This trip to Long Island was postponed more than once this summer for a variety of reasons - Nadia's theatre camp in July, our pet sitter's availability, and Hurricane/Tropical Storm Henri. We went from thinking it would be the four of us visiting Aunt Janet to five of us (including Rachel) to six of us (Rachel plus Wendy), and finally back to the four of us. Wendy, Rachel, and Grace left the house around 7:40 this morning, and they arrived back in Chicago twelve hours later. The kids and I left at the same time this morning. We bought some flowers for Aunt Janet and dropped Milo off at our friend's house. He'll be staying with them until Paul picks him up from work on his way home on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully he'll be a good boy for them! We arrived at the Paterson Great Falls National Park at 11:00am. It was exactly 1 mile from I-80 so it was a VERY small detour to stop there. We learned about Alexander Hamilton and the history of the area and walked over bridges to see the 77 foot waterfall which is second only to Niagara Falls in terms of water volume (of waterfalls east of the Mississippi). The kids each earned a Junior Ranger badge. It was hot outside (in the 90's) so when an ice cream truck pulled into the parking lot, I made the mistake of offering to buy the kids a treat without knowing the price. I was stunned that two ice creams (on sticks) cost $9 total. Yikes! I should have offered to take them through the drive-thru at the Burger King nearby for ice cream or a drink. Ian agreed to wait to have a treat at Aunt Janet's place after I realized how much it cost to buy the other two a treat. Lesson learned!!
It took us two hours to drive from the park to my Aunt's house. Considering we were driving on a weekday, the NYC traffic wasn't bad. Subtracting the stops we made, I think I drove a little less than 5 hours altogether. We arrived at Aunt Janet's house around 2:20. We brought out things in, changed into our swimsuits, and swam in her indoor pool for a couple of hours. Although the rain from the storm stopped on Monday, no one has been allowed to swim at the beach where she belongs the last two days because the bacteria levels are too high. So we opted to swim at her pool and have dinner in her backyard tonight. She grilled burgers. Tomorrow we'll either head to her beach or to Fire Island, which is on the southern side (Atlantic Beach). This is the kids' fifth and final trip to Long Island, but they've only been on the beach on the northern side in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment