This morning Hélène went out to get some bread and we had a quick lunch in the hotel room so we could get started early.

We’ve had many challenges in doing the kids schoolwork on the iPads for their net based school. The iPads work very nicely for reading, but have become a pain for interactive homework. This is basically the consequence of Mr. Jobs decision to leave Flash out of iOS for political and power game reasons.

In short we need another Macbook Air to be able to school the kids correctly. This time I luckily did my homework and found out that rumors said that Apple would come out with a new Macbook Air. And so they did, yesterday. Better specs, fixed all the unpractical small things and significantly lowered the price. Good deal.

So, this morning Iseline and I headed towards our local Apple Store,

while Hélène took the boys to central park so Viktor at last could play some saxophone. Our original plan was to go to central park several times while we were here so he could play, but time has passed too quickly.

Iseline and I took the subway and walked to the store. Unfortunately they did not have the new machines yet. Please come back later today. Little did we know that we were going to have a different and urgent reason to come back during the day.

Viktor managed to get his saxophone out in central park and let it breathe a bit before it started raining. We all met up at the subway station next to the hotel having achieved nothing so far during the day. The time? 11am (Twilight Zone music in the background)

We took the subway to South Ferry station and headed for the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Marc, our saving angel this week, had told us we needed to get tickets in advance with a time slot. When we arrived at the ferry terminal we were met by a veeeerrrrryyyyy long line of people. Ouch. To our relief there was a separate line for people with prepaid tickets with time slots and it was veeeerrrrryyyyy short. There was a guy there checking tickets and he complained that our tickets showed 14:00, while we were there at 11:30. At that moment he received a phone call and started talking on the phone. A line built up behind us. When he got off the phone he seemed overwhelmed and grudgingly waved us through. Later we found out the the time slot we thought was for getting up to the statue pedestal was in fact a time slot for taking the ferry!

After a very thorough security check, US airport style, we were on the ferry and on our way.

Nice view from Liberty Island:

Once again Wikipedia was my friend and I could brief the children on today’s main destination.

In the 1870s the new democracy in France was seen as very fragile. A politician called Édouard René de Laboulaye suggested to erect a monument in the United States to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the US constitution as early as 1865 during a party at his house. He wanted the project to be a cooperation between the two countries. The French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi was present at the party and took the idea and ran with it. It gained popularity partly because it was seen as a symbolic act that would support the new Third Republic.

In 1871 Bartholdi crossed the Atlantic to present the idea to the Americans. To make a long story short the project was announced in 1875 and would take 11 years to complete. Americans financed the pedestal and the French the actual statue. The pedestal was privately funded in its entirety. The French part was funded by many different organizations, amongst them 181 French municipalities.

The very first terracotta miniature Bartholdi made as a study for the statue is today in the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon.

Bartholdi steamed ahead and started to produce the arm and the head long before he had complete plans. Wooden forms were created and plates of thin copper were hammered to fit them. The finished arm crossed the Atlantic 3 times, having been exposed in the US before it was brought back to France! The entire statue was assembled in Paris, before it was dismantled and rebuilt in New York. What a massive and long project!

The original designer of the interior part of the statue died in 1879, in the middle of the project. Bartholdi then comissioned none less than good old Gustave Eiffel to design the interior. He came up with a brand new design of steel beams, much like he later used in his faomus tower.

And the copper they used came from a French owned copper mine in Norway. Here Iseline is next to a piece of ore from the mine together with a plaque, a gift from the people of Karmøy, Norway, where the mine was located:

We took a stroll around Liberty Island and saw the statue from many angles before we took the stairs up to the top of the pedestal. We had a good discussion with the kids about liberty and democracy. Should the majority always decide? I quoted Benjamin Franklin who once said that democracy is two wolves and one sheep voting over what they should have for dinner.

