Hello again.
Like London buses - no posts for ages and then two straight after each other.
It was really lovely having Rachel to stay in January. It was the longest time we had spent together since I was back at Mum's during university holidays. She stayed for just over two weeks, so was here for three weekends, and we did lots of things that Lyn and I hadn't yet done in New York.
Probably my favourite were the trips to the Natural History museum, the Guggenheim and the Design museum. We managed to take the boys to both, and on the whole they were good and enjoyed it. We had to do shifts of looking after them, but Max running around the sloped spiral floors in the Guggenheim was really funny. He managed to at first entertain the stewards and then make them earn their money, as he showed his like for Picasso. Mmmm Picasso... Yum yum!
We also did some fun stuff in the evenings, going to see some stand-up by Paul and his fellow comedians and having some nice meals out. One night we found a really good vegetarian restaurant, that had some really stunning and original dishes. The only other veggie restaurants I'd been to here were weird, with fake meat (and not nice stuff like quorn) in everything. Rachel also went out on her own some nights and saw some theatre and ballet, and Lyn and her went to see As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and Road to Perdition fame.
For the middle weekend that Rachel was here we also had Heather to stay. Heather got here late Thursday and hardly stopped until she left on the Monday. On the Friday the boys went to the childcare at my work, and I picked them up, so that Heather, Rachel and Lyn could have a sex in the city, girls about town day. They went window shopping, had a pub lunch, went to some fancy bars and then went to see Hair - one of the few Broadway musicals that hasn't yet made it to London. On the Saturday we all walked across Brooklyn Bridge, went for a pizza at Lombardi's and then went up the Empire State Building. Rachel's back was bad in the evening, so she stayed at home while Heather, Lyn and I went to our favourite West Village bar to play Beer Pong. Sunday was a sport filled day. Heather and I went to the big football pub to see Arrrsenal (as they pronounce it here) beat Bolton, then in the evening we watched the Jets win in the playoffs (on tv) and then went to Madison Square Gardens to watch some Ice Hockey. "Let's go Rangers!" was the chant of the day, as the NY Rangers came back from 2-0 to beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2. A late night beer pong win over some cocky Americans meant we finished the day with four wins and no losses! Heather flew back to London the next day having well and truly partied hard.
Lyn and the boys really enjoyed having Rachel here in the day as well. Max completely adores Rachel and whenever she was doing her back exercises he would throw himself at her! They did lots of swimming, went to lots of parks and went and looked at prospective areas for us to live in.
It now looks very likely that we'll be staying in New York after the six month rotation is up. My job is going well, and they want me to stay full time. It's quite high profile and from a career point of view, almost impossible to turn down. We are now looking at apartments and trying to work out what we can afford and where we want to live. We love it where we are, but can't afford to live here, so it's a case of what we can sacrifice - space, location or money really. It's not much fun looking around apartments. On Saturday it was really cold and we dragged the boys around about six or seven places, the estate agent taking us to places in the Financial District that either we couldn't afford, or we couldn't fit in. They've got this crazy idea in Manhattan of converting one bedroom apartments into two beds by putting a wall up in the living room. The problem is that there are then no windows in the new half-sized living room. The best thing about living in Manhattan is the massive windows and the views, so this seems to have completely missed the point and they just feel really claustrophobic. Quite a depressing day. On Sunday I went to see some in the Upper West Side and a new building in Brooklyn, but again, none really fit the bill. The one in Brooklyn was nice, but it is next to a really bad school. Schools are another big consideration of where we live. In September Sam would be going to Pre-K (pre-kindergarten, the equivalent of reception in the UK), but this isn't something that is seen as a necessity in NYC. This means that not all public schools have it, and Sam wouldn't be guaranteed a place. Lots of people seem to send there kids private for this year, but the preschool where Sam goes now for two afternoons a week would cost $18,000 a year full time. Crazy money.
