Hyatt Family Blog

My First Attempt as a Vendor

Today I tried something new and totally overwhelming for me...I tried my luck as a vendor at a boutique for the JCA at Meadowbrook Country Club. The day started off with a bang...after loading up my van last night very carefully, I opened the trunk to unload this morning and everything fell out onto the driveway! Not a great beginning! After trying to pick up everything and reorganize, Art & I brought everything in and then I spent 2 hours setting everything up. (Of course, I had way too much jewelry and had to stuff most of it under the table.) Steve dropped by and took these pictures, for which I was very thankful. Marianne was my assistant and all in all it was a successful, tiring, learning experience. I came home exhausted and spent 6 hours putting everything away. This hobby is taking over my life, I'm afraid, but I still enjoy the creative part the best. (Like Andy taking pictures of food he enjoys, I seem to be taking pictures of jewelry all the time!)


Now, I'll get ready for my next show, which Marianne is giving in August.

Bronx Zoo

Last weekend we went to the Bronx Zoo. I've heard good things about it since before moving to New York, so I was excited to go.

We went by subway, and it took us about an hour and a half to get there, but that was mainly because we missed our train. But when we got there, the weather was nice, the zoo wasn't too crowded, and everything was just great.

We saw a lot of great exhibits, although many required additional money. Although we have a membership, so we have a certain number of free passes to the additional exhibits. Notable were the baboon exhibit (free), the gorilla exhibit (pay), the lions (free), the little monkeys (free). I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but we were fairly busy.

We also went to a butterfly house (pay). Marin had a good time, but Annelie was scared of the butterflies. She kept saying she wanted to see the gorillas. When I expressed skepticism, saying that she would be scared of the gorillas too, she insisted that she wasn't scared. And she was right!

But both of them were scared of certain exhibits. They both were frightened of the babboons, which was a shame, because they were very interesting.

I was proud of Marin, because she was a bit suspicious of what I told her. First time. We saw a red panda sleeping in a tree. I told her it was a red panda, and she said "Red panda... Daddy, that's not a panda, that's a fox". I insisted it was a red panda, and she seemed to believe me, but just barely. Later that day, when we talked about what we saw, she said "we saw a red panda", then she got a suspicious look on her face and said, "... or maybe a fox."

When it was time to leave, we saw that there would camel rides we could go on. Actual camels! It was $5 a ride, and the kids were excited to try it. However, we had no time, and there was a line, so we'll have to do that next time.

After a great, but tiring day of walking around, we came home to our apartment, where the elevators were not working. We walked up 5 flights of steps, got in the apartment, and finally relaxed. The kids were still talking about the camel ride the next day.

Museum of Natural History

Greta, the kids, and I, all went to spend a day at the Museum of Natural History. This was our second time there; the last time was almost a year ago.

This time we spent much more time. The kids have been skipping naps, so we got there at 10 AM, and left at 3:30 PM. Even so, we only saw about a quarter of what the museum offers.

We got there by the Long Island Railroad, and the subway. Marin was shy as usual and hid her face from the subway riders who smiled at them.

We first went to go see the Dinosaur exhibit. We paid some extra money to see this exhibit, but the kids were scared of the huge dinosaur bones. They did enjoy some parts of the exhibit, though, like a demonstration of how dinosaurs walk.

We then spend hours exploring the museum. We saw many great mock-ups of animals and their habitats.

The girl's favorite part was the Hall of Minerals, though, where they saw many pretty stones. For some reason, they got very chummy with each other...

When we finished, we stopped by Central Park. I took the girls on a little rock-climbing expedition.

It was a great trip. A little expensive, though. But the kids can appreciate a lot more of this stuff these days, although they have a way to go. Greta and I certainly enjoyed the exhibits ourselves as well.