Daddy Day Camp '14, vol. 3, Pop-ups & Roller Dancers, Brooklyn BridgePark, Pier 2, Brooklyn, NY

Pop-ups & Roller Dancers

Pier 2

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn, NY

Lanyard is back, and so is the B63 bus on another Daddy Day Camp trip. This time we headed out with our neighbors/BFFs Luke and Ruby.  After two excellent weeks together at New Country Day Camp they couldn't wait for another play date.  We stayed local, but fun and headed back to pier 2. 

It's always fun with these guys because you never know the combos you'll get. Today Sydney skated with Luke and Ruby helped out Liji.  I have memorized the official summer soundtrack, so I was not shocked to hear it blaring in the awesome new roller rink looking over the bridge and the Manhattan skyline.  Liji and Sydney love ice skating, so roller was just a refresher. 

But even more exciting was Mayor Mike's pop-up pool campaign.  This cute little one came replete with its own beach and Lizzmonade stand of delicious drinks. If it weren't for the 45 minute time limits to deal with a 60 person capacity, we may never have left.  

Smorgasburg, Pier 5, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn, NY

Smorgasburg

Pier 5

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn, NY

I go to great lengths to avoid Williamsburg and to even further ones to explore Brooklyn Bridge Park with the boys.  So when I heard the one reason I ever ventured into hipsterville was now next to the bridge, I was sold. 

Our kids are evolving into foodies.  I know it's obnoxious, but I kinda don't care. Even before they hit the new Ample Hills stand, they ventured through Nic's bud's place at Ramen Burger, then onto the Lumpia Shack, some sticky rice at the Bamboo Bites stand and then we threw in some Bunna's Ethiopian iced coffee and Thai street roti for me and a Thai iced tea for mommy. 

We had also gotten really excited for the new features at Pier 2 this season. We desperately wanted to get our rollerskate on, but they were washed out.  So instead we old-schooled it with some shuffle board and bocce, free of charge. 

We even managed to get mommy and her preggers belly in in the action to earn a stop back at the food carts for blackberry People's Pops, bubble tea and delicious limeade. Hey, bocce is thirsty work!

Eating with Kiddos in China; Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing, PRC

Eating with Kiddos in China

Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing

PRC

The most significant source of fun and frustration traveling with kids is eating.  We were delighted at how willing they were to experiment. We were willing to give them a "break" from Chinese and also avoided the obvious.  That formula seemed to work. 

Familiar foods were always a great place to start.  Our first delights were donuts and dim sum, something our kids are used to and love. We sold them on dim sum for years before we travelled. 

Easy staples, available everywhere, included fried rice (although staying awake during jet lag made this takeout),  noodles, wonton soup and common dishes like sweet and sour or veggies without sauce are everywhere. 

Dumplings are the nexus of kid friendly and adventurous.  Fillings ranged from typical pork to intestines.  Staff know American kids are not used to the later, and will not offer unless you ask.  

Meals like Peking duck were more for the adults and the experience.  They tried it, but settled on duck spring rolls and  veggies. 

Then there is the Andrew Zimmern "off the map"; watch daddy and Nic try stuff.  I am a big believer in modeling and moderation. So, I let them watch me try a cricket, not a scorpion.  

Our goto fast food break in the states is Subway. Clean, relatively healthy (compared to McD or KFC) and there is always something they like. We were fortunate that they were everywhere.   We did DQ one time too.  Sometimes kids just need a little home, a playground, the pool.  Meatballs on sub rolls so hit the spot for our boys. 

Sometimes daddies just need their iced coffee too without worrying about water born bacteria in their ice. When it's 100 and feels like 115 because the humidity is 85% I am thankful for a little slice of home too.  

Guangzhou Bubba Gump ; Tai Wen shrimp Farm, Guangzhou, PRC

Tai Wen Shrimp Farm

Near Huadiwan Subway Station

Guangzhou, PRC

My boys love to fish.  It is not that I don't like fishing, it just happens to play into all of my weaknesses (i.e patience and all of it's related friend categories). My boys on the other hand could sit with Uncle Lon or Grandpa Barry for hours (as they did today). 

Lon is a masterful fisherman.  The entire time we lived on Lake Cochituate we caught a total of five or six.  One day we left Lon home with the canoe.  He filled the boat and we ate wonderful Thai fish a thousand ways.  Yet in Guangzhou his newborn has kept him from exploring fishing ops. The boys love to fish with him, so today was a perfect chance for him to explore his new hometown. 

How he found this place I will never know. Something about looking for a fishing hole, a cabbie and a neighborhood that looks like a scene from "Brokedown Palace." He makes friends with fisherman everywhere he goes.  Somehow, just a ten minute walk from the Huadiwan subway station he found this shrimp farm.  

