Good-bye New York! Hello Flooded B’ville!

Aaron and I in Brooklyn over looking the Manhattan skyline

(This blog is long and a bit wearisome..... but so is sitting three hours in the Dallas airport waiting for a lightning storm to pass through. I had to occupy my time somehow-thus the detailed account of our vacation.)

The rest of our New York trip went smoothly…except for those weekend subway routes. Aaron and I had a nice little trip to Harlem thanks to an unannounced weekend subway route. Anyway, on Saturday we spent the morning in Chinatown shopping and eating. I’m a sucker for a pair of $10 Chanel sunglasses. This trip to Chinatown was a lot more exciting than last time. We were swept away through secret entrances and locked behind closed doors to small rooms stuffed with every kind of faux designer accessory imaginable. Aaron got a kick out of bargaining with them and walking away. He even found a suitcase and managed to talk them down to $25. He was so proud of his find! (We actually ended up needing the suitcase because we ended up taking home a lot more stuff than what we had originally brought.) We ate at a Chinese restaurant on Mott Street called Wo Hop that was recommended to us. Not only was it great but also cheap. We went to see Mary Poppins that evening, and both Aaron and I were a little disappointed with it. The set and special effects were absolutely stunning, but the music left a little to be desired. The best number was "Step-in-Time" where Burt tap dances upside down on the ceiling of the stage. That part was amazing, but the rest was a little disappointing.

On Sunday we headed to the Museum of Natural History (this was where the weekend routes messed us up, and we ended up in Harlem). We had never been to this museum, and I wasn’t really impressed with it. It was like going to the zoo… but all of the animals are dead and stuffed. We spent most of our time on the dinosaur floor.

Aaron made a new friend! (I had to beg him to stand by it and take the picture... he refused to act out being afraid of it or being chased by it... no fun.)

After the museum, we walked over to Gray’s Papaya for a cheap lunch and then headed over to see Ben and Lizzie’s apartment nearby. It was such a cute apartment, but it did make me appreciate square footage and Oklahoma’s cost of living a little more. We went to Times Square and traveled through the box offices to find cheap tickets for that night, but none were available. Aaron was disappointed when we were unable to get Jersey Boys tickets for either night. We did get $25 mezzanine seats for The Drowsy Chaperone the next night, which was a good find. I have wanted to see Mamma Mia for the last five years, and every time we have had a chance Aaron declares that he would rather “put his head through a wall” than sit through a musical filled with ABBA songs. He chose The Drowsy Chaperone, so it was my turn to pick AND Mamma Mia happened to have tickets at the TKTS booth that evening. It was meant to be! Aaron was not too thrilled about it, but he got a kick out of my excitement. We ate at Sapa in Chelsea and had a fabulous meal there before we went to the theater. Can I just say that Mamma Mia was so much fun? Two hours of dancing and ABBA music combined, can it get any better? The cast was outstanding…and… Aaron liked it!!!! If you ask him about it, he might try to save face by rolling his eyes and acting like it wasn’t that good (like he is doing right now while I am typing this), but he was impressed with it and I’ve even caught him humming “Take A Chance On Me” a few times.

The next day we went to Brooklyn to eat at Grimaldi's, which is supposedly the best New York pizza. Holy cow, it was amazing! Fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, crushed tomatoes...it was a work of art. A lot of people aren't huge fans of Brooklyn, but we really enjoyed it. We spent the rest of the day traveling and shopping through SoHo, Chelsea, and Greenwich Village. Aaron humored me by letting us go to Serendipity for a frozen hot chocolate. The wait was only 45 minutes, and I had wanted to shop around that area anyway. We went back to Dylan's Candy Bar, which is always fun. I stocked up on some candy and have rediscovered gummy coca cola bottles. I had forgotten how good they were! That night we went to see The Drowsy Chaperone. We had great seats (ended up on the 2nd row mezzanine) and enjoyed the show. I'm normally a fan of big productions (Les Mis, Phantom, etc), but this was a nice change and was actually funny. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Top of the Rock to see the city at night. The next morning we headed to Ess-a-Bagel for one last New York meal before heading to the airport. It seemed like a long day because of the three hour delay in Dallas, but we finally made it home safely! My mom was nice enough to keep Camden up until we got home. He was happy to see us, but I'm not sure he understood why his mommy and daddy were making such a fuss about him.

Aaron and I didn't realize until the next morning how bad things were in Bartlesville. Betsy had warned me about the flooding when I talked to her on Sunday. We actually saw Bville on CNN on Monday, but I don't think one can comprehend the damage without seeing it firsthand. We were stunned. Our house is fine, and now I'm very grateful for the hill our house sits on (the same hill I was cursing during the ice storms this past winter). Our neighbors across the street were not so lucky. They had just remodeled part of their home too.

Neighbor's home
You can see where the water line was when the water was at its highest.

Everywhere around us is water. Playgrounds, soccer fields, businesses, homes- all under water. Our neighborhood was pretty fortunate considering how close we are to the river. In the neighborhood next to us, there was a whole street of houses that flooded. All of the park area around us is under water, and unfortunately that's where Gracie's friend Lola the deer lives. Nobody has seen her since the flood, and I'm hoping that the animals didn't get trapped in because there was really nowhere for them to go. Gracie keeps on sitting by the fence looking for her friend, but I haven't had the heart to tell her that something might have happened to Lola. We're hoping she just got pushed out and will come back when the water goes back down. Along with the flood has come lots of mosquitoes, and they're big and gross, but seeing all of the destruction around, we are SO incredibly thankful that we do not have any damage and heartbroken for our poor neighbors who can do nothing about their home until the water goes down.

Baseball field behind in Bville.
It was basically a giant lake for several miles.

I had almost completely forgot it was the 4th of July on Wednesday! I love any kind of get together that involves family or food, but I never really understood the whole fireworks concept. Growing up we never really went to a stand and bought fireworks to light ourselves; we would just go to a park or a lake and watch the fireworks display. I don't understand why people would want to spend money on something that makes an obnoxiously loud noise or sparks flames... of course, I'm sure some people don't understand why I want to spend money on shoes or handbags. We all have our vices, don't we? Anyway, we had a good time with good food, and Camden got to hang out with his cousins. Yesterday we finally had to unpack our bags, and I am still in denial about the giant load of laundry piled up in the bedroom. Camden is still doing fabulous, and we're getting back to our normal routine. We had a lot of fun on our trip, but we both felt that we do not feel complete without him around. I'm missing New York though and not quite used to the quietness of Bville just yet. I'll have to post Camden updates and new photos (there are so many new ones!) after I tackle that mound of laundry.