Change of plan

About a month ago we had decided that our first trip since March break would be to New York.   Although Sami and I had visited last October it had been almost four years since Zach was here so it was an easy choice.

Alas, the end of season soccer carnival was announced a couple of weeks ago and Sami’s coaches were expecting that she would be available…unfortunately it’s this weekend. 

When she found out she was a little distraught to say the least, both frustrated and mad with the late notice….”don’t they know when the tournament is going to be at the start of the season, so why are they telling us now?”  

TW outside the Apollo in Harlem
earlier today

She felt completely torn – do I stay for the team or do I go to NY and have a fun weekend?   Tough call!    When she broke the news to me, I listened and could tell that she was completely conflicted, but I assured her that I wasn’t mad with her but as she put it “frustrated” with the poor communications from the soccer association.  

This was a great opportunity to let her make the decision, I asked her questions to get her thinking about the pros & cons of both staying in Toronto to play in the tournament as well as coming to NY with Zach and me. 

 

In the end her decision was to stay and play for the team, which I fully supported, albeit a little disappointed that she would be missing out on a fun trip.   I guess the upside is that it was a wonderful moment for her to be in control and make the decision. 

 I also think that she made the right decision, when she joined the team she made a pact with them to do as much as could to win the championship so she didn’t compromise her initial intent with her team mates.   Nice work Sami and good luck tomorrow sweetheart!

Now it had turned from the “Three Amigos” to a Boy’s Weekend in New York…hhhmmm, what to do?

After arriving into New York earlier today Zach and I found ourselves in the heart of Harlem.  We talked about going to Harlem in search of the famous Apollo Theatre.   The Apollo was built in 1914 originally as a burlesque theatre but in the mid 1930’s was converted to a variety revue theatre after Fiorello La Guardia (who would later go to become one of New York best loved Mayors) campaigned strongly to close it.  

Zach giving me his best modelesque pose
outside "The Dakota" building in
New York City

Given its location in the heart of Harlem it is a very special place and extremely meaningful the African American community.  Harlem is a vibrant and bustling neighborhood and we had no problems finding it and checking it out.  As expected it was brilliant!

Next stop was The Dakota up on West 72^nd Street where John Lennon had lived prior to being shot and killed.  This was another of Zach’s choices and fortunately for us was now only a short subway ride away from the Apollo.  Surprisingly there are no indications that John Lennon had lived in the building, no memorial, no markers - nothing…   Which is sort of weird given his legendary status.   The building itself has been, and remains the home to a long list of movie stars and sports personalities.

However, by mid afternoon Zach wasn’t feeling well, with pains in the tummy and a raging headache so I took him back to the hotel, gave him some Aspirin, turned up the AC and put him to bed.   

Now what to do on the first day of summer in NYC????

I decided to head downtown to one of my favorite jumping off points – Union Square at 14^th & Broadway just for a peek and perhaps take advantage of the great weather for some photo opportunities.

Now this would have been all well and good except that my Canon 50mm f/1.4 EF USM lens (the best ever btw!) hasn’t been working for the past month or so, and each time I’ve had to manually adjust the lens settings when ever I wanted to take a photo which is rather painful and ruins those impromptu moments...if you know what I mean. 

A long line of Citi bikes parked outside
Grand Central Station late
this afternoon - New York

For the life of me I couldn’t work out what the issue was, all I knew was that it was a royal pain in the ass every time I wanted to photograph something.  As you can tell, I’m not good with temperamental!

So once I got to Union Square I took a few minutes to play with some of the settings and low and behold I got it working again after changing the White Balance settings.    Bugger me!    Clearly I must have put the setting to automatic (which turned out to be the issue) at some point, but once changed it was back to its old and wonderful self taking snap after snap without issue.   Mystery solved.   

As the afternoon stretched out I leisurely strolled back up Broadway, then along 5^th Avenue before crossing over to Lexington and finally to our hotel on 49^th.  

When I got back to the room, Zach was up and feeling better which was great to see.  He was in the mood for a burger (so much for his stomach ache!  J)…  I must admit I was also feeling a little “peckish” after my long afternoon wander so we found a place within walking distance that had Guinness on tap and good reviews on their burgers.

Over dinner we discussed our plan for tomorrow, first off Zach wanted to hit the Empire State building early – it opens at 8:00 am so our plan is to be in line at 7:45 am.  After that we’ll take the subway down to the tip of Manhattan and walk back up uptown.  If nothing more it will be both relaxing and fun just hanging with Zach and cheering Sami on, well at least mentally.

Not a bad start to the weekend - especially as its officially the start of summer!