Take a Trip!

I might have missed blogging about some of my kids class trips.The have kinda gotten routine. In the last two weeks I chaperoned 3 class trips in 6 school days.  It would have been 4 trips but, both my kids went on them same trip together.

Here is one of them as they participated in mock court.  There is nothing they did that they could not do if they were in a classroom.  But they defiantly stepped up their game in a real court room.  We were not really supposed to bring cameras into this Federal Building, but if I could have I would have taken a photo like the one below.  That is some hallway.

An interior view of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. Thank you Brooklyn Eagle

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I got to chaperon both my kids on two different days to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.  The kids were studying geology and the effects of glaciers. It only took 15 minutes to get there from their school.  They left at 10:30 and were back for lunch.  It is kinda neat that the only other people up there with us were tourists.  The kids don't know how lucky they are.

But my son know how lucky he is. Yes, he appreciates being a Brooklynitte.  But he also knows how lucky he is that he has a dad that comes on most of the class trips.

Back in the day my class took a trip to a Yankee Game.  It was a night game and it was the '70s.  Back then the drinking age was only 18 so we were mostly drunk when the game ended.  When I say all I mean all I mean all.  The 11th graders, the teachers and the chaperons were blasted by the end of the game.  Just as weer were leaving The Bronx someone blurted out "Where are Joey and Peaty?"  Yea, we left 2 kids in The Boogie Down Bronx...  at 11PM...  in 1978.   Who know that a school bus can make a u-turn on the Triboro Bridge.  We got back to the parking lot and drove towards the blinky police light.  Joey and Peaty were sitting on the hood of the cop car.  Then I decided that I would go on a many class trips if I could.

You might want to know why I said that my son know how lucky he is.  No, he does not know about my drunken night at Yankee Stadium (he might soon.).  He know ho lucky he is because I heard him say "YEA DADDY" when I walked into his classroom for the second time in 2 day.  Just as he said that the boy next to him sadly said "I wish my dad would come on a class trip."  I wished his dad would come too.  Not because the kids was a little unruly.  Because he needs to see how much his dad cares. So, if you are still reading this and have school age kids  TAKE A DAY OFF AND CHAPERON A TRIP.  DO IT ONCE AND IT WILL BE THE TRIP YOU KID REMEMBERS FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE.

A new bridge.

Two and a half years ago, when my kids were still in 5th grade, I bumped into a bunch of kids on a school trip.  It turned out that it was a 6th grade class trip that my kids did take when they changed schools and became   Click here for a blog post about the trip I took last year.

Yesterday in a run I ran into a class trip that my kids took last year.  Really.  I was running down Court St and there were a bunch of 6th graders conducting surveys in front of a Starbucks.  Another bunch behind behind Borough Hall.  I know it throws off the results but I took the survey 4 or 5 times.

It really didn't bother me to stop my run for 5 or 10 minutes.  My goal was to do a little sightseeing.  I wanted to see the newest bridge in NYC.  The Squib Park Bridge

Brian Driscoll for The New York Times

When you walk onto the bridge you read this sign

I read it, but forgot it.  Till I stepped onto the bridge.

Serious bounce.  I can't wait to take my kids there.







It does not look bouncy

But from the underside you can see that it is seriously springy

and Brooklyn Bridge Park now has a third bridge, besides the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

The last class trip of grade school

It is the end of 5 grade for my kids and I got to chaperon one last class trip.  This one was different that all the rest.  This was their Senior Trip.  Nothing educational, nothing cultural.  This was JUST FUN.  Not just for the kids, but the teachers and chaperons too.  All we had to do was get the kids there and the staff at Chelsea Piers did everything.  It was like one of those birthday parties in a box except there were 250 kids.

When the teachers were catching up on their grading and gossiping one of the other parents suggested we get some coffee.  "Have you ever been to the Doughnut Plant?"  What, a place I ain't never heard of?  Let's go.

Being that we were in Chelsea, I figured we were going to some factory.  No. Just past the entrance to the Chelsea Hotel (Yes, that Chelsea Hotel, where Sid killed Nancy and a lot of other important musical and literarry events happened) we walked into the most civilized not-like-Starbucks-coffee shop in Manhattan.  What a great break from shepherding a fleet of  10 - 11 year olds  (BTW, I had to give the bus driver directions, he could not get to the Battery Tunnel from Park Slope, WTF.)

