Christmas in New York

What a terrific time we had in New York for Christmas this year. Many, many, many thanks to Jana Badger for being the family's personal tour guide of New York. Because of her pre-planning and knowledge of the area we were able to visit many locations on the Manhattan Island. Using the MTA New York City Subway she was able to get us close to every venue. If you want to see New York... forget the car, take Jana! She will save you lots of time & money!

This year Christmas was in the Bronx at Einstein University where David is attending medical school. Patti, Caylah & I flew into LaGuardia Airport from Corpus Christi, TX on Sunday the 20th, John & Danika Flew into JFK from SLC, UT. Eric was able to fly in from Phoenix, AZ to JFK Christmas morning.

We traveled on the the subway and bus from the Bronx into Manhattan each day to our various destinations.

Monday the 21st we all went to Manhattan including the Grand kids, Breyton & Evie. Our first stop was FAO Schwartz toy store. We enjoyed walking through the many toy displays on hand. Then we walked through Central Park and enjoyed this oasis inside New York City.

Caylah standing on top of a snow hill in Central Park.

John and Danika at Central Park

Paparazzi at work.

Breyton is saying Calgon take me away.

John and Danika practicing parental responsibilities.
In the background you can see Jana, Patti and Breyton.

Caylah contemplating a big snowball for her Dad.

At Big Nicks the menu is a 23 page book!
This was a terrific place to eat. Great Hamburgers and Pizza along with many other choices. There's something to eat for everyone!

Standing room only on the sub ride home.
The MTA NY Subway was a real experience. Often times it was standing room only. Then it would thin out and we would be able to sit. Occasionally there would be pan handlers asking for donations. Some people would hop on and play their guitar and sing a song then continue on to the next car while traveling 40 miles an hour or more. On one occasion an author jump on board offering to sell a book he wrote.
Patti was always generous and we gave her some singles $ so she could hand-out on behalf of all of us.

Intruder alert! She just had to jump into our picture...which one doesn't belong here, which one is not like the others.

City lights are too bright for Caylah.
You can see the Time Square ball at the top of picture.

Chocolate any one?
This was one of the places Danika wanted to visit... I'm sure glad we did. They handed out Chocolate Kisses at the door and had what you would expect... Lots of Chocolate.

Time Square complete with the New Years Ball.

Pedaling to power the New Years Ball. Seriously, we generated power that would contribute to the New Year's celebration of lights and the fall of the ball. AND we were paid in batteries for our efforts!

Dave's Rocky pose. I think he was carrying the back pack so long that he thought he earned the title of Rocky Balboa.

Caylah's favorite man in her life.

Does it look like we're cold? WE ARE!
Radio City Music Hall in the background famous for the Christmas Spectacular and the Rockettes.

Rockefeller Center and lovin' it!
What an awesome place to visit at Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

The full view of the Christmas Tree!

A winter wonderland right next to the tree.

More of the Rockefeller square hustle and bustle.

Take a good look at this picture. John and Danika emulated a great pose in our family shot on the beam. Way to go guys!

At 70 floors up you see a 360 degree view. Even though this was a commercial picture, you will see one just like it that Dave took during the night.

John is asking his sweetheart for a date.

City lights of Manhattan.

Just to the "center/right" you can see a green light with a orange dot above it. The orange dot is Time Square's ball.

To the roof babe.

Caylah on top of the rock.

Breyton is convinced that being up so high might not be a good idea.

John can sleep any where, any how. Grand Central Station.

A laser light show on the ceiling we happened to be there at just the right time to see it.

John checking out the laser show.

Grand Central Station 360

Did I tell you about our new dog we got?

These aren't pictures they are stuffed animals at the Museum of Natural History.

Ok Caylah, just pretend there isn't a bear behind us.

China Town

The best place to eat in China Town thanks to the best tour guide!
The Excellent Dumpling House. Delicious Chinese food and outstanding service.

Calling Pa Pa to see Breyton's Christmas toy, a swimming frog.

They shopped til they dropped.

Breyton held on to his red baby car the whole time and decided to take it out for a re-evaluation.

While on the sub we spotted these two carrying a loaded camera.

In the financial district we took a stroll down Wall Street. Notice it is closed off to traffic since 911.

The back door to the New York Stock exchange.

Now the front door.

Federal Hall. Wow this was a new piece of history that I learned. George Washington took his oath in this building as our first president.

John measures up quite nicely as his beautiful bride takes his picture next to the statue.

