Wednesday, 18 September 2013

Update by Lachlan Magrath. September 14-16

September 16th

Today we planned to drive to Manhattan, New York, form Chatham, New Jersey. We got up at seven o’clock, and had an earlier wake-up call then usual, wishing to get an early start to get to Manhattan. After we had had breakfast and said goodbye to Uncle Murray (he had to go to work), we packed (chaotically) all our stuff into our rented car. After we had said our goodbyes to Auntie Rachel and the boys, we were off. We navigated our way out of Chatham, and went to a nearby breakfast store. We had a brunch with bagels, croissants, and pancakes. (American Style.) Once we had brunch, we were off again. We stopped on the way to Manhattan, to go to an outlet. After we had looked at all the amazingly cheap stores, we were off again, and excitement built, as we saw the skyline for New York City. The most anticipating bit was when we went through the tunnel that went onto the island of Manhattan. Once we had exited the tunnel, we were suddenly surrounded by one of the biggest cities in the world. Yellow taxicabs were everywhere, we could see the Empire State Building, and we could see al the places that you could always see in movies. Even with one of New York’s infamous traffic jams, it did not feel like it took long to get our hotel, because of all the lights, and tall buildings. Once we had got our hotel, we put all our stuff in our hotel room, and set out to The Natural History Museum near Central Park. We caught one of New York’s famous subways to Central Park and walked the rest of the way to The Natural History Museum. We planned to meet the Webbs, old friends at the Museum, but until then, we looked at the displays available. It was really overwhelming, because of the four floors of museum. We looked at African animals and people, Dinosaurs before the Webbs arrived. We met them in the foyer, and met them. They took as out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. After we had had dinner with them, we went to their city apartment. And once we had gone there, we went back to our own hotel room, and settled down for the night.

September 15th
Today, we went with Uncle Murray, and his little men to the farmer’s marke. Where a variety of farmers come together to sell their best and freshest goods. We had another relaxed morning, due to our champion sleepers, otherwise known as Dad and Elliott. Once they had gotten out of bed and had breakfast, we were all ready (sort of) to go to the farmer’s market in a nearby suburb. We didn’t know this, but an antique car sale was on at the same time. There were heaps of interesting cars, like old London taxicabs, and remodelled cars, and some that would not be out of the norm, fifty years ago. Once we had passed through the streets where these cars were put on show, we entered the farmer’s market. We saw a lot of different things that you would not see at Australia, like pickles on a stick! Hamilton and Abbey tried the pickles willingly, while Elliott and I, held back. But then we all tasted some freshly squeezed on the spot, lemonade. The lemonade had quite an edge, and was not as sweet as what you would find in store, but it was very refreshing. Once we had looked at the market, we went to a store called Manhattan Bagels. We had our first try of bagels. They were very nice, and tasted like heavy, doughy, bread. After this, we drove to a massive play equipment area. Elliott, Uncle Murray, Dad, and I, went to the synthetic grass soccer field instead. We had lots of fun, but then we had to go back home, due to Cruz and Cole becoming quite tired. Once we had got back home we had a nice, quiet, relaxed afternoon.

September 14th
Today, we had a late wake up call, with our most diligent ‘sleeper inners’, sleeping in to about eight thirty or nine in the morning. We planned to go to a (almost) traditional, American, autumn farm. But first, we had a few errands to do, like getting our car washed. After we had done this, it took about thirty minutes to get there. (It felt like nothing to me, I was totally engrossed in a new book.) Once we got there, we noticed that this was farm unlike Australian farms. Stalls selling bagels and hot dogs (and all other types of American food) surrounded us. There were lots of activities that people could get involved in. Like climbing a haystack, having a tractor driven, wagons ride, and (this is something I have never seen before) a sandpit, but instead of sand, there was corn! The young ones participated in all these. After all this, we could pick fresh apples, and peaches from the orchard at the farm. We picked a variety of apples like Gala apples, and Jonamac apples. After the staff had weighed, and priced the apples, we headed back to base, with a load of apples and peaches in tow. Once we had arrived home, we sampled all these different types of apples. The apples were absolutely delicious! We had a pretty relaxed afternoon after that, watching American sports, like NFL, and baseball. After this we had planned to go to a soccer game! The game was New York Red Bulls, verses, Toronto FC. We had a hurried dinner at a pizza parlour, before the boys drove to the stadium. Unfortunately, we arrived halfway through the game, and we managed to acquire a few tickets, from someone outside the stadium. The game was really cool, but unfortunately Aussie player, Tim Cahill had an injury, and he did not play that night. Red Bulls ended up winning 2-0. We drove back home and arrived at ten pm. We got to sleep quickly after that.

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