Just after getting back from the North Island, the next week was getting ready for the trip. We went to the podiatrist, and to an ear clinic. I left for San Diego on my own on Wednesday, leaving Mark and Jonathan to look after each other, with some meals kindly provided by my mother. Apart from not sleeping very well on the plane, I found the flight pretty easy. I had a to fritter a few hours in San Francisco airport, but that was okay. The worst part was a sore neck, that was not improved by hours of sitting in hotel chairs at the conference for the next few days. I stayed at the Bayfront Hilton, which was pleasant, if rather impersonal, and extremely badly signposted.
I had one day of recreation before the Colloquium started. I hired a bike, caught a ferry to Coronado and biked around there. I visited the Hotel Del Coronado, which was the location of “Some Like it Hot”. I’ll have to watch the movie again now! The weather was perfect. I forgot to get a helmet. In America people don’t get head injuries from not wearing helmets. ;-) I have to say it was lovely to feel the wind in my hair, and fortunately I was mostly on bike trails. I must say, Coronado is a lovely area. I liked looking at the houses.
It was nearly (!) Halloween here and I am interested in the merchandising opportunities it seems to afford. I spent an hour or so in supermarkets the other day, and am amazed at the range of candy. There were also some ‘big as’ pumpkins. It seems a little bizarre to have autumnal stuff there in the land of permanent summer. (Southern California), but I guess it is no odder than all our fake snow at Christmas. There is a lot of Mexican food (what a shock) which is really yummy and has plenty of vegetables. I quickly started to put on weight. I took my scales with me so I could keep track of my demise. (A day without chocolate or highly processed snack food in the US is a day wasted!) The scales were also invaluable for getting the bags the right weight.
I spent the first two days at a Teaching Colloquium, where the first person I talked to was a very nice young man (Ben) from St George Utah. He’s a Mormon. (really?) and we have had a nice time getting to know each other.
Ben and Shane and I went to the Horton Plaza after dinner, which is an outdoor mall which reminds me a lot of that Escher painting with the staircases going all over the place. It is really funny trying to get from one place to another. – and even trying to get out can be a challenge. It has some really interesting shops too. I bought the second Professor Layton game and I really enjoyed it.
The rest of the colloquium and the conference went well. The dinner was held at Sea World, which was open just for the conference group. We had dinner, then went on “Journey to Atlantis”, a rather wet thrill ride. Even with capes on, it got pretty wet. Ben and Shane and I went on four times. Then we saw the Shamu Rocks show, which was very good, though I feel a little conflicted about the level of training they must do to the Orca.
One morning I went for a run, and then a swim in the hotel pool. There was one other person in the pool, and, as we were getting out I started up conversation, only to find that he was from New Zealand!
At the end of the Conference I packed up and flew to Los Angeles to meet Mark and Jonathan. There was a bit of a mix up over the number of the terminal that I was at, so I was very relieved when Mark’s smiling face appeared behind the wheel of a car. We went back to the motel at Anaheim, and had lunch at the restaurant next to the motel. We did some looking around and visited the TBN headquarters. That was pretty amazing, with more gilt-edging than I have ever seen before. We shopped at a supermarket, and had frozen dinners.
Friday was a great day, when we went to Disneyland. We got there pretty much when it opened, and followed the plan set out by our RideMax program. As a result we got to go on all the rides we wanted to, with no waits of more than about 15 minutes. And it was an unusually busy day for that time of year. It is so impressive. The efficiency and attention to detail are phenomenal. We stayed for the fireworks, which had... wait for it... a Halloween theme! Very well done of course. Jonathan had a great time, as did we all. It really is a wonderful place, even when it is busy. I was in the front of the ride for Splash Mountain and got very very wet. I don’t think I properly dried out for the rest of the day. Fortunately it was quite a warm day.
Saturday was a quieter day, and Mark and Jonathan had a swim in the motel pool. We looked unsuccessfully for the Deseret Book store, as we didn’t realise that the streets kept starting the numbers all over again from time to time. We went to a Westfield mall for lunch, and to escape from the heat.
