We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast today.  To give you an idea of scale for a group of 13 (including 9 teenagers), we made 4 pounds of bacon and 40 pancakes today.  We asked everyone “Will you wear wigs?” and got some yesses.  Cal and Nole were especially up for it since they “had not worn wigs” yet. 

Asa, who is still nursing a cold, stayed back at the campground with Joey, Mary, and Anna who all preferred a more relaxing morning than what we had planned. 

Everyone else set off for the PATH station, then transferred to the subway for a long trek, going toward “Uptown & The Bronx”.  We wanted to see Alexander Hamilton’s home, The Grange, which is a National Parks site. 

There originally was talk of hitting two sites but Nole and I decided to spend more time at Hamilton’s house and take a scheduled tour at 1:30, rather than squeeze in two sites today. 

The kids earned Junior Ranger badges.  This is the second site that was out of badges and took our names and addresses to send them once they get them back in stock.  It will be interesting to see if we actually receive them.

We took Katy and Lily with us when we left The Grange and Melissa and Joe decided to check out the Ulysses Grant site before meeting back up with us later. 

The tour went a bit long and then everyone had to use the restrooms.  We hit the subway again, this time for a 85 minute ride allllll the way to Brooklyn, near Coney Island to the New York Aquarium. 

We met up with the teens from the campground at the aquarium.  We underestimated their punctuality and then we were a bit late so they made it there first. 

The temps today were in the 80s.  The highest temps we have seen since we started this trip over 4 weeks ago!  Tomorrow is expected to be even hotter!

This is the oldest aquarium in the US.  We visited the original site, at Castle Clinton (Castle Garden) yesterday.

The tickets were free and had to be reserved on Monday.  There are other free museums and zoos in the area on Wednesdays. 

Here are the normal prices.

We saw lots of cool aquatic creatures.  The running joke was that we were working up an appetite for sushi!

Puffer fish

Catfish

Piranhas

Did you know Teddy Roosevelt had a role in sensationalizing the aggressiveness of piranhas?

Melissa and Joe caught up with us at the aquarium.

A really beautiful white shark

Sea lion show

Jellyfish

A huge, very active octopus

Unicorn fish

Cow fish

Stingrays

We split into groups to eat dinner.  Nova went with Melissa to Ellen’s Stardust Diner to see singing wait staff and Joey came with us for revolving sushi at Kura.  We got there at 7:30, they had an hour wait, and then they closed at 9:15 but we made the most of the time we had there.  While we waited for our table to be ready, we explored a mall. 

Hot Wheels vending machine??  They also had a hair extension vending machine.

Nova work pod touted as “private, secured, focused”. It was glass and in the middle of a hall in a busy mall.  I can’t imagine trying to work in it!

A dollar store called “Dollarazzle”.

We’re in!  A robot delivered our sodas

Asa and Joey tried salmon roe.

We ate 38 plates of sushi.  The conveyers were pretty empty and they were running out of a lot of types.  I guess next time we need to go earlier. 

We could either ride the tram for $2 each or walk 30 minutes and we all decided to walk.  Glad we did, because we got a great view of the NY skyline!

The Yatzecks blog post for today, including Nova’s trip to Ellen’s Stardust Diner.