Inside the pedestal there is a full size replica of the head:

The original torch is also on display. It had to be replaced in the mid-1980s since it was becoming too fragile from corrosion:

Bartholdi had a similar view of the US as myself:

Afterwatds we headed over to Ellis Island and walked inside the building they used to register the immigrants.

It was a good opportunity to talk about immigration and poverty. In 1900 Norway was one of the poorest countries in Europe, Ireland was probably the only country which was poorer. Infant mortality rate was at 10%. 1 in 10 children died before they reached the age of 12 months. Things can change a lot in about 100 years.

There were computer stations where we could search in the immigration archives. Adrian called my father to ask for the name of his uncle, who emigrated to the US. Unfortunately he had a very common name and the interface only listed name and country for search hits. 33 men named “Birger Hansen” immigrated from Norway to the US through Ellis Island in the years it registered immigrants.

The line to catch the ferry back to New York was huge and we stood in line for about an hour. As usual the kids took out their iPod Touches to play games while we were waiting. Just as the ferry arrived the tragedy happened. Viktor was not paying attention enough and turned around quickly next to his brother with his hand rotating in the air. He gave Adrian a hard “schmack” on the hand and Adrian’s iPod fell onto the concrete.

The screen was broken with a characteristic glass rose of cracks. One of the cracks went straight over the front camera. The boys were devastated. We told Viktor that even though it was not on purpose he hadn’t paid attention and that this was his fault. He would have to find a solution for his big brother. The iPod did work, but it was not pretty and we did not know how long it would work.

We agreed that one solution was for the boys to switch iPods. We also agreed to go to the Apple Store and hear if it could be repaired.

At the store we were told that it probably could be repaired but that it would cost at least a hundred dollars. A big dent in Viktor’s savings. We were given an appointment 30 minutes later.

At the Apple “Genius Bar” we were made to wait an additional half hour before a vey nice Apple hardware guru received us. He entered the serial number into his computer and went “hmmmm” for some time. He told us that the guarantee did not cover this type of damage, but that he would make an exception since the iPod was so new. He gave Adrian a brand new iPod of the same kind free of charge. We later found out that the repair would have cost 200 dollars. The two boys were now very, very relieved. New iPod to the left, broken one to the right:

Suddenly we had the challenge of getting Adrian’s photos and videos off the iPod. It hadn’t been synched for photos for at least two weeks and Adrian had over 600 photos and videos on it. The guy told us sheepishly that he was not allowed to put customer data on demo machines. Not even for 5 minutes. He could lose his job. The situation was absurd. We were surrounded by certainly well over 100 Apple computers that were on the net and we couldn’t copy photos over and mail them to ourselves. The iPod has mail size limitations that made it impossible to mail directly from it. Arghh, trying to guess what is best for the user does not always cut it.

I called Hélène, which was at the hotel, and she arrived 20 minutes later with one of our Macs and we could save Adrian’s data. I told him about backups.

At this point, with all the waiting, we were getting seriously undernourished. We chose a chinese restaurant by random. Very strange place. We got a plastic picnic plate and a simple fork. All around us people were eating with only a fork. The waitress was impolite and snappy. She was shocked when Hélène told her about her gluten allergies. “You have what?!” We got the impression she wondered why in the world we had chosen this restautant when we had that problem.

The food turned out to be top notch. I have seldom had that good Chinese food outside China. I ate chili beef in orange sauce that was heaven. I understood why the place was full now. Who cares about picnic plates and impolite service when prices are low and the food fantastic?

We weren’t home until after 10pm. Yes, Mamilyne, we do have problems finding time to do school work with the kids. On the other hand they are learning lots of new things every day and I am sure we will more than compensate for the “lost” time later.

While I have been writing this the calendar has switched to October 22. Today is the the 44th birthday of my best friend in high school, Jarle Thorsen. Unfortunately I lost contact with him almost 15 years ago and have never been able to trace him since. Happy birthday, Jarle, wherever you are.

Transportation day tomorrow, time flies fast when you are having fun.

See you aorund, folks.