It looks like we might have been lucky and found somewhere in Battery Park City, by the river, but it might only be until June, which is no good, and would mean spending some of our savings on rent every month, which isn't ideal. It's quite close to where we are though, which would be great as Lyn and Sam have both made some friends round here. It would also be nice for Sam to know some of the other kids when (if?) he starts school in September, so being close to his preschool makes that quite likely.
Anyway, lots of tricky decisions to come. We'll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Today New York was hit by massive snow storms. 6-12 inches apparently, although a lot of that didn't really settle, or turned straight into sludge. It's funny - it's the first year in my life that it has snowed more in London than in New York. Today's snow meant that I got to leave work early and saw the second half of Arsenal - Liverpool in the pub (I missed the first half as the first two pubs I went to had their satelite signals blocked by the snow). A good result for Arsenal, and with Chelsea losing and ManUre drawing maybe we are back in the title race. We shall see over the next few weeks.
Next week will be good as Pants and Laura are coming to stay. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with them here. Now that we are probably staying for longer means that you all have a much bigger window to come and stay with us! We love having visitors and our doors (and floors/sofas etc.) are always open.
Hope you're all having a great 2010 so far.
Love Tom x
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Christmas and the New Year
Hi everybody,
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Max walking!
Hi all,
As promised, here is a video of Max walking. Very cute.
Today we are putting the boys into the emergency childcare at work and Lyn and I are going Ice Skating in Central Park, then lunch somewhere nice followed by Avatar in 3D at the Imax cinema. In the UK you can only use the work childcare if you're at work, but here it's different. It should be a lovely day and we're very excited!
Hope you're all having a great Christmas week!
Lots of love,
Tom
As promised, here is a video of Max walking. Very cute.
Today we are putting the boys into the emergency childcare at work and Lyn and I are going Ice Skating in Central Park, then lunch somewhere nice followed by Avatar in 3D at the Imax cinema. In the UK you can only use the work childcare if you're at work, but here it's different. It should be a lovely day and we're very excited!
Hope you're all having a great Christmas week!
Lots of love,
Tom
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Max's 1st Birthday!
Hello everyone,
It's all snowy, cold and beautiful here at the moment. New York suits snow, especially with all the twinkling christmas trees and lights. We went to Central Park today and it was magical. We saw people trying to sledge down snow covered rocks in a canoe. Then they tried unsuccessfully to drag it back up to the top again. I love snow. It seems to bring out joy and nutters! I have to say though, the snowmen in Tooting Common last year completely thrash the Central Park ones.
Last Wednesday was Max's 1st birthday. To mark the occasion, Max started walking on the monday before. He looks very proud of himself and gives himself a round of applause each time he walks. On the morning of the big day, we played with Max's new toys and balloons, went swimming and then went into town to meet Tom and Paul for pizza. After lunch, Paul took us to a brilliant toy shop where children are allowed to play with the toys. There is a huge piano there from the Tom Hanks film 'Big' that children are encouraged to play on. Sam bought Max some building bricks and then we went home and played a bit more. I think Max had a fun day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.
Calv and Isa came to visit the weekend before and we had loads of fun. We went out and played Beer Pong again. Then we went to a restaurant where a guacamole expert come to our table and prepared it in front of us. It was almost like performance art, but we had a huge incredible bowl of guacamole to show for it. Calv, Isa and Tom went to a huge local derby NFL game between Philadelphia Giants and Eagles. Isa got loads of great photos of topless fat blokes when it was -4 degrees. Big thanks to Isa who kindly imported, stamped and posted all our christmas cards, meaning for the first time in years our friends and family got Chrismas cards.
We're really looking forward to Christmas in New York, but I'm going to miss everyone back there in Blighty and those of you in Oz. I feel a long way away from you all.
New York doesn't hold back on celebrating holidays and Christmas is no exception. So, I'm sure it's going to be an experience. Sam and I went to our local fire house's christmas party a couple of weeks ago. It was for the firemen's and Sam's families. We felt very honoured indeed.
