Summer in the City

Despite the heat, its hard to leave this city in the summer.  There's too much to do, too much fun to be had, too many amazing something-er-others every day of the week.  Just this week, the child has enjoyed:

1.  A family visit (yet to be blogged about).  This included:

• A trip to Dumbo, playtime on the beach and a late evening stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge.
• A trip to Coney Island, beach play.
• A quick tour of China Town and Little Italy
• A trip on the Staten Island Ferry
• A trip to Rockefeller Center followed by...
• A day hiking in Central Park

This gets us all the way to Wednesday morning....  And includes, of course, all of the train time involved in each of these.  Plus the late evenings.  And the weirdly scheduled meals.  After a few days of this, I figured the kid would conk.  Nope.  The rest of the week reads like this...

2.  A day of recovery.  That turned into a day of adventure in the park

3.  Another day waiting for Sears (they were only 5 and a half hours late this time...)  I know we did something after this, but I can't for the life of me remember what...  Then grocery shopping.  Followed by an evening concert in the park with Uncles and Aunt Alicia.  

4.  An adventure day in the park, thorn hunting.  Followed by a picnic.  Followed by Luna Park and Coney Island Fireworks.

5.  A day trip to the tip of Long Island to experience Montauk (arriving home at almost midnight, again....)

6.  Today.  Some adventure with Papa I am not privy to........

I'm exhausted just typing it.  And simultaneously shocked that the kid, my kid, the kid who used to not leave the house for weeks at a time, is excitedly orchestrating this.  

Friday night fireworks sounded lovely.  Especially since E uses Friday evenings for his downtime, leaving P and I feeling unusually footloose.  I hadn't considered the rides.  The neon signs and twirling machines.  I was thinking beach, book, sunset, fireworks.  

The child was thrilled the park has been reinvented (again) and was bouncing with excitement to ride a ride.  It was, of course, packed.  This Kansan is always amazed at the length of line a New Yorker will endure.  My son, the New Yorker, didn't flinch.  We started small with the kiddy rocket.  Feeling a bit big butted for such a tiny ride, I told him I'd wait at the fence.  Only to get muscled aside as the ride started.  When I finally found Phoenix's face it was not a happy one.  He screeched to me "Stay.  Right.  There!!!"  as he whirled around.  When he realized I would faithfully follow orders, he finally relaxed in and enjoyed himself.  

Most of the photos I have of this ride show the Little Man, finger pointing, frown fixed.  Here, he's finally chillin....

So much so that he wanted more.   But the kid, he learns quickly from his mistakes.  He would not be leaving me by the fence again.  And so it came that I rode a rollercoaster.  Nyack.  Followed by some intolerable twirling thing high in the sky.  The kid's grin was permanently plastered though :)

We hit the boardwalk for the big bangs that were really, really beautiful.  But, to be perfectly honest, fireworks have always bothered me.  Those poor confused birds.  All of that smoke.  And all of those resources going up in smoke....  But I'm not going to be the one to burst the boy's bubble, so I sit with a sloppy grin and stay quiet.  But there is something about such enormous explosions that are a bit unnerving, and the Little Man wanted a quick reassurance that we were all safe, un-explodable...  He settled in on my shoulders and then wondered, wait, what about the birds and fishes?  Heheehe.  I hear you kid....  But don't worry, I'm still on Mission Protect Childhood.  I didn't burst the damn bubble. And so he happily took pics (see top) and then propped his exhausted eyes open on the late night sub ride home...  I can only imagine that we're in for a week full of recovery after all of this, but I've soooo been wrong before...