in Hogsmeade and took advantage of the very short ride queues.

A late night for the boys led into an early morning for all of us and by 7.15am we were on the road for the airport and a few horrific baggage charges later we were on yet another 'special train' taking us towards our flight to New York.

I am afraid that this is where the photo's end....the lead for the camera is in one of the cases which forms part of the 'Benjamin Will NOT Fall Out of This Bed' barricade. I will grab it tomorrow and do the first couple of days of New York in one hit. I will say, bizarrely, I was asked if I was from Florida this evening, could it be that I do actually have a tan....or did I pick up a sunshine state twang?

In the city that never sleeps, I have to admit I am shattered and I am hoping everybody sleeps well in our very comfortable beds in our fancy new york hotel! I am praying for a lie in!! I even optimistically put a do not disturb sign on the door!!!

Wednesday 27 April 2011

ET Phoned Home

With two days to report on I don't know where to start! Yesterday morning we woke early (although not as early as we have been) and had a quick breakfast/shower rotation before legging it back to Universal Islands of Adventure for 8.30am. Harry Potter Land was already heaving and the weather was HOT. Jakey and I joined the (already 45 minute) queue for the 'Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey' ride leaving a hot Benjamin and a sad-faced daddy behind...

As the queue moved along outside the ride Ken came up saying 'we can child-swap! We all queue, Benjamin too, and when we get to the front we take it in turns to go on the ride!' So a hot sweaty toddler and his daddy parked the buggy and joined us in the long queue through the 'Hogwarts Greenhouses' in the blazing 92 degree heat (!)

As we moved into Hogwatrs Castle it got cooler and much more interesting for both boys (and both adults) and we listened to the paintings talking to each other, along with hologram footage of Professor Dumbledore and Harry, Ron and Hermione to keep us amused along the way. Ron even cast some snow for us!!!

The ride was totally worth the wait, even with trying to amuse a hot sweaty toddler for over an hour in the end, the interactive animated footage teamed with some clever movement of the car and some old-style 'jumping out at you' ghoulies etc makes for a wonderful experience and all of a sudden it was clear why people were standing in line for hours to ride it - a 45 minute queue before 9am!!!!! And the best of it? The 'child swap' element meant that Jake went on with me whilst Ken stayed in a room watching Harry Potter on a TV screen with Benjamin, then Jake got to go on again with Ken whilst I sat with Benjamin!! What a lucky boy he is!

And then we had Butterbeer - one frozen and one just cold, in souvenir (read rip-off!) mugs and Jakey has found his most favourite drink ever, knocking Dr Pepper to the number 2 spot!

And so we pottered next door to Universal Studios, a slower, more amicable pace where the toddler was free to roam the streets and enjoy a bit of space. The toddler was also able to partake in a couple of rides in this park...

Aren't they handsome?

I digress! We all went on the Jaws ride, and Benjamin (as prompted) just shouted 'RRAAAWWWRRR' when the big shark reared out of the water, as the rest of the boat screamed! And after whooping Jakey's ass 111300 to 36350 one the Men In Black ride we all went on the ET Ride where we all rode side by side bikes, with ET in a basket in the front of Benjamin's bike. We rode through the town and the forest and as we were confronted by police cars our bikes took off into the air! We rode over the city and across the moon as in the film, we then passed through ET's world (the bright happy bit, which Benjamin hated, he much preferred the car chases!) and as we left the ride ET said 'Bye-bye Benjamin, Stephanie, Jake, Ken'!! Benjamin came out saying 'thank-ooo lady, ET say bye-bye Bemin!' which is pretty much all he said for the next half hour!

Fast forward a few hours and a shopping trip to Old Navy later and we popped into Downtown Disney for dinner. Jakey's choice of restaurant was the Rainforest Cafe but with a wait to get a table we moved on...and found T-Rex Cafe where we were seated straight away in the prehistoric rainforest right next to a baby triceratops (which Benjamin wasn't fond of!)

Jakey now has a new favourite place to eat as well as a new favourite drink - what a day!!!

I would love to show you a fantastic photo now of Jakey splitting a pre-historic rock and the contents which have never been seen by another human eye...but for some reason the photo won't behave...