Sam and Max are decidedly unconvinced by Santa which is a shame beacause he's everywhere here. He came to the lobby in our building. When Sam saw Santa, he needed to keep a good distance. One of the much less scary elves, threw Santa's sack of toys to Sam, so Sam would not need to get too close. Max was braver until Santa laughed. Then Max screamed and Sam was rooted to the spot with fear. The next evening, we were in Little Italy and there was some kind of drunk Santa convention which didn't really help Sam and Max's opinion of the celebrated man in red.
We've put some new photos on our flickr site. We'll put a video of Max walking very soon. Have a lovely lovely christmas. We miss you all very much and will be thinking of you.
Lots and lots of love
Lyn, Tom, Sam and Max (now 1!)
It's all snowy, cold and beautiful here at the moment. New York suits snow, especially with all the twinkling christmas trees and lights. We went to Central Park today and it was magical. We saw people trying to sledge down snow covered rocks in a canoe. Then they tried unsuccessfully to drag it back up to the top again. I love snow. It seems to bring out joy and nutters! I have to say though, the snowmen in Tooting Common last year completely thrash the Central Park ones.
Last Wednesday was Max's 1st birthday. To mark the occasion, Max started walking on the monday before. He looks very proud of himself and gives himself a round of applause each time he walks. On the morning of the big day, we played with Max's new toys and balloons, went swimming and then went into town to meet Tom and Paul for pizza. After lunch, Paul took us to a brilliant toy shop where children are allowed to play with the toys. There is a huge piano there from the Tom Hanks film 'Big' that children are encouraged to play on. Sam bought Max some building bricks and then we went home and played a bit more. I think Max had a fun day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.
Calv and Isa came to visit the weekend before and we had loads of fun. We went out and played Beer Pong again. Then we went to a restaurant where a guacamole expert come to our table and prepared it in front of us. It was almost like performance art, but we had a huge incredible bowl of guacamole to show for it. Calv, Isa and Tom went to a huge local derby NFL game between Philadelphia Giants and Eagles. Isa got loads of great photos of topless fat blokes when it was -4 degrees. Big thanks to Isa who kindly imported, stamped and posted all our christmas cards, meaning for the first time in years our friends and family got Chrismas cards.
We're really looking forward to Christmas in New York, but I'm going to miss everyone back there in Blighty and those of you in Oz. I feel a long way away from you all.
New York doesn't hold back on celebrating holidays and Christmas is no exception. So, I'm sure it's going to be an experience. Sam and I went to our local fire house's christmas party a couple of weeks ago. It was for the firemen's and Sam's families. We felt very honoured indeed.
Sam and Max are decidedly unconvinced by Santa which is a shame beacause he's everywhere here. He came to the lobby in our building. When Sam saw Santa, he needed to keep a good distance. One of the much less scary elves, threw Santa's sack of toys to Sam, so Sam would not need to get too close. Max was braver until Santa laughed. Then Max screamed and Sam was rooted to the spot with fear. The next evening, we were in Little Italy and there was some kind of drunk Santa convention which didn't really help Sam and Max's opinion of the celebrated man in red.
We've put some new photos on our flickr site. We'll put a video of Max walking very soon. Have a lovely lovely christmas. We miss you all very much and will be thinking of you.
Lots and lots of love
Lyn, Tom, Sam and Max (now 1!)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Third of a Century
First of all - happy sort of birthday to me. Today I am 33⅓ - a third of a century!
The week after we got back from Arizona was Thanksgiving, which meant a day off work and a national celebration. On Thanksgiving eve I got off work early and we all went to the "Macy's Inflation Celebration". On Thanksgiving there is a huge parade, paid for by the department store Macy's, which has lots of huge balloons of cartoon characters, which are controlled like puppets from below. The day before they fence off a few roads to blow the balloons up. It was extremely overcrowded, but there was a real buzz in the air, and people had traveled for miles to see the inflation and then the parade the next day.
