New York City for NYE

Jamie got tickets to go see a Phish concert on New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden in New York City. At first he was just going to go by himself but then it turned into a family trip.

One great thing about New York City is public transportation. The subway was our main mode of transportation. It took us a couple of days to get the hang of it but by the end of the trip we were old pros. Even so I was always nervous when the boys were walking on the platform. We kept yelling at them to hold our hands and to stay by the wall if we were waiting for the train. Some of the platforms are not that wide!

On Monday Grandma Pat came in from Long Island for the day and spent the night in the hotel with us. We went to lunch in Little Italy. After lunch we headed back to the hotel because Jamie and I booked massages at the spa. Since Grandma Pat was spending the night with us we got a chance to go out to dinner and see a show (Book of Mormon). The theater was walking distance from the restaurant and we happened to go through Rockefeller Center. We had excellent seats for the show which we loved and thought it was HILARIOUS. After the show I was in the mood for a treat so Jamie thought we could find something in Times Square. While walking through Times Square we saw a test run of the ball drop. We never did find a place to get dessert so we just headed back to the hotel for the night.

The next day (New Year's Eve) we visited the Natural History Museum to show the boys the big dinosaur fossils. They were both happy to see fossils of their favorite dinosaurs (triceratops for C and stegosaurus for L). After the museum we stopped by Grey's Papaya because Jamie can't be in New York and NOT go to Grey's Papaya.We headed back to the hotel early. While Jamie went to the concert, the boys and I got room service and hung out at the hotel. Since we were on west coast time I figured the boys could stay up until midnight and see the fireworks. Lucas didn't nap that day so he actually fell asleep early. But Caleb stayed up and he was very happy to see the fireworks and blow his noisemaker REAL LOUD.

Recession special

On New Year's Day we met up with some friends for lunch at Umami Burger in Greenwich Village. After that we got a little treat of French macaroons and hot chocolate at Sugar & Plum. I never thought much of French macaroons but I'm a convert after the ones I tried at Sugar & Plum. We headed back to the hotel for nap time. I decided to leave the boys napping and went to Century 21 Department Store to do some shopping. The department store was a zoo but I managed to find some sweaters and ear muffs for Jamie. That night we met up with Jamie's cousin and her family at Carmines. Jamie's cousin Dena has 3 boys and 1 girl. It was great to meet the kids and see our boys get along so well with hers.

With cousin M

The next day was our last full day and we had no plans with anybody so we slept in and then headed to the Children's Museum of Manhattan. A storm was brewing so after the museum Jamie got nostalgic again and wanted to get food from Zabar's grocery store. We got yummy pastrami sandwiches and some treats (rugelach and hamentashen) and took it back to the hotel and had a little feast in our suite. By the time we got back to the hotel we found out that our flight home the next morning was cancelled. Jamie got on the phone with Virgin America and rebooked the flight for the evening of the following day. That night we stayed in, the boys watched the movie Turbo while I packed up.

We woke up to a beautiful scene of fresh snow on the ground. But we knew it was COLD and we were not entirely prepared. The boys didn't have the right gloves or shoes to play in the snow which a bit of a bummer. It would've been nice to have spent some time playing in the snow but we had no idea that it would snow while we were there. So we called the front desk and asked for a late checkout so we could just hang out at the hotel until it was time to go the airport. We got a little stir crazy but before it got too crazy it was time to leave. We opted to take the subway to the airport. It was an hour long train ride but it was pretty smooth and hassle free. The only tough part was traipsing through the snow with our luggage.

By the time we got to the airport we found out that our flight was delayed for 2 hours. The airport was crazy busy due to all the flight cancellations. It took us an hour to get through the security line and we were even able to go through the priority line. At that point the boys were hungry and the airport was so crowded it was hard to find a spot for us to sit together. At that point, Jamie got the idea to buy passes to the Virgin America lounge. It was nice and quiet in there and we got "free" snacks and drinks. Because we had to rebook the flight we were not sitting all together. I was the lucky one and got to sit in an aisle exit seat BY MYSELF 7 rows behind the boys. But it was an easy flight for Jamie to handle since the boys fell asleep for at least half of the flight. We landed at about 1am and finally got home around 2am.

Overall it was a fun trip to New York. We got used to bundling up the kids and I think they got used to walking a bit everywhere and riding on the subway. It was definitely fun to visit after so many years. The only thing that we didn't get to do was go to a real bagel shop for fresh New York bagels. There's always next time.