Sesame Place Redux

Veronica and Thomas with Cookie Monster

Erik and Thomas with Bert and Ernie.

Well, Sesame Place had their Free Autism Day again.  We decided not do anything big on the way down like last year (when we went to the Bronx Zoo).  I did, in a fit of insanity, decide to try to show Veronica a little of Manhattan.  It would have been fine, except for the following things:

1 – I went the wrong way at the end of the Throgs Neck Bridge and started heading out on Long Island

2 – I reversed myself by getting on the L.I.E., which, unfortunately, seems to be jam-packed with traffic at noon on a Friday.

3 – I thought this would be a good way to get to the Brooklyn Bridge (which I thought would be a nice way to go), when, in fact, it is a good way to get to the Midtown Tunnel.

4 – Once we were in Manhattan, I forgot that Broadway runs one-way downtown, so my thought of driving her towards Times Square so she could see it, didn’t really work.

5 – Tolls.  F#$%^g TOLLS!  We drove to Philadelphia and back.  Our trip encompassed some 660 miles.  We paid $56 in tolls.  On the list of things I dislike about living on the East Coast, right along with all the damn sporting events happening so late that I’m exhausted just staying up to watch them, tolls is one.  I used to drive all the time from Portland to Southern California.  2100 miles round trip.  The only time I would ever pay a toll is if I took the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Bronx Zoo and Sesame Place

Veronica and Thomas next to the famous Bronx Zoo cobra. It's actually really small.

Well, the reason for the big gap between the Year in Film and Best Picture for 1984 was that we went down to New York and Philadelphia on Thursday and Friday.

Bert, Veronica, Thomas and Ernie

All started out well on Thursday morning.  We zipped down to the Bronx in 3 1/2 hours (including stopping for breakfast) and we got to the north corner of the Bronx Zoo (Fordham Rd and Southern) by 10:08, just after the zoo opened.  All we had to do then was drive the four blocks down Southern and make a left into the zoo entrance.

It took 72 minutes.  On the worst paved major road I have ever been on.  Maybe next time instead of spending $150 million to run for a third term, Bloomberg should just spend his money on paving the damn road next to one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city.  And put a cop at the intersection who won’t tell me “go down to the next light and make a left” when the next light is a one-way street running the wrong way.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was much better.  The zoo was nice (it was sunny and nice, although windy).  We saw a lot of things (although the Asia monorail didn’t open until the following Saturday) and Thomas had a nice time.  In fact, Thomas did great at both locations on the trip and the drive (but he did have a hard time calming down at night in the hotel because he was so excited).