Near the bottom of the park, we started to notice how tired Aidan was and how tired people around us looked. We were also swimming upstream – there were a lot more people walking uptown than downtown. I remembered that my first idea for what to do with my mom that day had been to visit The Cloisters. Thank goodness we decided that it would be too boring for Aidan.

Up to this point the blackout had a very mild quality for us. We laughed at our luck and spent a long time just relaxing in the park. It was hot, but not horribly so, and we had the shade of the trees. The atmosphere changed dramatically when we hit the end of the park. We caught our first sight of the effects of the traffic lights being out and the amazing vigilante traffic directors in the middle of the intersections. Because they weren’t cops, the vehicles sometimes defied them and they were in a very dangerous position. We scooted in front of a bus that was threatening to disobey one at a crossing and the presence of a young child made the vigilante’s case a bit more persuasive.

Mostly one could walk the Avenues and cross the Streets fairly easily, because the traffic dominated in that direction – but crossing the Avenues was harrowing. Folks weren’t driving any differently just because there were no traffic lights. Busses, taxis, they don’t know any other way to drive.

When we got to about 45th, we decided that we should head over to Madison, but we turned the wrong way. We suspected our error, but I was sure when I realized that we were across from the Renaissance Hotel, which is managed by a dear friend of my father’s and happens to be in the center of Times Square. There was a crowd of people in front of the hotel, which made us a bit nervous. Could they not go in? Was it so hot in there that they’d rather be on the street? I was tempted to go and check in on my father’s friend, but I had hauled Aidan onto my back at that point and we were in no position to take a detour.

I marveled that I had only recognized Times Square for the familiar hotel and it took me a moment to realize that it was the lack of lights that made it spectacularly unspectacular. I told my mom to take a good look around because it would be a rare thing to see Times Square with no lights.

At 43rd we headed back in the other direction. I couldn’t believe that that morning I had been nervous about having to pee and eat because the train was 40 minutes late. Now I was in the middle of this incredible crisis, having walked over forty blocks and now walking several long city blocks with a 45 pound child on my back, 3 1/2 months pregnant. I must have been operating on adrenaline because, except for some blisters on one foot, I felt just fine.

On the way to Times Square, we had crossed the Avenues where there were police (the first ones we’d seen all day). On the way back over to Madison, we had to fend for ourselves. My mom would march out on the traffic side of us with her arm outstretched barking, “STOP! STOP!” at each vehicle. They did, thank goodness, and that’s how we crossed each intersection with the boy now asleep on my back and me hunched over so he wouldn’t fall off.

Getting to the hotel was a huge relief. The sun was just setting. I deposited Aidan on the carpeted floor of this gorgeous room in the lobby that is usually corded off for special events. Of course he woke up right away, made friends with a young woman who was visiting NY with her family from Egypt (can you imagine coming to NY from Egypt and ending up in a blackout?), and happily ate the Pringles that she offered. My mom was eager to see what our room was like and set off for it while Aidan and I rested. Another woman told me that they had just started to let people go up to their rooms, that initially, everyone had been evacuated to the lobby.

My mom came back and said that the room was great. She had actually taken a quick shower and came back down with a wet towel for us. We didn’t realize at the time what a treat that was. The water didn’t last. We made our way up the stairs, which had emergency lighting. A detour through the second floor was facilitated by hotel staff with flashlights. We came out on the sixth floor where the air was comfortably cool and the hallways were lit. We were in blackout paradise, especially while the toilets still flushed.

The only thing that I was concerned about at that point was food and I was hugely relieved to find that I still had a half a blueberry muffin in the room. I had been wondering for some time if I had thrown it out and had been deeply regretting the half a sandwich that I had thrown out at lunch. I would have been in trouble without the muffin. My mom had some crackers that Aidan was happy to call dinner.

We just relaxed for some time while Aidan played with some airport toys that my mom had brought for him. I got through to Steve on the cell phone and told him we had made it to the hotel. Aidan spoke to him and told him all of the details of our situation from his point of view. Aidan performed incredible, never before seen potty feats. He pooped on a strange potty without his potty seat. (My arms acted as the potty seat for the 20 minute poop and I couldn’t have done it if I had been 7 months pregnant.) He peed in the potty without argument before going to bed. He peed again when he got up in the morning and had no accidents in his sleep. He was incredible.

The bed was a full and the room tiny the way that only NYC hotel rooms can be. Once Aidan nursed to sleep, I transferred him to a nest that we made on the floor out of the comforter and some pillows. My mom and I laid on the bed thinking about how lucky we were. We had a bed, the room was cool and comfortable, we had lights in the hallways, I could have been more pregnant, Aidan had been an angel all day, Aidan and I could have been in the city just on our own and we’d be sleeping in the park probably, we could have been on any one of the TEN floors that were ABOVE the sixth.

(one more entry coming...)