If you can be bothered to turn your head, or even better, turn your screen, you will also see the bizarre fluke of holding a plastic bag that will never happen again...when I first looked it was a cross lizard, then a p'eed off monkey...Ken thinks it is a tiger...whatever it is I guarantee Jakey will never randomly hold a bag across his arm like this again!!! I only wish I knew why the computer feels the need to turn it around...it was taken landscape...ho hum...

All the wrestling with the photo hassle makes me glad that we did very little today, the bigger boys played golf whilst Benjamin and I raided walmart for dodgy denim nappies!!!

Then both boys got the new trainers they desperately needed. A nap and a swim later we Skyped my mum and dad to complete the 'ET Phone Home' theme - Benjamin loved seeing Nana on the 'puter but got most upset because grandad sat still and quiet! When we wanted to say goodbye Benjamin was very upset and for ages after was asking for Grandad and Nana...he wanted to see them properly now!

When we asked the boys what they wanted to do after dinner, they both said the same 'fwimmin' so we spent the evening teaching Jakey to dive...and Benjamin too. We have a video which we will upload when we can (if you have 15 minutes of your life to waste LOL!) but until then believe me that Benjamin's diving is coming along just as well as Jake's!!!

Monday 25 April 2011

...never let the husband have the last word...

A few of our highlights from today - which was my first visit to a Florida theme park, Benjamin's first time on a 'roller coaster' and Jakey's first time on an 'upside down' roller coaster!!!

This is us, full of anticipation as we arrived at 10am.

Benjamin loved playing with the water squirters in Dr Seuss land.

First ever 'roller coaster', how excited does he look. It was actually just a small elevated train-type ride but nonetheless he absolutely loved it and concentrated very hard on what he could see...and he didn't let go for a second.

Entering Harry Potter Land

Mum - we thought of you as we were here, we promise that we will bring you one day. The village is amazing, but it was absolutely heaving. Ken got chatting to a guy whilst he was waiting for Jakey and I to go on the dragon ride and it was the third day in a row he had attempted to get into HP land, they had closed it the previous 2 days because it was too busy.

Highlights for me were the 'rest rooms' which were made to look like Moaning Myrtle's toilets, complete with Moaning Myrtle soundtrack; Honeydukes, where we bought every flavour beans and pumpkin juice, and for Ken the owl loft, complete with owl poop!

The queue for the wand shop was a good few hours long and we have said we will try again tomorrow for the 'Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey' ride because we didn't want to queue for 90 mins today. Jakey did conquer his fear and come on the Dragon Challenge roller coaster with me which has at least 4 loop-the-loops, although he was shaking for a good while after we came off!!

By 3pm we were pooped and hungry and the thunder storms seem to be following us so we headed to Margaritaville for a late lunch and, for a grateful non-driving mummy, a couple of obligatory raspberry margaritas. Safe in the knowledge that our tickets will allow us to return as often as we want whilst we are here we headed home for a swim and an early night for one tired babba...who also had another few firsts today:

First time 'swimming' with arm-bands on.

(and first time he gave mummy a heart attack jumping in at the deep end!!!)

And first time sunbathing in the nude!

A few more photos for those HP fans out there:

And Jakey surfing outside Margaritaville!

A word from the old man...

Hi Folks, how y'all doin? It's time for me to get a word in edgeways. Well we've been here a week and I've gone native already, I've even found myself cussing at the stupid tourists who don't know how to drive over here today.
We've been in Florida for 3 days now and we are definitely more relaxed, the trip down here was fantastic but constantly thinking about the next day and the next town and having to load and unload cases every day was a little stressful but we managed.
I would recommend everyone does a road trip in this beautiful, vast, funny, frustrating and sometimes strange country at least once in their lives just to realise how we are the same and so so different.
The difference in the people and places all the way down has been amazing, the brash New Jersey accent has given way to the lovely Southern Drawl and down here in Florida there is a real mix of accents.

The stops in Charleston and Savannah were great for me to get a feel for the places I've only read about when I've been reading about the Civil War. The people are so laid back in the South, I've been told I'm laid back so maybe I was from here in a past life, anyway, after walking round Universal Studios in the red hot sun today I am a real Redneck! I'll sign off for now and sit on the couch with a Budweiser and watch some Baseball now I'm native.