busy week

My old roommate and good friend, Linda, came to see us this week, and Garrett and I have spent a whirlwind few days getting her acquainted with the city. Here's how our sightseeing itinerary panned out:

(Click on the links provided to see pictures.)

Monday

• Pick Linda up from her Chinatown bus drop off near Macy's.
• Spend the afternoon showing her our neighborhood as I take care of a few errands.
• Take an evening walk to the bay for Family Home Evening.

Tuesday

• See the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
• Take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
• Walk along Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Stop at Ground Zero, St. Paul's Chapel, Wall Street and the Stock Exchange.
• Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Drag our worn out selves home to eat a pizza the size of our kitchen table.

(Tuesday was also known as The Day We Nearly Did Ourselves In.)

Wednesday

• Send Linda off by her brave little self to visit the Met while Garrett and I head to the perinatal clinic for one more ultrasound. (This was a follow-up to the last appointment to get a better reading of the baby's heart. He's doing just fine, but he sure likes to face down and snuggle into my lower abdomen. When they switched the machine to the 3D view, all we could see was the back of his head and his ears.)
• In the late afternoon meet Linda in Times Square to try our luck for tickets in the Wicked lottery. Neither of us apparently had enough luck to win any.
• Tour the Times Square Toys R Us.

Thursday

• Let Linda experience the joys of washing her clothes at the local laundromat.
• Visit Chinatown; eat lunch at the Dumpling House, buy fruit from street vendors, and ogle the Chinese import mega store, Pearl River Mart.
• Briefly walk through SoHo.
• Walk through Little Italy; sample the gelato.

Friday

• Say goodbye as Linda heads off to board another Chinatown bus.

It was a fun, albeit rather exhausting and busy week. We enjoy having visitors, and I especially enjoyed that this time our guest got a pretty good taste of what NYC living is like. When you live in a "destination city," your visitors don't often get to see what real life here is like. Garrett was a trooper (most of the time) and behaved better as he acclimated to the sightseeing schedule. And I'm proud to say that I was a trooper, too. Maneuvering this city while pregnant and with a toddler is quite the work out. I really need to go put my feet up.