New York Stories

Got to New York safely, found a car service with an SUV that could take us and our ridiculous amount of baggage to Mark's grandma Chase's apartment, had some late-night diner food (delivered!) and great conversation with Chase. The next day was Halloween, and after Mark's morning at work we met up at Braden's apartment for a playgroup. Sam was actually the oldest baby for a change.

Braden's cutie, Fisher, was fittingly dressed as the Catch of the Day, while Sam went with a holiday-themed outfit rather than a costume this year.

Later that night, thanks to a babysitter Braden arranged for us, we were able to see Equus with Chase. Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths were amazing, but that is one twisted play.

Side note: in the play, Daniel's character is so disturbed at one point that he doesn't talk, only sings commercial jingles, especially one for a Britsh candy bar called Milky Bar ("The Milky Bar Kid is strong and tough, and only the best is good enough..."). Once we arrived in Chennai, a local cable station was running ads for a showing of the most recent Harry Potter movie, with shots of a tortured-looking Daniel. The sponsor? Milky Bar. Ha!

It was a wonderful weekend with Chase, who has an apartment chock full of sculptures that are just the right height for a toddler to meet. Sam would run around saying "hi" to all of them. Luckily all of the ones at ground level were bronze or other suitably toddler-proof materials. We had no high chair, but we made do:

After meeting up for lunch with friends Jenny and Ross (last seen Scottish dancing at their Texas wedding), we went with Chase to the Natural History Museum. It was the first time that Sam really interacted with museum exhibits, naming the animals he knew, and it was a blast. Towards the end, you will see the famous "sack of potatoes" exhibit from the Anthropology hall.

New York is where a lot of Mark's college buddies have ended up, which afforded us the opportunity to join Jordana and David for brunch, along with their super-cute kiddos, Charlie, Zack, and baby Rosie. Kid-friendly apartment, lots of toys, bagels galore... Sam was in heaven.

Our final night in New York was spent unpacking, repacking, and weighing suitcases. We were not going to be overweight with our baggage again, not with three other flights to take! (The best laid plans... oy oy oy). The next morning Mark went to work at JFK and I went off to mail the excess belongings to our new home in India. We met up at JFK, easily checked in our right-weight bags, and headed out on Lufthansa to our "rest stop" in Frankfurt. Thanks to seat-back movies and Sesame Street on DVD, a fairly uneventful flight was had by all.