New York City! (week 502)

The Keisler Family finally arrived in New York City and is officially on "Summer Vacation".  For the past 12 months, Christopher and I have been asking our parents how much longer until we board Jet Blue at the Long Beach Airport to visit our cousins and grandparents in New York.  The day, rather the night, finally came on Friday when we took off at 1000 pm (approximately 30 minutes later) on the red eye flight to JFK. 

In past years, Christopher and I were pretty good at falling asleep almost immediately after take off. In fact, it had become rather routine that our parents actually looked forward to the flight.  In recent years, however, we began planning out each step in the process--a window seat to watch the City lights, a few games on the iPad, an apple juice after take-off--which only delayed bed time and shortened the amount of sleep we could get between LGB and JFK.  This year, not only was takeoff delayed by Jet Blue but bed time was delayed by the many events we tried to pack into the flight, and increased the number of threats and warnings from our parents.

In the end, Dad worked through the night to clear email while we got about 3 hours of sleep. When we finally arrived at Aunt Lea, Uncle Mark, and Cousin Nina's house in Harlem, we all crashed for a few hours of naps so that we could properly restart our day with bagels, cream cheese and a trip on the Subway to see the Museum of Natural History.  We had a great time chasing Pokemon Go monsters throughout Manhattan on our way to the museum where we also saw the new IMAX movie "Dark Universe" at the Planetarium, walked through Central Park, and ate pretzels off the street.

On Sunday, we continued the New York invasion with a trip to the Empire State Building (up to floor 86), New York pizza, and our first Broadway play "Finding Neverland".  The theater, stage sets, singing and dancing were incredible and we all vowed to return next year for another production.  We were most impressed with the kids in the production who were professional actors at the young age of 2nd Grade.  We had a great time with Cousin Nina, having happy hour with Doritos and Grape Soda, and learning about the history of Harlem. Before taking a cab to Penn Station and the Long Island Railroad the next morning, my dad and I went on a long walk to get coffee and explore the City near the East River.  It was a great trip to New York and a great start to our Family Summer Vacation!