Ice Skating in Bryant Park

Day two, NYC. The bus stop, of course, probably the most fun. We missed the first bus because we were at the wrong bus stop. Whoops! but not big deal, we played games and sang carols.

FYI, ice skating in Bryant Park is FREE. Except that if you decide not to tote skates into the city. Then you pay a boatload of money to rent skates. And an bag to put your shoes and crap in so you can check it. And you never expect that one of the girls who RAN to get into a super-long line and had been talking about skating all morning would then get out on the ice, refuse help, then not be able to skate, and go back and sit down and mope and cry.

And if you expect that I would stand for that, you are mistaken. I made things worse, of course. But still, sometimes it takes me forcing C9 to do things to get her to enjoy them. After she hates them even more. Actually, this time she sat on the bench while to insisted she get out there on the ice (I threatened her first with missing school entirely on Monday if she didn't get out and skate, and then once she was out I told her I'd make her tardy on Monday if she didn't pretend to be enjoying herself. Or at least stop complaining). Anyway, my skills as a parent aren't being questioned here. But while before we even got out on the ice a boy -- overly enthusiastic boy -- came over to C9 and told her skating was fun and he'd teach her how to do it. She screamed NO! and GO AWAY! at him. Eventually, he did. He was persistent, though.

So, here is a selfie of me and C9 on the ice, and then Q7 & K9:

 

And right after this I think I was told no cameras on the ice. Fair enough. I was probably endangering lots of people skating on the ice while I took pics and skated.

K9 was great already, but Q7 improved a great deal, and even C9 did. M45 took her on the ice and that worked out very well. Here they are. Look, C9 is almost smiling! Possibly because she was thinking about chasing pigeons in Central Park.

Then it started to rain, so we stopped skating, and visited a bunch of the kiosks in the park set up for the holiday market. We tried a bunch of chocolate. Yum. Then they wanted to go to lunch back in NJ. So, we did. They were bummed that we couldn't swim again, but it was time to go after lunch, for the drive home to Maryland.