Philadelphia-Camden-Trenton-NY-Trenton-Camden-Philadelphia

So I've had a bit of a blogging backload. Once we found out that Phillip would need to continue working from Philadelphia until mid-October I kind of pouted for awhile and felt so sorry for myself I didn't feel like blogging about our great adventure. Also, the only place I get free wi-fi is in our back patio and since I am made of sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice the mosquitoes come running as soon as I make my apperance. No amount of citronella candles, deet bug spray and long clothing seem to deter those pesky little blighter so I have avoided them.

Now that I've adjusted to the idea of another couple of months here I am making the most of it. Earlier in the week we had decided to meet up with Zak's best friend Caedin who was in New York with his family for a conference. His mom and I worked things out and I was all set to come until Phillip realized that we had planned my trip for Friday - not Saturday when he could come with us. 

For the record, I love my husband very much but I didn't know how little he thought of my navigating skills until he almost canceled the trip. He was so concerned he took the train halfway to NY with us just to spend time with the kids and help me get from the bus to the subway to the light rail and finally the train into NY. He left us with a worried wave as we boarded the train and since  I had forgotten my phone so he left me with his so we could keep in touch.

When we finally arrived in NY (5 hours after we started!) we easily found our friends and decided to spend the day in Central Park since we had 5 rowdy children to manage and didn't relish the idea of taking them site seeing. It didn't take us long to find a park area that was shooting water everywhere. It also didn't take long for the kids to get drenched! (It was so hot I knew they would dry off quickly so - why not?)

After we dried ourselves in the sun for awhile we had lunch and headed straight back to the park. Central Park is so huge you can't walk far without finding a play area, a field full of picnicers or smelling some pot. We decided to go check out the lake and possibly rent a boat. Once we got down to the water we chose to just look at the boats and find the turtles that live in the stinky green water. A couple of sponge bob popcicles later it was time to say good-by and start our long trip home.

Central Park:

Here is where things went dreadfully wrong for Phillip. As soon as I got into Pen station I dutifully called him to tell him that we were o.k. and would be taking the first train we could back to Trenton. He mentioned a different way home that would be faster but we agreed to discuss things once I got to Trenton. Unfortunatly for him, the cell phone died and I decided to come back home the same way we had gotten to NY. This meant that we would take a train into Camden - the 5th most dangerous city in the U.S. which I found out later, (Philadelphia makes top 25 too!). I was able to get on trains without having to wait very long so I couldn't make it to a payphone until we got into downtown Philadelphia around 10:30. After calling Phillip and leaving a message I looked around for a bus stop, realized we would have to wait too long and just hailed a taxi home. When I got there my frantic husband was just writing me a note before he went out to start looking for us. He was so worried. I felt so bad for him but a tiny little bit of me felt very loved and very greatful for such a sweet husband. He was only too happy to fix everyone a snack and put us all to bed by midnight. What a trip!

Note for the Grandmas: the train trips were very long but we had a great time playing 20 questions and I kept them entertained with lively stories (I'm practicing what I've learned about interactive storytelling).