This is Part 4 of our USA vacation blog.
So there we were: off to New York on the last Monday of our visit! Pop-Pop drove us down to New Haven where we boarded the Metro North New Haven line train to Grand Central.
We had a very entertaining woman join us in Fairfield and talk up a storm the rest of the trip, while Molli Malou stared out the window in wonder and awe as the landscape rushing by got increasingly urban.
At last we arrived in Grand Central!
We promised Molli Malou we would start the day by taking her to the greatest toy store in the greatest square of the greatest city in the world.
On our way to meet the Chrises (Peditto and Metzger) for lunch, we walked right by our favorite old Manhattan haunt!
Peditto works for HBO at the Grace Building, so we met him on the corner of 6th and 42nd for lunch in Bryant Park. Metzger met us there too. As we waited, I got a shot of Molli Malou with the Empire State Building looming above her.
And then there they were!
So we picked up some sandwiches and ate in Bryant Park.
(At least, the grown-ups ate. Molli Malou gave most of her lunch to birds.)
After a short lunch with those old friends, we set out down 5th to show Molli Malou the Empire State Building, the tallest building in New York since 9/11. (I still remember the dreadful moment when Tom Brokaw observed on live television, in the mostly muted moments after the towers fell, that the helicopter view of the Empire State Building we were seeing was “now the tallest building in New York.”)
But first, the front of the library for a quick photo op!
Then down to 34th Street to behold the behemoth:
The line was too long to go to the top of the building, we realized we no longer had time to make it downtown to see Lady Liberty and be back to our train with any hope of doing anything else, so after a quick hit at a Korean grocery on 32nd for some roasted seaweed, we said our goodbyes to Metzger and made our way back up 5th in steadily increasing rain.
The next shot of the building south of St. Pat’s may not look like much this small, but it’s quite nice in its full size, which is why I include it.
Here we are at the Rock. Molli Malou thought it was a very cool place for Daddy (and Nana) to have worked.
As for Atlas… Molli shrugged.
We bought that umbrella by the skating rink for five bucks. Later, as we meandered in the pouring rain around the southeast corner of the park looking for a Disney Store we both remembered but turned out no longer to exist, a random passer-by exchanged a big, sturdy, “real” umbrella for our five-dollar, New-York-rainstorm special because he thought we needed it more than he did. (Take that, you “New Yorkers suck” people!)
And he was right.
Besides seeing where Daddy had worked, Molli Malou also got to see where Mor had worked with Unilever, in Lever House on Park. She thought that was cool, too.
Ah, Hipstamatic…
I’ve neglected to mention what we bought at the big Toys R Us in Times Square: a remote controlled helicopter! Molli Malou couldn’t wait to try it the second we got back to Deep River, soggy and all walked out, a few hours later.
We were now in the end days of our visit. Trine and I spent most of the next day shopping and packing, then we had one last night of Wii games with Nana and Pop-Pop.
The shopping was pretty dull, although Maddie certainly enjoyed trying to accessorize herself:
…and weirdly enough, at a discount shoe store in Old Saybrook I overheard an older couple talking in the aisle over from me as I tried on some shoes — in Danish! It turned out he was born in New York but had lived his whole life in Silkeborg (his English was heavily accented, when he tried it), and came regularly to visit relations in East Haddam — who had lived all of a block away from me when I’d lived there!
Nana gets one last Maddie bath in…
And suddenly it’s Wednesday morning and we all realize the visit is over. It’s time to get some grandparent-grandchildren shots.
Once we were packed and loaded we shipped out to Denny’s. Nana was working but got off at lunchtime to meet us.
And was not very happy to say goodbye in the parking lot.
And so we were on our way back home…
Pop-Pop said his goodbyes at the airport…
And ten hours or so later, we end as we began: with a whole bunch of luggage — this time, none of it empty. In fact, every bag was filled to within a few ounces of its fifty pound limit.
And that was the summer vacation that was!
As I already mentioned, I will be adding more as time goes on. There are the pictures from Nana and the Lees to add, and lots and lots of video to compile now that I have the ability to edit videos again (tak, Jørgen!).
I would also like to thank the whole American family — Nana and Pop-Pop and all the Lees — as well as Morfar for their great hospitality and all the effort and expense they put into making this such a great vacation for us all.
Maddie’s English has advanced enormously, and she continues to amaze us by speaking in whole English sentences. She says things like, “Thank you very much,” and “I don’t like that,” and “it’s over there,” where before the trip she would say merely, “thankoo,” “doan like,” and “derover” in their respective places. It goes well beyond those examples, but they make the point.
Molli Malou’s English is even slangier and more colloquial than ever, thanks to all that extended time with her very cool cousins.
Most importantly of all for me, though, both girls got a much needed reminder of what America is — the many things it is just in the northeast corridor alone: the cities, the harbors, the rivers, the villages, the mountains, the lakes, the gargantuan scope of everything, and the many quiet little wonderful corners to be found in my great big sprawling homeland.
Now I’m going to wrap this up because it’s Sunday evening and the girls are on their way home from a day with Vibeke, then we have our Sunday Skype with Nana and Pop-Pop, put the girls to bed, and the routine resumes again tomorrow.
Thanks, everyone, for a wonderful summer! — And watch this space!
Wonderful recap wonderful memories