A Break

Which is different from 'its broken'. Having spent a month of weekends working on the dinning room, we felt that it was close enough to completion to put down the nail guns and paint brushes and do something else with our lives. An excellent opportunity came when our daughter said that her new work schedule would give her off on Sundays, so my wife decided to use the weekend to visit and see the new apartment.

I am not a fan of NYC. Sorry, but the congestion, heavy traffic and (to me at least) confusing navigation always leads to headaches and exhaustion. So I wasn't sure I wanted to sign up for this kind of a break from home improvement. The plan was to leave early on Saturday morning, arrive at her workplace for a little taste of New York Kids Club, then off on our own to visit the Intrepid Air & Space Museum.

The trip in wasn't too bad, although TomTom did flake on us occasionally. We found the Lincoln Tunnel, entered the city, made our way across the Brooklyn Bridge and after a few wrong turns arrived at her workplace on time. (Note to Navigators: it is not a good idea to point out interesting landmarks when the driver is trying to find exit numbers or route changes. Missing a way point could cost hours of back tracking, which is just not worth the two second glimpse of the old bridge going over the big river.)

We were astonished to see how hard it was to mange six preschool kids and hold their attention and keep them active for an hour. The facility is wondrous, clean, modern, with great equipment. Its clear she likes what she is doing and the kids love her. (Yes, some very proud parents.)

Getting to the museum was fairly easy. Note that the ship is different then the organization, which has a building nearby. (Wrong GPS selection.) The setup is great, movies and displays are all well done and I highly recommend it if you should get the chance. The trip back to the hotel was...an adventure. Thankfully we had the cursed GPS unit, as we did get there but took much more of a scenic route then hoped. We were truly exhausted by the time our heads hit the pillow. (BTW, USC lost.)

Sunday morning we again loaded the car for the short trip to my daughters place, a very nice apartment in Astoria/Queens/NYC. A wonderful breakfast was prepared, we met the boyfriend's parents for the first time (great folks) and shared a meal at a cozy (ie noisy) Greek seafood restaurant a short walk from the apartment. Outstanding food!

Time to leave, Google confirmed the best route to be over the George Washington to get out of town. Traffic was heavy but not horrible, and we made it home in about 2.5 hours.

It was a wonderful break.