Anyway, since I have been trying to get back my girlish figure I have mostly given up doughnuts, mostly. But, they had a creme brulee doughnut.  I had to go off the grid here.  Good coffee, a really good doughnut and a half, a calm place to enjoy it, what more would I want at 11am on a Tuesday.

Wait there is more.  I was told I had to go to the bathroom, and that I should take my camera.

Totally mirrored , complete with a disco ball.

I wonder how many current 5th graders were conceived there.

Hey! Where did all my good karma go?

What Possessed Me

For the better part of last week I was chaperoning a class trip. From Wednesday at 6:30 AM till just before Midnight on Friday night it was 140 7th graders, 10 teachers and 5 parents and 3 giant buses

The agenda was Boston. Honestly, till April 15th I always thought Boston was one of the many cities that is not New York. I knew lot of people in Boston that day... Running, watching or helping. Most of them got themselves accounted for on Facebook or on my running club's Google Group; Except one. I realized that it was my job as keeper of the membership roster to give him a call. When he answered I could not talk to him. I did not know it till he said hello, but I was not breathing while the phone was ringing or when I was pressing in the numbers. Anyway, "Boston is probably the only major city that if you fuck with them, they will shut down the whole city...stop everything.. and find you." Happy Gilmore

So, we ate lunch on the bus, and went directly to the

to me this sign says Boston

• Museum of Science (they changed the show,

  

  (Alex Ashlock/Here & Now)

  I did not get to go in the birdcage of death).
• then walked (some of) The Freedom Trail.  
• We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. (I have been to the original, in Amsterdam.  Not the same kind of place.  It was a pot bar.)
• Holiday Inn  140 12-13 year-olds.  We taped their doors shut.  
• Breakfast in the hotel.  (Coffee!).  
• Back on the Bus to Salem.  (I see dead people)
• Lunch in a shopping mall.
• Bus to Fenway Park (I really don't give a shit about baseball, so I volunteered to stay in Salem with the  kids who opted to stay because on of the buses would not start.  I was so glad they made me go. Small part baseball, big parts history and architecture)
• Dinner and mayhem at Jay Gee's.
• Breakfast in the hotel.  (Coffee!).  
• A quick visit to the New England Aquarium 
• Lunch in a Pizzarini Uno (It was up the block from The Finish Line of the Boston Marathon.  Before I ate I got to pay it a little visit.  I am glad I got to see the
  makeshift memorial without 140 kids.) (I added my PPTC Cherry Tree Race Director hat to the heap.)
• Plymouth Plantation. (we were too hot and tired, but I did engage one of the "English characters.  She was great.  I told her we were visiting from New Amsterdam .  She smiled and said.  "Sir, you might think you live in a Dutch colony but the King of England owns all the land from the Canada River to the Floridas"  Yes, in 1625  the Dutch and the English were busy not fighting each other, but not recognizing each other either.).
• Dinner in a hotel at Sturbridge Village.
• Home at midnight.

These long days wrecked havoc with the batteries in  smart camera/phone so I don't have that many photos. (It was also kinda crazy that the teachers had to borrow their students phones to call each other).

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Looking back I might think this was an ambitious plan.  This might have worked if we were a few cars, but we had to deal with Boston traffic.  However our leaders were great at dealing with the fact that we had to some issues.  Like the fact that one bus died in Salem. (maybe it was a witch) and another lost it air conditioning (when it was 93 degrees).   We crashed into a few other school trips.  Most of them were all wearing matching t-shirts.  That would have made my job a little easier.

I was lucky to be in Bus A.  It was the only bus not to break down or loose it's air conditioning.  It also had the lead driver.  I got to witness an artist at work.  She drove that bus like a sports car.  She was also continually talking.  It first I thought she was on the phone the the other drivers.  Nosomuch.  She was insane, and contractually talking to herself or to the cars around us.  I am sure that if you ask the kids that sat near the front of bus A what their favorite part of the trip was, they will say Ms Dawn.

