When we returned to Florida from Dublin over two years ago, hubby and I agreed that we would not stop traveling and would do more than only visit family as we did before we moved overseas. We made the decision to visit at least on new place per year.
Unfortunately traveling around the states as a family of five is not the easiest nor cheapest task. Driving is not a real option since it takes almost 5 hours just to get out of Florida. I often check the train option, but the time it takes to get places (usually longer than it would take to drive) usually turns me off and unless we want to sit upright for 20+ hours, it’s too expensive. So we usually look at flying but that is often cost prohibitive (cheapest is usually about $100 per person–including the baby–each way times 5 people, round-trip which makes a minimum of $1,000!)
This has left us close to home, only visiting Naples, Jacksonville, Orlando, Savannah and Atlanta in addition to seeing family. BUT last week we finally got to go to a new place that isn’t a drive away: New York City!
I’ve never been to New York City though hubby has been for work quite a few times. So when we got the invite to hubby’s cousin’s wedding in New Jersey AND it was 2 days before my birthday, I made it very clear that if we were going to travel for the wedding we were going to spend a few days in the city, so we did!
We flew into Newark airport and rented a car to go down to the wedding. The morning after the wedding we returned the car to the airport and took the AirTrain into the city. It was super easy and we had looked at the subway maps so knew which subway we could take to get closest to our hotel that also had elevators. The only problem we had once getting to Penn Station on the AirTrain was figuring out whether we wanted the train that went “uptown” or “downtown” but we figured it out and made it to our hotel.
We went into the city on the same day as the TCS New York City Marathon and were worried it would make it difficult to get to our hotel but it actually made it easier because many of the roads were closed and we didn’t have to wait for lights or worry about traffic.
We stayed at the Salisbury Hotel on 57th St, almost right across the street from Carnegie Hall. The hotel was a little dated but clean and the staff was super friendly and helpful. At check-in we were asked if we wanted a street view room or one on the backside. I immediately said “street view!” thinking the kids would love looking down on the hustle and bustle below, which they did. The only problem was with sirens and large trucks rumbling up the street all night.
After checking into our hotel we stopped for a giant pastrami sandwich then headed for the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum which was probably not the wisest choice since it was the coldest day of our trip and terribly windy! But we really enjoyed the visit, the girls especially loved the interactive ehxhibits and Doodle of course loved the airplanes. I think we did the entire thing though it is so large it’s very possible we missed part of the exhibit! Hubby did one of the flight simulators but we didn’t do any of the other special exhibits though I wish we had done the Concorde tour.
We spent the rest of the evening exploring the city and looking for hats and gloves! We saw Times Square, Rockefeller Center and picked up our warmies at H & M.
The next day we headed for the American Natural History Museum. We wandered through Central Park, stopping to play at one of the parks for a play and getting caught up in the post-race chaos.
We wandered the museum for a few hours doing almost all the halls and while the girls loved the dinosaurs and we enjoyed looking at some of the animals and Native American exhibits, hubby and I were underwhelmed. Especially for me growing up regularly visiting the Denver Natural History museum which has many of the same exhibits, there wasn’t really anything new or exciting.
We had lunch then stopped into the New York City Public Library for the Performing Arts which has a special Sesame Street exhibit through January 31. While my kids don’t really watch Sesame Street, they are familiar with the characters from books but I grew up watching Sesame Street and was really excited to go! It’s a very cute little exhibit with information on the background of the show, videos, a mock front door and photo ops with some of the characters.
We hung around in Lincoln Center for a little while after while the girls enjoyed the fountain and I tried to soak in all the ballet surrounding us!
That night we wandered around FAO Schwarz. The kids got to the play the big piano and Honeybun got to see the statue of liberty (unfortunately we didn’t make it to see the real one).
The next morning hubby had an important work call so I was on my own with the kids. I decided to head into Central Park figuring it would be safer since we could stay away from traffic and I had seen before we left that there are 19 playgrounds in the park so I figured we would have more than enough to do. We set off into the park waiting to stumble upon on of these many playgrounds only to wander around for over an hour and not find one though we did find the the Bethesda Fountain and ended up just wandering back to the playground we had visited the day before. Hubby texted me directions to the Rumsey Playfield, which turns out is just a large open space and in frustration we headed back to the hotel and stumbled upon another playground. It turns out the playgrounds are all near the park entrances and we had walked into the park and gone up the middle, hence no playgrounds! In hindsight, we probably should have just spent the morning at the zoo…
That afternoon we had some hala streetfaire and met up with a college friend, ending up at Bryant Park which is already set up in the Winter Wonderland with little artisan booths. The girls took a spin on carousel then settled in to read some books before we headed off to dinner with hubby’s cousin who works nearby.
We saved the most requested part for the last day: ice skating. The girls had been begging to go and since each day was to get warmer, we thought the last day would be the best (and we were able to use it as an incentive for good behavior the days before!) Unfortunately I woke up with massive knee pain after carrying Doodle around for a long time the day before while he nursed and slept so I did not get to participate in the skating but hubby is a great skater and was very patient working with both the girls while I observed and took pictures.
After ice skating we decided to stick close to the hotel for our late afternoon pick up and rest my knee. We ended up at the Sony building and enjoyed some pizza in the public atrium. We didn’t have set plans for the rest of the day and the Sony Wonder Technology Lab caught our attention. The free, interactive exhibit houses numerous technology based activities which we enjoyed as much as the kids! Activities include making a TV news report, a mini movie, a sound studio and video games.
All in all, I walked over 17 miles in the four days we were in the city (hubby missed a lot when I wandered Central Park and luckily we had bought a “triple” stroller for the trip so the kids didn’t have to walk that much!) And while doing New York City with kids was not the easiest, all the exhausting walking; sleepless siren filled nights; and lack of real “New York” foods was well worth it and I can’t wait to get back and see even more (like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and a Broadway show!)
