Manfrengensen and I just got back from a nice trip to NYC with the kids. He and I had been there in May to see The Motherf**ker With the Hat (which was hilarious, btw), and while we were walking in Central Park on an absolutely perfect May afternoon, we thought of how much the kids would enjoy climbing those rocks and seeing all the sights.

We got there Monday and checked into the Hilton Midtown, which was very nice. NYC was hot as Hades in July though. High 90’s each day with very little breeze. In a misguided effort to travel light, I didn’t bring any extra clothes, so it was also a bit stinky. We kept joking that we’d been struck by a Harry Potter curse (Expellyarmis!), but we kept saying “The smelly armpits!” The kids complained a lot about walking, but they got through it, and we did have a good time. We were only there three days, but we packed those days full of activities. We thought we might take them to a show one evening, Mary Poppins or Billy Elliot, or even the Cirque de Soleil that’s currently at Radio City, but they were so wiped out at the end of each day that we just ended up back at the hotel after dinner.

We had some laughs, a few postcards for you:

On the way up, on the NJTP, there was a minivan driving in front of us with its side doors open. I looked over as we passed and it looked like the old man who was driving and his old lady in the passenger seat were totally naked. Of course we were stunned and tried to get a second look by slowing down so that they could pass us. Upon a second pass, however, we realized she was in a small tank and he was wearing short shorts. Not necessarily disappointed, but not as funny in the end.

Standing on a corner with The Princess and Edison, waiting for the light to change, I was too busy listening to what Edison was saying to notice that no cars were coming and just go ahead an walk. An old man came from the opposite corner, walking that quick-paced NYC walk, and as he passed us, he said, “What are you waiting for? Christmas?”

Coming down the elevator at the Empire State Building, your ears really pop, so I started doing this thing silently that Felix Unger does in The Odd Couple movie to clear his ears — as a joke — and when Manfrengensen looked over, he totally lost it. Didn’t get the reference and thought I had Turrets, which made him laugh even harder.

At the end of the whole weekend, after we’d taken the kids to Times Square, The Harry Potter Exhibit, The Natural History Museum, The Central Park Zoo, The Empire State Building, The Disney Store, FAO Schwartz, The LEGO store, The Statue of Liberty, bought them a bunch of memorabilia from the trip, stayed at a pricey hotel in midtown, had no meals that cost less than a hundy, were so hot coming back from the statue that we spent our last few bills on four bottles of water to share between us, we put the kids in the car and our souvenirs in the back. On top of the kids’ bag, Manfrengensen found a twenty-dollar bill. “Oh,” I said, “That must belong to the kids.” And he just looked at me like I was crazy and said, “The hell it does!”