I am not going to use the space to brag about the fact that I stepped up to chaperon this trip.  I can do that, so I do do that.  I am glad that that parents that were waiting for the buses to come back thank me and gave me a pat on the back  (Not like last year when one said "Thanks for watching my brat, we had a second honeymoon when he was gone.")

There were two things I did so that the local community feel some love.  When we invaded the little mall in Salem to eat lunch we totally ruined the lunch break schedule for some of he locals. I noticed that  a women who came in just after us was looking at a 45 minute wait to get her sandwitch (that is how they are spelled in Salem).  I asked the manager to have her lunch made ahead of ours so she could move on with her day.


When our 3 buses rolled into Jay Gee's we added 150 people to the 10 or 20  that would have been here an that hot Thursday evening.  Needless to say, our 150 created a great rumpus.  We created a great bottleneck when the kids had to turn in their tickets for prizes.  I got some of the kids to give me their fun passes with most of the activities still available.  I gave them to the local girls that were still waiting on line to cash in their tickets.  I told them we can't use them back in Brooklyn so they should enjoy the rides.

So if I was so nice during this trip why was my bike stolen while I was gone?  (and why did I use so many parenthesis is this post?)?

It's a trade off.

I do actually leave Brooklyn.  Sometimes I actually got out of NYC.  I do see how other people live. They have bigger houses that cost less.  They have things called lawns and backyards.  They don't have to move their car just so the street might get cleaned.  Their kids go to schools with actual athletic facilities.  They have community pools that you actually want to spend the day at.   Yea, there are pluses that I am missing out on.

Today I did not miss them

Today I chaperoned another class trip.  This was a great trip.  My kids are finishing up their study of geology, specifically how glaciers left their mark on The Earth.  So on this first wonderfully warm day of 2013 (up to 82 degrees) the class walked out of their school building and went down the staircase on the corner and took the B train to 81st St.  30 minutes later we were in Central Park.

This Central Park

Just to look at rocks.

Billions of people live their entire lives without getting to Central Park and my kids do it on a whim just to look at rocks.

I learned something too.

I always thought these lines were caused by the glacier.  Notsomuch.  They are from the way the rock folded when it was being created, deep underground.

These grooves were scratched by the glacier.  The kids used compasses to see that all those lines faced the same way.

all the groves on all the rocks in Central Park are aligned North - South. 

The kids also observed that this stone is a glacial erratic.  Eleven year olds love to say that.

The kids had their lunch on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History. (That happens to be the San Remo behind the kids, It is where they filmed Ghostbusters)

Since they were studying the earth and still had an hour to kill.  We actually went into the museum.

and back to school by 1:30.

Yea, I am happy to be raising City Kids.

Hey, while researching this blog post I played with Google Street View.  I think the Google Car caught a diaper changing moment.  Check out the Streetview.

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How is that for my 1,000th post?

September 11, 2001.

It was a Tuesday.  Most people are forgetting it was election day here in NYC.  It would be easy to forget even if it were not canceled  It was a primary that everyone knew was gonna result in a runoff for Mayor.  Giuliani (thank God) had reached his term limit so Bloomberg and Wiener were fighting it out.  Isn't it funny to look back.....  Bloomberg won and proceeded to crown himself King and extend his term, a thing Giuliani would have liked in 2001.  And where is Wiener now?  Hiding somewhere because he showed his wiener on twitter.  I have just been informed that the 2001 Democratic Primary for the Mayor of NYC was a fight between Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer.   Wiener ran for Mayor in 2005.  Bloomberg was a Repubican in 2001.  So I got everything totally effed up.

But I digress.....

My polling place was (as usual) chaotic. I did not know it then but it was the second of three places I would be assigned to vote without actually changing my address.  I think they divided up the neighborhood into voting sectors before they put two large apartment building on my block ....  in 1916. That year they assigned me to vote in PS 321.  It didn't even occur to me in 2001 that from 2005 to 2011 that would be my kids school...  That I would go on to teach an after school class in that gym.   My kids were babies,  I was not even thinking about kindergarten.

So voting always meant long lines and friendly interactions with my neighbors.  I remember starting up some friendly banter with the man next to me on line.  A well dressed, really tall African-American who said "You think you got a problem, I am a Republican.  I'll bet they don't even have my ballot up there."  A Republican primary in NYC?  Who ever heard of such a thing??

