Thanksgiving in Philadelphia

We spent Thanksgiving weekend down in Philadelphia.  When we moved to NYC we made a list of things we wanted to do while here and Philly was on the list.  Once we realized we would be alone for the holiday we decided it would be a great time to head down to Philly for the long weekend.   When we told the girls we were going Rachel said "so we are going to live there?"  Then when they were packing their bags, Rachel said "I am bringing this to my new home."  For her, home is where ever we are, I love that.

We were all looking forward to getting way.  Traffic in the city is horrible and it is ten times worse during a holiday weekend.  So instead of renting a car we decided to take the train.  It is only a 1.5 hour train ride from NYC to Philadelphia.  Door to door is was only about 3 hours and no traffic!  The girls enjoyed the train, they watched a show on my laptop.

Once we got to Philadelphia it was dinner time on Thanksgiving.  We quickly checked into our hotel and then headed out to dinner.  I will always prefer to spend the holidays with extended family but if that is not an option then eating out is great.  No cooking for me and not one dish to do either!  

The next day we headed out for some sight seeing.  Philadelphia is rich in US history.  First, we went on a tour of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were signed.  The girls had no interest but both Brian and I really enjoyed the tour.  It fun to see where it all began and to think about all the great minds that came together to create this nation.

After the tour we walked over to look at the Liberty Bell.  I was surprised by its size, it was not quite as big as I was expecting.  The girls barely looked at it, by this point they were done, they had lost all interested.  Right next to the bell was the site of the first "White House."  At the site there is an exhibit called the "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation." The entire exhibit is about slavery. There are a number of videos that you can watch, each one with a different perspective.

  I was walking around with Luna and we were talking about slavery and what it was.   This was the first time we had ever had this conversation and I did not talk to her about skin color.  I kept it really general just what slavery is.   It was hard to really know if she was understanding or not.  In one of the videos a little slave girl was being sold and as a result was being separated from her Mother.   Luna started to cry, she just kept asking "why" over and over.  We then had to reassure her that this is now illegal and that no one was going to take her or Rachel from us.  This seemed to make her feel better.  She did not mention it again.

After a full morning of sight seeing, it was time for some swimming.  We headed back to the hotel and the girls and I went swimming while Brian headed over to the United States Mint.  The girls and I swam for 3 hours!  They had a blast, it had been while since we went swimming, they had missed it!  

After swimming we went out to dinner.  Everyone was in bed by 8pm, we all were tired from our busy day!  

The next day we were up early and headed to the Please Touch Museum.  Which is basically a children's museum.  We had heard it was one of the best children's museum in the country.  I have to say it was by far the best children's museum I have ever been to.  It was amazing, so many things for the kids to do and experience.

After the children's museum we headed over to the Museum of Art.  Why?  Because the entrance has become known as the "Rocky Steps." Of course we all had fun running up the steps.  When we got back to NYC we asked Luna what her favorite part of the trip was and she said "the Rocky steps."  When we asked her why she liked that best, she said "because I won twice, I bet everyone up and down."  She was quick and oh so competitive :)

Half way up, doing our Rocky pose :)

At the top with Philadelphia in the background.

After a busy morning we grabbed a bite to eat and then more swimming :)  This time with Daddy too!  The next day we woke up, went for a quick swim and then headed back to NYC.  We had a wonderful weekend.

When we stepped off the train in Penn Station, NYC I breathed a sigh of relief and felt like I was home.  I was surprised I felt that way,  now I know I am a true New Yorker.  LOVE this city!

Rachel's Self Portrait

Rachel made a self portrait at school.  This is what she came home with.  My favorite part is the curly hair with a bow, I love it!

Hair Day

This past weekend I tried a new style on Luna.  I loved how it turned out.  Luna was very happy with the result and it only took 2 hours of braiding, it was a win win.  The style itself is perfect for the drier, colder weather all the ends are tucked in so they won't dry out.

So far this year I have had a hard time figuring out how to fit hair care into our schedule.  When she was in preschool in the afternoons, I would just spend one morning a week doing her hair.  Now with school full time, it does not give just much free time to get it done.  After school she is tired and has a harder time sitting for me.  So that only leaves the weekends, which can be so full and busy themselves.  As a result her hair is not getting restyled as often has I would like but that just means we are embracing the frizzes :)  This is her 4th restyle of the school year.  I am hoping to get a week or two out of it, but with all the swimming this next week who knows.

