Big Apple Trip

We are home from our trip to NYC. The papers all carried the picture of the gunman on their covers while we were there. I was mad. Mad at him and mad at the papers. Would anyone like to show the guts to say "F you, you selfish pig" and put BIG pictures of the innocent lovely people whose lives were cut short on their front pages instead???? Nope. They all went with his idea of self-indulgent horror. It sickened me. Why give him the satisfaction (even if he is no longer here, you know its what he was hoping for) of his mug in mass print?

Okay, enough ranting. The children loved all aspects of our trip. Graham is having a rougher discipline week than his normal happy-go-lucky self. Funnies on the way to our destination:

in the car: "Oooh, I wonder what Mr. Sam has in store for us to eat for breakie" I said. "Silly Gooser, Mommy, it's a plane, not a store." Said Graham.

as we were taxiing for takeoff: "We are going out to the runway. Here we go." I said. "Yeah, but right now we are on the slow way." Quipped Paige.

We had to change quickly in the airport bathroom and drive straight to the theatre. Mary Poppins was great, with some spectacular song and dance numbers like "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious" and "Step in Time" but the performance was made longer by a parent-themed subplot and the addition of a wicked-witch style nanny. Oh and they added a somewhat disturbing song called "Temper Temper" where the dolls come to life in a creepy joker-like way and put Michael and Jane on trial. Hmmmm, could've done without some of that.

After the performance, we went to our hotel. The Peninsula offered to upgrade our room and sent us to have a cup of tea while they readied it. Sounded good to us, having had no time for lunch before the musical. We ate all three tiers of a gorgeous tea tray with our camomile tea. Daddy came into the lounge bar and had a business meeting at a table next to us and we didn't bother him! I was very proud of Graham when Paige needed to use the restroom and he chose to sit quietly by himself out our table and didn't disturb Dad's meeting. Less pleasing was the fact that he spooned down a whole saucerful of marmalade while we were away!

Whether it was the travel day, the lack of lunch, the long musical or the marmalade (taken altogether, a scary recipe) Graham did not make it through dinner. I saw the signs of his demise when he refused one of his favorite appetizers: proscuitto. I had to gather the kids up and leave early. Instead, I fed them their spaghetti and veal scallopini in the tub back at the hotel, and they fell quickly, deeply asleep.

Thursday morning, we awoke slowly and savoured our room service in our pjs. The day was busy and fun, with shopping on Madison Ave, a trip through the Childrens Museum of NY, and finally more shopping in Soho.