Water weekend

Last weekend when Jen and I were dropping off Ethan at camp, Samuel stayed home because he was invited to Splish Splash waterpark with friends. He was supposed to meet them in Queens, but he took the wrong train at Penn Station, ended up in Secaucus, NJ, and spent the day home alone.

So, helicopter parent that I am, I took Friday off and took Samuel to Hurricane Harbor. (He realized on Thursday night that he was supposed to babysit LJ on Friday afternoon, so we took him with us too.)

We had a great day until the thunderstorms rolled in.

Jen requested a beach day on Saturday, and we had a rental car, so we went to Jones Beach.

It's the first nice, wide, clean, glass-free beach to the east of the city. It was developed during the Depression using WPA labor--the showers and concessions buildings, the parking lots, even the highway from the mainland. Say what you will about Robert Moses, he did a nice job with Jones Beach.

Today, feeling the end of summer nearing, Samuel and I decided to do another sprinkler trek through Central Park--every playground sprinkler from 100th Street to 81st Street.

We added the Ross Terrace at the Museum of Natural History, since it is our favorite water play area on the Upper West Side.

We've decided to officially name it the Central Park Sprinkler Trek, Upper West Side version. It takes 90 minutes from start to finish--beginning and ending at a milkshake comfort station. We are going to invite more kids next time.

I vowed to finish a manuscript this weekend and I've written about one line so far, so I'd better get to it.