My promised letter about our trip to New York last weekend has been delayed by the Arctic weather we have been experiencing: I suddenly found it necessary to knit both boys decent neck warmers that could be pulled up to protect cheeks and noses. So both ends of these past ten days have to do with knitting: last Thursday I went to the local mall and bought 12 balls of yarn for 37 dollars and change. (This comes to about 13 shekels per ball. I think the least amount I've ever paid for yarn per ball in Israel was 15 shekels, at the hole in the wall shop in Mahane Yehuda.) Once I complete all the planned baby/child gifts, I want to make sweaters for myself, finally. Anyone who is interested in anything for themselves may also put in a request (except for those who can knit themselves). The patterns I've chosen to begin with are Miette and Excuses.
So, last Friday we set off by train to New York. We walked to the metro (we ordered a taxi using an app, but it failed to materialise), rode to Union Station, took the Amtrak train to Penn Station and then the Long Island Rail Road to Port Washington - a total of six and a half hours door to door. I must say that Amtrak has very comfortable trains: there was WIFI and electricity at every seat, and wider seats and much more legroom than on any flight I've been on in years. The train started in DC, so we were able to sit in two rows, with the boys in front.
ADC's cousin AS and her dog Ella met us in Port Washington, and we walked to her house. Ella was very enthusiastic in her greeting, and AS said that she had been quite anxious before we arrived, since Ella associates the direction of the train station with going to the vet. Presumably part of her enthusiasm was relief at not having gone to the vet! AS has a lovely house, also with a finished basement (where the boys slept), and two storeys, the kitchen-livingroom-study and the bedrooms/bathroom. At the top of the stairs leading to the basement, she has a pantry, with lots of open narrow shelves, where you can see at a glance exactly what canned goods you have. I liked that very much, especially as our current pantry is a fairly deep cupboard above the countertop, where I can't reach the top shelf.
After breakfast on Saturday, we set off for Manhattan. It took us longer than we expected - I at least had not realised quite how far out on Long Island AS lives, and since it was the weekend, the train stopped at every possible station. We reached Central Park just before noon, and walked across it to get to the Met. The station we got out at is actually the station for the American Museum of Natural History, and probably when we go in January we will visit there, maybe together with OM and and her family, since they are members. A and S were very excited to see Central Park, which they recognised from Hair, and Shaul at least was slightly disappointed to realise that there were no hippies on the central lawn. It was really a beautiful sunny day, and as long as you were walking, it was not too cold. We bought chestnuts from a halal food truck with an Egyptian owner, and ate them just before going into the Met, where we spent the rest of the day - until 8 p.m. - apart from tea/supper with DF, GF and MF.
The Met is overwhelming - and it took us a while before we actually got inside, what with checking our coats and ADC's backpack, and buying tickets. A was very definite about wanting to see the Arms and Armor display, and that's where we spent the first hour and a half or so. The armour is interesting of course, especially the Japanese sets of long and short swords (the Met has the biggest collection of Japanese armour outside Japan), and there was a very nice set of two suits of armour made for Henry VIII, one from his youth and one, much bigger, from the last years of his life, but ADC and I were ready to continue long before the boys were. We then continued to two special exhibitions: one on Cubism, where I particularly liked the still lives, and the other on the Iron Age Middle East and Mediterranean. We recognised several items from the Israel Museum in that one! S wrote a report for school on our first day in New York. This was instead of the spelling quiz that he missed on Friday after lunch, and he took the assignment very seriously, starting with bullet points and then expanding on it.
We then took a break and met DF and GF (not forgetting baby MF) at E.A.T., a deli/restaurant close to the Met. We started with hot chocolate, continued to sandwiches and salads (except for S, who of course had roast chicken), and ended with cake. DF and GF are very nice people, and I'm glad we made the connection (DF is my first cousin, the son of my mother's late sister, whom I haven't seen since his own bar mitzvah, about 20 years ago). His month-old son MF is a very cute baby, who was quiet most of the time, but naturally waited for GF's food to arrive before waking up and demanding to be fed and changed...
After supper we returned to the Met for another couple of hours, going to the Islamic art galleries, at my request, and the Vermeer and Rembrandt portraits at ADC's. The boys were a bit too tired to appreciate the Islamic art, but perked up when we reached the Dutch Old Masters. When you see them all together, you really understand how much better Vermeer and Rembrandt were than their contemporaries. Rembrandt's use of light, in particular, is so much more subtle.
On Sunday AS went out and bought a huge quantity of bagels for breakfast. We have not yet found a good bagel place nearby, although we did get a flyer recently and have not yet checked the place out. Anyway, we had a slow start after a very hectic Saturday. After breakfast AS took us on a sociological tour of Port Washington, whose route she had not properly thought out, so we didn't get to see everything she had planned as we had to catch a train back to the city. We didn't have that much time on Sunday, as we had a 4 o'clock train back to Washington, and we spent it on Seventh and Eighth Avenue, window-shopping until we had lunch at a place on Broadway called The Counter where you decide on your own burger (they have a checklist for every stage - burger type and size, bun, toppings, sides). It was an entirely touristic experience, and was great fun. After that we went to Midtown Comics, where each big spent over $100. S completely wiped out his savings, but is very happy with what he got, as is A, who still has quite a lot of money left!
After that, we stated the long journey home. The train from New York does not start there, and at first we were scattered all over the carriage, but enough people got off at Newark for ADC to find two pairs of seats. The journey took much longer, as there were stops outside a number of stations to wait for a free platform, and all in all, we arrived in DC an hour later than anticipated. We took a taxi home ...
The main event of the past week has of course been the cold weather. I tried to stay at home as much as possible, and bundled the boys up for school (as you all saw). The house has proved to be very well insulated, but as the air conditioning is on a thermostat, I can judge how cold it is outside by how often it comes on during the day. ADC's fleece-lined pants from Land's End arrived just int he nick of time, and his only complaint so far is that the red flannel is shedding a bit on his underpants. A came home on Tuesday and said that his neck warmer (the second or third thing I ever knitted) was too loose and too short. So I unravelled it, and reknitted the wool in a smaller circle and added some extra black wool. Now not only is his neck warmer adequate to the weather, it in the colours of his favourite soccer team.
This evening both boys had events at school. ADC went with A to the International Evening, where ethnic food was eaten (8th grade had to bring dessert; ADC made a lemon cake) and there was a talent show emphasising ethnic music. It sounded like they had much more fun than S and I did at "Camp Read S'More", where, as we understood it, everybody would get into sleeping bags and read. In reality, there was and hour and a half of activities connected to reading: fishing for books (S received a copy of Stuart Little, so he is pleased), creating "story stones" and making s'mores. The s'more ingredients had run out by the time S got there, so we just came home early (and read).
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