The Meldrums Take Manhattan

Drinking fountains. Free bathrooms. Free water (with ICE! and refills!) in restaurants. Pizzerias without a single mention of seafood on their menus. These are just a few of the wondrous things that greeted us upon our return to the land of our births. Also, the Meldrum family, complete with Austin, whom we hadn't seen for more than two years. (He was on a mission for our church in Chuuk, one of the Federated States of Micronesia.) We spent an excellent week in Manhattan together. (Technically, we only had everyone all together for three days of the trip. Tyler came late because he was at a science-in-art-conservation conference in Vermont and Jaren had to leave early to get back to DC for a class.)

As with any good Meldrum vacation there was abundant silliness and fun, and as with any good New York vacation there was abundant good food. Here are some pictures that capture these two vital aspects of the trip.

For reasons best known to himself, Jaren made t-shirts for everyone with his mother's face on them. Becky promised to wear hers often, though she was (understandably) reluctant to wear it out into the city, since the picture is so well done that it's very recognizably her.

In addition to the shirts, there were lots of other presents to exchange. We got some lovely American things ...

... and gave away some German goods. Austin got a Berlin Ampelmann shirt. (The Ampelmann is the little guy on the pedestrian traffic lights from East Germany, now seen all over Berlin.)

I think Becky would agree that she got the best of all the European presents--Belgian and Dutch chocolate.

We had to try this taqueria--it was started by two brothers from Berkeley who found New York sadly lacking in decent burritos. They based their restaurant Gordo's, my favorite taqueria, from the food down to the wood-and-leather stools. And yes, the burritos really did taste like Gordo's. I teared up. Just a tiny bit.

We took a ferry past the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island. I'd say Benton looks the most solemn, Becky has the best posture, and Austin and Eric are tied for most disgusted face.

After our afternoon on the water we were starving. Luckily, Eric knew where to find Grimaldi's Pizza. Amazing--it came close to being as good as the pizza we had in Perugia. And there wasn't a bit of tuna in sight.

Becky was excited about Times Square.

Not pictured:

On Thursday night, before Tyler arrived, Kenny, Eric, Jaren, Austin, and I went to the taping of the Colbert Report. We showed up a scant forty minutes before the doors opened and all managed to get in. We had to wait inside for a long time, but it was well worth it. Before and after the show Colbert took questions out of character--he was at least as funny, if not funnier, than he was in character. He told us about the little library he has to one side of the desk on set. The fiction section includes On the Origin of Species, while Watership Down is on the nonfiction shelf. Colbert said that when he tries to make a joke that is too highbrow, his producer says, "Remember, your character thinks that rabbits are at war with each other." If you're interested, you should be able to watch the episode we saw here. (No, you can't see us in the video. Sorry, Austin, but no, you can't.)

Another highlight was a behind-the-scenes tour of the American Museum of Natural History, given by my dear friend, Amy, who works there. First we went to the astrophysics department, where a graduate student tried to recruit 13-year-old Benton to the field. Then Amy took us to a room in the depths of the building where the stacks house whale skeletons. We learned that a single whale vertebra is bigger than a human head. Over the next hour she led us through a maze of rooms and corridors stuffed with preserved vertebrates of every kind. Though Amy had told me about her job before, seeing the animals and the scope of the collection was still kind of shocking.

It was a little sad to be in New York City without my sister Laura (since the three trips I'd taken there before had been to visit her), but luckily we got to see her and the rest of the Bay-Marostica family next!

Paris, Whirlwind-Style

Last week we made the first of what I hope will be several trips to Paris. Tyler's middle brother, Jaren, flew into Charles de Gaulle early Monday morning and we took the first train into Paris to meet him. Though we were only in the city for about 30 hours, we packed a lot in. (I had been to Paris for a weekend before, but it was the first time for both Ty and Jaren.)

