Our first trip to little Italy & China town

Wow, we are having a great time wandering around New York with my brother and nephew. We have been to places we had not yet ventured to. On Wednesday we went to the Museum of natural history with the tickets the hospital had given us and saw the dinosaur display. It was very funny on the way there because the museum is on the other side of Central Park, on the west side. So we walked into the park from our side, east on 5th Avenue, and were walking for about 15 minutes enjoying the trees and squirrels when we got to the other side. We then looked around for the museum but couldn’t see it, after a few minutes we then realized that we had walked in a complete circle and were back on 5th Avenue!!! On Thursday we had a great adventure, we walked to 59th street to go for a ride on the cable car to Roosevelt Island and back. Then we got on a bus on 2nd Avenue to head downtown to see China Town and Little Italy. When we got on the bus, it turned the corner and a concerned lady asked the bus driver where we were headed. The bus driver said this is the bus to Queens and we are headed over the bridge with no stops in between! The lady started panicking and telling the driver he must stop for her as she had an appointment, we then told the driver that we were on the wrong bus too. So the driver stopped the bus and let us off, thank goodness! So back to 2nd Avenue and down to 57th Street we got on the right bus. Finally after a bit of walking we found China Town. I wasn’t too impressed by it, a bit dirty and smelly with all the open fish stores, but the food was good in the buffet shop we found, it was only $4 including tax and we got to try 5 different dishes, and there was at least 30 to choose from. Dylan likes to think he can use chop sticks but in reality he can only eat one grain of rice at a time with them! Next was Little Italy, and compared to China Town it was little, but I loved it! All the street signs, fire hydrants, parking meters and traffic lights were painted in the Italian flag and the restaurants smelled delicious. The streets were cleaner and there were great little novelty stores. After that we headed towards Battery Park after walking down a very busy street of many cheap souvenir stores, perfume stores and lots of people trying to sell us a Rolex watch or bootleg DVD’s of movies still in the cinema. We walked through SoHo (where Russell Crowe was arrested recently) and then we got to the World Trade Center site. We continued to battery Park and boarded the free ferry to Staten Island. It was a huge ferry, very modern and it even had elevators inside! We got a great view of the Statue of Liberty and the boys loved the trip. I couldn’t believe it was free, you didn’t even use your Metrocard (transport card). There was not much to see at Staten Island, and it was getting very late by this time, so we headed straight back to Manhattan on the next ferry.Today we really didn’t do much at all after Dylan's hospital check up, but at 6pm the Ronald McDonald House took the families to Central Park. Dylan played his first ever Baseball game! He loved it so much. It was funny watching him. When it was his turn to field and he stood at the base, he would start running to the next base when the other player did! It was great for him to have the chance to play, because I think now he will enjoy watching a real baseball game, when ever we get around to seeing one. Tomorrow Rick and Odin fly out of New York, and Dylan and I are in for a real treat to help ease the emotions of being left alone. The Ronald McDonald House is taking us and other families to Hershey’s Park! It is a fun park with rides, a huge Candy store and wildlife Park, at least that’s what I have been told. We leave at 7:30am and will be gone for 12 hours, I think it takes a few hours to get there by coach. We are very excited and the weather is supposed to be 95 degrees (Hope the Hershey’s chocolate doesn’t melt too much!)At hospital, Dylan's blood counts were good apart from his neutrophil count which has dropped to 0.7. Dylan is still on schedule to start round 10 chemo on Monday for 5 consecutive days. This chemo does little for Dylan, but it does keep his condition stable while we wait for the MIBG treatment to start up at MSKCC again (hopefully by next month) I am getting very anxious for the MIBG treatment, I just want to get it over and done with, so we can see if it will be the answer, to getting us ready for the 3F8 antibody treatment.