 

Sunday Bike Ride

On Sunday we went on a little family bike ride.  Actually not every one was riding a bike, Mommy was walking :)  Rachel has a little tricycle so I can still keep up with her even if I am just walking.  Brian and Luna were much faster and kept circling back around.  Everyone had a good time and Rachel pedaled her little heart out, she did great.  After riding as a family for a while, Daddy took off and went on his own ride. The girls and I spent some time playing around the marina and then rode home.

 

 Waiting for the elevator.

The girls switched bikes on the way back home.

Our Makeshift Swimming Pool

 

Things are slowly returning back to normal in our neighborhood.  We still know families that are without heat, others will not be able to return to their apartments for months but most of the businesses are back up and running.  

Rachel's school is scheduled to reopen up on December 3rd!  The temporary location has been working out ok for us.  Brian is dropping her off in the morning and then continuing on to work.  I get her in the afternoon.  Also it was not quite as far as I originally thought, it is a little less than a mile, round trip is 1.5 miles.  She adjusted to the new location without a problem and I think she likes getting pushed in the stroller rather than having to walk :)

The community center continues to remain closed, it has extensive damage and it will be months before it reopens.  The girls and I are really missing the pool, we love that pool and swam in it frequently.  So instead the girls are getting their water fix in our bath tub, goggles and all.  It makes quite the mess (they love to kick) but they have so much fun I can't say no. :)

For Thanksgiving we are spending the weekend in Philadelphia, just sight seeing.  My only requirement for the hotel was that it had an indoor pool, so we could swim each day!  I can't wait!

Peanut Butter & Co.

The girls did not have school on Tuesday, it was a planned holiday.  So we decided to go out to lunch.  We headed up to Peanut Butter & Co.  We have been there once before when we first moved to the city.  That time is was quite the adventure, this time around it was no big deal.

I left the stroller at home and the girls walked, which makes things so much easier in some ways and much harder in others. We took the subway up, it was only a few stops up on the local train.

Once at the restaurant the girls went and sat at a table while I ordered at the counter :) Last time they could not do that, it was great. Luna had a peanut butter and chocolate sandwich and Rachel had the peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.  The meals also came with carrot sticks and chips.  The girls ate it all!  I had the Elvis, which was a toasted peanut butter, bananas and honey sandwich, delicious!

Afterwards we took the subway back home and then stopped by a local park for a little play time.  We ran into some school friends but did not last too long because it was freezing outside.  

Rachel's school had some significant damage from the hurricane so they are holding classes in a new location while they do construction at the old building.  They will open back up on Wednesday at the new space.  Which is now about a mile from our apartment, so quite a walk in the morning.  We could take the subway, it is only one stop away or just walk it. Not sure which will be the quickest and easiest.  I will have the stroller so I am thinking walking it will be easiest, the subway is hard with a stroller because of all the stairs.  That would mean Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays I will be walking at least 4 miles a day.  :) 

Central Park Zoo (Again)

Today Rachel and I headed up to the Central Park Zoo.   We desperately needed to get out of the apartment and since her school was closed and most of the subways are up and running we decided we were up for an adventure.  So I let her pick between an children's museum or the zoo.  Even though is has gotten quite cold outside, she picked the zoo.  I should not have been surprised, she is such a little animal lover.

We headed out and even though most of the subways are up and running, not all of the ones in our neighborhood are working.  So it took us a little longer to get there than normal (1 hour travel time door to door) but was well worth it to get out of our neighborhood!

Rachel's favorite exhibit was the penguins but if you asked her she would say the rabbits (which she barely looked at).  We watched the penguins for sooooo long, she just kept talking to them and laughing.  The other part of the zoo she loved was the turtle statue.  I think she played there with that turtle for at least 30 minutes and I had to convince her to move on.  

On the way home she fell asleep in the stroller while we were on the subway.  I think she had fun and I loved getting to spend the day one on one with her, such a treat.

Below is a photo from today and the other photo was taken last time we came to the zoo.  Which was right after we moved the city, about 18 months ago.

PS. We have heard from her preschool, the building has water damage.  At this point they don't know how long it will take to fix. So starting on Wednesday they will be holding classes in a temporary location, which will be quite a walk for us.  Not ideal but better than no school.

7 Days after Sandy

Things continue to improve each day around here and slowly returning to a new normal.  But as more power is restored the extent of the damage in our neighborhood becomes much more apparent.  As I am out and about the feeling is definitely heavy, everyone is just trying to make sense of it all.

Luna will go back to school tomorrow.  Which is really great news.  The building suffered little damage but many schools in our area were not so lucky and their buildings are unusable.  Our school will likely be hosting another school that has been displaced.  I have no idea how that will work.  Our school is already completely full and each year there is an extensive waiting list just to get in.   But they can not add any more classes because there is no more space.  So the idea of a whole school seems daunting.  Again a new normal for everyone...

