New York - day one

Ella and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to New York this weekend.  My sister and her husband were ideal hosts.  Isn't their street adorable?

They live in a fabulous apartment that is filled with their artwork.  What a treasure.

 

I took a LOT of pictures in this fair city, so I'm going to spread this goodness out.  I realize that it might only be interesting to the grandparents, but it's a lot to upload and takes forever, so please bare with me.

First up, Ella's first subway ride.  She was well prepared by my sister, so she knew what to expect, but it was still a lot for a little girl to take in.  It's really loud, really big, and really fast for something only a few feet away.

You'll notice Ella has finally gotten the hang of smiling at the camera, but doesn't realize that she needs to LOOK at the camera, too.  One thing at a time.

She snuggled up between my sister and me for the first few stops, and then wanted to get up and see all there is to see on a subway.  We had to keep reminding her to hold on because of all the sudden stops.

It was a good thing she liked the subway because our first activity was to visit the Transit Museum {read: all about subways}.  We needed some sustenance first, so my sister suggested a New York highlight, the Shake Shack.

Oh, my friends, if all fast food could taste this good, I might eat it.  Maybe it's a good thing this place is only in New York....

I was excited to bring this trench coat because 1. I love the color and 2. I needed some type of mid-weight jacket and 3. I could still button the top button and tie the belt.  It's a bit big, and I didn't realize that it had shoulder pads until I looked at these pictures.  I realize that this is vain, but I kept trying to find opportunities to take pictures without it on, but it was so chilly most of the weekend that I couldn't do it.  Why did I care when taking the jacket off just meant a picture of an enormous belly?  Oh, who knows.  Vanity!

On to the Transit Museum, where Ella learned about electricity,

And I showed her how a deranged mean bus driver would look,

And she showed us how cute a bus driver could look, though her driving skills clearly leave much to be desired.

Well, she's only five.

 Then she took over as ticket boss.

Would you believe she charged us TEN DOLLARS APIECE to go past her gate?  What a crook.

The coolest part of the museum was downstairs.  There was at least one original subway car from each era, beginning in 1908.

You could walk through them and check out all the original ads.

After the museum, we headed home for the day to have dinner with Uncle Steve.  Ella. loves. Uncle. Steve.  He might hang the moon in her eyes.  And the feeling is mutual. 

He says Ella is his antedote to the cynicism of New York.  It's true.  You can't be cynical when the little girl with you gets really excited about pigeons and says, "HELLO!" to every dog she sees.