Quick Jaunt to NYC

(Just interrupting the Peru synopsis with an NYC blog. Don't worry, I'm still editing photos and I will post at least one more time on Peru!)

We asked the kids a couple of months ago where they might like to go this summer...we already had some things on the calendar (ok, BIG things like Peru for Teresa and I, and Arizona for Kara, a couple of camps and smaller things, too.) David said he wanted to visit New York City.

Well, thanks to David's request, we made a quick trip to New York City this past week! We'll take the city in stages, since there are WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY too many things to do there to accomplish in one trip.  Of course, you can click on pictures to make them larger.)

STATUE of LIBERTY. This time we took a full day to take the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Very impressive. There is so much I did not know about the events of the late 1800's and early 1900's in this country! Of course it is an amazing gift given to us by France, and the stories behind the building of the BASE of the statue, and the sonnet written and engraved on the front are pretty amazing stories.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land,

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gales shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This year is the 125th anniversary of the presentation of the Statue. They had a neat play about Emma Lazarus, the woman who wrote the poem.

ELLIS ISLAND. This was another enlightening place for me--to imagine the horrible trip these people had to take, crammed like sardines on the ships, then to arrive and have to wait and wait, then hear their names called and then get in lines and more lines. The doctors looked at them for an average of 6 seconds each, for contagious diseases or signs of major problems. They marked their coats with chalk if there was a problem, and then they had to wait in MORE lines. Many had to make the trip one family member at a time because it was so expensive.

We could have stayed there longer. What an amazing piece of American history.

CENTRAL PARK. Who knew it was so big??! We walked and walked, and only covered about 1/4 of it.

MANHATTAN TEMPLE. Just a few blocks from Central Park, across the street from the Rockefeller Center and tucked between 2 big city buildings, stands the Manhattan Temple, with Moroni up on top! It is very much like the other downtown buildings. On the outside, at least. :)

TIMES SQUARE. So many people amongst neon lights that made nighttime like daytime. And we were there on a Tuesday night, for Pete's sake! So many people.

The top photo is taken at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night. Bottom: I had to show the huge "mormon.org" ad they have right in Times Square--:)

5-STORY TOYS-R-US. No, really. This Toys-R-Us had a ferris wheel inside. The store was huge.

M&M STORE. Again--3 stories worth of m&m's candies and every item you could imagine with the logos and characters on them! Clothing, mugs, jackets, Christmas ornaments, noisemakers. Holy Cow.

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. A nice, air-conditioned, quiet place to go for a little peace, late afternoon.

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. Again, the stories behind the building of this place were pretty amazing. We went up at night and there were STILL tons of people there. Really cool to see the city lights at night from 86 floors up.

GRAND CENTRAL STATION. We took the train in, to this amazing place! They've renovated it to look like it did during its heyday and peak usage.

Of course we couldn't see all we wanted to. But it was certainly a nice first trip, to whet our appetites! When you don't drive in and fight with traffic and parking, it's a great place to visit.

Kari

Peru Part 1

Hola! My-my, doesn't time fly!

I can't possibly do "vacation justice" by putting things down in one post! So I guess I'll just start with "some" things, and add more posts as I remember or as I edit more photos.

Teresa and I returned from our Adventure Excursion to Peru!

It was a student-parent-teacher expedition. Her teacher, Mr. Fernandez, is an archaeologist from Peru. He has been making this trip, or very close to it, for the past 15 years.

Just 5 years ago, however, he started inviting students. 4 of them.

The next year 4 more. Then 4 plus a couple of parents. Then last year, 7 students.

This year it happened to be a much bigger group. 10 students, 3 parents, another teacher, a videographer & his wife. Plus Mr. Fernandez, and 4 guides.

Overall--it was a fabulous trip! For 75% of our days, it was sunny or overcast. We arrived in Lima and spent a day seeing the sights there. They have a great cathedral, with (here is the difference) catacombs--there are bones of 25,000 people who were buried underneath this cathedral. It was pretty overwhelming.


In Lima, we rented trucks. Reinforced-with-rollbars-on-the-inside Toyota trucks, for the offroad driving and skinny, bumpy dirt trails we would encounter.


Start the trek to the Remote Village. From Lima, it took 2 FULL DAYS of DRIVING. Up the coast, through desert and shantytown. The kids got to play in sand dunes for a little bit. We stopped at a beautiful resort on the ocean for lunch. Actualy Mr. Fernandez got married there.

Stay the night in Chiclayo. Then drive more, this time east, winding through the mountains. Finally arrive in Leymebamba. A little town with a "mummy museum."

Then we hiked to ________, a midway-point to get used to the altitude. The remote village would be 11,500 feet in altitude, so the midway was around 9.000 feet. We stayed there 2 nights, hiking during the day, to get better acclimated. Amazing, breathtaking vistas -- I can't begin to describe the beautiful mountainscapes we encountered at every turn. It was just glorious.

Then, on to the 186-person village of Atuen! After a week of pretty good weather, we hiked in the 6 hours or whatever, and it began...to rain. Yes, the 4 days we were in the village where we were supposed to be helping the people build the school...it rained on us!!!! Ugh. A little different than we'd planned.

My own health note: Before we left, I started a "little cough." I held it at bay with all kinds of zinc, echanacea and cold medicines for 3/4 of the trip--it was pretty mild, only a cough. But the long trek home (2 full days of driving, 20 hours in the car, delayed redeye flights and not sleeping on the planes...) kind of turned it into fever, chills, and bronchitis. This past week has seen me laying around a lot, wishing I was someone else. Antibiotics and fluids and finally sleeping through the nights a week later, I am still coughing some but feeling much better.

On that note, I'll post this Part One. I'm still editing and deleting photos. But this is a start!

Happy Week, Kari :)