Shrimp fishing is not as easy as it sounds, even though they were in a pool (yes, shooting fish in a barrel). The boys caught a bunch of big ones right out of the gate. I of course lost at least six trying  to pull them up before they had the hook on their shrimpy little mouths. 

We caught fifteen or so, they threw in another pound for dinner (they would  have cooked them there but Lon is also a trained chef). So we headed home to their place for some Thai chili shrimp. What a great last night in Guangzhou!

Noodles, Monks and Subways; Modern and Ancient Guangzhou, PRC

Temple of the Six Banyan Trees

Liurong Si

Guangzhou, PRC

We set off on our first Guangzhou (formerly Canton) adventure today with a little help from Uncle Lon, who makes life simple, clear and stress-free. We started the day in modern, central Guanzhou by the brand new Opera House, the Guangdong Museum and the stunning Canton tower.  This enormous central section of this ancient city barely existed before the Asian Games came to town just a few years ago.  It is a bizarre mix of cutting edge architecture and capitalism gone amok with a creepy underground mall, acres long with only a Starbucks and a few empty, half-built store fronts. But the boys were most excited by the clean, quiet and bustling subways that shuttled us quickly across this giant metropolis of 12 million. 

Old Ghuangzhou is a different story.  Winding back roads, beautiful ancient temples and endless jade markets gave the kids hours of entertainment. They were as amazed by the forty foot Buddhas at Six Banyans as they were by another healthy dose of noodles and "slippery shrimp" dim sum that has had them eating their way through Cantonese delights.  

We were particularly impressed with their questions at the Guangxiao Temple as they wandered the halls of hundreds of giant, golden Buddhas with various states of facial hair and expressions; "why did the Buddha have so many different looks?"  "Why do people burn incense?"  "Why do people leave big bags of rice for the monks?"  Tomorrow we leave for Beijing via the bullet train, but we can't wait to get  back to Auntie Nina and Uncle Lon's hometown of surprising delights.  

From Dim Sum to Pirate Booty; Chueng Chau Island, Hong Kong, PRC

Chueng Chau island

Hong Kong Outer Islands

Hong Kong, PRC

What's a nice Jewish family from New York to do as soon as they wake up in the city that always eats?  DIM SUM!  We hiked on over to Central HK to Lin Hueng Tea House at 8am (ok, we stopped at Starbucks to fight the jet lag, and yes we had been up since 4).  This place hasn't changed since 1950 when it opened, but the shrimp dumplings were amazing and the pork bau unreal.  Great way to get the day started.  

We then hopped a ferry for the outer island of Chueng Chau.  In under an hour you've left one of the busiest and most crowded cities in the world and decamped on a remote little town with only bikes for wheels, umbrellas to keep off the sun and wrapped all up in beaches.  We walked a block or so to the edge of town and stumbled into the Pak Tai Temple; small but beautiful. 

Besides the calm and cool ferry ride (deluxe means the top deck and  better AC?) we needed some relief from the heat, better yet the sticky, thick air.  Thankfully Kam packed bathing suits for Nic and the boys.  We headed down to Kwun Yam Wan beach, bought a few towels and more drinks and the boys dove in.  I tried hard to ignore the shark warnings and imagined these skinny little life guards wrestling jaws off my boys). Thankfully Nic went in to save the day. 

We wrapped up our trip with a little lasagna (yeah, you read that right) for the boys at a little hipster ferry pier restaurant, the Pink Pig.  I convinced Kam that the Cheung Po Tsai cave was not worth the two hour walk in 85% humidity and we jetted home on the ferry.  She was really bummed to miss her first pirate cove.  All the same, a great first day in HK!

Rock, Rock, Rockaway Beach, The Rockaways, Queens, NY

Rock, Rock, Rockaway Beach
97th Street and Shorefront Parkways
The Rockaways, Queens

If you are not a Ramones fan, then you must be a Bloomberg New Yorker.  Rockaway beach is a passion of my boys, mainly cause they love the song "Rockaway Beach."  Like Joey Ramones New York of the '77 this beach has all the grit and all the cool of CBGBs.  This ain't no Jersey shore, but it surely isn't the Cape either.  

Hurricane Sandy did a number on this entire flood plane.  The boardwalk is still missing, you have to climb a prefab dune over a giant metal pipe to access the water, and there is construction fencing everywhere.  But like every good New Yorker that fateful fall, we pitched in for the recovery; the boys helping to make sandwiches at their synagogue Congregation Beth Elohim. "CBE Feeds" has since gone on to feed over 185,000 victims.

But the don't be fooled, like their neighbors Coney Island, the Rockaways are back!  Those annoying hipsters are even checking in to the Playland Motel.  The amazing Food Court a la Williamsburg's Smorgasburg  features the Lobster Joint,  Rockaway Beach Surf Club and more.  Name another city beach where you can get fresh brews, fresh smoothies, lobster rolls or arepas.  So hop the A train or the BQE, but get back in time to get back to the "city that never sleeps."