Then our next adventure started when we all flew to New York.
The flight took about 5 hours, plus nearly an hour on the tarmac and in a “people mover” bus getting to the terminal. Then we got our luggage and when we saw the line of people waiting for a taxi, decided to take the Airtrain. We were looking at our maps and a couple of New Yorkers started discussing what route we should take, and one of them accompanied us all the way to Manhattan, helped us with our bags and made sure we made the correct connections. He was a lawyer who had just taken his wife and son to the airport to fly to Serbia. It was a great start to our week.
We were later than expected to our apartment and Hugh, the landlord, was a bit worried. He was a bit of a flapper, I have to say, with a seriously limited attention span. The corridor was pretty dire, and smelt like the back of a Chinese takeaway, which was not really surprising, as that was what it was. If anyone wants to look on Street view on Google map, the address is 227 Mott St, New York. The apartment itself was satisfactory, except there was no toaster or microwave or electric jug. There was a fridge (not empty) and sufficient beds, though the blankets were a bit smelly. The bathroom was clean however. But worst of all – there was no television! Jonathan had been really looking forward to watching all the cable channels in the states, and there was no TV. Hugh assured us that there would be one there soon. The apartment was also amazingly hot. The outside temperature was rather pleasant, after the excesses of California, but he was concerned we would be cold and had the radiators going with impunity. We managed to turn them off, eventually.
The location was fantastic though. We were right in the middle of a really lively area, with restaurants and little grocery and vege shops, within walking distance of at least 3 subway stations. We were so lucky! The first night there we walked less than a block to an Italian place, and had pasta. We bought some bread, and were set for breakfast the next day.
After arriving quite late the night before, again we had to get up early to make ourselves look great for the camera, ready for when the director and cameraman arrived about 6.45am. They filmed us travelling on the subway, and asking people how to get to Sesame Street. They were exhausted, having arrived from New Zealand late the night before and had had about 4 hours sleep.
When we arrived at the studio in Queens, we were wired for sound and shown onto the set. Jonathan played "Sing" for the cast and crew on a keyboard, and they were very appreciative. We hung around all morning, watching them film, and had chats with Telly monster and Elmo in the technical breaks. Also the voice of Abby Cadabbie. We got to be extras in the opening sequence for a show that will possibly screen in about 18 months! It was all very low key and pleasant. We were filmed in our chats, watching, looking around the set and so on. They should have enough material you would think.So it was a bit of a let -down for it all to be over. We headed back to our apartment and had pizza for dinner. I felt a bit let down that the TV was not yet there, but Jonathan was coping better than I and told me I shouldn’t get my hopes up so much.
The next morning we had arranged to meet Richard and the crew to ride on the Staten Island Ferry so they could get some shots of us looking at the Manhattan skyline. We went over and back, and then walked up past Battery Park and lined up and caught a boat to Liberty Island (where the statue of Liberty is) and Ellis Island (where Hitch’s first date with Sara in the movie Hitch was filmed) – and incidentally where large numbers of American immigrants were processed in the early part of the 20th Century. We got audio tours, so Jonathan could get more out of it, and we wandered around the island, and through the facilities, listening to commentaries explaining the significance of it all. I found some of it a trifle jingoistic, but that is hardly to be surprised at in the circumstances. It was a lovely day, and we got very good at standing in line. The food on Ellis Island was surprisingly good, considering the captive customers. They do a good crinkle cut chip!
To our great relief, Hugh was bringing in the television when we arrived home. Jonathan got his bounce back. I was so relieved. I had been working out some Plan Bs involving staying in a different motel for the last two days. We found a “Whole Foods market” where we bought and ate dinner. It’s like a combination of an organic supermarket, pharmacy and buffet- with a cooking school attached. Nice food – you paid by weight, which stopped the gluttony one can experience at an all-you-can-stuff buffet. Weight of food, not weight of person – though that’s an interesting concept.