On Thanksgiving itself we got up and watched the parade on television. Paul came round and I made some pumpkin pie and we ate that with hot apple cider (non-alcoholic), which I had heated up with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and rum for the adults. Yum. After the parade we watched the (American) football, another thanksgiving tradition, and played with the kids. Paul headed off, and in the evening we went round to the parents of one of Sam's friends from pre-school. We had been hoping for a Thanksgiving invite and were really pleased when it arrived two days before the day. We ate lots of food and drunk lots of wine and had a really nice evening.
This weekend we had Anna & Phillip to stay, which was really nice. On Friday we put the boys into the childcare at my work and Lyn, Anna & Phillip spent the day going round art galleries in the Village, getting their hair cut and eating and drinking. It sounds like they had a lovely day. On Saturday we lazed around in the morning and then went to the Christmas market in Union Square, but the weather was horrible, so we found ourselves a nice pub and had a great dinner, washed down with Pumpkin beer. After lunch we went to Grand Central station, where there is another Xmas market, and then walked to the Rockefeller Centre. By now the rain and turned to snow, and it was beautiful seeing the huge Christmas tree in the snow, while people ice skated below. We then headed back to the subway via Times Square, which is always crazy but the snow gave it something extra.
By Sunday the clouds had gone and it was a beautiful cold crisp sunny day. We walked along the river down to the bottom of Manhattan and had a lovely Italian lunch, before getting the ferry across to Liberty Island to look up at the statue. The ride on the boat was nice, but the most special thing was looking back at New York from the island. We can see the statue from our apartment, and to look back and see our tower as part of the Manhattan skyline was great. Have a look at the photo here. It's the smaller one right in the middle that has a square on top. That is one that we need to crop, enlarge and frame. It's amazing to think that the Statue of Liberty was taller than any of the buildings in New York when it arrived here. Now there's not many shorter....
Anna and Phillip left yesterday and Calv and Isa arrive tomorrow, so we have another fun packed weekend coming up. Christmas is fast approaching and we need to buy a tree and some lights soon. Hope you are all well and looking forward to the festivities.
Best wishes,
Tom x
The week after we got back from Arizona was Thanksgiving, which meant a day off work and a national celebration. On Thanksgiving eve I got off work early and we all went to the "Macy's Inflation Celebration". On Thanksgiving there is a huge parade, paid for by the department store Macy's, which has lots of huge balloons of cartoon characters, which are controlled like puppets from below. The day before they fence off a few roads to blow the balloons up. It was extremely overcrowded, but there was a real buzz in the air, and people had traveled for miles to see the inflation and then the parade the next day.
On Thanksgiving itself we got up and watched the parade on television. Paul came round and I made some pumpkin pie and we ate that with hot apple cider (non-alcoholic), which I had heated up with cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and rum for the adults. Yum. After the parade we watched the (American) football, another thanksgiving tradition, and played with the kids. Paul headed off, and in the evening we went round to the parents of one of Sam's friends from pre-school. We had been hoping for a Thanksgiving invite and were really pleased when it arrived two days before the day. We ate lots of food and drunk lots of wine and had a really nice evening.
This weekend we had Anna & Phillip to stay, which was really nice. On Friday we put the boys into the childcare at my work and Lyn, Anna & Phillip spent the day going round art galleries in the Village, getting their hair cut and eating and drinking. It sounds like they had a lovely day. On Saturday we lazed around in the morning and then went to the Christmas market in Union Square, but the weather was horrible, so we found ourselves a nice pub and had a great dinner, washed down with Pumpkin beer. After lunch we went to Grand Central station, where there is another Xmas market, and then walked to the Rockefeller Centre. By now the rain and turned to snow, and it was beautiful seeing the huge Christmas tree in the snow, while people ice skated below. We then headed back to the subway via Times Square, which is always crazy but the snow gave it something extra.
