Hmm did I lose a day somewhere? This is Saturday anyway.
Last day going to natural history museum I think while Clare shops. She still asleep I been up for an hour. Probably nothing open for another two but I may go for a walk. Not looked in the gym.
👆that was the note I made on my phone before heading out. I did go walking, but not too far, as the weather turned bad today. A "Nor' Easter" they were calling it on the local news, a regular and expected weather pattern where everything in the city turns really bad. Cold driving rain, enough to even make the roads flood a bit. I walked East across Manhattan, only a few blocks really but hit a barrier before I got close to the water, so turned back again. Passed an interesting shop selling off interior fittings of the Waldorf Astoria but too early at this stage to be open. Things don't get moving until 10am. Was too early even to get Clare's requested breakfast from Pret, but there's always a Starbucks open. We probably went in more chains than I would like to say, but they're everywhere, what can you do?
Figured out after this we were heading in different directions for the morning, Clare shopping, me to the Natural History Museum. It rained hard, and was quite a long walk. Then a long queue for tickets, and THEN found the museum was closing in one hour for a children's halloween event. This worked out OK though as it gave me the perfect ammunition to not pay full whack. You can "pay what you like" at the museum though the suggested is $28, and that would be fine if you could make a full day of it. I only had an hour or two to spare anyway, so I gave a small donation and in. Unfortunately some of the dinosaur exhibits were also closed, including the T-Rex, but I did get to see the Patagotitan, a Titanasaur. Dinosaur gift shop in the museum not much cop really, though the main one was better. And guess what? It was pretty expensive.
Walked back in the rain to meet Clare at Times Square. Went via Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial, and hopped into Starbucks and Pret doorways on the way to check on the wifi. Also went via Time Warner at Columbia Circus. Oh yeah did I say I had no phone signal all week? Would have been costing me £2 per minute and £5 per GB of data or something, damn you Virgin Mobile. Went through times Square a couple of times on this trip but forgot to coordinate the webcam with mum and dad and boys they would have liked that. Times Square too busy, interesting enough but not really fun.
We were looking for a diner for lunch settled on Applebee's though - like a TGI Friday's or something really, nice enough though, felt like proper American fare. then more gift browing shopping, buying sweets for the kids and cold remedies for us.
This comes close to the end of our trip really. Back to the hotel to pick up our cases, subway to the airport again, got their way too early. Who says you need to be at the airport three hours before a transatlantic flight? Sat in the expensive bar and had four ciders, using up all the rest of our dollars.
Remember to order a vegan meal on the flight back but it was rubbish. I drifted in and out of sleep, didn't try to watch a film. Very bumpy flight, 200mph winds apparently, made the plane swoop up and down like a boat on rough seas.
Awesomely mum and dad met us at Cobham services on the way home so we could see the boys again asap and give their gifts and get on our way home.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town. Married to Clare and father to two, I am a full stack web engineer, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubs, running, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, tree stuff, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.