So I cast my vote and randomly chose a direction to get to the subway to work.

I will not talk about the rest of September 11, 2001.  I am sure that millions of people are ready to share their stories with the world.  I am not even ready to share that day with my children.  I will just say that I was not a hero nor did I attend any funerals.  But still my hands are trembling now.

So, about 9  years later I am chaperoning a class trip to Plymouth Church. Sitting next to me is my friend Ino.  He is one of the other Dads in the neighborhood who has the luxury of getting to go on his children's class trips.

When our tour ends our wonderful guide took questions.  After all the kids got their questions answered Ino raises his hand and asks (Is this really a question?,) "Wasn't Lincoln a Republican, how come everyone forgets that it was a Republican who freed the slaves?"

I punched him in the ribs and told him to shut up.

Then I realized that I have know him since before our children started kindergarten together.

Sometimes, just sometimes I like to think of September 11, 2001 as the day I made a Republican friend.

I hope I am not being selfish.




P.S.: This is a story that starts like mine

It makes a village

My kids just graduated from their elementary school.  They spend 6 wonderful years at PS 321.  The school is actually a magnet for parents with little kids.  Real estate agents list apartments as "zoned for PS 321".  Just this morning my next door neighbor who has a 9 month old told me she was moving a mile away.  She asked me how hard it would be to keep her kid in 321 if she just rents out her apartment.

I told her it would be impossible.  First of all they do home visits.  They make sure you potential kindergartner has a room in the home you say you live in.  Second of all it would be wrong;  Wrong because the great thing about PS 321 is the community it built.  If you live a bus ride away you will only be a visitor in that community.

• Some of my neighbors have older kids who went to PS 321 and many of my neighbors have younger kids who will.
• In third grade there were not enough TVs in the school for everyone to watch the Inauguration of President Obama.  It was a short walk to Mr Hess's house.
• At least 4 of my kids teachers on also members of my running club
• This past Fall, I tought an after school class for 2nd graders.  (Don't tell the administration, but) my daughter's teacher's kindergarten child came to the class.  There she is playing with my son at the class picnic for my daughter's class.
• On of my son's teachers kids in also on his track team.  I walked her to practice.  Her teacher is on my track team.
• One of my daughters teachers kids was my son's  class this year.  He will be going to their middle school, too.
• I ran a marathon with on of the 5th grade teachers who did not teach my kids.  
• On the last day of school my daughter's teacher took the kids on one last trip.  We walked around the corner to a day care center and fill the back row to see her 3 year old son "graduate"

• The president (elect) of the PTA and I are both board members of the Prospect Park Track Club. Even thought her son is 3 grades behind my son, he wanted to invite him to his birthday party.
• She also told me about a job in the school that I applied for.  It is a good thing I did not get it.  I don't know if I would really want to work 5 days a week when 2 of those day are only 2 hours long.

So this is one of the things that made the PS 321 experience great.  Not just preparing my kids to be proper lefties, but truing Park Slope into a little town.  

So yea, if you gotta take a bus to school you are not gonna get any of this.  Go get involved and make your school better.  It can be done.

Elizabeth Phillips, Principal Photo By: Daniel S. Burnstein

And thank you Liz Phillips.  You made more than a great school.

The Golden Dragon Acrobats

Both kids went on the same class trip today. We saw the Golden Dragon Acrobats at the Walt Whitman Theater at Brooklyn College.


Most of the stuff in this 6 minute pormotional video was cut from the 50 minute show, but it was still a lot of fun.



Here is a bootleg u tube:




I love going on class trips... I hated missing them when I had to work.
I am glad I don't anymore.

Work or miss them. I am glad I don't work or miss class trips.

another class trip.

No 6th Grade study of NYC would be complete with out a quick trip out to the Queens Museum to see the Panorama of New York City.

We got there a little early so the kids got to burn off some steam in front of the 700,000 pound Unisphere.

None of the kids recognized the Queens Theater in Park in the background.  I guess they will soon when their parents make them watch Men In Black before they go see MIB III in a few weeks.

anyway.  this is the best my puny Easyshare can do. Use your Google for better images.

