As the whole country (& even around the world - according to some traveling friends) heard, NYC was hit by a heatwave a couple weekends ago. It came just in time for the arrival of my brother, Ben, his wife, Desi, and their 5-month-old baby, Tristan. 100+ degree heat was nothing new to them... This summer Kansas has had more days of this kind of weather than you can count with both hands... Yet, it was still a bit much - considering that we had to go out into the heat with the baby in order to do anything!
The day they arrived was one of the smoggiest days I've ever seen in NYC. What a great welcome! Welcome to NYC, but please, don't breathe in the air!
The baby napped in the taxi ride home from the airport. When we met them at the airport, Tristan was playing bashful. He'd look up from his stroller, smile, and then move his head down and sideways. It was the. cutest. thing. ever!
I guess he was a pretty good traveler! Made friends with fellow flyers (one of whom even took the baby and entertained him for a bit) and flirted with the stewardess.
The family's first subway ride! It was a cramped one. Tristan didn't get to see much other than the lower half of all the people on their way to work! He's probably wondering where the heck we are!
Our first day wasn't recorded well, because shortly after this photo, my camera died :(
We started in Dumbo at the park. Ben even dipped Tristan into the East River. He didn't seem to mind at all! After the park, we walked across the bridge (it was a sweltering walk). Upon crossing, we headed straight for the first a.c.ed place we could find, Starbucks.
After cooling down for a bit, we headed to Wall Street, Trinity Church, and the World Trade Center (I can't believe how tall the WTC1 building is getting!) I found a quick pizza slice place for lunch, which turned about to be one of the best quick slices of pizza I've ever had! Then it was off to the Museum of Natural History for a cool afternoon.
Tristan was quite popular there. Every security guard along the way stopped us to oodle at the cute baby in his diaper!
The next day, we thought we'd be smart and beat the heat. But that did. NOT. Happen! At 9 am, it was beyond hot (this also happened to be the HOTTEST day of the summer - heat index 115 degrees). We took the ferry out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.
It was so hot that we decided to stay on the ferry at Liberty Island and head for the a.c. at Ellis Island.
One of the few times this chill, awesome baby fussed was right when you put him back in his stroller. He'd fuss for two seconds until it got moving, and then he'd be fine.
When we got to Ellis Island, we headed for the family history room to look up our grandfather's family. We found them - our great grandfather came to America through Ellis Island with his parents and most of his siblings in 1916. Below is a photo of what the room looked like that they would have gone through in 1916 on Ellis Island.
After the ferry, we made a quick detour to the fountains to cool off!
And before heading to the art museum for the afternoon, we had to get the baby some financial good luck by touching the bull at Bowling Green in his good luck spot ;)
We spent the rest of that afternoon at the Met looking at art, including the Egyptian art.
There was plenty more we did - I must get it all posted before we leave on our vacation Friday. (Oh & Desi, I promise to get the photos to you before we leave for our trip - I kind of dropped the ball for it to happen last weekend!)
We woke up early our first morning in Portland (as in normal NY morning time). After getting coffee at a neighborhood coffee shop, we jumped in the car and headed to Multnomah Falls for a morning hike with Ethan.
The view was breath-takingly (made that up??) beautiful! Up, up, up we hiked.
All the way to the top, where we could look down as the water flowed over the edge and plummeted down.
After our hike, we headed back and grabbed brunch at a local restaurant. As we finished up, P called to inform us he was waiting for us and we needed to get home to see him!
The smell of nature was so intense and wonderful! I had been craving it for way too long.
After hiking up to Mirror Lake, we headed toward the top of Mt. Hood. The snow had melted down quite a bit since they had been up there last month, but there was still some for us to hike on. There was also enough for skiers and snowboarders to continue to enjoy.