Jana carrying Evie all over Manhattan. Not one complaint and keeping a nice pace ahead of the rest of us so we didn't miss the Circle Line tour.

Trinity Church for all you National Treasure fans.

New York Stock exchange

Oh! This really cool deli in the financial district where we got to hob nob with a couple of traders.

Breyton was only in it for the juice.
We stopped here and picked up deli sandwiches and drinks and loaded up the backpack to eat later on the boat.

I think if I rub his head three times the market will come back. Only if you wear the UT hat though. Hook 'em horns!

Ground Zero

Circle Line tour was a fabulous way to see the whole Manhattan Island while sitting in the comfort of a heated cabin. Little Evie got so warm and so comfortable that she relaxed on Pa Pa's lap and left him an early Christmas present that he will never forget. He tried to pull it off as mustard that must have dripped from his hot dog, but everyone knows he doesn't eat mustard. Euwwww.
Jana found some coupons that gave us half off the purchase price.

This would have been a view of the twin towers of the world trade center behind the center sky scrapers.

New Jersey

Water side view of the Empire State building.

Tip of Manhattan

Ellis Island
This is where the early emigrants were processed. Names of millions of emigrants are written on its walls. What a neat way to search for ancestors!

Only 10 people a day are allowed into the crown of the statue of Liberty since 911. They use a lottery to select visitors that can climb the stairs to the crown.

Statue of Liberty

Much prettier to look at than the statue!

Caylah winding down. If you only knew all the things we fit into this day!

A better shot of the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building on your left, the Chrysler building on your right. The Empire State building was lit up red and green for Christmas. Visit the Chrysler site to see how sneaky they were.

Oh man...captured by Amah again.

Yankee Stadiums side by side the most visible (right) is the old one to be torn down.

Waiting for our sub while watching others passing each other on both sides.

Breyton didn't quite make it home before crashing.

He barely made it home before Santa came. This was his favorite toy, the racing cars that you shake for the best performance.

Opening stockings.

A stethoscope that Breyton won't get in trouble for handling. He removed it from the box with the greatest of care while gasping with delight. A chip off the old block.

Breyton taking pictures of everyone with his very own digital camera.

Giving Caylah a shove. She discovered later that her jacket was a better sled.

Breyton making a snow ball to throw at Uncle Eric.

Jana and Breyton on a wipe-out.

Uncle Eric lending his assistance.

This is how you do it guys!

Caylah contemplating the launch, gloves-check scarf-check, now if only I can clear that tree.

This is the only time Jana will be able to push her big brother around.

Eric... "where's the steering wheel to this newfangled contraption."

One of Breyton's first attempts. You will see in the following video, that he discovered his snow suit made a better, faster sled.

Breyton sledding

Eric giving us a push. We just had the funnest time EVER. We laughed til our sides hurt.
Jacobi Hospital is seen in the background where David walks to clinicals.

Right before we played Mafia late into the night, Jana and David looking at a childhood picture of Jana while Eric does his family duties of making sure our electronics are optimized.

Wow, what a Christmas! It was a none stop week to get all our stops completed in 4 days and enjoy Christmas together as a family. We traveled by bus, subway, and walked in 15 degree wind chill all week. Jana and Mom cooked a nice pot roast Christmas dinner while we talked about the fast paced week we all had. Just awesome!

Thank you to All our family that made this week a memorable one for years to come.
Special thanks to Jana & David for hosting this Christmas event in their 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment on the Einstein Campus Dorms.

Costa Rica

Dave and I just got back from the vacation of a life time. Jana and David Badger suggested we go to Costa Rica for some canopy tours and hikes in the tundra. Since Jana and David are never wrong, we took their advice and went to La Fortuna and Monte Verde.

Before we left I felt impressed to purchase a couple of backpacks the night before. Dave felt impressed to call the bus that was picking us up at 3:00 "from the restaurant across the street from the airport." Well the backpacks were exactly what we needed as the transportation system would have been difficult at best with our traditional suitcases. The restaurant across the street, on the other hand, turned out to be a 15min taxi ride. Needless to say, we missed the bus in pouring down rain and had to make taxi arrangements to La Fortuna. Eric, Jana and John can appreciate this picture: Their language inept mother trying to explain our plight and get help making those arrangements under a tin roof in a down-pour.

After arriving in Tabacon Springs we wanted to kiss the ground. Our driver was a 26yo with way way too much bravado or maybe a former Indy 500 race car champion. Either would be fine on US roads but imagine only 2-way highways with a steep canyon on one side and random lanes that had been washed away by a former land slide.