By Sunday the clouds had gone and it was a beautiful cold crisp sunny day. We walked along the river down to the bottom of Manhattan and had a lovely Italian lunch, before getting the ferry across to Liberty Island to look up at the statue. The ride on the boat was nice, but the most special thing was looking back at New York from the island. We can see the statue from our apartment, and to look back and see our tower as part of the Manhattan skyline was great. Have a look at the photo here. It's the smaller one right in the middle that has a square on top. That is one that we need to crop, enlarge and frame. It's amazing to think that the Statue of Liberty was taller than any of the buildings in New York when it arrived here. Now there's not many shorter....
Anna and Phillip left yesterday and Calv and Isa arrive tomorrow, so we have another fun packed weekend coming up. Christmas is fast approaching and we need to buy a tree and some lights soon. Hope you are all well and looking forward to the festivities.
Best wishes,
Tom x
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Arizona
Hi all,
Arizona is just too beautiful for words. The vastness of the Grand Canyon, the beauty of the iconic Monument Valley, the red rocks, desert landscape, volcanos, mountains, trees, and Ancestral Puebloan ruins.
I won't try to describe them - have a look at the photos.
Love,
Tom x
Arizona is just too beautiful for words. The vastness of the Grand Canyon, the beauty of the iconic Monument Valley, the red rocks, desert landscape, volcanos, mountains, trees, and Ancestral Puebloan ruins.
I won't try to describe them - have a look at the photos.
Love,
Tom x
Monday, November 16, 2009
A long journey
Hi everybody!
It's six thirty a.m. and I am sitting in a hotel reception in Flagstaff, Arizona, as I'm unable to sleep. Max was awake a few times in the night and after finally getting him back to sleep, I couldn't.
Yesterday was quite an epic day. We flew over 2,100 miles and then drove another 150. Getting up early we got a taxi to Newark airport, checked in and had some breakfast. Security was a nightmare, and as always seems to happen, we were the last onto the plane, after they called our name out (you know that family in the fast show?.....). You could see the look of trepidation on everybody's faces as we walked down the aisle - hoping that we weren't sitting near them! The stewardess asked us which seats, and said "what all four of you there?" as we didn't pay for Max, so we had three seats for the four of us. Somebody else lauged but probably more out of fear for six hours of hell. Actually the boys were amazingly good on the flight and lots of people at the end of the flight said how good they had been.
After collecting our bags we went to pick up the hire car. As part of our journey will be on bumpy dirt tracks we had decided to hire an SUV (Chelsea tractor). Everytime we've hired a car before they have just given us one. This time they said we had a choice. We went down into the car park and there were about 20 different cars/trucks to choose from - 4x4s and pickup trucks, Fords, Dodges, Chryslers, Chevies, Kias etc. After not much sleep and a long flight we were a bit lost. Sam sat in a few and tryed out the hazard lights and we chose a Chevrolet Traverse. Mainly because it looked nice, and Adrian - our most petrol-headed friend - drives a chevy.
We then set off on one of the most amazing drives of my life. Starting in Phoenix in 26 degree heat, and ending in Flagstaff at below zero. Phoenix is in the middle of the desert and shouldn't exist really - all the water for the million residents is piped in from over 1000 miles away. The road out took us uphill, past big red rocks and hills covered in huge cacti. Some of the cacti were at least 20 feet tall. Amazing. We kept going uphill, then across desert plains, then uphill again past amazing scenery, with big red mountains and rocks in the distance. Then as we went higher the landscape completely changed into forests, with huge snow covered mountains in the distance. Flagstaff is 7000 feet above sea level - almost twice as high as Ben Nevis.
We then had a really nice meal and an early night. Today after a swim at the hotel we're driving to the Grand Canyon. I'm very excited. The first view of it is meant to be completely breathtaking, and I can't wait.
Talking of swimming - Sam sam his first length without a float this week. He wears a jacket with floats in it, so not unassisted, but a big step for him, especially overcoming the fear.