Eirik

—–

We really tried to get going earlier this morning, but one delay led to another. I think we will just have to accept that we need to keep a certain slow rhythm when we are traveling like this with 3 kids. After a new eggs in a roll breakfast we got going pretty exactly at 11am.

First we had to check out the Halloween decorations in the hotel lobby.

Today’s target was the Intrepid, a previous US aircraft carrier that has been turned into a Sea, Air and Space museum. Marc gave us the tip to check it out.

Those who know me know that I am not the fondest fan of weapons or military organizations. However, they are a part of this world and it’s better to teach the kids about them then let them get all their knowledge from other sources.

I have to admit it was kind of cool to walk inside an aircraft carrier. They are huge structures. The Intrepid was built during the second world war and had around 3000 men in its crew. The museum has an impressive number of airplanes and helicopters on display, including a Concorde, in addition to a submarine.

We first took a walk inside a very special submarine. It had been built in 1958 as a nuclear missile launcher and MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) deterrent during the cold war. It is a good example of how technological quantum leaps can render an otherwise good design totally useless. There were only 2 of this type of submarine and they were in service for only 4 years.

Here we are on our way onto the submarine. Cruise missile in the center.

1958 high-tech:

I have always thought that military organization often find ways to word themselves around the fact that they are in a business of life and death. However, this sign was a breath of fresh air. No trying to hide the nature of death here.

Design goal of the submarine: To lurk unnoticed in Soviet waters with four 3.8 megaton nuclear missiles (200 times the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs). Have the capability to launch those missiles unnoticed if a nuclear war starts.

Implementation: Battery powered motors that need to be recharged by diesel aggregates every 24 hours. Diesel aggregates need air and thus surfacing. Missiles can only be fired when the boat is at the surface.

As soon as nuclear power was practical to use for powering submarines and launching of missiles under water became possible these submarines became as obsolete as a typewriter.

Next we had a look at the Concorde.

Oh, the Concorde. Sigh. I had long, very long, dreamt about flying in a Concorde. It was the symbol of bleeding edge transportation engineering, together with the TGV, when I was young.

I remember very clearly when I heard on the radio that they were going to stop using the Concordes. I was in a rental car on my way to an office south of San Francisco, where I was visiting our subsidiary. I had been collecting British Airways miles for quite some time with the goal of taking the Concorde and I knew what this meant. As soon as I reached the office I logged in to the BA site and checked availability for miles redemption. I had just enough miles for 2 one-way Concorde tickets. My goal was to be able to do 2 returns and invite my old friend, Jørn Harald, to the plane trip of his life. Now there was no choice but to use them for 2 one-ways. I figured we would just use the miles to get from London to New York with the Concorde and then purchase two one-ways on normal economy back again. I found that there were only 2 dates available, people were obviously hurrying to get the last ones. Both dates were in the same week, only a week and a half before Hélène was due to give birth to our third child. I sat there with the tickets in my virtual hand. All I had to do was click “Purchase with miles.”

I called Héléne to discuss the issue. She did not want me out of the country in July with the possibility that I might not be there for her when our baby was born. I was torn myself and accepted. Well, that was that, I never got to take the Concorde and Jørn Harald never got to know about my plan.

Today, though, I got to walk inside a Concorde. It was even the Concorde with the standing speed record for a passenger plane flight between London and New York; 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds. It was a special feeling to walk down the aisle of this fantastic piece of engineering, just like it was to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.

The cockpit:

Just before we entered the plane Hélène told me she regretted not letting me go on that trip. Here she is, acting pregnant:

The museum had an expo of the NASA Gemini program, a precursor to the Apollo program. The return capsule of the Gemini 3 mission was picked up by the Intrepid after 2 astronauts had travelled around the world in orbit 3 times. There was a capsule the kids could try out. Those guys did not have much room.

