The Highline was even more beautiful than I remembered. The last time we were there Adam was smaller than Malcolm.  So much has changed in three years!

We met our friends Matt and Joni who have three kids. Adam and Malcolm loved hanging out with them!

This zoo was incredible! We were there for 7 hours and hardly scratched the surface.

Our favorite exhibit there was the gorilla exhibit.  There is a floor to ceiling glass wall and the gorillas hang out right next the wall. It’s amazing!

This zoo is definitely on my list of places to go back to.

After a great time we headed back to Uncle Nooj and Aunt Das.  Uncle Nooj’s mom and dad, Jeannie and Kevin came to see the boys and we all went to get pizza and of course had to have some ice cream after!

Another great NY day!

Once we were on the subway though it was smooth sailing all the way uptown.

I knew all the boys would love this museum. They love animals and Adam especially loves whales and sharks so I was excited for him to see the huge whale!

I took Randy to see my favorite exhibit, the squid and the whale…still terrifying people! To aptly quote Randy – who is attacking who here?

One of the many many things I love about Adam is how detail oriented he is and how much he loves the little things.  He was just as excited about this little box of extinct animals as he was about the huge whale hanging from the ceilings. He has such a scientific mind! The opposite of me for sure! He brings over those long encyclopedia type books for bed time reading and I have to swallow my desire to beg him to switch for Dragons Love Tacos or No Fits Nilson.

Then it was time for some mammals! Malcolm woke up and I’m glad he got the chance to see some animals. He was pretty cute, he was a little scared of some of the bigger animals, but don’t you worry! Aunt Das was there to convince him all was ok. Isnt’ this a smile you would trust?

 Malcolm, I don’t blame you! I wouldn’t want to come across this guy in a dark room either!

Adam even got to touch a real dinosaur bone!

After the museum it was time to head to the playground. New York City has some pretty amazing playgrounds.  The one in Union Square is full of everything, a sprinkler, a sand box, all kinds of things I’ve never even seen before and don’t even know their names. Both boys didn’t want to leave!

Adam dug for his own ‘dinosaur’ bones in the sandbox.

That night we put the boys to bed and Grandma Gertch babysat for us. We headed out with the Jordans to Minetta Tavern for some delicious steaks!

To add some excitement to our amazing meal, while were were eating James Spader walked in and sat down right behind us! Then not 5 minutes later Jim Carrey and to quote Daphne ‘that guy from the Americans’ (no clue who that is) came and sat down right behind us! 10 minutes later Jim Belushi walked right by our table and stopped right in front of us to look at James Spader, Jim Carrey and that guy! He even looked down and talked to to us for, oh, about 5 seconds.  A pretty exciting night, we are basically famous now!  Daphne and I played it cool, but Randy and Mj insisted we take a photo 🙂 Ok, maybe Daf and I insisted.  Here you go people, you’re welcome. One for your walls.

You know it’s legit when even Daphne finishes her whole big steak!

Grandma Yuyu picked us up and took us to Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj’s apartment!  She had brought the boys cars and they were so excited. The boys were so happy at the apartment. Das and Nooj had set up their room with animal decals all over and left some treats for the boys.

The next morning we headed out to the boys first Mets game!

 Even though we were a little tired it was still great.

Then it was back to meet Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj for dinner. A great first day in New York!

Even though the boys were jet lagged staying out was definitely the best thing to do. The boys were exhausted after the zoo (even though it was mommy who pushed them around all day 🙂 and slept almost all night.

The next morning we headed out to meet Carrie and Simone again at the Natural History Museum. It was another great day.

Carrie and Simone had to head home but we spent another couple of hours in the museum exploring everything.

Followed by some ice-cream from an ice-cream truck.  They don’t have any ice-cream trucks in Manila so Adam has been super excited to get some.

Our time in DC was short and jet lagged but we had a great time and it was a great start to our U.S. adventure! 

After dinner we stopped to literally and figuratively smell every flower on the way. Anything to fight the jet lag and keep these boys up!

Miraculously the boys were so tired that they slept all night just waking up once for milk and a banana. The next morning we all woke up late and had a plan to all stay up and out all day to battle jet lag.

Here to help in DC were Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj! We met them at the Air and Space museum to see the planes and spaceships. Everyone was very excited to see them!

After the air and space museum we met our friends Anish and Zita and their two boys (and a third boy on the way!) for some park fun.

All in all our first day in the U.S. was pretty amazing! 

I woke up the next morning to head back to Manila and pick up the boys and my mom.  The plan was to meet Randy back in Japan and head back to the U.S. for our Home Leave, 6 weeks in the U.S.!

Here is where things take a turn for the ugly (don’t worry, they turn out ok). I headed to Narita and got there nice and early. I even had time to get a coffee. I walked over to check-in coffee in hand and they informed me that the flight was actually out of Haneda…which is an hour and a half away from Narita.  I had a moment where I looked at the departure board and wondered if this was actually a nightmare.  I thought about it and realized, no, this was really happening.  After some tears and a very helpful ANA worker I was rebooked on the 5 p.m. flight at no extra cost.  I can’t complain, even though this meant I had to spend 9 hours at the airport and would have about 2 hours to get all our stuff ready for our 6 week trip. Thankfully I had mostly packed the boys up before I had left for Japan. There is a benefit to being a compulsive packer. And luckily Narita has comfy couch beds.

I was sad as I hadn’t seen the boys in a week and I was dying to see them! Thankfully, I knew they were in good hands with Grandma.

A short 14 hours later I was home! I managed to get everything ready with the help of Grandma Gertch and we were on our way bright and early the next morning.  I was definitely a little nervous about this voyage.  It was a five hour flight bright and early to Japan, with a very short one hour layover to get to our next 12 hour flight to Washington DC.  Not to mention I felt like I had just traveled for 15 hours the day before.  I had bought the boys a couple choice toys to keep them occupied and some yummy treats.  Here we are not even boarded on our first flight and I already broke out stickers books, not a good sign.

Grandma helped us on our first flight and with lots of stickers, lollipops and in flight entertainment we had a pretty good flight.  The boys were great! We came about five minutes from missing our next flight (turns out an hour in between is not enough time) but we just made it and daddy was thankfully there waiting for us. This next flight was the long one and I was worried but the boys slept for 8 of the 12 hours and were again amazing! I don’t know how I got so lucky.

We were all so happy and so excited to be back in the U.S. after two and a half years and off all those planes! It was this little guys first time in the U.S. It felt surreal to be back in the U.S. after all that time.  We were ready to see everyone and be tourists.

Then it was on to Hakone lake where took this boat across.  Adam and Malcolm would have LOVED this!

Then it was time to head back to the ryokan for a traditional Japanese meal.  The meal takes place in your room right where they come back and later make up your bed, aka put a mat down.

Oh and the entire time you’re at the ryokan they ask that you wear this. Don’t we look like locals!

After a relaxing night at the ryokan and the hot springs we were rested and ready for my last night in Tokyo!

It’s amusing how eager they can be for just one more photo and then just one more photo.

No matter how quickly you run out of the Ivy those paparazzi are still right there.

You try giving up and posing for pictures to keep them happy.

You throw up your hands in defeat and that doesn’t work either.

Then you have that moment when you come really close to that Justin Bieber moment where you punch a paparazzo or break his camera.

So you to decide to throw your hands up and quit show business. Or in Randy’s case fling all the crackers at the deer and beg them to leave you alone 🙂

Hey, it worked!

This guys really liked his cracker!

Maybe we should have read this sign first! I do feel bad about that old lady being mugged by a deer, it’s probably the first mugging to ever happen in Japan.

I learned from Randy’s attack and had only a calm and zen encounter with the deer.

 Ok, maybe the paparazzi attached a bit.

Maybe deer really are meant to be seen from a distance. They seem so calm when drinking from a stream!

After yesterday’s temple fest I wasn’t too excited about yet another temple, how wrong I was. This temple was built in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and it was pretty impressive!

Then because we didn’t have toddlers to lug around we took the train back to Kyoto and then another train right back out to another area in the outskirts of Kyoto called the Bamboo forest.  We walked around the forest for about 10 minutes and were so tired we debated hiring one of these guys to take us back to the station.

But we rallied and walked around.

Here we are waiting for our train back.  Two TIRED travellers.

But once again after a quick shower and change we were on our way out to dinner. Tonight was Yakitori.

Don’t we look refreshed?!

 Best two things on the menu, chicken meatball skewers with yolk to dip and fried peppers.

 After dinner we walked around an old geisha district of Kyoto, Gion.

This district was pretty locked down. We went into one place for a drink and they looked at us like we were crazy to be just walking in (apparently all places around there with geishas require a known customer to bring you in. But then  they very nicely led us next door where we were allowed in.

I guess this place will do.

On our walk home we decided to stop for one more and had one of those amazing vacation moments where you walk into the exact right place for you at the exact right moment. The bar had 7 seats and two were filled by the bartender’s friends. All three were so warm and welcoming and we had so much fun we ended up staying out much later than we had planned.  Completely worth it, even when I set my alarm and we woke up the next morning for our train and rushed to get out before we realized that my phone was still on Manila time and we had already missed the train.  Thankfully Japan has trains all the time and we just hopped on the next one. Still completely worth it!

Then it was (thankfully) downhill to a cute pedestrian area with lots of little stalls. We had a long walking tour to complete to so we just window shopped on our way down.

After our delicious lunch we were ready to head out again. Next on our walking tour was in the guide book as “perhaps the most beautiful street in Kyoto”.   It really was pretty, could you imagine living on this little block?!

Then it was through a park with Kyoto’s most famous cherry blossom tree and another temple.

Here is the pretty old tree outside the next temple.

The well outside the next.

And the pretty river next to the Starbucks we finally made it to. You’re welcome.

The tempura chef was amazing! There were 12 seats around him and this one man would make the batter, cut the vegetables, batter them up and cook them.  He had each guest’s meal perfectly timed and would serve one amazing piece of tempura at a time. I will forever crave that tomato, oh and that mushroom and the shrimp.

After our meal we were taken back for some tea and dessert during which we even saw a geisha who was entertaining (in a g-rated manner) a party in the back room.

To cap off an amazing (and very full day) we headed to a jazz bar where the owner has over 5000 records collected for a nightcap.