Ice, lego, science, and meat - October 22nd, 2010

Boy am I behind.....It's amazing what doing much of nothing in FL will do to one's productivity.

So given the fast pace of our two days in Manhattan, I think I'll run through the updates here just as fast.

Our early morning began, but of course, at



Yup, Rockefeller Plaza!

THE place to skate in Manhattan!


I can't really say that it was her dream come true since she didn't really know what Rockefeller Plaza even was.  But, I sure did and it was so cool to have her be able to strut her stuff there, right in front of


The Today Show studio of course!

This was also the only opportunity to show off for her Saba and Savta (grandparents).  They of course were duly impressed, to say the least.  They are grandparents after all.



I was pretty surprised at how small the rink actually was.  It certainly doesn't give that impression on TV.  Fortunately we were there on a school day morning so it wasn't as crowded as it could have been.  She enough room to maneuver and do her thing properly.

What I didn't know was that right above the rink was the boys' favorite invention ever -



A Lego STORE!!!

We've of course seen legos IN stores, but never an entire Lego store!  We couldn't get in there fast enough!

Yup, all those colorful pieces in those bins are different lego pieces, all the way up to the ceiling!



A lego Rockefeller Plaza



Everything in the plaza was recreated with legos!

Thank goodness Saba and Savta were there, that way the boys could actually leave the store with something in hand :-)



They each got to create several of their own lego men to take home. A lego salad bar if you will.

After a quick lunch somewhere in the bowels of Rockefeller Plaza we headed uptown (yes, I now know enough to mention directions in the city with some kind of confidence!) to the Natural History Museum!!  Another dream come true!  Of course, having only 4 hours to spend there (they close at 5!!) we didn't even begin to scratch the surface.  There's soooooo much to see and do there!  We definitely MUST go back.

We managed to cover some geology with ice core samples



and various rock formations among many other things.  We do love us a good rock formation!

Marine life -



That's a HUGE Blue Whale she's standing under

This one -



We zipped through the world's habitats and environments, here we are in the rainforest -



And we came across this Kenyan proverb,



Speaks the world of our responsibilities....

Moving on,

we conked out with the dinosaurs -



Impressed the grandparents with our (the royal 'our' of course) knowledge of said dinos, the kids knowing way more than us about them of course.





These aren't dinos but they're in the same prehistoric display -

And finally, we finished up in space.  Well, we actually started there too, so we came full circle.  We visited the planetarium when we first got here.



We reviewed the order of events and objects (these things always confuse me but this little visual helped clear it up!)


Got an explanation about Stellar Communities from the authority on all things space in this family,



And saw a REAL meteorite!!

After a long day of schlepping, we schlepped some more.  This time we headed back downtown for dinner at none other than the Carnegie Deli.  I know, not exactly first choice for us mostly raw vegans.  I think we had just about every potato (and kasha) dish on the menu at our table, as that's pretty much what we could/wanted to eat there.  One of us did fall completely off the wagon though....I won't mention any names :-).  I've never seen so much flesh piled so high on two thin slices of bread........

Despite being weighed down by potatoes, we did have a great time talking and playing.  It's not often we get to have dinner with Saba and Savta after all.