A week for swimming and then Happy Fourth!

This may be the first time that I exclusively worked on non-running related aerobic activities not due to an injury.

Carmen & Jim were in town for the weekend. We saw a James Bond movie together on the night of the 2nd. I made some killer cosmos for them and Jim had us cracking up on the floor with his funny jokes. Pictured above, they left as my kids came to my house.

I swam on the 1st the 3rd and even on the 4th of July. And on the 4th, my kids were with me, and they swam too. I was shocked. I didn't think my kids could swim as good as they did. Stephanie swam effortlessly, and even Matthew jumped in, without a care in the world, and without any floatation devices, right into the 6 foot section and started swimming immediately. It was funny too, because at first when I did not believe that he would swim the distance of the lap, I put up $5 dollars betting him that he wouldn't be able to. At first he told me, "I think I can do it Dad". To which I retorted, "Well you better do better do it, because the different between can and think is the same as swam and sink when it comes to swimming!" (How clever of me, right?)

Here's Matt's debut:


And yep. He did it alright. A few times too. And he had the nerve to ask me for $15 dollars for doing it 3 times. In the end my 8-year old made out with his $5
and Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bar. Steffie too.


The kids had a blast there, as they exploited the two slides and every other imaginable recreational activity there.

Oh, and this kid was kinda goofy as well:

Afterwards, we wasted no time, and with the keys to my friend's apartment, who was currently away for the weekend, cycling to West Point and back, we headed out to Central Park.




After our picnic at the park, we headed back to my friend's apartment, where we went to the rooftop. Believe it or not, there's a kids slideset up there.

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The schedule for the 4th was a tight one. Last year, when I had them on Independance Day the firework show was held at its usual spot. The East River. We copped a good spot that year in Long Island City. This year on the other hand, Macy*s decided to hold it on the Hudson River in honor of Henry Hudson himself.


We took the subway there.

Seating for the event was difficult at best. We finally wound up near the West Side Highway in front of a bowling alley (on 40th Street). I wish I had brought some lounge chairs with me, but with the kids, and all by myself, that would have been too much to carry.




As you can imagine, things got silly in a hurry:




And then the fireworks began:


As the ceremonies winded down to a close, I finally got in touch with my friend who had just gotten off a riverboat cruise and was ready to go to sleep in preparation for a long trek back. We exchanged some nice words for one another and continued along our merry way.
Of course, when it was all over, we then had the daunting task of having to trudge with 3 million people through the west side to finally get to the subway, or a cab. Right in front of our eyes, a woman got her purse snatched. She gave chase and even caught the bastard, but unfortunately she was wearing a pretty lofty pair of heels and when he pulled on the bag, she was dragged, standing, by her heels, lost her footing and fell on the ground. 1 person chased after him, but that's all. It was just too crowded, unfortunately. I wasn't ready to teach my children a lesson in being street-smart that evening, but I hope that what they saw was something of an eye-opener, and served as a valuable examply for them to live by.

HAPPY 4th EVERYBODY!!!