We woke up here in NY to rain, alot of it. Luckily, we had our ponchos and umbrellas. The kids decided to start calling themselves, The Rain Trash Bag Buddies, not sure if thats copyrighted yet or not. On our way into NYC, you'l remember yesterday, I snapped pictures of a few of the boys sleeping, well they got me back! Apparently I slept the entire time we were in the Lincoln Tunnel. They were awfully proud of themselves, labeling the photo, "revenge for yesterday - Ben and Caleb" Our very first stop was the Museum of Chinese Americans. Everyone descended onto the gift shop before we ever even started looking around! The kids found an instant favorite, Pockeys. These snacks appear to be alot like a pretzel dipped in chocolate, though I'm sure they are made of something else. One of us also, bought himself a recorder :) We spent an hour with a guided tour focusing on many aspects of many decades of life for Chinese immigrants. The museum even had a 'music room' where the staff shared favorite cultural music- this was a popular place as it had bean bags and our feet are aching! The museum guide kept reporting, how engaged our NY 9 were, and I wish you could have heard them answer all the questions! Dont worry, we only corrected her or stumped her with knowledge bits every so often ;). We learned the figure we often refer to as the Chinese dragon, is in fact, a Chinese lion. The kiddos were able to pick their own lunch venue, though most went with a safe choice and got Mcdonalds. The girls and I tried some delish Italian. Next stop was a walking tour of China Town with our museum guide. We were able to observe a real Chinese chess game in progress, learned that Chinese checkers arent Chinese at all, and ended this tour with a stop to a Chinese candy shop. The boys were insistent that we all try the dried shrimp candy, many, including myself, went on to suffer the consequences of listening to 7th grade boys :)
We were able to test out the Brooklyn Bridge (safety check from the NY 9). I heard many comments addressing the magnitude of it up close and some concerning how the lanes are divided. (half is for bikes, which are going quite fast - we found out the hard way, though none of the children were injured, only scared!) They were surprised to hear that a woman executed the final design! We noticed that NY squirrels dont look like Goddard squirrels. After the hike back to China Town, the kiddos were given some shopping time. The group in general tried many different activities: shopped, ate new foods, and got foot rubs (which I do recommend :). They all seemed to enjoy the experience! We ate traditional Chinese food at the Golden Unicorn restaurant for dinner. This meal was much better received than last nights!
We ended our day with a visit to the 9/11 memorial. Our tour guide Skye took time to explain the background of this event with the kids (we've covered it with and adults were able to share, where we were when this event occurred. This is a portion of our visit that really gets me in the feels, the kids know that and asked insightful questions, respectfully.
The main thing I noticed today, we're making new friends! The girls are enjoying their new "Texas friends" and the boys all sat with new Arkansas friends at dinner! Often today, they engaged in conversations with others. They went to lunch with others and shopped. I'm proud of them for stepping out and meeting new people! Tomorrow, we visit the Museum of NY and head to day 1 of our conference!!
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