What an amazing way to arrive in NYC!  We leave Port Chester before dawn with the bad weather finally breaking.  A beautiful sunrise over Long Island Sound illuminates the clouds over the city chasing them away before we arrive.  We hit the currents right and take an express ride down the East River logging 10+ knots as we go through Hell Gate.  All of a sudden, there she is… Lady Liberty!  Dodging ferry, water taxi and barge traffic, we round the Battery and begin pushing against the foul current of the Hudson.  Our speed slows dramatically but no one minds.  It gives us more time to see the sights!  Megan and I keep looking at each other with giddy disbelief at sailing our home right into New York City!  The boys are awestruck by the BIG buildings!!!  What a great day!

Megan’s college friend Tommy lives just blocks away from the Boat Basin.  We have dinner with him, his wife Marguerite, daughter Auden and son Julian.  Finn and Auden become fast friends.  Marguerite, a journalist, is full of questions about our new life and we enjoy answering all of them.  The next day they all join us for breakfast on the boat.  Later Tommy and Julian accompany us to the Museum of Natural History.  A few days later Tommy takes us to work with him… which we don’t mind since he works at the Bronx Zoo!  Another wonderful day for all the kids (including Megan & me!).  After, Tommy drops us off at the Boat Basin.  No one wants to say goodbye.  We really have had a wonderful time with Tommy and his family.  We’ll treasure the friendships made and rekindled during this visit.

More friends!  Megan’s college friend Lisa, husband Don, daughter Amelia and son Sawyer meet us at a nearby playground and then come for visit on the boat.  The boys are thrilled to show off their home and have so many new friends to play with.

My friend Karen (7 months pregnant) and daughters Sophie & Violet also come visit us.  It’s their first time on a boat and they’re full of questions.  They even ask many that our journalist friend Marguerite did… including the perennial favorite “where does it go when you flush the toilet?”

The last day in New York is spent on laundry, showers and boat maintenance but after naps we manage to get in a subway ride for the boys to see the real Winnie the Pooh.  The real stuffed animals (ragged and threadbare) that belonged to Christopher Robin Milne and inspired the stories by his father A.A. Milne are in an unassuming glass case inside a children’s reading room of NY Public Library branch.  Finn likes the stuffed animals but they run a far second behind the subway ride!