Our community center has extensive damage.  I posted a photo of it last time with water in the stairwell.  They have just finished pumping out all the water today!  So they were finally able to get down to the lowest level and could see the extent of the damage.  Below is a photo of a classroom where they had art classes.  Water was up to the ceiling on this floor. Those are industrial refrigerators from the cooking classroom that that were knocked over and then flowed into the art classroom at the other end of the building! They have not given out any info on the pool yet but the biggest concern will be the pumps/electrical system.  But who knows what could have happen in there.

Rachel's school finally got power back this weekend and they were able to go in and see what the school looked like.  They sent out an email saying there was damage and would have a contractor in this week to take a look.  That was all the info they gave.  We have no idea what type of damage or how extensive.  I am wondering are we talking days of work or weeks or months?

We have many friends that will be out of their apartments for weeks and some even months with the damage their buildings suffered.  They are now scrabbling to find long term housing for their families until they can move back home.  Some are now living way outside of our neighborhood.  They will have a commute to get the kids to school each day.  Luckily the subway stop in our neighborhood opened today and has trains running.  So that should make things a little easier.

As I type the above things I realize they are all fixable, livable, doable.  My heart breaks for all the families on Staten Island, Long Island and New Jersey that have lost everything.  I can't even imagine.  Different families in our neighborhood have been working hard to gather the supplies and items that those communities are in desperate need of.  Any thing from winter jackets and blankets to trash bags and paper towels.  Everything is collected then loaded into a car and driven out to the hardest hit areas.    Up until the hurricane we had been having a very warm fall.  Of course this week it has changed, and it has become down right chilly out there.

Every day things are getting better but the reality is setting in and it feels very heavy.  It will be a long time until things are truly up and running.  But nothing compared to what the families on Staten Island, Long Island and New Jersey are faced with.

Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone but NYC is still struggling to get back up and running.  We have been truly blessed through the whole storm, never losing power, internet, or water.  

The Friday before the storm hit people were starting to talk and we were trying to figure out what it would mean for us.  It was not until Sunday that the mandatory evacuation for Zone A was announced. We live in Zone A as do many of the families in our church.  So we were asking around about what people were doing and a couple families told us they planned to stay....at first we were surprised to hear this.  We thought mandatory evacuation meant you had to leave.  We did not realize you could stay.  So we looked into it a little more and learned that we would not be arrested for staying :).  We also learned that our building would be turning off the elevators and locking the front door so we would not be able to leave.  At this point we had a few options: go to a city-run shelter, try to find a hotel room for all 5 of us (we had Erin visiting us) or stay home.  We decided to stay home and to just be prepared for no power or water for many many days. Also, we are on a very high floor, so we knew flooding wouldn't be an issue for us.  I thought we would all sleep better at the apartment without being crammed into a hotel room and it would be much easier to entertain the kids all day at the apartment even if we did not have power.

It was a little eerie to see all the neighbors packing up and leaving the building all the while we were staying.  Instead I was heading out shopping to stock up on non-perishables so we could last as long as we needed without leaving.  Below is a photo from the grocery store, the lines were insanely long and the shelves were sparse as people stocked up.

We were suppose to be out of the area by 7 pm on Sunday.  At 6 pm building management came around and gave us a stern warning to evacuate.  Then they came back around 8 pm to say we needed to leave and they we were endangering our families.  That night all three of us adults (Erin, Brian and I) closed the blinds and turned the lights off and stayed in our bedroom watching a movie on our computer, we felt like teenagers doing something wrong.  Then next morning (Monday) they called but we did not answer and then at 10 am they stopped by one last time to urge us to leave. They then shut off the elevators and locked the doors.  (We could still get out the side door, but it would lock once you went out).  

Monday morning Sandy still had not reared her ugly head yet and we were doing quite well in our apartment.  Our neighbors across the hall also choose to stay so we were not alone on our floor.  Another family from our church chose to stay and they were a few floors below so we had company.  A total of about 15 families stayed in our building.  Monday we spent the entire day in the apartment playing card games and doing craft projects.  This was Rachel's ideal day and let's just say not Luna's favorite type of day. :)  But both kids did great.  We had the news on all day and Luna kept asking "who is Sandy."  But otherwise it was a little windy but not bad enough to scare any of us and the girls really did not seem to notice.  They went to bed that night with no flooding in sight.  