We had a “day off” on Wednesday, after a pretty busy few days. Jonathan stayed in the apartment and Mark and I made forays out into the neighbourhood. We ate at the same $4 lunch buffet we had eaten at last year. Little did we think then that we would EVER be back, let alone in less than 18 months. The food was just as good, cheap and unrecognisable.
The production company had arranged for us to visit a Jazz club in Harlem – The Lenox Lounge, with the possibility that Jonathan might get to play. We caught the subway up there and made our way into the bar. There was a minimum drink purchase, so we got them to make “an interesting non-alcoholic cocktail”. It was very nice. The director, cameraman and producer arrived soon after us and we sat and chatted until the owner returned. They got Jonathan to play, and he did “Birdland” and “Swanee River”, really showing off his ability. The keyboard player from the band said he was very musical, and gave us his card in case we are ever in New York again. We never say never now!
On the way home we popped out of the subway at Times Square where we were wowed by the lights and the people and the liveliness of it all. There was a strong benevolent police presence. After our late night we slept in even worse, and only just made it to Grand Central station to meet the others by missing breakfast completely. It shows how flexible Jonathan has become. He would never have dreamed of leaving the house without breakfast in his earlier years. They filmed us in the station in various places, and buying a breakfast at a street vendor. They were going to film us at FAO Schwartz, a famous toy shop, but it didn’t open until 10am and they had an appointment at the United Nations for another story they were doing. So we wandered around for a bit, bought more substantial breakfast and went back to the toy shop. It’s on Fifth Avenue, just near the corner of Central Park. The highlight for me was playing on the Big keyboard. I don’t know if it is exactly the same keyboard as featured in the movie Big starring Tom Hanks, but it was the same shop and a very similar keyboard, and with the help of the shop associate (as they call them in the US), the same duet. I slipped around a bit as I was in my socks, but otherwise did okay. People clapped.
We visited Times Square again, trying to find Sesame Street memorabilia, but were unsuccessful, but we bought candy and a T-shirt for Mark at the Hershey’s store, and marvelled at the extreme merchandising at the M and M store.
We had intended to bike around Central Park, but decided to go out to Coney Island instead. That was quite a long subway ride through Brooklyn. We had lunch at the famous Nathan’s hot dog place, where we met a missionary couple and their daughter who were serving in the nearby area on a CES mission. We went for a walk along the very wide boardwalk, past the very tatty and tacky stores, and the rather pleasant seafront, with two isolated metal palm trees, and out along the pier and back. We decided to take buses most of the way back so we could look at the scenery. After a false start, misreading the timetable, it was pretty interesting looking first at the Jewish area, followed by the Arab area, followed by the Indian. The bus ended at Prospect Park, which we explored a tiny corner of, before catching the subway home.
We left Jonathan with his gameshow channel and bought ourselves dinner at the Wholefoods market, before taking chicken and macaroni cheese home to him. There is plenty of “vegetable free” food in America – even in a Wholefoods market. Just made for Jonathan.
Our last day in the city was much cooler, but we decided to bike around Central Park anyway. Mark had booked a tandem and bike for us, which we walked the two blocks to the park. New York is not a city for bikers –though we saw a number of people biking while we were there, often with no helmet or high visibility gear, in semi darkness with only a minimal light! I think Darwin would have something to say about them! Central Park is rather hilly in places, so we got quite a good workout, and felt great after. We stopped to look at the reservoir, and to eat hot roasted nuts, a pretzel, and the lunch we had brought for Jonathan. We managed to find the Temple and had a brief foray into the public affairs office to use their conveniences. In our quest for the ultimate chocolate malted milkshake we went to the “Shake shack” in the corner of Madison Park. It is a bit of a tourist trap, and though the food was pleasant, it was not worth the wait or the money, and for once the serving sizes were small! While I was waiting in line for over 30 minutes, Mark explored the area and took some photos, and Jonathan sat on the bench and chatted to himself.
We set out to find “Ground Zero”, which was a bit of a non-event, and by then it was very cold. We got a bit lost and ended up near Fulton Fish Market (also features in Hitch), but were too cold to bother looking more closely. We caught the subway home and warmed up and did a bit of packing. We had a very delicious meal at a place about a block away, called simply “Delicatessen”. I had a mushroom risotto with truffle essence, which was like a very mushroomy , creamy savoury rice pudding. Mmm. Mark had a pork chop with grits (which are not very gritty at all, but rather creamy) and Jonathan had a steak.
