This past weekend was our big trip to New York City! Mark was travelling for work, but the girls and I and Mousey and Poppy had a great weekend checking out the sights of the city. The girls and Poppy had never been, and my previous time in NYC was very limited, so we were all excited to experience as much as we could. I picked up the girls early from school on Friday, and the five of us were on the road by noon.
We stayed Friday evening in North Jersey, and by early Saturday morning we were on the train into the city.
Our hotel for while we were in the city was the Wyndham New Yorker in Midtown, so we dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed out to experience as much of Midtown as we could fit in.
Our first stop after leaving the hotel was Central Park. The weather was cool, but the sun was shining and it was really very comfortable to be outside. The kids loved climbing the big rocks in Central Park and taking in some of the sights.
It really was an impressive toy store. If you don’t like crowds and noise it would be a tough place to work, but for a visitor, it was great. The girls got to take a turn dancing on the big piano, and the Lego replicas of the Statue of Liberty and the Toy Soldier were quite impressive!
After FAO and a quick lunch, we walked over to Rockefeller Center to see where the NBC studios were, look at the huge Christmas tree (not yet decorated though), and catch a hot chocolate and coffee for a quick re-fuel.
After Rockefeller, we made our way over to M&M World. For a chocolate lover like Nina, this was definitely more M&Ms than she’ll ever see again in her life!
Afterwards, we continued our trek over to Times Square and a bit of Broadway. By then it was getting later into the evening and we had two exhausted little girls. Nina is big enough to keep trucking along, but Lyla’s legs were not taking much more walking, so we walked to dinner (where Lyla fell asleep in the booth), then her kind grandfather, Poppy, carried her back to the hotel while Mousey and I took turns piggy-backing Nina.
Coming off our spacious hotel room in NJ, our NYC hotel room was quite a bit smaller to put it mildly, but everyone was tired enough to not worry about that. Day 1 in NYC was a successful day, and we needed to rest up for Day 2.
Sunday morning started off with the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. The show was amazing. We absolutely loved it! From start to finish, the show was impressive, and I was so glad we had the chance to see it. Nina, who loves to dance, especially loved it. Flash photography wasn’t allowed during the show, but I was still able to take some pictures of the performance.
This routine with the toy soldiers was one of my favorites. Their timing, precision, and this cool domino effect part of the routine was awesome!
Perhaps my second favorite routine they did was this one with the blocks. Here they’re obviously spelling out Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, but on another occasion where the blocks were lined up randomly, Lyla said, “Mom, look! They’re spelling my name!” She was right!
It was definitely a show to remember!
After the show, we headed over to John’s Pizzaria for some New York style pizza. John’s had came recommended to us, and it didn’t disappoint. The pizza there was fantastic. While we were at John’s Nina lost a tooth! (Interestingly, out of the whole weekend, the only two things we “lost” were that tooth and a glove. Not bad!)
After lunch, we had one more thing on the list that we (or I should say, Nina) really wanted to see. On Nina’s “bucket list” of NYC was seeing the Statue of Liberty. When you’re only there for a long weekend, seeing the Statue can take up some time, but we made it part of our trip, and I’m really glad we did.
One unexpected highlight came when we got off the subway and started walking through Battery Park. There was a man there that gave the girls some bread and showed them how to get the birds to eat bread from their hand and squirrels to take nuts out of their hand. Obviously the birds and squirrels there are so tame, but for Nina and Lyla, this was very exciting. When I asked them what were some of the things they thought were the most cool about NYC, feeding the birds and squirrels out of their hand was at the top of both of their lists!
We got tickets for the boat ride, got a spot on the boat indoors, and took the ride over to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. I have to say that it is quite impressive. To think of the history behind the statue and what the sight of her meant to so many immigrants making the long boat ride across the Atlantic to finally arrive at Ellis Island, it was really something neat to see.
On Liberty Island where there is no shelter from the cold and wind, it was very cold, but we didn’t plan to stay there too long anyway, so we took our tour around the island and then took the boat back to Battery Park. For Nina, especially, this topped off the New York City experience!
Liberty Island was our last stop before heading back to collect our bags and taking the train back to New Jersey to pick up our car at the first hotel. We ended up getting back home on Sunday close to midnight, so we were all pretty wiped out, but we were full with great memories.
I’m so thankful that my parents came with us on this trip. I’m amazed at their energy level, their patience with little girls, my dad’s sense of direction, and their commitment to the trip being about making great memories with their granddaughters. While the weekend can come and go, the memories together with last, and I’m very grateful for that. And to my mom, yes, that’s why I make you take pictures like this – even when you’re cold!!! 
