Scattered Thoughts . . .

L ukey and Kenzie have been dying for a long distance trip on Amtrak for many years.  Last Christmas, we were booked to take Amtrak to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie but our train was cancelled as we were waiting for it to arrive in Waterbury.  It was cancelled due to flooding here in Vermont and, at the last minute, we decided to drive down to Manhattan instead.  That means Lukey and Kenzie missed out on a huge part of last Christmas' surprise trip.  They were sorely disappointed but we still had a great time in Manhattan at Christmastime.  That train cancellation really put a big damper on the trip though which we were reminded of constantly during the long 12 hours in the car instead. With Lukey and Kenzie's cancelled Amtrak trip in mind, Sheila and I started planning another trip for this summer way back in November.  We've had to cancel a trip to Dayton and the US Air Force Museum at least twice in the past ten years so we're long overdue for a trip t...

A fter our short visit to Manhattan this past Saturday, we rode on the Long Island Railroad from Grand Central Madison to Rockville Centre then walked the few short blocks back to the hotel.  I have to say that, as a tourist wanting easy and quick access to midtown Manhattan, the new Madison extension to Grand Central is very convenient! I needed to make a short stop at a pharmacy so we stopped at a pharmacy that was next to the hotel.  While we were there, we picked up a few additional drinks for the hotel.  Below, we are waiting for Sheila to come out of the pharmacy...  we somehow got separated in the store so checked out separately... Six hours of sleep the previous night was now taking its toll on Kenzie.  She laid down to take a short nap with her new stuffed animal but I don't think she got more than a few minutes of sleep, if at all.  I managed to capture a photo of her lying with her stuffed animal though... Before long, it was time to drive to my ...

A s we were departing Rockefeller Center with the kids this past weekend, we were walking toward Sak's on Fifth Avenue.  When we got to Fifth Avenue I immediately noticed St Patrick's Cathedral and was reminded that we didn't get to show the inside of this cathedral to the kids when we were here at Christmastime.   We had hoped to show the kids this landmark cathedral when we were here Christmas week but it was locked up since it was nighttime.  On this warm morning, however, the cathedral was open to the public so we walked across the street to St Patrick's. Before entering the cathedral, we quickly went over a few rules and customs so nobody would make a fool of themselves in this famous landmark.  It would have been nice to do a tour of the cathedral but, unfortunately, we didn't have time for that.  I'm not sure the two 12 year olds would have appreciated the significance of what they were seeing in a tour anyway. St Patrick's Cathedral was perhaps Shei...

A fter a short stroll through Bryant Park this past weekend, Sheila, Lukey, Kenzie and I walked up the few blocks to Rockefeller Center.  We walked up Sixth Avenue so we approached Rockefeller Center from that side.   We had hoped to bring the kids to FAO Schwarz when we were here this past Christmas but the line to get into the store was ridiculously long so we aborted that part of our Christmas plan.  This day was a far better day.  It was much more quiet which allowed us to play with whatever we wanted in the store! As we walked up 49th Street from Sixth Avenue, we passed the Rainbow Room entrance.   Just beyond the NBC Studios and Rainbow Room entrance is one of the entrances to FAO Schwarz... One of the reasons we had hoped that the store would be relatively quiet is because we wanted the kids to be able to play a bit on the giant keyboard, if FAO Schwarz still had that giant toy made famous by the movie "Big".  If the store was crowded, then...