Our Top 10 in NYC

Last week my daughters and I went along with one of my friends and her three daughters for a few fun filled days in New York City. We did lots of walking (over 33 miles), lots of treat eating and lots of site seeing. We've compiled a list of our trip favorites that I thought I'd share.

So in no particular order, here's a look at many of the highlights from our vacation.

1. Walking through Central Park.

Okay, this might not be surprising since NYC is famous for Central Park, but it really is a fantastic place. There was some snow on the ground and it was really beautiful. There was a street performance and one of our girls got to join in which was really fun. We took lots of photos at a variety of places. Lots of fun places to pose.

2. Treats at Levian Bakery and Billy's Bakery.

If you only get one treat in NYC, it must be at Levian Bakery. Their chocolate chip walnut cookies are a true taste of heaven. They are huge and should probably be shared, but we didn't want to take any chances, so we each ordered our own cookie plus an extra just so we could snack on it throughout the day. This is pretty close to the Natural History Museum, so after a stroll through the museum, I recommend a quick walk to get a cookie.

Our second favorite treat was the banana cake at Billy's Bakery. It was a very generous slice. Bonus about Billy's is that there are two tables where we were lucky enough to sit down and warm up white we enjoyed our treat.

3. The Views from Top of the Rock. We picked up City Passes for this trip and it included trips to the top of both the Empire State Building and the Top of the Rock. We decided that we liked the Top of the Rock best because of the entertaining elevator ride up. It's a glass top elevator and you can see all the way to the top. Plus there was a laser light show and music playing on the way up. The Empire State Building had two different elevators you have to take to the top and lines at both elevators.  The views from the Top of the Rock were fabulous!

4. Visiting the Brooklyn Bridge. This iconic spot in NYC did not disappoint. Great view and a beautiful bridge. It's near Battery Park (place where you catch a ferry to Liberty Island) and the 9/11 Memorial, so it's a perfect place to visit if you are on the south end of the island.

5. Late night Greek Food Truck. There are lots of Greek food trucks in NYC, but my sister swears the one of 6th Ave between 23rd and 25th street is the best and we didn't want to take any chances. We went here about 11pm on our second night of the trip after seeing Matilda. I got the combo which was a styrofoam container filled with rice, chicken, gyro, french fries and topped with tzatziki sauce. This was probably my best meal while in NYC. This truck caters to the late night crowd and doesn't arrive until around 10pm, but stays until 4am. 

6. Strolling through Highline Park. Unused elevated railroad tracks have been converted into a park with a great walking path in the Chelsea area. It was really col when we were there, but in better weather this would be the perfect place to take a picnic and relax. There is seating all along the walking path. When we were there a few years ago, a magician street performer was there and he was really fun to watch. 

7. Everyone agreed that the BEST thing we did on this trip was to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty.  We purchased the tickets online a few months before our trip. They only let a very limited number of people up into the crown every hour, so if you want to go, plan ahead. The climbed up a very step and narrow spiral staircase all of the way up inside of the Statue of Liberty. Our group of seven barely fit up in the crown. We had a great city view from the crown. It was really amazing to see the inside of the statue - it's still copper color since the elements haven't oxidized it. Add this to your must do list!

8. New York City Public Library

9. Seeing Les Miserables.

10.  Riding on the subway. You've got to ride the subway when in NYC, right?  We were probably the only people posing for pictures while waiting for the train to come, but we're tourist, so why not? We bought an unlimited pass that was good for a week, but I think we could have saved some money by buying the 8-ride pass because we didn't end up using the subway as often as we thought we would. We only got on a train going in the wrong direction once, so I'd say we did pretty good navigating. Before the trip, I downloaded the Hopstop app and it was amazing for getting us to where ever we wanted to go. You just put in where you want to go and the app will tell you you options for getting there. It will tell you exactly which subway trains to take or which walking path will be best. Definitely something you'd want to have for navigating around the city.

There you have our top 10! 

We also went to the Natural History Museum, saw Matilda, walked though Chinatown and Little Italy, visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, ate at Shake Shack, looked around the American Girls Store, Toys R Us and FAO Swartz, went to Chelsea Market and enjoyed banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery. Yes, we squeezed a lot into three and a half days. The only two things on our list we didn't get to were ice skating in Central Park and enjoying some frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. We'll just have to go back someday to check everything off of our list!

I'm so thankful I got to share this adventure with our daughters and friends. I'm hoping this is a trip they will always remember.

Project Life: October 16 - 22

Have I mentioned that I am really enjoying putting this Project Life album together? My favotite thing about it is that I now have a place for birthday cards, ticket stubs, programs, napkins and all of the cool things that I've always wanted to save, but didn't have a place to put them. Now they have a home.

This was another busy week for us. We spent the first couple of days in New York plus our daughter was baptized at the end of the week.

Race Car Driving /// Video Chat for My Sister's Mission Call /// On the Boat /// NYC Stuff

Hannah's Baptism Day

I used another one of these pocket coin holders for more NYC photos this week just like I did last week. The protectors come ready to hold 20 photos per side (40 total), but I've found that I don't ever need that many photo slots, so I just cut the protector down to whatever size I need.

Here's a look at the full spread with inserts. In addition to the coin holder with photos, I also used this page protector which perfectly hold all of the cards Hannah received at her baptism.

Another week is in the books!

NYC w/Kids Day 3

Are you ready to hear about more of our adventures in NYC? You can read more about day one and day two on previous posts.

My family got to spend 5 days in NYC while my husband attended a conference   My friend Janet and her three kids joined us from Baltimore while we explored the city. Our husbands both met up with us later in the day after the conference ended for Ward and Janet's husband took the train into the city after work.

Magnolia Bakery

Where is the best place to start a day in New York City? A bakery, of course! We met up with our friends at the bakery where the kids all choose muffins, milk or banana pudding.

The first time we visited Magnolia Bakery a couple of years ago with my sister, she insisted that we order the banana pudding. It seemed like a strange thing to order at a bakery, but we trusted her and I'm very happy we did! It is so creamy and delicious. I even came across this recipe and think we may need to duplicate it at home.

We found a seat along the edge of a fountain and enjoyed breakfast in the very chilly morning air.

NBC Studios Tour

We walked a 1/2 block from the Magnolia Bakery to NBC Studios. We had purchased our tickets ahead of time and we were set for a tour at 10:30 in the morning.

Before the tour, we took some time to browse around the gift shop. They had great items relating to almost all of their shows. This was one of my favorites from Friday Night Lights:

Unfortunately, they didn't allow any photos on the tour and they even made us turn our phones off. It was very difficult to resist snapping a photo, but we followed the rules and now don't have any pictures of the studios. I did snap one photo before we started.

The tour was more interesting than we thought it might be. We visited the Nightly News with Brian Williams Studio, the Dr. Oz Studio and the Saturday Night Live Studio. The highlight was the Saturday Night Live Studio where we got to watch the Saturday Night Live Band rehearse for that night's show.

Another highlight was at the end of our tour where our two boys volunteered to do a mock newscast. One sat at the news desk and read the teleprompter and then the other got to stand in front of a green screen weather map and give the forecast.  It was killing me not to snap a photo! They did offer to sell us the 2 minute newscast for the price of $30. No thanks.

Rockefeller Center

NBC Studios is located at Rockefeller Center so after the tour we walked around and watched the ice skaters outside.

We also needed a stop in at the Lego store.

And then the American Girl Store. Our girls really enjoyed watching the dolls have their hair styles at the salon.

Margon Restaurant

By now we were all hungry and ready for lunch. We used Yelp to help us find a Cuban place a short walk away.

This was a narrow restaurant that was definitely where locals go. The people ordering were helpful in recommending things. The beans and rice were so good!

Billy's Bakery

After lunch, we decided to walk over the Chelsea to High Line Park. Along the way, we decided to stop in at Billy's Bakery for a treat. Yes, another treat. My secret is to not order my own treat and share with the kids or order something, but not eat the whole thing. That way there is room in case another treat presents itself sometime.

Billy's Bakery has a great 1940's home kitchen feel.  They have pies, cakes, cookies, cupcakes and other sweets too. This time I opted to try this peanut butter chocolate treat. (I ate a little and then save the rest to give to Ward when he met up with us.)

I hear their banana cake is amazing, so next time that will be on my list!

Highline Park

This is a beautiful somewhat new park in Chelsea that is built on old elevate train tracks. There are staircases built to enter the park every couple of blocks. There is a cement sidewalk lined with beautiful plants and park benches.

It was really busy the day we were there, but it was still easy enough to walk around. The kids were a bit disappointed because they wanted a park with a playground, but sometimes we need to do something the moms want to do!

The highlight for the kids was this mime/magician preforming at the park. We ended up spending about an hour walking through the park and enjoying the beautiful afternoon.

Chelsea Market

After the High Line, we walked down stairs to ground level and took a really short walk over to Chelsea Market. Fun fact: this is where the Oreo was invented here as this used to be Nabisco's home.

This now houses a collection of shops and delicious looking restaurants (we were actually too full to try any of them) plus is the the Food Network's headquarters.

Just outside of the market, Food Network had a trailer set up with Marc Murphy from the show Chopped handing out ice cream sandwiches. All of the kids love the show Chopped, so they were very excited to meet him. I love rendom things like this that you happen upon while walking around.

After this, we walked to a nearby park and let the kids run around for an hour before heading to Penn Station to meet up with Janet's husband.  We all made our way back to our hotel where we had pizza and a movie for the kids and the adults went out to a little Italian Restaurant around the corner from our hotel.

We found our dinner place via Yelp and it was perfectly cozy, quiet and delicious. It was a perfect ending to another fantastic day in New York City.

Happy Day @ Grimaldi's

While we were in NYC this month, we knew that we wanted to have some really delicious thin crust New York style pizza and decided that Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn was the place to go. As I mentioned last week, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Our destination after crossing the bridge was Grimaldi's. We walked about a mile after getting off the bridge and the kids were not sure if they would survive until lunch.

Once we arrived at Grimaldi's, we were met by a line out the door. We expected the wait and the line thankfully moved pretty quickly.

Each of the kids got to order a bottled soda and Max tried cream soda for the first time. He thought it was a winner!

We (my friend Janet and I plus our 6 kids) almost finished off 3 very large pizzas. I think all of our walking helped us work up a good appetite.

Layout Supplies /// News Flash /// Happening Now /// Harvest Moon ///

Around Here /// October 2012

Around here today:

Cooking cornbread muffins to take to our church Trunk or Treat Halloween party tonight.

Enjoying cool weather in the mornings and evenings. It was even cool enough to wear boots out last night.

Happy that Ward and I tried out a new restaurant with friends last night. After dinner we enjoyed a couple great rounds of Euchre back at our house.

Watching our kids play soccer this morning was so fun. I love watching the kids happy and doing something they love.

Loving my new fall banner made by my friend Jennie that I bought at a boutique today. The coolest part is that it is reversible and says "give thanks" on the other side. I'll flip it around after Halloween.

Listening to my girls play together. Music to my ears. Audrey is such a kind big sister and is willing to sometimes play Barbies with Hannah. This makes Hannah so happy.

Relieved that we enjoyed two birthday parties, a trip to New York and our daughter's baptism this month. All wonderful events and I'm happy to have the good memories of the events and no worries about planning them anymore.

Relaxing at home with our family this afternoon. It's become a rare treat to get to enjoy an entire afternoon without commitments or places to be.

Thinking we should start putting costumes together to wear to the Halloween party tonight. This is the first year I haven't done anything ahead of time to get costumes ready. Hoping our costume box will have enough supplies.

Trying to work more exercise into my daily routine. Last week I ran three nights during soccer practices and walked around our neighborhood another night with a friend. I like using Runkeeper to track how far/fast I'm running and listen to Pandora to keep me somewhat entertained.

NYC w/kids: Day 1

Earlier this month our family was fortunate to get to spend five days in New York City. I love that place.

We went because my husband had a two day conference to attend and decided to have our family go along since the kids were on fall break. We had our three kids (ages 12, 10 and 8) with us and we all had a blast. We even met up with friends from Baltimore for 3 days of the trip and who also have kids the same ages as our kids.

I thought I'd share what we did while we were there in case you even find yourself planning a trip to NYC and would like some ideas on things to do. Of course, I'm not an expert on NYC, but thought it would be fun to share what we did.

Since we were there for 5 days, I thought I'd share a post for each day of the trip during the next month. So here's a look at what we did on day 1.

Red Eye Flight

Since we were traveling from the west side of the US, we decided to not waste daytime traveling and took a night flight. We departed Phoenix at 11:30 p.m. and we all tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to get some sleep. We arrived at 7:00 a.m. into JFK and took a taxi to our hotel in Manhattan. We dropped our bags off at our hotel in Union Square and then we were off on our adventure.

Walk, Walk, Walk

The kids thought they might not survive all of the walking we did on the trip, but they did! We were sure to pack good walking shoes for everyone plus a supply of band-aids. One of my favorite things about walking it that you get to see the city and find places you'd miss if ou were on the subway all of the time.

For example, on the walk from our hotel to the Empire State Building we stopped at a cute corner cafe for a delicious bagel breakfast. I was excited that our family all ate breakfast for a total of $9. Not bad for NYC.

You also get to see awesome city views while walking.

We ended up walking at least 40 miles during our time in NYC. Perfect for working off calories from all of the treats we sampled along the way.

Empire State Building

This is something that is fun to do once while in NYC and we hadn't done it as a family. There were people outside of the building trying to get us to buy upgraded tickets to the Empire State Building where we could skip the line, but that would have been a waste of money. The lines weren't bad and moved quickly.

It was a clear day and we had great city views. It was crowded, so we just took our time and waited for our turn to see the views from each side of the observation deck.

New York Public Library

We happened upon the New York Public Library while we were walking from the Empire State Building. I'm so happy we stopped for a look around.

It was a beautiful old building where you could easily spend a whole day exploring and relaxing. Not only do they (obviously) have books, they also had several museum style exhibits. We took some time checking out an exhibit titled "Lunch Hour" that documented the history of lunch in NYC. It was a cool exhibit that my husband, kids and I all enjoyed.

Lunch

There are so many restaurants in NYC. We used Yelp to help us locate places to eat. On this day we wanted something quick and cheap and we found a pizza by the slice place really nearby. This isn't hard to do since there are pizza by the slice places all over town. It was a perfectly quick and tasty lunch.

9/11 Memorial

We had reserved tickets for viewing the 9/11 Memorial at 1:30 in the afternoon. We took a subway down to the Memorial site. The tickets are free, but you need to reserve and print them at home. They do run out of tickets ahead of time, so if you are planning on going be sure to reserve your tickets as soon as possible.

This was a very peaceful and reflective Memorial that is beautiful and well done. There are two large square fountain structures with waterfalls that are on the site of the Twin Towers. The names of everyone who died on the site on 9/11 are engraved around the outside edge of the fountain.

This was a very reverent place and it was moving to be there.

Visiting this site gave us an excellent opportunity to talk to our kids about what happened that day while we were walking to the site.

There were nice views of the new Freedom Tower that is being built near the memorial site.

Carlo's Bake Shop

We took a PATH train from the World Trade Center site across the water to New Jersey so we could go to Carlo's Bake Shop which is featured on the TLC show Cake Boss. The ride was only 10 minutes and cost the same ($2.25 per person, per ride) as ride the subway in the city.

It was a 5 minute walk from the train station to get to the bakery.

There were cases filled with cakes, cookies, cheesecake, brownies and pastries. Heavenly!  We selected a few things to share and then sat out in front of the bakery to enjoy our treats and the beautiful weather. We decided that the cannoli was our top pick our of the treats.

Central Park

After the bakery, we made our way to Central Park via the train and subway. This is one of our favorite places in the city. We visited Central park 4 out of the 5 days that we were in NYC. The kids LOVED playing on the playground here. It's a perfect place to relax and enjoy the city. There are vendors all around the park selling pretzels, nuts and other small snacks. Since Max's favorite snack is a soft pretzel, he was pretty happy to enjoy a pretzel at the park.

At this point in the day (around 5:30 p.m.) we were all VERY tired since we really hadn't slept much on the plane the night before and had been going hard all day. Everyone was begging me to go to the hotel to take a little nap. I knew we would probably not wake up for hours from the "little nap", so we decided to push through the tiredness and get some dinner before turing in  for the night.

Max Brenner

We decided on Max Brenner for dinner because they have the most amazing chocolate drinks and it was close to our hotel. This is a chocolate lovers paradise. They have a huge assortment of chocolate drinks (an entire menu for them) plus the food is quite good. They even dust their fries in cocoa powder. 

We called from Central Park and made a reservation so that we would have to wait for a table. 

By 8:00 p.m we were officially exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel and went to sleep. We slept until 8:00 the next morning and then we were ready to go again. The red eye flight not only is great because you don't use up a travel day flying, it is also a nice option because you are so tired that first night you are adjusted to the new time zone. Since is was only 5:00 p.m. at home, if we had flown during the day, I'm sure the kids wouldn't have wanted to go to bed until hours later.

Thanks for joining me on day 1 of our NYC adventure! Day 2 will be posted soon.