We met up again with the Bergs at an ice cream place in Philadelphia, which seems like a nice city. There are some very nice buildings. Maybe we’ll go back some day! It was sad to say good-bye to our friends. It seemed like a normal day out, like the one we’d had together in Timaru about 5 years ago. They certainly miss aspects of New Zealand, and will never be the same, having lived there. Sara felt her daughters had lost their childhood by returning to the states.
We ate at a "Cracker Barrel", which serves "traditional" food. The "sides" included applesauce, okra, collard greeens, hashbrown casserole, baked apples, overcooked beans, corn and carrots and macaroni cheese. Just perfect for Jonathan - he could select his three "sides" and still remain vegetable-free. As we left it was raining so hard it was like standing under a tap. Mark kindly brought the car over for us. Back in New York, we found a park for the car, watched “One versus 100” on the Game-show channel together and finished packing. I had just squeezed the last heavy thing into Jonathan’s bag when the end of the zip came off. Fortunately it was fully packed and we didn’t need to get back into it.
The alarms were set for 3.30am (which is very alarming!) as our flight left at 7.30am. We drove to JFK, which was pretty scary for me, as we took a couple of wrong turns as the GPS unit seems to give the instructions too late. I got Jonathan’s bag wrapped in cling-wrap for the trip and things went fine after that until just after we checked in our bags and I couldn’t find Jonathan’s passport. We did find it again in time, but we were about the last passengers onto the plane. I was trying to find it, and at the same time trying to work out what to do if we didn't. I think we would have carried on to LA, and tried to get an emergency passport there – so long as Jonathan was allowed on the plane at JFK. Fortunately we were fine. Jonathan was remarkably calm, though we were all super aware of where all the passports were after that.
The 6 hour flight to LAX was fine, and we had 8 hours in LA so Mark had arranged another car, and we went for an explore of Los Angeles, and in particular the northern, Valley, and Beverly Hills area. It was a rather hot day, but it was nice to have a bit of a drive before sitting another 12 hours on the plane home. Again we weren’t impressed with the GPS, partly because we hadn’t done our homework and got addresses ahead of time. However we saw the Hollywood sign, and drove along the street with the stars in the pavement, and saw the Los Angeles Temple, and Venice Beach. We had a bit of a nap in Topanga Park.
As always it was a wonderful feeling to get on Air New Zealand at the end of a holiday, and feel as if we were nearly home. We got back to the house just after 9am. It was pretty cold, so we lit the fire to dry it out. It was very tidy, especially in the garden, which was a nice treat. My mother brought around dinner and date scones, which was another nice treat.
It was great to clear our email and find William has been transferred to Tamaki – East Otara. He seems quite happy with the shift. Actually he seems quite happy with his mission really, which is wonderful news.
It was SO good to be home and to feel the space and lack of people. We had a great time visiting New York, and really enjoyed staying in Manhattan, but this is the best place in the world for me. And the water. We are so blessed to live here. As I walked across the campus from the carpark to my office and smelt the azaleas and wondered at the greenness of it all, I was so happy to live in such a beautiful place.
Two days later Jonathan played in his last Mairehau music evening. He and William have been in quite a few of them. I don’t know if we’ve always gone to them, but the last few years we have. This time we remembered ear plugs, which make the louder items bearable. Jonathan looked like an old hand and played well. He has developed a bit of poise from all his experiences.
The last day of October was a Saturday. I had Healthy Living Group, then Jonathan had his Goalball breakup. I bought plants and seeds for the garden, and planted the plants. We went to a picnic for Plains FM, as Jonathan had been part of a radio show earlier this year. They had a fun auction, which really was fun, and Jonathan thought was so funny! We must take him to a real auction one day. And our final activity for the day was the dinner for seminary graduates (and teachers) at the Hornby Junction.
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