Long Island

The kids first trip to New York was when we went to Corning Glass Museum, which is less than two hours north of our house. The kids first time spending a night in the state of New York was July 1. We left a little before 8:30AM. Originally I planned to leave at that time so that we could stop and do a project at Home Depot at 9:00 in Bloomsburg on our way to New York, but then I decided painting and having three freshly painted projects in our van as we embarked on a trip probably wasn't the best plan of action. So we drove straight to the NY Hall of Science instead. It took us a little over 3 hours to get there. We didn't hit any traffic until we got to the George Washington Bridge. We spent three hours in the museum. Our only cost was the $10 for parking; we got in free because of our ASTC membership. Ian's favorite exhibit was the traveling Angry Bird exhibit that just opened there that day. One of Nadia's two favorite areas was the Connected Worlds exhibit. The 80 feet high walls of cobalt blue stained glass were built for the 1964 Worlds Fair. The kids interacted with

animated creatures, plants, trees and other objects on seven giant screens. Each displayed a different environment—desert, mountain valley, plains, reservoir, jungle wetlands and a 38 feet high digital waterfall. Her other favorite area was where the kids could create various things such as building with large dowel rods and rubber bands or cutting fabric to design clothes for a small mannequin. There are two museums on Long Island that we could also get into for free. There is a science museum less than 2 miles from her house, but they are closed from July 2-7 so we won't be visiting it. On our way back home on July 8 we plan to stop at the Long Island Children's Museum.

We encountered a lot of traffic on Long Island so it took us a little less than two hours to travel 52 miles to my Aunt Janet's house. We had dinner with her and then went swimming in her indoor pool. There is an outdoor pool, tennis courts, small playground, basketball court, and an indoor pool.
Sunday morning we went with

her to church, had lunch at her house, and then we spent six hours at the private beach where has been a member for decades. We played in the water, played in the sand, played Yahtzee, blew bubbles, flew a kite, ate some grilled some hot dogs and green beans, etc. The weather was perfect yesterday for a day at the beach - hot and sunny! When we got back to her house we discovered that one of her two air conditioner units wasn't working - the one that cools the upstairs where the boys and I were sleeping. It was 90 degrees upstairs. Thankfully her air conditioning guy made a house call at 9:45 at night on a Sunday night and got it running again. The last time we went on a vacation with Aunt Janet was when we (plus my parents) met her in Florida in May 2010. I'm thinking we'll return in two years when Oliver is tall enough to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty. When I was a child we used to come out here at least once a year, but it had been ten years since I was on Long Island. I'm hoping not to let 10 years pass before our next trip!