Tourist Walking

There is a phenomenon in New York that I'm not sure I'll ever understand. We call it tourist walking. On a typical day I would say I easily walk four miles sometimes more and sometimes less. Whenever people come to town though, my feet hurt and my legs are as sore as I imagine my guests' to be. It doesn't make any sense to me though because when guests come to town, I try to cut down the amount of walking they'll have to do by find transportation that puts us as close to the destination as possible. It could be the amount of standing or slow walking that's done, but without fail every time the corner of my calves ache, and I'm ready to prop my feet up at the end of a day of tour guiding. Shelley and Wes and the kids came to visit last week. We did a lot of tourist walking. We actually had a really good time without any drama. I was shocked considering they were all staying at my apartment in a cramped space. I picked them up from the airport Saturday night, and we took taxis back to my apartment. It was just too late to try and deal with the bus with three kids plus all the luggage. On Sunday we went ice skating at Bryant Park, which was a disaster. I apparently am the only one in the family who can stay upright on ice skates. I took Brent and Livvy each around the rink once. They both cried the whole way around. Then after dropping Livvy off I skated a few times around just to get the feeling back in my legs from holding myself in one position for so long to balance myself and the kids. After that we walked over to the Empire State Building and took pictures in the lobby. Then I had a football game so we headed back uptown and the kids played at a playground while my team lost! Sad day. That night we had Shake Shack and hit up Times Square. I finally got to ride in the ferris wheel at Toys R Us. We wanted any car but the Barbie car, so of course, we got the Barbie car. Monday morning they went to the Statue of Liberty and Chinatown while I went to work. Shelley and Wes had tickets to see David Letterman that night so the kids and I hung out at home and made turkey cookies for Thanksgiving.

Tuesday morning I went to work again, but my boss was out that day so I ended up leaving after a couple of hours. We went to the Museum of Natural History, Central Park and Chelsea Market. We were really tired once we got home and just watched movies that night. Wednesday we relaxed a little that morning before going to Fifth Avenue to shop at the American Girl Place, the Disney Store and FAO Schwartz. We pushed Zane too far past lunchtime, and he ended up having a major meltdown at FAO Schwartz. One of those where people look at you and are thankful they're not you with the screaming child, and you're really hoping maybe no one will recognize you. We grabbed lunch and headed back to my place to rest and make Thanksgiving dinner. After our precooked turkey, Stovetop stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie that I forgot to put the sugar in, we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day float inflation viewing. There were a million people there, but it was really fun to see all the floats. Here's a tip if you're going to do it next year and they have the same route as they did this year, get off at the 81st St B/C train stop, and you'll end up in the middle of the two sides of floats and won't have to wait in the giant crowd. Then just skip the beginning part, it's not worth the crowd. The second half was empty enough that you could stop and take pictures and actually see the floats. The first half was so crowded you couldn't stop and we were doing everything we could to just get out to the street.

We thought the bus wouldn't be crowded on Thanksgiving Day, so I helped them load up to go to the airport. The bus was more crowded than we expected, but we made it, and it was a cheap ride for them. We said goodbye, and I went home and did laundry and watched football. It was a pretty good Thanksgiving I would say. Livvy said she was glad to go home to not have to walk as much. Zane told me he was going to miss me, and Brent just wanted to play with his mineral collection he got at the museum. All in all I would say it was a good trip.