Maia takes Manhattan, Part Deux

Hello family and friends! I posted the photos quickly last night, and didn't take the time to write a textual counterpart to the pics. This entry might not be as long as I'd ideally make it, because I have to be out of the house and on my way to teach in about 30 minutes. But, I can get started, at least . . .

The flight to New York was good, overall, although we had a few turbulent (ha!) stretches of time at the end. The plane departed on time, but we had to circle over NY for about 30 minutes, and that last 30 minutes was what pushed Maia over the edge for a bit. She started to get extremely squirmy and began to cry, at which point an awesome flight attendant took her back to the kitchen area to check out the plastic cups and tiny bottles of water. (My "fasten seat belt" light was on at the time, so I was stuck.)

(Continued on Tuesday morning . . . teaching was good last night!)

We landed at LaGuardia and took a taxi to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Auntie Jo lives. I really love her neighborhood--it's a combination of the New York of the movies (Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, Central Park) and the New York where "real people" live. It was immediately striking to me to see how nice New Yorkers are, contrary to legend. Doormen and waitresses and people on the street said "hello" and smiled and waved at Maia. As Joanna so accurately said, the people whom she meets in her building and local coffee shops are so much kinder than the average surly college student working at Starbucks in East Lansing or Ann Arbor. There's a bluntness to New Yorkers, though, that isn't a part of the Midwestern way of social interaction; if you're taking too long in line at the grocery store, for example, they'll let you know directly, rather than saying nothing or muttering under their breath (as we tend to do in that case, here in Michigan).

So, several times throughout the weekend, we wandered around the Upper East Side. We went to nearby corner cafes for breakfast, and visited Joanna's department at the Institute of Fine Arts. After our arrival on Friday, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but that was a short visit; Maia had been through a very full day of new experiences--airplane, taxi, subway, Jo's apartment--and the art museum was just too much. We were there for about 30 minutes or so before she started to fuss and then cry. We joked for the rest of the weekend that Maia hates art, much to Auntie Jo's chagrin.

On Saturday, we began with a trip to Union Square, to see the city's most well known Green Market. Even at this time of year, which is in the "off season" for most Farmer's Markets, this particular market was very impressive. It was really fun to wander through a farmer's market surrounded by multi-story buildings, with the top of the Empire State Building peeking up behind the smaller skyscrapers on one side of the square.

On and off throughout the day we returned to Joanna's neighborhood and her apartment for Maia's naptimes and for meals. At about 5:30 we were planning to venture out on a subway/train to Brooklyn for pizza and then a walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge, but, again, Maia's energy reserves were emptied, and she was not interested in leaving the apartment! She got progressively fussier as we put her coat and hat on, and began the full-on cry once we went outside. So, I stayed behind with her while Mom and Jo went to the famous Eli Zabar's market to pick up some treats for us all to eat (coconut cake and a Chocolate Babka).

Clearly, I learned throughout this weekend that Maia is more than happy to see and do new things for about 1/2 or 2/3 of the day, but she runs out of energy for it after her second nap, and probably needs to be back at "home" after about 5:00 PM or so. It was a good thing to learn; we'll see how this changes in future travels, as she gets older.

(I hear Maia waking up right now, so I'm going to publish what I've written thus far and finish this up later today!)

Later that same day . . .

It's 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon, now, and Maia is in the midst of her second nap of the day. I want to be sure to get the details of our trip down in writing, so, here goes . . .

On Saturday evening, after Mom and Jo came back from Eli Zabar's, Mom graciously and wonderfully volunteered to stay in the apartment with Maia so that Jo and I could go out again. After the disappointment of not taking the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, this was just what I needed. So, Jo and I picked up the 6 train at the 77th street stop (four blocks from her apartment) and rode down the World Trade Center site. It was dark by this time, and so the enormous construction site was illuminated by sports-stadium-type lights. There were bulldozers, cranes, and construction workers doing their thing, and the site is criscrossed with the foundations of the buildings that have fallen, and the new structures in progress. It's a huge hole in the ground, now, but one side is marked with drawings of the buildings that are planned for construction there. The site is in the financial district of the city, which, understandably, is very quiet on a Saturday night, but there were still several people who seemed to be doing what Jo and I did: walking around the perimeter of the site, and peeking in through holes in the tarps that are hung from the very tall fences on three out of four sides of the area.

I was surprised by my emotional reaction to visiting the so-called "Ground Zero" site; it made the tragedy of what happened there viscerally real, rather than the strange symbol that it's become, in many ways, over the last six years. I won't go into the long discussion that we had about the meaning of the site itself (upon our return to the apartment) . . . I'll just say that it's an upsetting place, for many reasons (some of which probably depend upon one's political leanings).

After another good night of sleep, we woke up on Sunday morning and went to Central Park, which is just a few short blocks from Jo's apartment. Her entrance to the park is right next to "the Stuart Little pond," where the fictional mouse Stuart Little raced in motorized boats across the water in the kiddie lit classic. Our time in the park was wonderful; it was probably my favorite part of the entire weekend. The weather was crisp and sunny, the park is stunningly beautiful on a fall morning, and the guy playing the trumpet (my favorite: The Star Wars theme song) added some extra urban fun and flavor to the whole place.

So, Maia said "hi!" the the other park visitors, watched two kids fight with balloon light sabres (while the aforementioned theme song was being played), and barked at the ducks on the south side of the pond. Then, as we left, we stopped by a street vendor to buy the classic "I -heart- NY" t-shirt for Maia.

Immediately upon our return to Jo's place: we hailed a taxi at 81st and York, and then made our way to LaGuardia and our flight home.