After the girls were asleep the flooding began and once it started it happened very quickly.  In less than an hour a river was flowing down the highway in front of our building.  We were shocked by how quickly it went.  From our window we watched the water rise, saw many of our local businesses get flooded, saw a few cars try to drive down the road only to have to back up, saw flashes from three different transformers which blew up and saw all of lower Manhattan go eerily dark (except for us).  The darkness was really the most shocking part.  After that we could not really see much out our window because there was no light.  We went to bed not feeling scared but wondering what it would all look like in the morning. 

By 7am on Tuesday, all the water we could see from our apartment had receded.  The girls never saw anything, barely heard the wind and still do not fully understand what a hurricane is even through they experienced one first hand.  By afternoon our building was back open, meaning they turned on the elevators and unlocked the front doors.  We were eager to get out, see what had happened to our neighborhood and stretch our legs.  Here are some photos that we took:

One of the trees in Rockefeller Park

  Luna standing in front of the Goldman Sachs building. They were well prepared!

During the flood, the water was up to the line on that wall.

The start of the Battery/Brooklyn Tunnel, completely full (notice the 12'8" max clearance sign). The news said that if you took all the water out of the tunnel it would completely fill the Empire State Building. Now that is a lot of water!

Of course we had to make sure the playgrounds were ok :) Just a little cluttered with leaves and branches but the girls did not seems to mind.

Aunti II exploring with us.

Lots of families returned to the building on Tuesday.  We continue to have power (now Thursday evening) while the rest of  lower Manhattan does not.  I felt bad running my dishwasher knowing how many people did not have this luxury and even doing a load of laundry or taking a shower. None of those things have happened without a really grateful heart.

Wednesday was Halloween and there was a chance that it was going to be postponed since many people had not returned to the building.  When I heard this, it sounded so foreign to me.  How do you postpone Halloween!?  That morning I arranged a play date with some friends in the building.  The girls had fun and we all enjoyed having some new people to interact with :)  

Halloween was definitely more low key then it would have been with school parties and such.  But Brian still took the girls trick or treating and the girls enjoyed way too much candy.  They loved it and Luna loved answering the door.  Unfortunately, my back was bothering me so I missed out :(  I am guessing Rachel's school might still do a party but that will depend on when they actually open (this Mommy is hoping for Monday!)

After the girls went to bed, Brian took me to the ER because I has having such severe back pain.  That is a whole different post.  But the summary is I am fine, most likely just a strained muscle. They gave me some pain medication and we were home by about 1:30am :)

Thursday was a nice sunny day.  The majority of lower Manhattan continues to be without power.  But we have been told that it should be up and running by Saturday night!  Which is a beautiful thing!  Whole Foods opened and is running on generator power, again lovely.  They got two truck loads of food.  So it is sparse but they have milk, eggs, chicken, fish and fruit :)  Still a lot of people without power but by Saturday the store will be well stocked and people can fill up their fridges again!

The neighborhood is working hard to get back up and running.  One of the local restaurants that is without power had a little stand on the street selling food.  Warm food is quite the luxury for some people right now.  Our church has had a coffee stand for the past two days and has been passing out free hot coffee to anyone who wants a cup.  Also a lot of people have been going into buildings checking on the elderly that can't get out.  This is a truly lovely neighborhood.  I am so grateful for our time here.

Here is one of the local parking garages pumping water out.  A lot of people tried to move their cars before the storm because they knew the garages would  flood but some people did not :(  I have heard some garages on their bottom floors have 20+ feet of water.

This is a photo taken at our community center.  This is where the girls and I swim regularly and Rachel has ballet classes.  The center goes two floors below ground.  This picture is taken in the stairway going down to the lowest level, there is still one more set of stairs around the corner that you can't even see!  The entire floor is underwater! They have estimated over a million dollars of damage just to the center itself.  Today they worked on pumping out all the water.  To get the gas to run the pumps they had to wait in line for over 2 hours.

This is the view from our bedroom.  Usually it is a stunning cityscape with lots of bright city lights.  Now it is eerily dark.  Not much light until 34th street, which is around 3 miles north!.  In the photo the bright light in the back ground is the Chrysler Building, it is on 42nd street.  Can't wait to have our city back up and running!

Long post I know, likely will never happen again :)  Erin flew out today and is headed back to Montana. Brian heads out to Chicago tomorrow, life continues on.

One last photo just for memory sake.  I saw this statue on TV and thought it was real news reporters filming back at Manhattan.  I was outraged that they would be out there on that little dock during the storm, I went on and on and on about it.  Then we all laughed so hard when Brian and Erin told me they were fake :)  So after the storm I had to go have my picture taken by them.

Thanks every one for your thoughts and prayers.  We really appreciate all the kind emails and calls we received.  We weathered the storm very well and look forward to our neighborhood getting back up and running.