We went up to the upper deck and had a look at some of the many aircraft that are part of the museum. These are just a few of them:

They had an SR-71 blackbird. A top-secret spy plane that was used to take detailed photos at very high altitudes, much like satellites do today. It was the first aircraft with “stealth” technology, an attempt to make it difficult to detect with radar.

The museum offered several really cool simulators. The boys and I did the “3D roller coaster on another planet” ride which was really cool. The big winner, however, was the flight simulator where you could control your own world war 2 fighter. The simulator box we sat in was very responsive, and if we drove the plane upside down we were hanging upside down! Unfortunately the ride only lasted 3 minutes and felt like 30 seconds.

The museum also had a slightly less frightening row-boat simulator (it did rock nicely back and forth like a row-boat would have done to your movements).

By the time we had seen it all it was getting well past 4pm. We got off our bus at Times Square to catch the subway when Adrian mentioned how cool it would be to see Times Square at night. We immediately changed our plans. Instead of heading home we headed towards Greenwich Village and a restaurant Trine had reccommende for us. There were no free tables at the restaurant but we at least took a picture.

After a Japanese dinner where the kids really got to test their chop-stick skills

we headed back to Times Square.

Whoa! It sure makes a difference to see it at night. Hélène and I was there only 5 years ago, but as far as I could recall there were way more screens now. The square is lit up by screens like it is the middle of the day. Iseline wanted to go back into the Toys ‘R Us store, but we were not in the mood for another 2 hours in a toy store, -:) We sat down in the stairs at the square and just gazed around us for a long time before heading home.

We really have sore feet now. Being a tourist is hard work

See you around, folks.

Eirik

—–

Another lazy morning and another round of eggs on a roll at Martinelli Bros. Things often take time in a family of 5 and when 3 family members needed to go do the big do in the restroom just as we were heading out we got delayed by 30 minutes.

In other words, departure at 11:30am today.

Initially we had planned to go to the Bronx zoo, but given our delay we decided it was better to do something else today. We headed for the southern part of Manhattan.

I took the role as map reader as we searched for the famous bull statue close to Wall Street. After a while I was confused and stopped to figure out where we were. A couple of minutes of checking and rechecking street names later a nice guy dressed as a hotel portier or something similar came over to help; “So, Mr. Navigator, where do you want to go?” I explained our goal and he pointed to the large bull 20 meters behind me on the other side of the street…

This reminds me of the two big map reading mistakes I have made in my life. I’ll tell you about one of them now. If enough people ask I might tell you about the other one. I was heading to Belgium by car together with a Danish friend many years ago to celebrate New Year’s Eve with some Belgian friends (Hi, Peter!) . I was the map reader and had brought a map of Germany and a map of Belgium. On the map of Germany the highway we were going to take crossing the border  was clearly marked with the name of the city we wanted to go to next in Belgium. Likewise the map of Belgium had an arrow marked with the right city in Germany. All the distances seemed to make sense and the contour of the countries matched. So, when we got to the end of my German map and my friend said “There is a border coming up” I was never in doubt when I with much self confidence proclaimed “Yes, we are going to enter Belgium now.” Seconds later we passed a huge sign saying “Welcome to the Netherlands!” I never regained his trust as a map reader after that. It turns out there is very small strip of the Netherlands sneaking it’s way in through Belgium and Germany. How was I to know?

Oops, carried away again,

We stopped briefly by the NYSE and used the opportunity to explain to the kids what a stock exchange is. They boys already knew, but a little refreshing doesn’t hurt. Did you know that the concept of shares (part ownership in businesses) dates back to old Mesopotamia?

Next was Ground Zero. We headed over to what is now a very busy construction site.

Norwegian newspapers have misled me to believe that the new site has been designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, but research today has made me realize they have only drawn one of the smallest buildings, the museum. This is what the site will look like when it is finished:

We didn’t know where the visitor center was and as we arrived at the site we decided to walk in an anti-clockwise fashion until we found it. 356 degrees, over a kilometer and many decibels later we did find it.

