Tales from the Gorge: Christmas in NJ, NYC

We planned to spend this Christmas in NJ visiting my family. But in an exciting twist, Corinne's mom Donna actually made the trip with us! She'd never been to NJ or NYC and didn't have any other plans. But really, we think that she couldn't stand being that far away from Anders! And in a gracious gesture, my parents indicated that they would even share their "Anders-time" with Donna; they gave her the Midnight-8am timeslot. ;)

Despite our distaste for traveling during the holidays, our flights were actually pretty uneventful. Since we were traveling with Donna, we drove to Seattle and flew non-stop from there to Newark. We opted for an evening flight (rather than a red-eye), and everything went pretty smoothly - particularly when compared to our last travel experience.

We arrived in Newark around midnight, and I sent my dad a text message to let him know that we had arrived. He was waiting at cousin Mindy's about 40 minutes away, so the plan was that he would start heading to the airport while we waited for our bags. Once we had picked up all of our checked bags, I gave him a call to let him know that we were ready. It was at that point that I discovered he didn't have text service on his phone - so he hadn't left yet! Oops. At least Anders had fun wandering around the relatively empty baggage claim. (I'm still not sure how he was even awake at this point!)

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Anders's cousins, Katya & Nadija, were very excited to see "cousin Anders." (Apparently he has graduated from the "baby Anders" moniker that they used on our last trip east.) They loved spending time with him and just watching him do whatever he would do.

They would sometimes even fight over who could stand closer to Anders.

...and Anders would usually be oblivious (or at least indifferent) to the whole thing.

We try to keep Christmas a low-key affair. One rule that we have adhered to is "gifts for those under 18 only", which saves a lot of shopping, stress, and general hassle around the holiday, leaving lots more time for just enjoying each others' company.

Anders, of course, made out like a bandit. His haul included lots of new books, some toys, and a giant stuffed dog. We weren't sure how much we were going to have to ship back when it didn't fit in our suitcases, but with Corinne's mad packing skills she managed to fit everything in - no extra boxes!

For the girls, Corinne found pettiskirts from an artist on Etsy.com, probably her favorite shopping site and Internet time-suck. These particular dresses also had shirts with ice cream cones that matched the skirts, and Corinne just couldn't resist. The girls really seemed to like them too.

Since this was Donna's first trip to the tri-state area and she'd never been to New York City before, we planned a one-day NYC extravaganza that included as much sight-seeing and city experiences as we could fit into a single day. But given that it was the weekend after Christmas, we ended up with a more "authentic" experience than we had hoped.

Driving in to NYC can be a real hassle - not to mention expensive, considering average downtown parking rates - so we decided to take a ferry across the Hudson from NJ into the city. When we arrived at the NY Waterway terminal in Weehawken, NJ, we realized that we may have made a mistake. The line was unbelievably long and seemed to be moving very slowly. But by this point we were committed, so we waited the hour or so that it took to get tickets and get on a ferry.

The weather was relatively warm and clear, so we were treated to a nice view of the NYC skyline from the ferry.

Once in the city, the first scheduled activity was classic tourist: Grey Line Sightseeing bus tour. Corinne and I hadn't taken one of these tours before, and we thought that it would be an easy way to get Donna a broad overview of downtown. We wouldn't get to see anything particularly up-close, but we would cover Times Square, Greenwich Village, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center site, Battery Park and more, all in the span of just a few hours.

My parents had done the bus tour before, and Drew didn't think that the girls would survive on the bus for that long, so they wandered the city while we boarded the bus for the start of the tour. We found seats on the second story of the double-decker bus for our two hour tour.

It was fun to see the city from the higher vantage point, but the traffic was horrendous. The bus just crawled along the city streets, and what was scheduled to be a two hour tour ended up closer to three and a half. The bus was full the whole time, and since we had a scheduled event for later that evening, we didn't get off at any of the scheduled stops to do more exploring; we just didn't have time. We ended up getting off the bus before the last stop and walking to our destination to meet back up with the rest of our group.

We coordinated to rejoin our group near Rockefeller Center where we planned to take a quick glimpse at the famous tree before heading to dinner. But at this point the crowds became overwhelming. We walked down 5th Avenue, but only barely. It was virtually impossible to move - particularly with Anders in a stroller. At one point I found a corridor in which I could actually make forward progress, and it was inside of some velvet rope. It was only when I got to the other end that I realized it was a roped-off section in front of some of the 5th Ave windows displays, and I was walking the wrong way. I got some ugly looks and comments from folks in the crowd, but at that point I didn't care.

Once we found the rest of our party (thank goodness for cellphones!), we started looking for someplace to grab some dinner. Drew really wanted to see the tree while we were there, so he redirected us through the plaza in spite of the crowds. It was pretty slow going, but Donna did get to see the famed tree after all.

After that diversion, we only had a few minutes to eat before we had to get to our final scheduled event for the day. So we ended up eating at one of the many "original Ray's pizza". The place was packed, the lines were long, and the pizza was mediocre. We ate quickly and left.

After our rushed dinner, we split from the rest of our party. My parents took Anders and spent a few minutes relaxing in the lobby of the timeshare they own nearby where Anders got to experience his first TV dinner and football game. Afterward they took the ferry back to NJ and drove home.

Meanwhile, Donna, Corinne, and I remained to complete our NYC experience with a Broadway show: Fela. As a relatively new show, we didn't know that much about it other than there was lots of music and dancing. The show is based on the true story of Fela Kuti, a charismatic Nigerian musician and activist who operated the "Afrika Shrine" nightclub in Lagos during the '70s. The show immerses you in that environment as if you were at the club. Fascinating, energetic, and at times depressing show. After the show, we took the bus back to the ferry (which was now much less crowded) and headed home. After this experience, I think it will be quite a while before we go into New York anywhere near a major holiday.

Our NYC trip provided enough excitement and mayhem, so for the rest of the trip we didn't do anything in particular. Going for a walk in downtown Newton sure is a lot more relaxing than in NYC!