The Big Apple

I had a work conference scheduled in New York City for a few days and we were very fortunate to have Grammy and Grandpa bring the kids out to meet me for a few days. While I was there, I got to take my time and explore SoHo, Canal street and some of the nicer restaurants and nightlife that NYC has to offer. Once the kids came it was time to be a tourist and cram as much of the sites into a few days as possible.

Day 1 (with kids):

They arrived to the hotel about 6pm ready to hit the town. The first place I wanted to show them was Times Square. We took the subway for the first of numerous trips. It was very cold and windy so we only stayed for a little bit to take it all in. We went to "Shake Shack" for dinner which is a very popular burger place. The wait was long and the order wasn't quite what we expected but it was OK.  We went into the largest Toys R Us and rode the indoor ferris wheel and looked around. After a while we figured it was time to get back an try to get some sleep before the first full day.

Me and the kids in the ET ferris wheel car inside the Toys R Us in Times Square

Brrrr

Times Square during the day

Kids getting their ipods ready to take pictures

Caitlin and Grammy on the subway the first day

 

Day 2:

The second day we hit the ground running to get in as many sites as possible. We purchased the "City Pass" to try and avoid lines and stop into places that we wouldn't have otherwise. It was great for keeping us on track. Before G and G/kids arrived, I mapped out the city and sites to chuck it into days for planning. Starting in the morning of day two, my dad took Jason to the Federal Reserve for a tour while the girls got ready. Cameras weren't allowed so we don't have any pictures of that. The next stop was the 9/11 memorial. Jason was exactly a week old on 9/11/01 - it was surreal to look at him next to the memorial and imagine the world before and after that day. They still have a lot of work to do but the new buildings and memorial are beautiful.

The new Freedom Tower being built

Jason looking at the memorial where the south tower once stood

North tower memorial

Grandpa showing Jason the names of the people who died in the south tower and the fire and police units that responded

The "survivor tree"

Next we walked through Trinity Church across from the memorial. This is where family members were posting pictures of their missing relatives following the attacks. The cemetery on the grounds had headstones from the late 1700s.

 

 

Next up was a quick walk through the financial district where we saw the New York Stock Exchange and the site of where George Washington took his Oath of Office. We then warmed up in a Starbucks before heading to Battery Park to catch a boat that took us on a water cruise to see Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty and the NY city skyline. It was a very cold and windy day!

 

 

Following a short rest at the hotel, we bundled back up again to go grab dinner at Lombardi's Pizzeria, which was the first pizza place in America. The final stop for the day was the Empire State Building to see the city lights at night time.

 

 

Rare sweet moment where Jason is trying to show Cait the Statue of Liberty through the machines at the top of the Empire State Building

Empire State building (blurry) lit up at night

This man arrived at 9pm to play music at the top of the Empire State Building

Caitlin taking pictures





 

 

 

Day 3:

 

My dad had his Swiss Army knife confiscated at the Empire State building and then lost the claim ticket so the next day had to go back... while he and Jason did that, me, Cait and my mom went to the American Girl Doll store which was at the top of Caitlin's wish list (second only to the Statue of Liberty and before Central Park). This place is a mad house. After much convincing, we even got Elizabeth's hair done at the doll salon and stocked up for Abby and Caitlin's birthdays. She said it was even better than she had imagined and said she dreamed about it all night that night. What a joy to see her so happy...

 

Next up we met my Dad and Jason at Rockefeller Center for a wonderful lunch looking out to the ice skating rink and then up to the observation deck for another great view of the city. Next up a quick walk though St. Patrick's Cathedral and then the kids and I did a super fast tour of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) while Grammy and Grandpa grabbed coffee. They wanted to save the MoMA for another day after we left so they could spend more time there.

 

Central Park

Rockefeller Center

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Van Gogh's Olive Tree

Picasso

Munch -- "the scream"

Monet's Lilly Pad

Beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedral

Man I'm getting exhausted just re-calling how much we fit into these few days.. I feel very lucky!!!

 

For our final dinner we wandered around Greenwich for a while and eventually landed in a Ukrainian diner in the East Village. We were exhausted and it wasn't too good but we were glad to sit and the kids were happy with pancakes! We took some fun pics on the subway and headed back tot he hotel for bed.

 

From the movie "Big"

Caitlin became quite the expert at the NYC subway routes



Day 4:

 

Onto our final day... first stop, the American Natural History Museum. We spent a couple hours there and barely made a dent into the exhibits. This place was HUGE! The day seemed to get away from us and we wanted to make sure to leave enough time to explore Central Park and make our way back to the hotel for our evening flight. It was kind of hard to take pics in the museum due to the lighting...

 

Food truck lunch outside the history museum right across from central park. It was very good!

She found monkey bars! Kind of... they were only a couple feet off the ground

The kids spent their own souvenir money buying prints from this man in the park. They are very excited!

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Snow left over from earlier in the week



Nice face dad...

 

Another sweet moment walking through the park

So excited to roam!

All in all the week was amazing. The kids did a fantastic job keeping up with all the activities and were very excited at all the things to see. A couple times Caitlin said "New York is boring" because of the waits but other than that I think they enjoyed themselves. I feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity and that my parents were willing to make the long, early flight across country with the kids.