It was very special to be at this site.

I have my own memories from what happened back in 2001. I was preparing to start a board meeting I was going to lead as we heard the news of the first plane. On the conference call we had several US board members. I remember the rumors of 6 or even 7 hijacked planes. I remember the fear in the eyes of a US friend living in Norway who had a father working at a US nuclear plant.

It was hard explaining what had happened to the kids and I kept trying to hide the lump in my throat all the time. I must say that the visitor centre was very well done. They had a movie showing what the twin towers were like before the incident. Then there was a movie about the cleaning work right after the disaster. The expo was full of pictures of people and small personal objects that had been found. There was a lot of focus on the people, the victims, their relatives and their individual stories.

After much emotions and many questions that needed to be answered thoughtfully we continued walking and had our lunch in City Hall Park. This guy wanted some of our lunch, but he didn’t get any:

With renewed energy we found our way by foot to the Brooklyn Bridge. A fascinating piece of engineering.

Here’s a view from under one of the towers:

I have a full text copy of Wikipedia on my phone at all times and I don’t know what I would have done without it. Today it made it possible for me to read up on the Brooklyn Bridge during our subway ride downtown so I could explain the history behind it to the kids. Fascinating story. The bridge was an incredible feat in its time and a symbol of a new era. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world, 50% larger than any other. The bridge was overconstructed by a factor of 6 (built 6 times stronger than what was calculated as necessary). Its original designer, John A. Roebling, died before construction could start. He died from tetanus after an accident while he was inspecting the construction site. His son, Washington Roebling,  then took over. He got decompression sickness while diving as part of the work to construct the two towers holding the bridge. He was paralyzed and his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, took over supervision of the project. She had been trained by him in mathematics, material strength, bridge specification, cable construction etc. She was the only person visiting her husband during the 11 years she in practice was responsible for construction of the bridge! During the inauguration ceremony Abram Stevens Hewitt said that the bridge was “…an everlasting monument to the sacrificing devotion of a woman and of her capacity for that higher education from which she has been too long disbarred.” This remarkable woman is unfortunately not even mentioned on this plaque at the bridge.

After the bridge we let Adrian lead the pack as we headed towards the only Games Workshop store in Manhattan. Those of you who have read about Adrian on our “About” page will know that assembling, painting and playing with miniatures from Games Workshop is one of his passions. Here he is in front of the store:

This manual is apparently not available in Norway yet. Picture taken for you, Sverre. Iseline is not very impressed.

We were all pretty tired after having walked a considerable amount of kilometers. We considered walking around Greenwich Village, but the look on Iseline’s face ruled that out. It was time to call it a day and get back to rest those sore feet.

It has been a day of much noise. Manhattan is not a place for tranquility and listening to the wind whispering silently in the trees. I had a clustrophobic sense of being imprisoned by noise at the end of the day. Construction work is very noisy, cars are very noisy, the subway is insanely noisy. If you try to escape indoors there is always noisy music or noisy people. I think the only place I have been that is noisier is Las Vegas.

Time to turn off the ears and dream about calm Norwegian forests.

See you around, folks.

Eirik

—–

There was still a bit of jet lag left this morning, but we managed to get on our feet before 9. I spotted a nice typical café close to the hotel on my way to the barber shop yesterday. We went there to have breakfast. Ottomanelli Bros. turned out to be a very small shop with a typical seating area in a corner with a view of the street. The kids and I had eggs in a roll:

We managed to get our team into action around … 11am… and headed to Times Square. Before we left Norway we went throught the entire travel route and what we wanted to do together with the kids. We then asked them what they were most looking forward to. Iseline’s eyes started drifting off and she said, with fascination in her voice, “The toy store with a ferris wheel inside it.” It was only natural then that we first entered the Toys ‘R Us store on Time Square and took the ferris wheel.

Iseline was very happy:

The kids absolutely did not want to leave the store. It is huge and there are employees demonstrating the toys wit highest kid-attraction factor everywhere.

