The Hardys

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Science Museum

Erica has to work basically all day on Saturdays now. It's for the children...but it can be a bit rough sometimes on me and the boys. I love being Dad, but Ty is so little and Chase is so...Chase that going out and doing things is a bit above our current threshold for safety / sanity.

HOWEVER, not long ago Erica had a Saturday where she didn't have to work in the afternoon, so in the interest of her getting a break and Chase and I getting some air, we rode out to the NY Hall of Science and had a really great time. It's basically a big kids museum - and it's also on the IDNYC list of places you can snag a membership to for free if you go for it before the end of the year.

Chase was great on the train, like he usually is. He didn't know why we were going anywhere and was curious.

After we got in and he realized that it was similar to the Strong Museum we took him to in Rochester earlier this year, he became very enthusiastic about the whole idea.

Not overly enthusiastic about the lizard, mind you. It wasn't moving and I honestly am not sure if Chase could even see it. It was kind of funny.

They had a whole basement filled with various "maker" exhibits, and Chase loved looking at what others had made and making things of his own. This was the most basic area, but he dug the pens, tape, popsicle sticks and kid-safe scissors (a luxury unheard-of at home).

I joined in too...

And had a good time with some of the more adult stuff. I spent a good chunk of my afternoon teaching Chase to call things by name. This was a "spaceship." Capsule was too hard. Spacecraft might have been more proper.

At one point, we went upstairs in a giant elevator. This freaked Chase out a bit because it was so big inside.

Seriously, he was a bit nervous about the whole thing.

This may have been his favorite exhibit. A little martian rover mockup that you could "program" to move. I think we went back about three times.

Chase's "Wall-E"

At the end of the museum time we went and had a snack - the usual fare - at the cafeteria.

This is what it looks at out front.

And because we made the trek to the Bronx Zoo, and because he turned three and won't be free anymore in the future, we stopped by the Queens Zoo to feed some goats. It was a good opportunity to teach basic economics. "Chase, I have six quarters for goat food, and that's it." "Let's use THREE of them first!" Yeah...we'll have to work on the concepts of 'making it last' and 'not all at once' and 'saving' later.

The Mercury and Gemini rockets from afar - he got excited to see them again as we were leaving.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Bronx Zoo

When Chase was still very little we took him to the Bronx Zoo with my family in early spring. We haven't been back since.

The zoo is really nice, but it's also really hard to get to on public transit from Queens. But today (Labor Day) we decided we'd go for it. We all have had really busy times and work, school living room destruction, etc. and just needed a day out. Plus - Erica and I both have "IDNYC" cards, and if you present one at the Bronx Zoo, you get a pass that you can use to get access to all 5 NYC zoos for a year. It's kind of a gimmick to get you to sign up for the card in a way, but not a bad thing to get to take advantage of.

Chase, per usual set the agenda for the outing: Elephants and flamingos. We went out there on the 7 / 2 train. It's a bit of a hike, to say the least. The 2 runs express through Manhattan, but hits a stop every few blocks after it reaches the Bronx. Our train was actually running behind so we skipped a bunch of stops and got to the Zoo a bit quicker than we might have otherwise - the one time that scenario has ever played out in someone's favor.

Getting the IDNYC membership was smooth as could be - so we now have zoos for a year and 10 percent off most things at the zoos. Yay!

The first animal of the day wound up being the most exciting: the Tigers. They had just been fed, so they were active. Very un-zoo-tiger like. Our best encounter was this this fine, striped gentleman:

He started off behind some bushes; you could just barely make him out...

We then witnessed some very housecat-like behavior: eating the houseplants. #allkitties

Then, to our surprise as we were at the front of the crowd for once, he came out!

And he looked at us for a bit.

And ate some more plants.

And kinda...looked cute and catish? It was actually interesting; I was looking through the viewfinder on the camera and was zoomed in; you almost lose perspective of what a huge, powerful animal this is when you're tunnel visioned like that.

I mean seriously, this was a big 'ol kitty...

The Lion(s) were much less exciting...

