Norah Takes Manhattan

Norah and I spent the weekend with friends in NYC. This was Norah’s 3rd trip to the city. What a traveller she is! Back in August Bryan made plans to go to Denver for David and Stacy’s wedding and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go because I would be 36 weeks. I was hoping to go to NYC earlier in the fall to visit Christy and Jace and also to go apartment scouting with Lauren but timing didn’t work out. Then just a little over a week ago Bryan actually had to change his flight from leaving out of Ithaca Thursday morning to leaving out of JFK Thursday night in order to make an interview so our weekend getaway worked out perfectly.

I was a little hesitant to travel this late in my pregnancy but I figured it would actually be much easier to spend the weekend with Christy and Lauren helping me with Norah than fending for myself. Boy was I right. Those girls were such a huge help I felt like I had a vacation from parenting. I can’t thank them enough for carrying Norah and her stroller up and down countless subway steps.

 

Christy and Jace were generous hosts as always. Christy made Norah and I pumpkin waffles and pancakes (and Norah helped) and Jace made Norah eggs on demand.

Friday morning Christy, Norah and I did some shopping around the upper west side and looked for coats for Norah at Century 21. We found several good options but they were unfortunately not in her size. Mercifully, the coat that Norah really really really wanted was also not in her size.I’m sure she was innocently trying to pick the coat that most resembled a Muppet but Christy and I agreed it made her look like something else.After some shopping we went to Central Park to play on the playground and ride on the carousel. Norah said repeatedly that the carousel was “so fun.” What would I have done without Christy? There is no way I could have gotten up on that horse!In the evening we met up with Lauren to go to the MoMA and dinner. It was free thanks to Target sponsoring free Friday nights. Thank you Target – I love you. These pictures are of Lauren, Christy and Norah walking through a cool interactive piece called “Sum of Day’s.” We had no idea what it was all about as we walked through the elliptical labyrinth with hanging microphones but after we read about it we learned the microphones were recording ambient sounds and replaying a new one each day with with older recordings gradually fading into whispers. Cool concept. It would have been much cooler if the museum hadn’t been so crowded and loud.Saturday morning Norah and I took it easy at the playground next to Christy’s building while Lauren and Christy went running in Central Park. We spent the afternoon at The Cloisters which was the perfect outing for such a beautiful day. The Cloisters are beautifully situated on Fort Tryon Park which is on top of a mountain (by NY standards). Christy and I somehow missed the elevator out of the 190th st. station and exited at the bottom of the mountain and after walking around the mountain lost for a while we started joking that we were going to have to scale this thing. It turned out that we did. I wish I would have taken pictures of all the stairs we climbed up with Norah in her stroller. I even googled images looking for a picture that would do justice to the feat but couldn’t find one. It was ridiculous and yet the Cloisters were still worth the effort. I’m not sure what this bridge is in the background but that is the Hudson river.Lauren and Christy at the base of the CloisterNorah still full of energy despite walking up her share of stairsI’m posting this picture for those of you who want to see the 36 week bumpAfter a nice lunch in a cloister at the Cloisters, we finished the day off with shopping at Columbus Circle. So fun. Thank you Norah for timing your nap so perfectly and thank you Fort Tryon stairs for ensuring it would be such a long nap.

Sunday we went for a walk along the High Line which is a pedestrian park along the old elevated railroad that went through the meat packing district. It was opened in 2009 but some of it was just completed this summer and there are plans to keep expanding it. I think this is the coolest and most effective example I have seen of a community combatting urban decay. The High Line was an eye sore before this project and now it is a treasured park.