Our first morning began with a fishing trip on Lake Aernal at 5:30 am.

As you can see I won the tournament. Dave didn't want to take pictures of my other catches. That smoking mountain you see is a real live volcano which we will feature later on this blog when we got a spectacular two thumbs up view of it on the other side at night.

So.... on to the canopy tour after the fishing trip. This was a process of a hike, then a zip across a huge gorge through the trees, towards a water fall and then more hiking and more zip lines (10 lines all together). At the end we rode skinny horses back to the stables. Take note of Dave's extra harness they put on him for spinning out of control. Also notice the hard stop where my knee swung up and hit the cable....not funny... still have the bruise...but lots of fun...would do it again.

We decided to sleep in til 7:00am catch a quick breakfast and transportation to the river for some white water rafting. This was the absolute coolest adventure we have ever experienced. Our guide had it in for Dave for the whole trip. He yelled FORWARD which meant put your whole body and sole into the stroke. You will see by the pictures that the timing was perfect for the next rapid to wash Dave over. We almost lost him twice. The guide apologetically said "sorry I didn't see that rock, Dave". Our team was so good that we did donuts and bounced our raft off trees while others just survived the trip going forward. I'm the special one with the blue helmet.

The night after rafting we decided to take a trip around the other side of the volcano to view all the action. Since EVERYONE had made a big deal about seeing the top of it the whole time we were there. We got a few shots but like this one best.

Our last day in La Fortuna was spent enjoying the hot springs produced by that volcano.

Wow Jana, you were right about the fireworks!

The next afternoon we caught the jeep boat jeep to Monte Verde which turned out to be van, boat, van, another van. We met some really neat people whom we bonded with out of shear terror. There were 2 dentists, 1 vet, a teacher and her husband who did AC jobs in Canada and us cramped up with all our back packs in a small minivan. The driver spoke only Spanish. After crossing Lake Arenal, the road to Monte Verde was treacherous at best. David Badger mentioned how he hated it. While telling Dave about this, one of the dentists turned around in his seat and said"You mean you know someone who did this road?" When I explained my association to Jana and David, the vet behind us said "I guess your daughter and son-in-law are the benefactors of your life insurance?" Shortly after this conversation we started back sliding on the gravel-dirt road backwards while smelling this hot acrid smell. The driver was persistent in flooring the gas pedal while everyone was pleading to stop and let us out in any desperate form of Spanish they knew. We jumped from the van all the while he protested. Soon after, it stalled never to start again. The sun was setting and we grabbed our packs and began listing our supplies for food and shelter. The vet said she would work on capturing a small animal for diner since she was up to date on her rabies vaccine. About an hour and a half later, another van rescued us.

Arising the next morning at Monte Verde we decided to take the hanging bridges tour. We were disappointed that we didn't see more critters with our guide, but appreciated his expertise on plants and pointing out a sleeping owl, a lizard, and his sharing information on the ficus trees which you will see us climbing up the middle of.

We just knew that if we went to the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve we would see the birds and the animals we missed on the hanging bridges tour. So we ate lunch and set out for another hike. Thinking that we would go on a night hike the next night we decided to save a little money by not hiring a tour guide. I think the park ranger didn't approve so to get revenge, he pulled up an older map and quickly drew a yellow line indicating a 2 hr tour that would allow just enough time to call a taxi at closing. About an hr. into the hike we came across a trail closure so we took the only trail that was accessible which put us on broken bridges covered with chicken wire that some poor hiker before us stepped through. As the sun was setting we pushed on through steep and muddy "GUCK"(as Dave calls it) that went on for miles. We laughed joking about the search and rescue team that never cared about our absence. With mud between our toes and fingers we called it a day.....but oh! Lets walk over there and see the humming birds before the taxi comes!

Exhausted we finished off the day with a sunset from our room. Our travel to Corpus Christi the next day was no small feat. The plan was to do the jeep, boat, jeep in reverse, catch a taxi to the La Fortuna air strip, fly a King Air to the air strip in San Jose, pick up a taxi to the international airport, get through customs and security to board our flight to Houston then to Corpus. Imagine our surprise when the same driver that broke down is inviting us to get in for our first leg of the jeep-boat-jeep trip!

The ground is so fertile in Costa Rica that you can see that when they plant stumps for fence posts, they grow! Also take note of the small volcano we flew over on our way home.

Sure hope you enjoyed the sights as much as we did! Patti