Mimi and Papa's Visit

Okay, so clearly I've been busy the past week, which explains my lack of blogging. But don't worry, I'm about to make up for that. So, settle in and grab a cup of coffee (or tea) because this is bound to be a long post!

As you've probably determined from the title of my post, my parents were in town this weekend. They flew into Hartford on January 9th and all three of us were waiting at the airport to pick them up. Elijah was so excited to see them he literally bowled Mimi over at the airport.

Sunday Mom and I got right down to business shopping for pink baby clothes. I'll be posting pictures of some of the cute things we got later this week for all the female relatives who need a good dose of pink. But seriously, by the end of the week we were picking out things that were blue and green for her too. Apparently there is such a thing as too much pink.

Anyway, Matthew started class that Monday, so we stayed around the house that day. Tuesday I believe there was more shopping. Thursday too. Hmmm, I'm pretty sure we did things other than shop for baby stuff. Oh right, Friday Matthew was off so we took my parents on the obligatory Yale campus tour. On Friday night Matthew and I went on a date (Sweet!).


But the main event of the week was the trip to New York City. I believe that as a family this was our third trip into the city. I'm amazed how many things we still haven't seen! We left quite early this time, on the 8:30 train, and it was a good thing too. About thirty minutes outside the city something broke on our train (Matthew may have to clarify this for me later) but for whatever reason, we were stuck on the train until another one could be sent to pick us all up. I'm not sure how long we waited, 30-45 minutes maybe before another train pulled up along side our train. We had to all move to the front car where they had a bridge attached to the other train to let us all cross over. (Also, not sure how many people exactly were on our train, at least 100.) The worst part was that the other train was pretty full so we all had to walk to the back of the train to find seats. Needless to say, we were happy when the train started moving again, but annoyed that our trip had been delayed a whole hour.


When we got into the city at last we headed straight to the Empire State building. Matthew and I have only looked at it from afar, but never been up to the top (it's a little $$$). But Mom and Dad really wanted to go up, so up we went. (Errr...86 floors?) We were lucky there were very short lines despite the fact that it was a Saturday morning and before we knew it we were taking in the best view the city has to offer.

After we finished taking tons of pictures (I'll post some in a bit) we headed down to the subway station to ride down to Greenwich to go to John's Pizzeria (again!). Mom and Dad agreed that it was really awesome pizza and everyone enjoyed the break from walking. We were lucky that the weather was great out that day, especially for this time of year. Towards the afternoon it warmed up to the mid-forties. As soon as we finished our pizzas, we jumped back on the subway to head toward the southern end of Manhattan to catch the Staten Island Ferry. It's basically a giant water taxi that takes people across New York Harbor to Staten Island. It's free and offers the best view of the Statue of Liberty without having to pay to go over to Liberty Island. Anyway, as you'll soon see from the pictures, it was well worth it.

You'd think our day would be over by now, since by the time we rode the ferry back to Manhattan it was dark. But no, we decided to walk down to see a little bit of Wall Street and the financial district. Also, Ground Zero is very close by so we went by there as well. Unfortunately, there is not much to see there besides a construction site. But there is the beginnings of a new building rising up out of that construction site, which is very encouraging. Maybe in a few more years we'll get to see it!


Anyway, that's about the long, and the short of it all. We were all quite tired by the time we got back on the train to New Haven, but it was worth the sore feet to see all that we did.

Oh yeah, you might like to see a few pictures!

Elijah and Papa at the Divinity School


Street view of the Chrysler Building


The veiw of the Chrysler Building from the top of the Empire State Building.

More shots from the top.


That's Central Park behind those buildings.




If the Twin Towers were still standing, they would be in this shot. (I think!)










At John's waiting for our pizza.





Riding the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry. Elijah loved the subway, the rest of us were not so impressed!





The Brooklyn Bridge

The famous Manhattan skyline. Again, if the WTC Towers were still there, they would be in this shot. In fact, if you look closely on the left you can see a crane where Ground Zero is.




Lady Liberty! We stood on the back of the ferry to get these shots, it was so cool!






As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was a great trip. One of the best things about living in CT is how close the City is. We're already planning another trip in the Spring before the baby comes. Maybe this time we'll visit Central Park and the Central Park Zoo!