The Chambers

Day 4 was (as Jackson now loves to say) boooring. We flew from San Francisco over to New York. No vomiting this time! American Airlines were kind enough to sit me on the opposite side of the aisle to Kylie and Jackson (I jest) so I had to be content in reading my book, while Jackson caught up on missed sleep (it was a very early start) and Kylie passed the time by keeping Jackson entertained while he was awake. My mum flew in to spend the week with us and we all met up at the apartment in Manhattan. The same apartment we stayed in last time we visited, it’s in a great spot just off Hell’s Kitchen – near lots of nice restaurants – and a couple of blocks from Times Square.

Day 5 Walking, walking, eating, eating…. We’ve got a bit over a week in New York and today we started off with a few sights, some delicious food and the promise to visit a place called Toys R Us….

We headed straight along 43rd Street and across town to Grand Central Station for a quick squiz. From Grand Central we turned right when we should have turned left and did a complete lap of Grand Central trying to find a nice breakfast spot I had been to once before. This cafe is right under the bridge which features in “I am Legend” and they do a good breakfast!

After breakfast we headed up towards 60th St, which was where we were having lunch. Jackson wondered if this was where Toys R Us was? No, we informed him…. disappointment… We strolled for a couple of hours and stopped in at Bloomingdales to have a look and see. Nobody bought anything – we’re waiting for the sales to start Friday (more on that later). We DID visit FAO Schwarz, which is a big toy store that once featured in the Tom Hanks movie “BIG”, when he plays the jump-on piano. Jackson had a fun time in here and got to look at some fantastic toys. He was not happy to leave (as you would expect) and was also at pains to point out that that was NOT Toys R Us and when would we be going there?

We had lunch at this place called Serendipity 3 (http://www.serendipity3.com/main.htm and their menu http://www.serendipity3.com/food.htm. Famous for its desserts, we had lunch in reverse order with dessert first then mains. Keep an eye out for the photos, this place is decked out with lots of interesting objects. Frozen Hot Chocolate was first (seriously). This was served like a chocolate sundae, very rich! Jackson and I had a foot long Hot Dog each – neither of us could finish it – Kylie had that ol’ American faithful in Meat Loaf and Mum had a delicious looking sandwich. (Kimmy, this is where we tried to get into last time, but couldnt, you should go here one day!)

Jackson was sure we would be going to Toys R Us now! Nope, not yet…. Disappointment…

From lunch, we jumped in a cab and rode across town to the American Museum Of Natural History. Our cab cut through Central Park and I reckon I saw a few Law & Order crime scenes along the way. (Is Toys R Us in here?) The Museum is fantastic, I think one of the more enjoyable and interesting things I have seen in the city. The displays are done so well, with so much effort obviously put into the design of each display, but also a lot of thought into the placement of each part of the exhibition. The highlight for me was the animal displays and watching Jackson enthusiastically run from one display to the next. I took lots of photos and will be loading up some photos from the trip tonight.

We spent a good four hours in the museum and afterwards went outside to see the inflation of some of the balloons which will be in the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. They start “blowing them up” the night before. Jackson was horrified at the thought of us going to watch the “blowing up” of balloons… we tried to explain what inflating meant, but it didnt click for him until he saw it with his own eyes. The crowd was full-on, which is nothing compared to the crowd at the Parade, but we did get to see up close a couple of the balloons.

We’d left the apartment about 730am this morning and it was now coming up to 5pm or so, so we got in a cab and headed back to the apartment. Jackson feel asleep in the cab and when he woke up to find we were back at the apartment he was most distraught, as this clearly was NOT Toys R Us….

Upstairs for a quick freshen up and then back out for another stroll to…… Toys R Us! Interesting decisions kids make. We told Jackson he could pick out one toy, which wasn’t too large that it wouldnt fit in our luggage. He walked past Ben 10, Diego, Star Wars (silly boy), Iron Man (boooring) and a whole bunch of stuff. He was obviously thinking very hard on what to pick out. Of all the toys in the store, I was surprised he picked out a small two pack of Transformers. He was very happy with it, very happy!

No video recorded from yesterday yet, I will do that later today. No doubt Jackson will believe the best bit of today will be Toys R Us and the worst bit how long it took to get there!

’tis now 3am, have been asleep, but woke up and have had some trouble sleeping tonight. Best try to get some shut eye.

Happy Thanksgiving.

cc, kc, jacko and Nanny.