You can all breathe easy. Despite my threats to throw caution to the four winds and assume the steering wheel for what would've been an action-packed race down the Long Island Expressway, we ended up staying put here in the city this weekend. Basically, complicated logistics forbade. In plainer language, we just failed to get our shit together fast enough.
In summers past, Peg and I would make our way out to Quogue by way of the Long Island Railroad, the Hampton Jitney and/or a ride from a relative, usually my Mom. As the years passed and our number of children increased, our options became slimmer. Taking the train or the `Jitney with two little kids and their accompanying gear (let alone our own luggage) is just a zeppelin-sized headache for all parties concerned. We managed to mooch off my Mom's good graces for the last couple of summers -- hitching rides out to the country with her, but circumstances have simply gotten too muddled for us to keep doing that. We vowed last summer that this summer would be the year we finally got over the hump, got our act together and started getting around on our steam on our own schedule. No more mooching.
When it became clear that this weekend was the flashpoint for realizing this goal, we endeavored to sign ourselves up to a highly acclaimed, new(ish) service called Zipcar. It sounded perfect, and they couldn't have been nicer and more accommodating (they actually rushed our applications through when we told them our teary tale). Trouble was, while we were newly christened "Zipsters" in a fraction of the time it normally takes, the fact remained that there simply weren't any cars available to reserve two days before the busiest weekend of the Summer. We were screwed.
Well, that's not entirely true. They did have an S.U.V. to offer us on Sunday morning, but having never commandeered a vehicle that large before (and it already being quite late into the weekend), we decided to pass on that option. We stayed put.
Apart from the roaming hordes of tourists, Manhattan on Memorial Day Weekend is largely free of the hustle and bustle of NYC norm. On Saturday morning, we had the playgounds of Washington Square Park practically to ourselves. On Sunday, we opted on ride on the Staten Island Ferry (which, admittedly, was choked to the gills with fat, pungent German tourists and their own vile children). Yesterday afternoon, we capped off a nice leisurely day with a visit to our local ice cream shop, much to the messy, laundry-worrying delight of little Charlotte. All in all, it's been a lovely weekend.
We'll make it out of the city yet, but there are certainly worse places to spend a weekend than dear ol' NYC.
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