Who is toughest?

Getting Iseline out of the Barbie house was quite a challenge.

There are many great bargains at Toys ‘R Us:

We must have spent over 2 hours in there, but the kids were very happy. We took the mandatory pictures at Times Square.

This one is for you, farmor:

Then we headed in the direction of the Rockefeller Center. Hélène got a tip this moring from our friend Trine that “Au Pain Quotidien” was a great place to have lunch. We found one next to the Rockefeller building and had a great French lunch, although cookie sizes were definitely American:

They also had meringue. Yummy!

We happened to pass by a shop where they sold wood carvings. I was intrigued by this little masterpiece. Our woodcarver friends Ricou, Joanne, and Jerry. Here is an idea for you:

We had originally planned to go to the top of the Empire State building, but on Marc’s recommendation we chose the Rockefeller instead. Hélène and I were on top of the Empire State building 5 years ago and wasted well over an hour standing in line. It was a good thing we spoke with Marc this time. There was no line whatsoever at the Rockefeller building and the view was actually better there. Hélène measured the top of the Empire State building.

Stitched panorama images. The first one taken towards the north, the second towards the south.

It’s not often you get a view like this of a cathedral without being airborne:

We were starting to get tired and found out it was time to head “home” and get some food and then some schoolwork done. Hélène just wanted to pick up some gluten-free bread first. She has been the subway-master so far and led us into the unknown underground once again. Self confident she brought us all into a subway heading in the right direction. When it was time to get off, the subway did not stop, it just zipped through the station like it had been hijacked by some desperate bank robber. Another station, zowm, yet another, zit zwat, a third, zoot. Something was wrong here. It became clear that we were not victims of a vicious crime, we had entered a rush-hour express train to the Bronx. I teased Hélène a bit and she took the bait.

Use the time table, Luke, use the time table.

Our leading star then led us in the other direction and we got off at 110th street. After some walking and disorientation it turned out that Hélène had mixed up the address of the store. It was not at 110th street, it was at 100th street. We walked 10 blocks and were starting to get tired, but the kids were hanging in there. We decided to just buy food at the store for everyone and have a quick and dirty dinner in our hotel room.

It was good to finally get back around 6:30pm. Feet were sore but morale surprisingly high. The kids were great at doing their school work and are now sleeping tight.

Another good day. I especially enjoyed how the kids marveled at Times Square. It is such an artificial and special place with all the high-rise buildings coupled with all the bright light and movement from all the screens. It was like being on a different planet for them. We discussed how everything around us was artificial and what a contrast it would be when we we got to the Amazon Jungle.

Finally I have to show you this great little drawing Iseline made for me last night. It his her interpretation of the Golden Gate bridge. She said she was a bit unhappy with the fish, because they were too big compared to the bridge. I told her I thought it was perfect and that I liked the fish very much.

See you around, folks.

Eirik

—–

After a good night’s sleep and a big New York breakfast (everything is big in America, even the hot chocolates)

it was time for me to get a haircut. While we were busy preparing the trip Hélène kept telling me to get my hair cut. I told her that was not going to happen as long as we had important things to do that could not be done on the road. I already have a wife and staying neat above my forehead has never been a priority. However, even I could see that it was starting to get a bit too much now and Hélène was pushing me to do something before visiting our friends.

Google maps was my friend and I quickly found the closest barber shop with a good rating. Here they are:

Before and after haircut pictures. Did it help and make me look better?

We had acquired a map at the hotel reception and were ready to duck down into the New York subway. After studying the fare system we invested in 7-day passes and jumped into the unknown. As we entered the first subway two young guys came on just behind us and shouted at a 3rd guy in Norwegian (he didn’t make it). They had been in New York for a week and we had a good chat before they jumped off. They could tell us that on their first day they had had problems getting their 7-day passes to work. A well-dressed man had offered to help them use them correctly to pass the subway entrance barriers. When they tried to use the cards again they found out that he had managed to exchange them with cheap single-ride tickets without them noticing. We got the message.