The first thing we did after dropping off our luggage at our hotel was go in search of lunch. (Paris lodging aside for the interested: We stayed in a triple room at the Hotel Marignan, just off Rue St. Germaine and a five-minute walk from Notre Dame. It was an odd little room, with a water closet on one side, a sink on the other, and the shower down the hall. But it was clean and the location was great.) We walked to Cosi, a foodie sandwich place I'd seen recommended on a food blog. We got there a few minutes before it opened, so we took a little stroll along the narrow street it was on. At the end of the street was a tiny park with a dome rising over the surrounding rooftops. You can't throw a rock in Paris without hitting something beautiful like this.



Here's Jaren outside the sandwich place (which was delicious, by the way) doing his Paris face.



And here's my impression of Jaren's Paris face. Similar but scarier.



After lunch we walked to the Louvre. As we were coming in under the archway, Tyler asked, "Are all of these buildings part of the Louvre?" And I said, "No, no, I'm sure they're not." Turns out they are. It is truly huge. There is about twice again as much as you can see in this picture extending out behind the camera.



Once we got inside we spent about half an hour trying to figure out how to navigate. During this period we saw a lot of French statuary.

"But WHY, Mom?" "That's just the way it is!"

It's hard to tell from this picture, but these guys (captives of various nations conquered by France) are enormous, and so is the hall they're in.



We eventually figured out how to get around and hit most of the highlights of the museum (Venus de Milo--nice but not stunning; Winged Victory--awesome; Mona Lisa--thronged by people trying to take pictures with their cell phones from 20 feet away. I squeezed to the front to look and thought it was very cool; Tyler and Jaren were underwhelmed.) I believe Tyler and Jaren's favorite works, though, were the weird boob paintings.

This painting, too, is listed as a highlight. Apparently these women are sisters. Hm. And can the knitting woman in the background really be oblivious to what's going on here?

Who knew the asp bit Cleopatra right on the nipple?

After our quick trot around the Louvre, we walked through the Jardin Tuileries toward the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the top was closed, so we didn't go up, but it was a nice walk. The next two pictures were taken from a sort of shelf at the end of the gardens overlooking one of Paris's mammoth traffic circles. Notice the über-fancy streetlights on the left (the large green pillars).





After being thwarted at the Eiffel Tower, we took the metro back to Notre Dame.



Later we walked to the Rue Mouffetard, where we went to a patisserie. Tyler got a miniature Yule log made of frosting.



By this point, Jaren had been up for about 30 hours, but we dragged him to the other end of the city once more to climb the Arc de Triomphe. Though it was raining, the view was spectacular. It's a little hard to tell from this picture, but all of the trees along the Champs Elysee had rings of Christmas lights around them that gradually changed color. When blue, they made the avenue look like the French flag--red taillights, white headlights, blue trees.

We didn't see a light show, but the Tower was lit up.

We finally let Jaren go to bed after that, and Tyler and I went out for crepes and hot chocolate. Yum.

The next morning we breakfasted on baguettes at the hotel, then went to Sainte-Chapelle. It is really, really, REALLY worth seeing.

The top floor is pretty much made of stained glass.

This castle and fleur-de-lys motif is everywhere, both inside and out.

Sainte-Chapelle is kind of hidden among government buildings.

Next we headed over to the Rodin Museum, enjoying lovely views along the way.



The coolest thing about the Rodin Museum is that his most famous works are out in the gardens. Here's Tyler at the Gates of Hell!

The Three Shades. Or four.

After Rodin we went back to the hotel to fetch our backpacks and Jaren's suitcase and headed toward Montmartre. We hauled the luggage up the very steep Butte de Montmartre, and just barely had time for a quick circuit through the Sacred Heart Basilica (while Tyler waited outside with the bags and looked at the view) before we had to jog back down the hill to the Paris North train station.

Our feet were glad of the chance to rest on the train, though I, for one, would've loved to spend the whole week walking around Paris. Next time I'd like to focus a bit more on the food. As you can see from Tyler's post, Brussels, which was next on our itinerary, was all about the food.