On With the Quest!

This morning, Alex woke up quite excited. We would be going to the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park today.  Having been schooled on times medieval by Blue and Sprinkles in the "Dragon Quest" episode of Blue's Room, he donned his pith helmet and carried his katana.  He was all set.

Having a sword with him would pose a potentially embarrassing challenge at First Day School.  When we arrived there, I quietly took the sword and helmet with me to meeting.  After all, he'd have plenty of toys to play with in the nursery room.   I feared we'd have a hard time getting him out of the nursery room, but not when there was a Medieval Festival to get to!  He wasn't even interested in stopping for cookies and milk at the social hour.  Let's go!

He led us down the stairs of the L train and then bugged us to know where it was.  (Just minutes away).  At 8th Avenue, he wanted to know if we were at the Medieval festival yet.  Well, no. We were still only on 14th Street. We needed to get on the A train now.  By the way, the 8th Avenue train station has some pretty cool art all over the place:

The entire ride from 14th Street to 190th was torture for him.  He gave it until we got to 59th Street before asking "Are we there yet?"  That's a lot of patience for a little guy!

When we got to 190th, there was a huge crowd waiting for the elevator to Margaret Corbin circle, where the entrance of the Festival would be.  We tried to exit and walk around the stone mountain the park is on, but found it too daunting.  We walked back towards the subway to take the elevator.  "The Medieval Festival is this way!" Alex informed us.  He was pointing back towards the subway.  Oh, OK. Sorry there little guy.

We should have stayed for some of the social hour. At least enough to have Mommy eat something.  Mommy was positively ravenous when we arrived.  Near the entrance, we spotted a Roman shield and armor and Mommy asked Alex if he'd be interested in it.  Boy! - was that the wrong question to ask.  He obsessed on the shield like Mommy obsessed on roasted turkey legs.  He barely ate his French fries.  He wasn't interested in the joust. "I want my Roman shield!" he kept saying.  Off we went back towards the entrance to get the shield.

Now we could enjoy the festival.  Alex was all pleased with  his shield. We stopped to watch a bunch of men-at-arms teach kids how to strike with a sword. 

We stopped to watch a musical duo and watched as they taught a dance.

There was a lot of walking around and posing, challenging others with his new shield and sword (that we found at another booth.)  At one point, he stopped near some other kids to play sword fight with them. 

But then, he spotted "The Castle" a/k/a The Cloisters museum.  We began our long hike up to the museum entrance.  Near the entrance, we saw a vendor with child sized breast plates and helmets.  Alex's outfit could be complete!

The Cloisters asked that we check the weapons and shield. Alex was surprisingly agreeable to it. (I expected to have to get off the line.)  Once inside, he was thrilled to march around in his armor.

Eventually, though, he started to get restless. "This place is a little boring", he said.  I thought it would be a good idea to get a snack which turned out to be the right idea.  Then, he really surprised me.  We went to a cloistered herb garden where he wanted to stay.  He named all of the plants he could name and eagerly asked the names of plants he didn't know.  He loved sniffing the herbs, such as lemon balm. He could identify lavender and rosemary by recognizing their scents from our own garden.

It was getting cold and Daddy had to step inside.  That didn't matter to Alex who was just fine in the garden.  I couldn't get him to leave!

Eventually, he agreed to leave and after a quick stop near the sarcophagi (which Alex didn't like in the least, thankyouverymuch), we started on the long walk back to the subway.  This time, we took the train to 125th Street and walked towards the Metro North stop there.  Alex insisted that we do something else.  We kept on saying "No" until Daddy realized he was pretty hungry.   Alex was thrilled to stop at a McDonald's for dinner.

After that, it was Alex's turn to get cold.  "Let's get to the train!" he insisted.  Hmmmm, maybe all I have to do is not bundle him up well.  I've never seen him so anxious to get home from Manhattan. Or, at least, get to somewhere inside.

Once back home, I had to promise him that he could wear his new armor over his pajamas and watch the "Dragon Quest" episode of "Blue's Room".  This time, he was even more prepared for Blue's challenges.  He was engaging entirely with Blue, even to the point of riding his dragon "horse" to join Blue and her brother on the quest for King Joe's dragons. 

We figured that now was not the time to explain the 600 year difference between Blue's period acting and the time of the Romans.  Alex explained that Blue was a Roman and her [his] brother Sprinkles was a medieval knight. 

He didn't put up too much of an argument when it was time to go to bed. To say he went to sleep quickly is an understatement.

Good night, sweet Knight.  Or is it Centurion? Maybe both.