It has not been update since 1992, so I got to say " Yes, that is what the Twin Towers looked like."

There was also a little extra going on.  There were 15 extra islands added to the Panorama

If I were a jerk I would question the need for Braille on the sign leading to the exhibit.  Just saying, after you take the visual away from this exhibit there ain't much left.


I appreciated the braille on the sign a little when I wished I had some binoculars so I could see my apartment house form the observation deck.

Sustainability.

That is what my kids are studying.  It is an important part of the curriculum for a proper progressive education.  I support the Left Wing Agenda

The High Line was an elevated rail line that delivered freight to the West Side of Manhattan. Many things made it obsolete.  But instead of tearing it down and making something new, it was converted into a park.  Not like Central Park, or any old playground park, but a friggen work of art.

An Elevated Garden

Can you find the bees?

 

With views like this.

Click to enlarge adn read.

And Billboards like this.  The first below is art.  The second is an ad.

and we can't forget we are walking through and above a neighborhood.  We can see models modeling.

 and we are in their backyard

The property owners around the High Line pay a little extra in taxes so it can exist.

I don't think they are going to complain.

Lets not forget it was a class trip.

Both kids on one trip!  This one I woulda gone back twice.

2,815

Google Maps put the trip at 2,774 miles, but my odometer said a little more.

NY NJ DE MD DC VA NC SC GA AL MS LA MS AL GA TN VA WV MD PA NJ NY

                                            Atlanta             New Orleans      Bristol?

                                                         CENTRAL TIME


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The driving was not so uneventful.

I heard a strange noise when I was drinking my fist (of many) cups of coffee.  I thought I was driving next to a truck that had a big leak, or something.  There as a very out of place sloshing sound.  It turns out it was the sound of the hot coffee poring out from under the lid onto my sweatshirt.  A lot of it pored out until I felt the burning.  Then it was too late, my shirt was then soaked through with hot coffee.  My screams only woke some of the family.  The good news was that it cooled quick.  I was able to put my cold damp shirt on my burnt skin at 80mph.

Route 85 just West of 95 in Virginia was kinda creepy.  Super strait with lots of tall leafless trees on either side.  We called it Ax Murderer Highway. Maybe that was not so funny.  We drove through some rain and saw the remains of some very serious accidents.  We saw a car wedged sideways and backwards between some trees.  There was also a large contingent from the Virginia State Accident Investigation Bureau, and a truck from the Coroner's Office.  I told the kids that it was all put there to remind us to drive carefully.  I lied but it worked.

Approaching Atlanta there was a loud thud against the windshield.  In the morning we saw that the widow was broken.  Good thing we got "full glass".  I will find out later in the week if that is really worth it.

In Alabama we passed a sign that said "Confederate War Historic Sight", not Civil war, but "Confederate War".  I never heard it refereed to as the Confederate War.  And actually until a few years ago when I chaperoned a class trip to Gettysburg I thought Confederate meant fake or counterfeit.  As in the fact that confederate money was not worth much in the numismatic world.  If I woulda seen it again I wolda taken a picture.  I also just spent some serious time looking for that image online, but to no avail.  But I am serious, there was a sign leading to a  "Confederate War Historic Sight."

God seamed to have a lot of signs too. Not just billboards for radio stations that profit by talking about god. Lots of homes and business owners felt compelled to make sure the world knew what religion they believed in.  Lots of religious symbols on private property and many even covered their walls with numbered lists of "commandments"   As an Atheist this worries me.  So if some guy suddenly he is not worried about his afterlife he will have no problem killing me.  OK, I will stop.

Another issue that I had on the road is that I had to do all the driving back home.  That is doable because I never found the passenger seat to be a relief from driving,  But since I had to cover over 1,300 miles in 2 days I drank A LOT OF COFFEE.  Lately I have been drinking one cup a day.  In each of the 2 days of driving I think I had 10 cups.,.,,,,,,,..... Did you ever pee and when you were done say to yourself that that was the most you ever peed in your life?  (Don't answer that out loud.)  Well I did that twice a day for 2 days.  And this morning I did not have the energy to run.  Ya know why?  Because I was dehydrated.