We reached grand central, this time on the inside. The kids know it from the movie Madagascar and it took some explanation until Viktor and Isline understood. The line “See that escalator. That was where the old lady whacked the lion over the head with her umbrella” made Viktor and Iseline realize that the place from the movie really did exist and that we were there!

We caught a train on one of the North Metro lines and headed north to meet Marc who had invited us to stay with him and his family. Marc is a really nice guy. I met him by chance in Oslo in 2008 and took him cross-country skiing into the woods (Østmarka). It was his first time on cross-country skis and he was a born natural. Sometimes you just click with people and tune in to the same wavelength. That’s what happened with Marc and me and we have kept in touch since.

He met us at the station and drove us to his place. We discussed a bit what we could do together and Hélène and I told him that we basically wanted to hang out with his family and have a couple of normal days. His daughters are 7 and 10 years old, the ages of Iseline and Viktor. The children naturally started playing together immediately and had a really good time together.

We took a walk in a park next to the Hudson River.

The kids climbed trees.

We saw deer, lots of deer.

Here is Marc and his family.

Basically we had 2 days of “normal” staying with a genuine American family. It was great and the kids really appreciated it.

The kids played the “game of life” board game. A game we also have at home since my sister and I got it as a Christmas present in 1975 when I lived in Chattanooga!

We went to a playground and Marc and I took turns playing monsters and trying to catch the kids. In the end they wore out both monsters.

The winning team:

We also got to see Marc’s oldest daughter play soccer with her team.

Adrian used the opportunity before the game to get a little shooting practice for the first time in 2 weeks.

Hélène was a very active hooligan. Here she is with Marc’s mother.

They won 3-1!

Marc is a Star Wars fan. I got the reference and asked if the car did it in less than 12 parsecs. I was pretty proud of that.

We took the train back this evening with our batteries recharged. There was noticeably less tension and the kids were great under the train ride, dinner and at bedtime.

For dinner we found another great vegan restaurant, the Peacefood café (pdf file disguised as a web site). The food was absolutely delicious. Vegan gives Hélène one less question to ask (vegans don’t use milk) and is also good for the planet, Did you know that an estimated 18% of carbon emissions come from meat production? Chew on that number again.

Tomorrow we will discover some of Manhattan.

Eirik

—–

P.S. NEWSFLASH. Our Canadian helicopter friends have dropped by the blog, Their names are Ken and Charlotte Dalton. I now have their permission to show you a photo of them. Here they are together with our pilot:

Another traveling day. Hélène got up at 05:45 and I managed to drag my old body over to the bathroom about 20 minutes later. To maximize sleep, first and foremost to avoid grumpier kids, really, we had decided to have breakfast at the airport after checking in.

We made our way to the rental car return, about 15 minutes from the hotel, and enjoyed the Phoenix landscape in early morning light.

Finding a good breakfast place was not as easy as we had thought. Once we found one waiting times were long. We ended up rushing through security while the plane was boarding. Kids really come in handy from time to time. We were allowed to take the “families with infants” shortcut through security.

Mandatory photo, Marius. This time we flew an Airbus A320. Bummer, really, since US Airways now offer WiFi on their A321.

The plane was full and we were almost last in. Once we came to the door one of the flight attendants told me they had to put my carry-on luggage in the gorilla chamber because the overhead compartments were full.

Panic!

That suitcase is full of electronics. All my cool gadgets, external hard drives, pico projector, Chuck Norris charging station, external batteries etc, etc. I tried to convince her to let me keep it, but there was just no way. Sigh, months of preparing stuff needed to be protected and/or useful on the plane ruined in a few seconds. I quickly removed the most fragile items and let her have it. 15 seconds later I realized I had just handed over the external batteries we needed to keep the laptops running during the entire flight so the kids could do their school work. In addition I was very nervous about all the stuff that could potentially be broken.

