ON THE ROAD: Day 14 : Early Bird Special, Central Park and a Fabulous Last Meal

{ Tuesday, 28 July 2009 }

Remember Belle from "Beauty and the Beast"? Remember the opening scene where she lights up the early rising town with her effervescent personality? Well, that's Gian in the mornings. As soon as he hears another person stirring he sits up, smiles and says, "hello [ insert here: grandma | grandpa | mama | auntie lei ]. I awake. I go down now. I eat brefast." It's too cute.

This morning he, again, wakes up early and joins in on his grandparents early morning fun. Instead of walking to Central Park, they did mom's favorite activity: shopping. They hit up Westside Markets as well as a specialty market and brought back tasty baked goods, fruit and freshly squeezed juices.

WAITING FOR GRANDMA

I'M HUNGRY, GRANDPA

Meanwhile, the girls headed to a sidewalk cafe for coffee, baked goods and eggs. We met at the hotel an hour later to pack, check out and see the city sites before leaving this fabulous city. We walked the few blocks to Central Park, found a quiet spot and left the kids to explore the surroundings. Too bad mom's camera ran out of juice because the keikis had more fun in the park than in the city { duh! }.

VIEW FROM THE UWS

MOM AND DAD HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE THE PARK

Kale'a found granite rocks and proceeded to climb onto its peak then sliding down onto the floor just like a slide. It looked like so much fun that Gian participated. With Brandon's help he made it to the top and went down just like his big cousin. After the keikis had their fill of fun we took to the strollers again and walked to Lincoln Center. We had a bit of a kunumdrum finding a place to eat so Brandon ran a block ahead to see what was there; he returned and mentioned Le Pain Quotidien. My ears perked; I had wanted to eat there since my last visit. So we walked the block to the French/Belgian restaurant and feasted on tartins, sugar waffles { I so need to find this recipe } and bread. Yummy!

OUR LAST MEAL IN NEW YORK AT LA PAIN

The town cars picked us up at Lincoln Center and within an hour we were safely back at Park&Go. We loaded, I ran across the street to grab an iced coffee at McDonalds { SIDE NOTE: you're right, babe, it's good AND affordable. I've since been getting my caffeine fix there. } and then we were off to Niagara Falls.

The long drive to the falls had us pass through parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York. Because of commuter traffic and an accident we moved at a snail's pace and finally stopped for dinner somewhere in New York. After resting for an hour I commenced driving and we passed Syracuse, drove over quite a few bridges, took a cat nap at a truck stop so Brandon could get some rest before taking over, and finally made it to Buffalo in the wee hours of the morning { Day 15 }. Since we didn't document this leg of the trip, let me leave you - dear reader - with a few photos taken of Gian, Kale'a and Maile while in New York.