Chase found a "mountain" to climb on by the Tiger paddock.

Ty was fantastic the whole time; he slept like a champ in his carrier, even though he was probably a bit warm. This is at lunch when he finally got some good air on his body. It was about 90 degrees today, but the Zoo was very shaded, and there was a near-constant breeze.

We brought lunch to save some money...and to order in for Labor Day dinner. Kind of a nice setting for it, with critters in the background.

Proof that I went too...even though this isn't the best picture...

There was a family of peacocks at lunch; Chase liked to follow them around like a baby peacock. Which, incidentally, there were several of. Never seen a baby peacock before.

The giraffes were fun; though Chase was running out of steam by the time we got to them...

He did get to see his flamingos (here's looking' at you Stacey...these weren't overly pink though)

Chase was real tired by this point...and insisted that THIS was in fact a flamingo. I had to try real hard to not tell him it was in fact the rare duck's @--...

Chase was good and so he got a souvenir, a 54 inch stuffed coral snake...the snake is in the bag here. We told him it had to stay in the bag so it wouldn't get dirty.

Erica, as you can see, is doing so well post-surgery. She took Ty after lunch. He does have a certain liking for riding around on her in front...(bad pregnancy joke...)

Chase fell completely asleep. Erica went to look at the lemurs and he and I stayed outside in the shade. Found a great tree to sit by...

Of course, we stopped to see Erica's "friends" the sea lions. You could hear them throughout the whole park practically.

They had baby sea lions!!! They were very cute and fun. Sorry about the bad filming; it was crowded and I was hand-held. The odd noise you hear that sounds like a dying zergling - that's a baby sea lion.

Unfortunately, this is as close as Chase got to an Elephant...you have to ride a tram to see them and it, like several other exhibits at the park like the Gorillas and Kids zoo, cost an additional fee, which we weren't prepared to fork over today. Wouldn't be NYC without some sort of hidden fee you weren't expecting...

The trek back from the zoo was different. We decided to walk a mile to take Metro North back to Grand Central rather than dealing with the 2 again. The 2 really wasn't that bad...it just took forever and we weren't in the mood. And Erica loves Metro North; she takes it to CT to teach all the time.

The station was sort of hidden, but we found it eventually. $13 total to get back to Grand Central...money well spent for how easy / nice it was.

They even had vending machines that worked via contactless payments (Google Wallet / Apple Pay) - I was thrilled and got Chase M&Ms. I geek out on stuff like this thanks to one of my clients at work, Fiserv.

Chase woke up and was super excited to ride the "real train."

And real it was - much larger than the 7s Chase is used to.

He loves that he was made keeper of the tickets. Kind of like the Little Critter Book "Just Me and My Mom." Don't worry...he didn't lose the tickets like Little Critter did.

Everyone was happy to be in the AC and to be moving quickly back toward NYC. This is a terrible picture of me...

Chase said, "Take a picture of me mom!"

So - all in all, the day was great with Trooper-Ty and photo-hungry Chase

Who is asleep like a rock. With his snake. Who melds in earily well with his blanket.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Gantry Park Birthday Party

In the spirit of honesty, I must confess, most of these pictures were posted by friends on Facebook. But they have my family in them, so I feel like I own at least a share in the photos :)

We went to an amazing birthday party for our cute little friend Maya on Saturday. We love Maya. We often sit by her and her family at church and enjoy our little exchanges. It was her first birthday.

Maya's parents somehow rented space/tents at Gantry Park, right by the water. It was beautiful. The perfect place for a party. They had catered food, amazing treats, cute decorations, and tons of friends.

The party spot

The yummy food.
Gotta love the view behind the tables!

The cute decorations, including lollipop magnets, ice cream cone bubbles, and the most delicious strawberry lemonade cake EVER

Better angle of the cake :)

Chase getting more water

Marcus, Ty, Chase, and a lot of our friends celebrating Maya

Chase getting some bubbles

There was some space between the tents and the water that became a big play spot for the kids. There were grass and playgrounds behind where this picture was taken from, but the view of the water made this spot even better.