I was not happy.

We ended up basing most of the school work on the iPads and that worked well. I did English with Adrian and once he had finished what we had planned to do I made him read and translate to Norwegian an article in the inflight magazine about Ft Lauderdale. Now we both know lots of stuff about how Ft. Lauderdale has come of age and that business and arts are doing well there.

Flying is not what it used to be. On the 5 hour flight there was no meal but the possibility to purchase sandwiches and snacks. Except that when we wanted to buy sandwiches they were sold out. Lunch consisted of almonds, pringles and M&Ms.

Once we landed at JFK I had managed to lose the baggage tag for the electronics suitcase. However that was not a problem since the flight attendant told me I would get the suitcase at the luggage carousel(!). What!!!?!?! They were sending my stuff through the terrible conveyor belt system. Resistance seemed futile and anihilation certain. I felt like this guy.

Adrian then told me he and Viktor had seen that the suitcase was the second one to be taken off the plane and that they had seen a guy throwing it hard against the corner of the luggage truck. Viktor said it reminded him about the video about United breaking guitars. I agreed.

I was stressed and not very impressed with US Airways. I walked fast towards baggage claim with the family trailing behind me. In the end nothing seemed to have been broken. I could calm down and return to normal, but not for long.

On our way out of the terminal we discussed how to get into Manhatten. Taxi would be expensive and also difficult since we were 5. When we saw the very long taxi line we ruled that on out. We were thinking of taking the airtrain and subway when we spotted a sign for an “Express Bus Service” which could bring us to any midtown hotel. A nice guy informed us about the service and how they would bring us directly to our hotel. Not only that, if we purchased a return at a reduced price we could just call them when we wanted to leave and they would pick us up at the hotel Excellent! We took the return option.

He stood next to a place where nice looking minivans were picking up people. They had to be the ones he was selling tickets for.

Tourist trap avoidance rule nubmber 1: Never assume. Remember that making an assumption makes an ass out of you and out of umption.

Here we are, happy and not knowing what was ahead of us. The photo is taken by a british tourist who also got trapped.

The next bus would be around in 7 minutes and on time a large bus straight out of a 70s movie from Harlem showed up. Something was not right here.

We proceeded to stop at all terminals at JFK until half an hour later the bus was full as an egg. Then a large woman (as in tall with lots of  muscles) entered the bus and started barking orders. Everyone had to get their tickest out and tear off the bottom part. She walked down the aisle and shouted “Tear, tear, tear” I swear she hit a couple of people on the way down. This was starting to feel like a prison camp.

She collected the tickets and snapped at the driver saying that he should stop telling people they could be taken directly to places, since everyone had to change bus. Then she disappeared. We bumped along in New York heavy traffic and used a total of 90 minutes to get in to Manhatten. Iseline at least appreciated the long drive as I played games with her on an iPad.

We found out by listening to other passengers that we would have to switch busses at grand central. We would then be taken from hotel to hotel, picking up people going to the airport at some and letting people off at some.

All-night bus ride, here we come!

What a scam. I wonder how that guy at the airport is able to fall asleep every night. Directly to the hotel, huh?

We hopped off at Grand Central and tried to get a taxi. Easier said than done. We were approached by several unofficial “taxis.” No thanks! We want the real thing now. It was not a good feeling to stand on the side of a street in Manhattan during dark hours with 3 kids and not even have a map of New York available. The iPhone did not get a GPS fix because of all the tall buildings. After what seemed like an eternity we finally managed to get a taxi. The driver was willing to let me have Iseline on my lap and off we went and found our hotel.

We are all pretty tired now. The kids were a nightmare to put to bed, given the 3 hour time difference with Phoenix.

Well, we are in New York, and have a nice week ahead of us. We also learned a few things today.

We are sleeping over at the home of some friends tomorrow, so don’t expect a blog upate for the next 48 hours.

See you around.

Eirik

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