Also on the way home my wife had to participate in a conference call.  Some of the people were in the West Coast, some were in NYC.  When the call was set up we were in Alabama.  The conference call app on her phone have her the correct time to join the call when we were in Central Time and alerted her to he time change when we moved from one time zone to another.  I didn't see that coming.

When the photos come back from the drugstore I will post a more touristy blog.

The Superhero Supply co.

I stopped in on a class trip.  The front is a retail outlet.  They have an online catalog if you are interested.  They sell all sorts of great stuff.  Capes, invisibility spray; all the things a superhero needs.  Click through to Yelp to see some much better photos of their available inventory

But in the back, behind a hidden door, they have a lair.  Yes a secret lair.  An organization called 826NYC provides some amazing educational and fund programs.


But the most terrible thing happened to me after the trip.  We walked back to the school and it was ten after twelve.  My daughters teacher announced that if anyone was going out to lunch and did not need to return to the classroom to get anything they could just come back at 1PM.  I asked my (just 10 year old) daughter if she wanted to have lunch with me.  She said "Where?"  I said anywhere you want.  She looked and me with a mixture of confusion and dread and said "But, but ...."  So I told her it is ok if she wants to go in and meet her friends for lunch.  So, I went home an had a tuna sandwich.

Maybe in 10 or 15 years she will want to have lunch with her Daddy again.

I am a lucky guy

Yea, I am lucky.  I am lucky because I get to get to see the sunrise from some very nice places.  I help organize running races and I get to be at some very nice places very early in the morning.  There are not many people under the 59th Street Bridge early in the morning.  I have also been served breakfast as The Sun rose over the Atlantic Ocean.  I have also seen the sunrise from inside Yankee Stadium.  It was not very photogenic, but there are roosters in that part of The Bronx.  Kinda surreal.

Today I had to set up the mile markers for a half marathon along Shore Road Park.  It is a 4.25 mile stretch of green that separates the Belt Parkway from The Upper Bay and Gravesend Bay.   I started work just after it got light and paused to take this photo.  I tried to figure out what ship that is.  I failed, but this is a cools site.

that date is correct.

The Race Started in front of  Owl Head Pier.  The first time I was there was almost 5 years ago when I chaperoned a class trip for my then 2nd grader.

On the bus ride there I mentioned that I remember when Owl Head Pier was where the ferry used to go to Staten Island.

That comment started an unexpected conversation on the bus among all the adults.  "What do you mean?  A ferry from Brooklyn to Staten Island??  Why would we need that."   Apparently I was the only native New Yorker adult on the bus and that is not uncommon in Park Slope. The vast majority of adults I know grew up somewhere else.

"Well" I said, "that bridge was not always there. I don't remember when it being built, but it was built in my lifetime." (In fact it opened when I was one year old).   With that my daughter was given an extra credit assignment.  She was asked to interview her grandmother and ask her what is was like to live in Brooklyn when  the Verrazano Bridge was being built.  She reported back to her class that most Brooklynites were confused as to the need for a bridge.  There was nothing in Staten Island but farms and the only reason to go there was if you wanted to go camping.

Things have changed.  It is a good thing we built that bridge.

One of the best class trips.

And I have been on a  lot.  I think this trip was tied for best with our 4 grade trip to Plymouth Church

We took a ride on The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. The staff (that live on sloop engaged the students both physically and mentally.

The raised the sail (all 4,000 pounds of it)

They also steered the ship.  My battery died so I did not get any photos of the kids catching and identifying fish.  They also tested the oxygen level in the Hudson and learned what can cause it to change and why that is bad.

The also sang sea shanties. My kid's math teacher (and newest member of my track team) picked up a guitar and got the kids to sing. The extra cool thing is that the Clearwater was organically owed by Pete Seager.  Really.

Maybe if I get to go on the trip again with the other twin I wall take some more photos.


But I did take one important photo.  The World Trade Center originally opened in 1973, when I was 10 years old.  I remember very clearly watching it rise.  Well at about the exact time I took this photo, 2 pm on April 30th 2012, Tower 1 once again became the tallest building in New York City.  I added a little red arrow.  There it is.