Four Days in NYC

We live about an hour away from the city. M commutes to the city for work regularly. We hop over for a game or a show, meet up with friends and then rush back home. We are never just there.. So when the kids had two days off school we thought we'd turn it into a mini vacation. 

We took the train over.. which I was surprised to realize that it was a first for H. We used to make so many trips when D was little.. we lived right next to a light rail. Now that we live deeper in the burbs we often drive in.. this way the kids can fall asleep in the car on the ride home. 

Anyway, we left home right after breakfast and found ourselves in the city just before noon. We were staying in the Flatiron District and were happy to hear that our room for ready hours before check in. We freshened up and headed out. 

DAY ONE - We started with a stop at the Madison Square Park playground, strolled by the Flatiron Building and made our way towards Chelsea Market. I always recommend Chelsea Market to first timers.. it takes people away from the too touristy Midtown area plus there is such a great selection of foods to choose from. The first time we ventured to the market was 6 years ago.. you can check out my post about it here, the boys were so little.

We had some very yummy Japanese taco's from Takumi Taco's

and slurped up some glorious beef noodle soup from Very Fresh Noddle's. They hand pull them right in front of you. 

We perused through the artists and flea area having many lovely conversations.. mainly about H's hat. H loved the attention.. he beamed as he told people the hat was made from alpaca fur that we bought when we visited an alpaca farm some years ago. 

Next stop The Little Island. I have been hearing about this place for the last few months. It opened this past May. Architecturally, it looks cool. But it was much smaller than I imagined. And while I'm sure there will be events during the summer, right now there was not much to do. 

Our next stop was the Vessel. I had been wanting to check it out since its creation.. unfortunately due to multiple people committing suicide off it they no longer allow people to go up it. There are talks they may remove the structure entirely. 

The day had suddenly got cold and we were in need of some coffee and bathrooms so we headed into The Shops at Hudson Yards. 

We grabbed some Blue Bottle coffee.. did not like it. And got the kids Van Leewan ice cream. Afterwards we walked to Bryant Park. Watched some ice skaters and walked around the holiday market. 

Next was a very good dinner at Mexicue and then the moment we were all waiting for.. drum roll please!

Back to Broadway baby!! This was H's first time. He has been to the New Jersey State Theatre but this was his first and D's second time on Broadway. And everything was perfect! Phenomenal show.. top 3 good. The seats were excellent.. simply sublime experience. 

Now lets take a second and talk about travelling in NYC in the life and times of Covid. Masks are mandatory on all public transportation. We had to show proof of vaccination and ID to eat indoors. And the kids had to get PCR tests to be able to see the show as well as wear our masks during the show. It was all very easy to do.. the PCR tests gave me anxiety mainly because I was worried we wouldn't get the results in time. Otherwise the whole process was so smooth.

DAY TWO - We started our second day with breakfast at Sarabeth's. The kids didn't love their pancakes or french toast. M had a wild mushroom scrabble popover which was really good. And then we took an Uber to the Museum of Natural History. 

Outside the museum is a statue of Theodore Roosevelt on his horse planked by an African American man and a Native American man. The statue has been controversial and there have been demands of its removal. Inside the museum they had a whole exhibit dedicated to Addressing the Issue and this above quote resonated with me the most. People are people, whether they are presidents, holy men or any other men. They are not and should not be exempt from criticism and justice. The argument many make are for the times.. back in the day it was the norm. Yes, but do we all still abide my things that were the norm back in the day? We learn, grow and evolve.  

Excuse the bad picture but above is another quote I loved on the museum walls.

Afterwards we grabbed some street food from a Halal cart and looked for a nice spot to eat in Central Park. 

We roamed around the park.. the kids took a playground break and we visited the Alice and Wonderland statue and then stopped at the dancing clock outside Central Park Zoo. Now the dancing clock has a great story behind it.. and it was a little adventure D and I took many moons ago. I don't want to go too off topic so you can read more about that adventure here. 

With all the walking we were doing.. we thought the kids deserved a treat. So we went to Black Tap for some crazy milk shakes!

We spent the rest of the evening walking through Times Square, Rockerfeller and Grand Central. Until it was time for dinner. 

We had beautiful steaks at STK.

DAY THREE - We started with breakfast at The Smith. Everything was excellent. 

Then we took an Uber down to Brooklyn Bridge.

The fact that we are color coordinated was not planned.

The plan for the day was to explore the downtown area. We were supposed to meet up with friends but they had a last minute change of plans.

We visited the Oculus, Freedom Tower and Memorial Fountain..  walked along the harbor and Battery Park. We walked along Wall Street and the kids glimpsed the Bull. The kids got chicken from Stickys and M and I got rolls from Kati Roll.. I was mildly disappointed because no matter what they do, it just never tastes the way it would in Pakistan. 

Then we headed to Chinatown to get ice cream from Taiyaki. 

The cones are fish shaped filled with custard and then soft serve ice cream on top.. We got two and lived vicariously through the kids. They were very good.

Then we made our way back to downtown to see the Van Gogh Immersive Experience. 

In the first room there was a short documentary about the artist discussing his depression, how it comes through in the Starry Night and the possibility that he may have been color blind.

He died at the age of 37. Started painting at the age of 27 and painted and sketched 2000 pieces in ten years. Which means he created one piece every two days!  The second room focused on his self portraits and his study of sun flowers and then there was the third room. 

It was a spacious room with chairs and benches around the perimeter and a variety of throw rugs strewn about in the middle. All four falls along with the floor were covered with moving images of his work, his quotes. Music played and at some point during the one hour.. I'll say presentation for lack of a better word, a group of dancer performed a type of interpretive dance. 

It was all very beautiful and serene. 

and then when we were ready to depart the last room allowed you to color your own Van Gogh. There was also a VR area that we opted out of.

We ended the night with dinner at Top Thai 55 with a cousin of mine.. and failed to take any pictures! 

DAY FOUR - Our last day in New York. We checked out and left our luggage with the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Giraffe Library Collection. It was a lovely hotel. We didn't spend much time in it but we called down to the front desk twice with an issue and someone was at our door within seconds to solve the problem. They offered complimentary water, coffee, a couple of fruits as well as some chips and health bars around the clock. Which was a nice touch.

We had breakfast at Max Brenners. This was purely for nostalgic reasons. When people used to visit us, back when we didn't have kids and had the time to show them around the city Max Brenners used to be one of the stops. 

H had a churro fondue

D had a skillet brownie

I had the cheesey scrambled egg spinach crepe

And M had the pistachio crepe

The kids dishes were obviously way too sweet for our adult palettes but M's was good and I surprisingly liked mine very much as well.

Afterwards, we went right across the street to the Strand Book Store. We give the boys spending money on each trip. We just started this over the summer. This way they can make smart spending choices. Whatever they save gets added to their next trips spending money.

As usual D saved and H spent. It was hard to get them out of there.

Lastly, we visited the Museum of Math

It was a very interesting museum. It was a small space, two floors but they had so many mind puzzles and activities I'm sure the kids could have spent the whole day there.. my only complaint was that there was not a lot of explanation as to how these displays actually related to math. I know math is in everything.. but that is so vague.. especially for children. But then again perhaps that would be too boring for kids and the main purpose of the museum is to correlate math with fun. We had to drag the kids out of there as well.. we had a train to catch. 

And just like that our little trip came to an end. M and I have vowed to come to the city more often to enjoy it in leisure rather than rushing about as we usually do. Lets see.

   

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