New York City — Week 2

NYC Trip July 26 – August 1

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Sunday — Sunday morning Keller headed to the TKTS booth in Times Square to try to get tickets for that afternoon’s Stomp performance.  Despite the board showing they had tickets, there were not four seats available.  We got lunch at a trendy pizza place called B Side Pizza near Hell’s Kitchen.  From there we decided to try the TKTS booth at South Street Seaport to attempt to get tickets again.  Once more, there weren’t any available.  While down there, we wandered by the South Street Seaport museum and looked at the massive sailing ship they have moored there and the Brooklyn Bridge.

As a last resort, we trekked up to the box office and were able to get tickets for the 5:30 Stomp show.  Since we had some time to burn before the show, we went over to Washington Square Park near NYU and let the kids play at the playground.  It was a really neat park with a lot of life to it and a ton of people there enjoying the beautiful weather.  Keller even found a cart selling ice cream sandwiches that were calling his name.

The kids really enjoyed Stomp!  It was pretty similar to the traveling show that Keller and I have seen before, but it was neat to see it through their eyes.  We had great seats and a lot of fun.  The kids were bushed after the full day running around.  We grabbed a fast dinner across the street at Paul’s Da Burger — a classic NY greasy burger dive.  The burgers were fine and definitely held up their “greasy” reputation.

Monday — Keller had to spend a couple of days in Connecticut this week for work, so the kids and I were flying solo Monday through Thursday.  It was handy that Keller could catch the train up to Stamford, but it was unfortunate he lost those couple days to explore the city.  The kids and I went to the Central Park Zoo in the morning.  It is a smaller zoo and was just about the right size to hold the kids attention.  There’s also a small children’s zoo section with farm animals and pets and fun little activities.  I wouldn’t have paid extra to go see it, but since it was included in our membership, it wasn’t a big deal to add on.

For lunch we went by the Ottomanelli Butcher Shoppe and grabbed two Italian hero sandwiches.  We brought them with us to the Carl Schurz Park in the Upper East Side.  Several guide books had recommended this playground as one of the best and a bit off the tourist beaten path.  It was a really nice area right along the East River and the kids had a blast wearing themselves out on the playground between bites of their lunch.

Tuesday — Next stop on the “Parks To Play At” list was Astoria Park.  It’s most well known for the pool, but there’s no way I was going to take the kids to the massive, crowded pool by myself.  So I found the playground and let the kids run around there instead.  There was a small splash pad area with sprayers, so we packed the swim suits and let the kids get wet there.

We got lunch at a small crepe restaurant in Astoria called Lotus.  The kids have decided they really like nutella and were perfectly happy with their nutella and banana crepe!  Next we made our way over to the Broadway branch of the Queens Library.  We got library cards for the kids and myself so we could check out books for our stay.  The kids really liked getting to choose their own books and happily picked out 5 books each to bring back to the apartment.  On the way home we stopped by Muncan Food Corp, a local sausage and smoked meat specialty shop.  The meats all looked fabulous and we ended up following the recommendation of John behind the counter and got some house special salami and some kranjska sausage.  I really enjoyed the salami with cheese on bread while the kids loved having the sausage for dinner.

Wednesday — Wednesday morning we walked to the Astoria Greenmarket: a farmers market a couple blocks away that runs every Wednesday.  We got some plums, corn, and bread from the local producers.  We had lunch at home before heading out to explore around Rockefeller Center.  Our first stop was the NYFD Fire Zone.  It’s a small facility where school groups can come in and learn about fire safety.  It was deserted when we got there, so the kids got a chance to play in the fire truck, put on fire gear, and talk to the fire men working at the station.

Next we wandered down to Rockefeller Plaza to see all the flags.  We talked about the different flags and countries and tried to identify as many as we could (which was admittedly minimal).

We swung through the LEGO store too, but as the kids aren’t quite into the kit building stage yet, we escaped with my wallet in tact.  We also wandered through the Saint James Cathedral.  They were at the tail end of a massive renovation project in preparation for the Pope’s visit this fall.  The cathedral was very impressive.  We talked about the history of the cathedral, what all the statues and lit candles in the alcoves meant, and why it was important to be quiet and respectful of the other people there.  Kamy was amazed at the size of the doors!

On the way back to the subway, we passed the tiny Paley Park — more of a gap between skyscrapers really, but with a beautiful waterfall wall.  The kids had fun running around in front of it, even if it made some of the other people there worried the kids would fall in.  Fortunately they remained dry.  =P

Thursday — We decided to trek back up to the Bronx Zoo again on Thursday.  There was still a lot of the zoo that we hadn’t seen and it seemed like a good opportunity to explore.  We started with a repeat of the Bug Carousel and the Butterfly Garden before moving onto the Mouse House and the 4D Rio movie.

Next we looked at the Congo exhibit with the gorillas before returning to the Asia section of the zoo.

As we got to Asia, a little musical performance about recycling started, which we stayed to watch while eating lunch.  It started to rain shortly after, so Jungle World seemed a good option to stay dry.  The rain tapered off and allowed us to get on the Asia Monorail again, though they cut the ride short when the rain came back.  We started to head back to the front of the zoo when the flood gates opened up and the rain poured down.  The kids had their rain coats and I had the umbrella, but they were woefully inadequate for the amount of water we had to walk through.  We were soaking wet by the time the rain let up.  The kids did one last ride on the carousel before we caught the bus and subway back to Astoria.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Pao de Queijo — a Brazilian burger and fried food spot.  Daddy came home late that evening.

Friday — With Daddy back in the fold, we headed out to the NY Hall of Science in Queens.  There were some interesting exhibits, including one about studying Mars, but the kids lost interest pretty quickly, as it was geared to a little older age group.  Lunch was sandwiches from a little hole in the wall deli called Mama’s Backyard.  Then we went back to the apartment for some down time and for Keller to work.  For dinner, Keller picked up Ramen takeout from down the road.

Saturday — Since Keller doesn’t have to work on the weekends, we took advantage of not having to be back by 2pm and went down to Coney Island!  The subway makes getting there really easy, even if it is 31 stops on the Q or N lines and more than an hour to get there.  Our first stop was the beach.  The kids had so much fun running and splashing in the water, even though it was COLD!  I certainly had no interest in getting in the water.

We had lunch at the iconic Nathan’s hot dogs, though there were pretty straight forward hot dogs.  Keller did like the orange soda though!

Both kids rode the Carousel on the Boardwalk.  They also got to pick out one more ride at the little amusement park to do on their own.  Caden picked a truck ride and Kamy chose a boat attraction.

Keller rode the famous Cyclone roller coaster.  He said it was fun, but it was definitely rough!

Just before we left, the kids and Keller rode the Circus Coaster roller coaster.  This was roller coaster number 2 for Caden and the biggest one yet.  The kids had fun and have pretty much decided “Yes, we do like roller coasters, can we go on another one please?”

We detoured on the way home by the TKTS booth in Brooklyn so Keller could get tickets to see Hand to God that evening.  Then we found dinner at a little pizza place called Sottocasa in Brooklyn.  The kids and I retired to the apartment for the night while Keller went to the performance.