October 16-17, 2010

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

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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: