New York Visit at Holiday time

This weekend was our epic visit to NYC!  I am trying to go twice a year, with at least one boy, to visit Auntie Grandma (Aunt Pat, who is 94) - and then tag on some great NYC visiting while we are there so the boys can get culture and see where I grew up near, etc.  I had mentioned to Joel Husband that I would be going in December sometime over the summer, and then for my Birthday he got me a well planned out weekend in NYC, the weekend before Christmas.  There were so many awesome things about it being the weekend before Christmas, but also so many crowded things too.  We still loved it.

Firstly, we drove most of the way on Thursday night, and stopped outside of the city in Greenwich, CT at a more reasonably priced hotel.  This was a good plan in that we broke the trip up, and saved a little money, but also some of the things we wanted to do on Friday were not in Manhattan per se, so we were able to still have the car to go into the Bronx for the Botanical Gardens.  I want to do this again in the spring/summer - with a visit to the Zoo!  Another huge and exciting and weight-gaining tremendous tip was that we looked up restaurants on the way, on the Diners Drive-Ins and Dives website, and ate in some good places.  The good news about this show is that any place rated will also be welcome for kiddies and have kiddie fare.  So, we ate at Catsup and Mustard on the way down, and Black Duck Cafe on the way up.  Yum.

Sharing a room with three boys is not my favorite.  They are smelly and laugh ant each others smells.  They all snore.  And, they all will kick me when they share a bed with me.  No one is as bad as James though. While sharing a bed he likes to sleep perpendicular in the pillow area, with his feet to your head.  He repeatedly kicks as well.  It is a good thing he is so cute.  (I say that a lot).  Joel Andrew is a more respectful bed-sharer, but he snores.  When he and Joel Husband share a bed, I am not kidding you - they snore in unison.  No matter what time I woke up in the middle of the night I could hear them snoring in unison.

Joel Andrew still loves staying in a hotel, and I am not sure it will ever get old for him which I love and is great.  We are creating two little travelers.  I wonder if we could consider Ireland with them?  Hmmmm.  Other things I do not want to forget about this trip:  Joel Andrew finding the room numbers all by himself, and reading all the numbers off the doors on the wall.  Breakfast in CT with James and him eating my NY breakfast sandwich of lox, cream cheese, red onion and capers and exclaiming he loves the fishes!  And, the many people who noted how handsome and good our boys are.  I love that.  That does not get old.

So, our first morning we woke up leisurely and then went to the NYBotanical Gardens for their train show.  It was awesome.  We went early, so it was not too crowded.  But, there were school groups.  You stand in line and walk with others to see this one artist's vision of NYC buildings built to scale with trains whirling around them.  All the buildings are handmade out of wood and done in a cleaver fashion - really impressive to look at.  Huge bridges, even the siding, the streets, the sidewalks are all thought through.  It was amazing to see up close.  Our favorite area with the kids was the animal houses - in which the artist had poems about who lived in each one and we were to guess.  The giraffe house was big at the bottom, and really really tall and skinny at the top.  James likes that the best.  Joel loved the peacock house.

For some reason Joel, who I would have thought would have loved it - was antsy.  James was intrigued.  Mommy and Daddy were floored.

We then made our way to other gardens at the Botanical Gardens and took some more photos.  The place is super impressive, we probably only saw about 1% of the place, and I do hope to go back when they are older though the children's garden area looked really awesome with fun indoor play and learning spaces.

The boys had a snowball fight which I am not sure was the intention of this area.

The best part, afterwards we went to Arthur Avenue.  Being the weekend before Christmas, the place was a ZOO!  I got to see my friend from high school's Dad, who is still a butcher at the main co-op store thing there, right next to Mike's Delicatessen where we ate.  So yummy.  We bought extra goodies for the room and all proclaimed that we would be a billion pounds if we lived near there.  James was having a hard time learning to hold hands while crossing the street but Joel kept him in check.  They both love Italian cookies, especially the green leaves…, who knew?

From there it was to our hotel in the city, and all sorts of NYC fun.  I got pretty tired of lugging my camera everywhere so this is where the bulk of our photos come to an end but you get the gist.  Friday night we walked around - Daddy researched a lot and found that the thing to do is to see the store windows at Macy's, then Lord and Taylor's - then the rest of 5th avenue. Lots of other people had this idea and it was all of our first taste of how crazy NYC can be in holiday time.  It was at this point as well that we told the boys about the fake Mickey's in the street.  Before they even saw one we told them there are these fake Mickey's - Mickey Imposters, and they are mean and cruel and we should not look at them.  We told them the truth - they dress up as Mickey, but you can tell they aren't the real one, and then they take people's money.  Joel was horrified.  He said, Mickey lives in Disney World, so it can't be Mickey.  Good boy.  When we saw the fake Mickey, which lines all the streets of NYC… both boys immediately went to yell in glee and then both calmed down.  I told Joel to look at the "Mickey's" faces - and he noted - they look funny Mommy.  Yes they do.

We had a great night eating at Rockefeller Plaza.  It was crowded and expensive, but Joel Husband made a reservation, Mommy brought crayons, and Daddy had paper so all was saved.  We sat right near the ice rink and had a lovely meal together.  This was after getting to go to Top of the Rock, to see the views of Manhattan, which neither of the boys understood or loved sadly, but Daddy and I liked.  At one point, as the boys were screaming and dancing and singing, I looked over and the couple next to us were literally getting engaged, the man was down on one knee.  It was romantic and all, but next to my kids?  It was clear that man was so nervous and couldn't wait a second longer.  Ha!

The next day we met with a college friend of mine for lunch and her family - which includes a boy the same age as James.  Joel Andrew was sad not to have a buddy his age but they all got along really well.  It was great to catch up, and get out of tourist mayhem for a minute.  We were at a "NYer" spot, and afterwards got to go to a "NYer" craft fair which resulted in lots of purchases by me, well us - daddy is a sucker for that too.

From there we went to Toys R Us, which is the new "better" FAO Schwartz.  I beg to differ.  Something about that store seems dirty to me.  The lines to buy things were ridiculous, and I am not sure why anyone living in manhattan would want to travel there, wait in line, then lug huge boxes of toys around the city and on public transportation.  But they do.  We waited to go on the ferris wheel, which I never need to do again.  Luckily I did not totally freak out and panic and remember I do not like that sort of thing until the last minute we were on it - but it really did encompass all of my greatest fears.  Heights, yes.  Being stuck on something with an inability to get down, yes.  Add - be in the center of a huge landmark (Times Square) in the largest city, on one of the most crowded shopping days of the year, in a store with hundreds of tourists and children (prime terror spot) and then stick your self up high on a thing that has no way down if the place were to explode.  Yeah, not doing that again.  The boys were kinda indifferent to it.  We rode in the Barbie car, which we all thought was fun.

The Rockettes was our next night out!  We had a hard time getting a pre-show drink and app so we all went to the Pig N' Whistle (Aunt Pat's favorite) and sat at Tables of 2.  Me with Joel Andrew and Daddy and James.  You know Daddy and James had a good time when Daddy exclaims he had the best rum and coke ever! Joel and I colored together (his new big thing) and had a nice snack.  Off to the show, we had excellent seats and enjoyed this amazing, and very necessary experience.  Going to Radio City is something every New Yorker needs to do!  Even my 94 year old Aunt Pat was Captain of the Usherettes during the War there!  There is a lot of history and it is a lot of fun.  Joel was mesmerized for the beginning of the show, James loved the end and all of us could not believe the camels and the animals that were on stage.  I still can't get over the lady's kicking in unison like that.  It was a fun night.

Getting out of the show was another story, the streets were filled with people and it was the craziest crowd I have ever been in.  While fighting through at one point James sees a landmark for him across the street (while on daddy's shoulders).  This landmark Joel Andrew had pointed out earlier in the day.  Basically, where there is a waterfall in front of a building had large red ornaments in the water area.  James sees this and starts pointing and screaming: "Shiny Balls!" - it was epic to hear him say that in the crowd.  Joel Husband and I laughed.

We tried to go to our place for dinner, but failed.  It was too crazy and it was so much better that we went to the room and ordered in while watching a movie.  Daddy and Joelly went shopping after dinner (crazies) and Mommy and Jamesy promptly passed out to Shrek.  It was awesome.

Our trip to NYC was unforgettable and awesome and I can't wait to go back and do and see more.  Share more with these two guys.  Joel Andrew and James both agree that New York was fun and they can't wait to go back.  Yay!