New York Day 3: 19/09/2016

I woke at 6am to, would you believe it, lashing rain. Oh joy. The weather had been beaming sunshine the day before, and week previously for that matter, so trust us to bring the wet Welsh rain with us. I was not a happy camper. I made BattleDad and I a cup of tea while BattleKid had a banana and fruit with his milk while he drew pictures.

Over our tea BattleDad and I started to make our plans for the day. We didn’t arrive in New York with firm, concrete plans other than a list of places we would love to visit which included:

• Times Square, which we had ticked off the day before,
• The World Trade Centre Memorial,
• The Staten Island Ferry,
• Central Park,
• The Natural History Museum,
• And pictures of the Empire State Building.

We decided to head towards Central Park and hope that the weather improved, or that it at least stopped raining enough for us to walk through to the Natural History Museum. We got dressed and stopped at a bagel café near the Subway station where BattleDad and I had breakfast bagels and BattleKid had pancakes. His pancakes were delicious, yes we tried them. We then headed to the Subway just after 8am and got on the Subway to head for 59^th and Lexington. One stop down the commuters got on and oh my Lord I’ve never experienced anything like it, even in London. Sardines doesn’t come close to describing how packed the train was! BattleKid did not enjoy that train ride I can tell you!

I was certainly happy to get off that train but was not overjoyed to see the rain continuing above ground. It showed no sign of ceasing so we decided not to walk across Central Park and instead decided to walk down 5^th Avenue towards 34^th (and Macy’s) in the hope it would eventually stop. Along the way we had to stop at a pharmacy as BattleKid’s cough was getting worse and it was driving him insane. The poor boy got a sleep in his buggy in between the coughing fits while Mum and Dad got more and more soaked. The rain even started getting through my so-called Gortex rain jacket and I was getting more and more fed up and grumpy.

Along the way BattleDad stopped at a gift shop as we hunted for a Big Dog t-shirt for S in our kennels and he got BattleKid some New York model cars which we’ll give him for Christmas. Unfortunately we didn’t find the t-shirt for S.

BattleKid woke himself up with the coughing as we made our way slowly towards Macy’s. I didn’t want to go in as both us adults and BattleKid’s buggy were soaked and I was conscious of dripping water everywhere. We shook ourselves off, waited a few minutes for the drips to subside and went inside. Macy’s is a bit like John Lewis on steroids, very, very, very posh with a whole host of designer shops inside. We had a very brief walk around the ground floor before deciding to nip across the road to Foot Locker on the hunt for trainers for BattleDad has he had only brought one pair and they were soaked through. I had back up sandals with me so I didn’t bother looking for myself. BattleDad didn’t find anything in there but picked up a lovely pair of trainers in Sketchers, just down from Foot Locker.

We decided to call it a day from there and headed back to the apartment at midday, soaked and thoroughly fed up with the weather. We got a Starbucks lunch to take back to the apartment and enjoyed it after warm showers and pjs. BattleDad went into his room and had a much needed nap while BattleKid and I snuggled on the sofa watching a Fireman Sam movie on Netflix. It was really strange as they had changed all the Welsh accents to American ones and at first I couldn’t make out what was wrong with Fireman Sam until I realised the accents weren’t Welsh ones. Very unnerving but of course, BattleKid never noticed and enjoyed it all the same. BattleKid didn’t nap in the apartment but we still had a nice relaxing afternoon with cartoons, reading and games.

At 5pm we ordered a Chinese which arrived well ahead of the estimated time. BattleDad was beside himself when he discovered the rice came in the proper Chinese boxes that you see in films and TV. Right there and then his year had been made as he put it “proper Chinese takeway in New York”. It’s the simple things.

The food itself was tasty although we did our usual with Chinese and ordered way too much, too much for just two of us as BattleKid only ate a little bit. After dinner BattleDad went to see if he could get something else for BattleKid’s cough as what he had picked up earlier wasn’t really helping.

When he got back he mentioned the sunset was starting and it looked like it was going to be a good one so we took it in turns to go up to the roof terrace to grab some snaps before it was time for milk, stories and bed. BattleKid was asleep by 7.15pm, and after some planning of destinations and subway routes to them in the hope the next day would be better and we could tick a few more things off our list, I got into bed as well. And I was sleep pretty quickly.

However, a good night’s sleep it was not as the fire detector in mine and BattleKid’s room started beeping from 1am, most likely as it’s battery was starting to go. Reluctantly I woke BattleDad to see if he could remove it but as it was wire into the ceiling we didn’t want to take the battery out for fear of setting it (and possibly those of the building) off.

Instead BattleKid and I moved into the pull-out double bed in BattleDad’s room. However, BattleKid woke as we moved him and point blank refused to go back to sleep. I tried to keep him as quiet as possible and encourage him to go back to sleep but just before 4am I gave up and took him out to the lounge to let BattleDad get some sleep.

Stop by tomorrow to see if there was an improvement to our first trip to New York or was it destined to remain disastrous.

Cath x

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