The day before heading off to Arizona we went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall, which is America's most famous christmas show. Paul's girlfriend is a Rockette - the troup of dancers that do most of the show - and got us really good reduced price tickets. The boys loved the show, and it was loads better than I had expected. The dancing and overall production was fantastic. Max was on my knees jumping up and down and clapping. Afterwards we went backstage, met the camels, and saw how the stage works.
We'll have internet access as some of the hotels we're staying at, so we may post again. Have a good week.
Tom x
p.s. I can't believe Robin van Persie got injured playing for Holland again. Really bad timing as he's been playing really well and we have a big game against Chelsea in two weeks. At least everybody has been scoring, so we should be ok, but he's done really well in the central striker role and will be a big loss. Bloody international friendlies - what a waste of time.
It's six thirty a.m. and I am sitting in a hotel reception in Flagstaff, Arizona, as I'm unable to sleep. Max was awake a few times in the night and after finally getting him back to sleep, I couldn't.
Yesterday was quite an epic day. We flew over 2,100 miles and then drove another 150. Getting up early we got a taxi to Newark airport, checked in and had some breakfast. Security was a nightmare, and as always seems to happen, we were the last onto the plane, after they called our name out (you know that family in the fast show?.....). You could see the look of trepidation on everybody's faces as we walked down the aisle - hoping that we weren't sitting near them! The stewardess asked us which seats, and said "what all four of you there?" as we didn't pay for Max, so we had three seats for the four of us. Somebody else lauged but probably more out of fear for six hours of hell. Actually the boys were amazingly good on the flight and lots of people at the end of the flight said how good they had been.
After collecting our bags we went to pick up the hire car. As part of our journey will be on bumpy dirt tracks we had decided to hire an SUV (Chelsea tractor). Everytime we've hired a car before they have just given us one. This time they said we had a choice. We went down into the car park and there were about 20 different cars/trucks to choose from - 4x4s and pickup trucks, Fords, Dodges, Chryslers, Chevies, Kias etc. After not much sleep and a long flight we were a bit lost. Sam sat in a few and tryed out the hazard lights and we chose a Chevrolet Traverse. Mainly because it looked nice, and Adrian - our most petrol-headed friend - drives a chevy.
We then set off on one of the most amazing drives of my life. Starting in Phoenix in 26 degree heat, and ending in Flagstaff at below zero. Phoenix is in the middle of the desert and shouldn't exist really - all the water for the million residents is piped in from over 1000 miles away. The road out took us uphill, past big red rocks and hills covered in huge cacti. Some of the cacti were at least 20 feet tall. Amazing. We kept going uphill, then across desert plains, then uphill again past amazing scenery, with big red mountains and rocks in the distance. Then as we went higher the landscape completely changed into forests, with huge snow covered mountains in the distance. Flagstaff is 7000 feet above sea level - almost twice as high as Ben Nevis.
We then had a really nice meal and an early night. Today after a swim at the hotel we're driving to the Grand Canyon. I'm very excited. The first view of it is meant to be completely breathtaking, and I can't wait.
Talking of swimming - Sam sam his first length without a float this week. He wears a jacket with floats in it, so not unassisted, but a big step for him, especially overcoming the fear.
The day before heading off to Arizona we went to see the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall, which is America's most famous christmas show. Paul's girlfriend is a Rockette - the troup of dancers that do most of the show - and got us really good reduced price tickets. The boys loved the show, and it was loads better than I had expected. The dancing and overall production was fantastic. Max was on my knees jumping up and down and clapping. Afterwards we went backstage, met the camels, and saw how the stage works.
We'll have internet access as some of the hotels we're staying at, so we may post again. Have a good week.
Tom x
p.s. I can't believe Robin van Persie got injured playing for Holland again. Really bad timing as he's been playing really well and we have a big game against Chelsea in two weeks. At least everybody has been scoring, so we should be ok, but he's done really well in the central striker role and will be a big loss. Bloody international friendlies - what a waste of time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)