Our trip East

So I think I'm finally recovered enough from our trip to the East Coast to write about it. :) We figured we would try to squeeze in one last trip while Jack still flies free. It was fun but frantic. I definitely need a vacation from my vacation.

We flew into Hartford on Wednesday. The last time we flew out to Connecticut - a year ago - we naively took the red-eye under the assumption that Jack would sleep the entire flight. After five hours of futilely trying to shush our howling baby while dodging dirty looks from other passengers trying to sleep, we decided we would never do that again. This flight was much better. But we found that one disadvantage to leaving in the daytime is that we arrive at night. Jack's Aunt Ellen lives in West Cornwall, which is about an hour and a half's drive through windy roads from the airport. It was a little nerve-wracking trying to navigate in the dark. Plus we weren't able to appreciate the famous New England fall foliage at night.

We spent Thursday basically recovering from the flight. Jack explored Ellen's fantastic property with Daddy. He bonded with his cousins, Emily and Annie, and played with their doggies, whom he just loved. On Friday, we took the train out to New York City. It was Free Friday at the Children's Museum, so we checked that out. The place was packed, as you might expect. Jack had fun, but I was glad that we didn't have to pay to get in. It was cute, but not as amazing as it would have to be for me not to feel ripped off if I paid the $30 for the three of us to go.

On Saturday, we met up with Jack's Uncle Ryan and hung out in Central Park. The weather, which had been cold and slightly wet until then, warmed up for the afternoon. It wasn't San Diego, of course, but autumn in New York does have its charms. We stayed at Jack's Uncle Peter's beautiful apartment near Gramercy Park, with its fabulous view of the Empire State Building right outside the living room window.

We visited FAO Schwartz Sunday morning before heading back to West Cornwall. That place is huge! Jack had so much fun exploring all the toys, including the Big Piano featured in the movie "Big." They had a couple of guys put on a show on the Big Piano. In addition to "Chopsticks" and "Heart and Soul," they played Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and - particularly impressive - "Toccata and Fugue."


Jack fell asleep before we left for the station, so we decided to take a later train and let him nap. That may have been a mistake. He was wide awake and rowdy for the ride back. And, unfortunately, the novelty of train-riding had long since worn off. He liked the subway the first few times we got on it, but I think all the crowds and not being able to run around started getting to him. By Saturday afternoon, he was saying, "Bye-bye, choo-choo!" within a couple of minutes of us boarding. So on the train back to Connecticut, he kept crying, "Bye-bye, choo-choo!" He also kept yelling for the bathroom (*sigh*) and freaking out when we tried to tell him there was no bathroom on our car. It felt like the longest two and a half hours of my life.

I decided to give myself a mental health break on Monday and stayed at Ellen's house while Tom, Ellen, and Jack drove down to Madison pick up Tom's mom. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle another long day of traveling. It was heavenly just to take the day off and read and relax. I gobbled my way through three books on the trip.

We hung out with Aunt Ellen and Nana on Tuesday morning before heading back to Hartford to catch our flight back to San Diego. It was so sweet to see Jack with everyone, especially his Nana, who got to hear him call her "Nana" for the first time. He took to Ellen right away. He would call for her, "Eh-yen! Eh-yen!" when she had to leave to pick up the girls from school. He's still calling for her now. He also loved the doggies, Winnie and Linus. Now every small dog is "Winnie" to him, and every big dog is "Linus." And I can't believe how much our nieces change every time we see them. It should be illegal for kids to grow up that fast.

Jack was good on the flight out, which thankfully arrived 45 minutes early. His Elmo addiction finally paid off, because watching those DVDs really saved us on the last leg of the flight.

We had so much fun seeing everyone, and we're looking forward to Jack's Nana coming out in a couple of weeks for his birthday. But even though we had a lovely visit, I was so happy to come back home to sunny San Diego. You never appreciate how nice it is not to have to wear socks in October until suddenly that isn't option. I was even excited about the heat wave. :)