Mission: Eiffel Tower

The first time we'd tried to visit the Eiffel Tower, we traveled via the batobus, which offers a scenic ride down the Seine.



Too scenic, as it turned out.

We arrived at 7pm and faced lines that snaked from the entrance back and forth all the way across the plaza. We were without sufficient food or line distractions to survive the wait, so we risked – and faced – the boys' loud and bitter disappointment by turning back and regrouping.

The next day was stormy and windy and Eli didn't nap. We debated: on the one hand, the weather might be keeping the crowds down; maybe a tired boy would be a docile and patient line stander…. But probably not, on both counts. We stayed home and cooked dinner.

Finally, we planned our ascent of the Eiffel Tower like mountaineers plan for Everest. In this case, Tony and I were the Tibetan sherpas, and the boys were Sandy Hill Pittman, who show up and have every desire met, needing only to put their bodies where they're told and not use up too much oxygen. I was grateful they didn't want cappuccino (although come to think of it, at the base of the Eiffel Tower, that would be easy to provide).

We'd been advised that the lines are shorter in the late afternoon, so we waited until after Eli's nap, hoping that the boys would be well-rested, the lines a little easier, and that we'd get up to the top and out before it was way too late for dinner (or even bed). We brought Eli's view master and discs, Ben's journal, 2 cameras (since Ben's a big photographer now), and windbreakers in case it was cold at the top. More importantly, I spent Eli's naptime packing up food:



carrot sticks, water bottles, baby bell cheeses, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 2 nutella sandwiches (never underestimate the motivating power of chocolate), 2 Z bars, and a ziploc bag of almonds and raisins. We set off at 4, arriving at the base at 5pm. Tony grabbed a bench with the boys while I staked out our place on line.

We didn't make it out without any tears (from Eli, when I started walking down a flight of stairs holding his hand rather than letting him hold the banister):



But, we made it up, we made it down, and we made it back home, our backpacks empty, four and a half hours later.


cross-posted at Learning to Eat

Reality Check

We don't watch a whole lot of television around here. The boys are still happily watching episodes of Oswald that we recorded two years ago, or the occasional Dan Zanes concert video. They even watch Sesame Street sometimes, old copies on videotape, even though apparently the lessons they teach are suspect. And while I've been Tivo-ing lots of programs that friends recommend, or that I've read intriguing reviews of (shows like Mad Men and Pushing Daisies), I haven't actually watched any of them. These days we watch Project Runway and the occasional final quarter of a basketball game and then get back to work.

So, flying on JetBlue, as we do several times a year to visit my family, is always eye-opening. On our recent trip east, Ben watched a Discovery Channel program about bridge engineers, and Eli watched a lot of cooking shows.

I don't have the attention span for a movie on a plane, and on this trip, once Eli fell asleep on my lap, I couldn't keep the light on to read my fabulous book. So I flipped back and forth between the reality shows on Bravo and The Learning Channel, which is apparently, late at night, Multiples TV. First I watched a program about a family with quintuplets. And I was glad it wasn't my family. Then I watched a program about a family of 10: 6 year-old twins and 2 year-old sextuplets. In one episode, the mom tried to get her grocery shopping done in under two hours while the sextuplets napped at home under a neighbor's supervision. In the second, which I watched because the first was so gripping (I'm not being sarcastic) the parents, with help from an uncle, spend a Sunday afternoon installing garage shelving. Let me just tell you that if the television writers' strike never ends, we'll all be fine, because this was high drama.

I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend surrounded by family, and enjoyed being with my parents, all my siblings and siblings-in-law, my niece, nephew and a pair of big dogs, but I sat on the plane watching these enormous families and gave thanks, again. My tiny grandmother used to say that it's not a family until you have more kids than you can hold with both hands (she had four, despite being told that one pregnancy might kill her), but I'm content with my two, relieved that I don't have to plan grocery store runs like military campaigns, and grateful that I don't have to store six strollers in my garage.

Cross the country and through the woods...

To Grandmother's (and Granddad's) house we go!

And in honor of our current favorite travel game, here's what we're packing:

Animal and alphabet books
Blanket (Eli)
Clothing for three days (knowing we can do laundry partway through the trip)
DVD player to get through 10 hours on airplanes (plus who knows how long in airports...)
Eli's two stuffed doggies
Fanny at Chez Panisse (Ben's bedtime reading of choice)
Granola
Hats
i-phones? ice-cream? no, none of these I items
Jamberry (Eli)
Kipper
Laptops
Monkey (Ben)
New Yorkers from the last month (I'm being optimistic)
O's cereal
The Places In Between (Caroline's book)
a sketch for a Quilt I'm thinking of commissioning from Susan's mom
Robert McCloskey books
The Spirit of St. Louis (Tony's book)
Tofu jerkey (Tony)
Unlined drawing paper for the boys
Very many stickers for Eli
Warm sweaters
2 oz bottles of toiletries that will make it through the X-ray screening
Yellow, and green and blue and red and black markers
Z-bars (the kid Cliff bars)

Vacation Index

6,000 miles flown
540 miles driven
236 pictures snapped
187 (approximately) fresh blackberries eaten
23 family members gathered
13 family members (mostly teachers) missed (next time we won't do this over Labor Day weekend)
7 days gone
3 boats paddled, sailed, and rowed (a lot)
1.5 gallons of apple cider pressed
1 happy, sleepy family, glad to be home.

Overheard

The place: JFK airport, just outside the jetway

The players: Mom and 3 (or so) year old daughter, who have just exited the airplane after our 5+ hour flight from San Francisco

The scene: Daughter lying on the floor, prone, kicking and wailing. Mother standing over her, exasperated.

The dialogue:
Daughter: (unintelligible)
Mother: "Get up! This is not a good place for a tantrum!"

I throw the mom a sympathetic glance as we walk by -- I feel her pain, I do -- but later Tony and I discover that the same tantrum check list has run through our heads: "Is this a public place? Is this inconvenient? Is this embarrassing? This is a great place for a tantrum!"

How We Spent Our Flight Delay

At JetBlue's terminal in JFK:

• 1 bottle of water $1.95
• 1 bottle of lemonade $2.99
• 1 tub of cut-up apples (with caramel sauce that I dumped in the trash before Ben noticed): $3.95
• 1 tub of strawberries and blueberries: $3.95
• 2 chunks of cheese: $.99 each
• 1 JetBlue airplane set: $19.95
• 1 bigger bottle of water: $3.95
• 1 copy of Lolly Winston's Good Grief (which I have yet to open): $6.99
• 2 raspberry yogurts: $1.89
• 2 tubs of cold cereal: $3.50 each
• 2 bottles of milk: $2 each
• 1 package of barbecued tofu: $6.95
• 1 package of tofu cesar salad: $6.95
• 1 bottle of Advil: $6.95

Total elapsed flight delay: 6 hours
Total financial cost: $81.34
Summer vacation with family, despite everything: priceless!