The poster says it all - these are homeless kids, give them a chance! I did. Tere and Kyla arrived on the 6th, three days before Roque and Corie were scheduled to leave. You can see Ceci's Hotel is fully booked so we had to make do with what we had. Dopey me made a mistake of buying an oversize Aerobed, larger than the room and twice the size of the vertically-challenged Corie and Roque.So much for the extra bed - that ended up in storage in the garage. Corie and Roque had to do their little people trick, duvets and blankets on the hardwood floors (Auntie hates carpeting) and the two wedged themselves between my bureaus at bedtime, because they didn't want to be put out there on the shelter. The other bad news besides the fancy spacious accomodations is the snoring marathon that occured every night. It was a perfect match with the NYC fire trucks and the ambulances.
Kyla conked out the first day with jet lag, but the next day was a different story. Tere took out her list of the "best kept secrets of New York" and a litany of places to see. Thanks a lot Frommer's and Rick Steves' and the Internet - you just handed me an astronomical task! The shopping spots of the city are on her radar as well, having that shopping gene in her bloodline.
And yes folks, I'm taking you to Brooklyn and don't believe everything you've read about the place - Brooklyn is the best - architecture, arts, eats, etc.
Hungry for some culture - here's the Brooklyn Museum of Arts with it's newly renovated facade. Just follow me kids, I warned you to outfit yourselves with sneakers, scarves and a good pair of legs to jump off and on the zooming E or F train. The subway is still the fastest and cheapest way to get around - it's not a deal, it's a steal.
Let's do lunch - New York style. In various stages of tiredness, they managed to line themselves up on the steps of the Brooklyn Museum for a quick bite of a slice of Gino's pizza. They had to - food isn't allowed at the botanical gardens. The poor panhandlers!
Quite early for the cherry blossom display, the magnolias at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens are just magnificent.
Gelato in Little Italy for the poor kids with blisters on their toes. The wait at Lombardi's Pizza is about an hour, so let's forget about that. Pomodoro's was the only choice since we were all starved. After dinner, did you say let's walk again? But of course and no kidding. Let's head to SoHo and they were so thrilled! Sur La Table is a cook's shopping mecca. We all walked out of the store with a bagful of kitchen gadgets and more.I was hoping that all that walking would be punishment enough for them to quit for a day. But no - they have made plans for tomorrow and the next day and the next.... Oh dear, I remember when I had that much energy to keep on going. On the train headed back home, they were all well-behaved - all four ready to sleep. What if I don't wake them up at our stop - maybe somebody else will take pity and adopt them! But I can't do that, they're craving for Lola's cooking.
Believe me it doesn't take much to make these homeless kids happy! Follow us on our adventure next week.
