Spring Break: New York

We are back from our very tiring our east coast spring break trip and finally rested up enough to post our photos into an online album if you want to take a look! We had lots of fun but this was not like Hawaii where we had time to relax. For this trip, we were out and about exploring every day! It's been a while since we had such an action packed vacation! We split the trip into two parts: New York was planned by the ladies, and DC was planned by the Dads. Read on and let me know which sounds like the better half of the trip! :)

Day 1: Fly to New York, Explore Central Park, MET
Scott and I like to maximize our vacation time and aren't afraid to leave at the crack of dawn or come home late at night if it means enjoying our vacation just a tad longer. We definitely were pushing our luck though in signing up for the red eye to NY! We ended up getting lucky in that Scott and Evie got upgraded to first class so had a nice comfy ride ahead of them, and Nora and I got upgraded to bulk head seating and was able to stretch out a bit ourselves too.

As expected, Nora zonked out on the plane and the rest of us got a few hours in too. We got into JFK at 7:30am, grabbed a yellow taxi, and headed into the city to explore. Since it was too early to check in, we dropped off our luggage and promptly set out to find coffee and breakfast. NY has SO many food options to try so it came down to what was nearby, open and had seating. We tried out Greggory's Coffee (thumbs down) and Non Solo Piada, a small italian place with omelets (good).

Then we had our first taste of the subway and took it up to the upper west side to meander around the Central Park before heading to the MET museum. I had the bright idea that going to the museum while jet lagged isn't too bad because you can sit and hang out when tired! It sort of worked but the museum is SO BIG that it gets overwhelming. We were able to see a lot of the main exhibits but also missed a bunch too! That's ok though - it just means we'll go back next time.

Afterward, we met up with Scott's old friend, Clement and his wife Alisa and their 9 year old son David. Scott and Clement have kept in touch over the years and will see each other every once in a while, and they even stayed with us in Seattle many many years ago before the kids were born! This was our first time any of us had met each other's kids though so that was nice.

That's an Evie under all that gear!

Breakfast

subway time

walking around the Reservoir

Enjoying the paintings at the MET

So much Egyptian stuff at the MET

Day 2: Explore Midtown
I love just walking around NY to ogle the buildings, do lots of people watching and just absorb all the energy the city has. That's what Day 2 was - we set out early (trying to adjust to east coast time), grabbed bagels and walked over to Hudson Yard to then hop onto the Highline, which is an old elevated rail track that's been converted to a walking path. The sun was out, which made for a nice morning walk to Chelsea Market and Little Island, this new man-made park that out on the Hudson River.

After lunch at Grey Dog (okay), we hit up Harry Potter NY. It was a decent 2 story shop that included a virtual tour ride (we did not get tickets) and a Butter Beer Bar, and the kids spent a decent amount of time just checking out all the merchandise and being mesmerized by the various displays. Nora, of course, chose to buy a Hedwig stuffie as her one NY souvenir.

After the store, we did more exploring in midtown and hit up the Empire State Building (just the lobby, we did not get tickets to the top), NY Library, and Grand Central Station before settling down for dinner at Yara, a middle eastern restaurant that Clement had recommended would be good for groups. It was a great dinner, but on the pricey side! Since we were stuffed after dinner, we walked the 20 or so minutes back to the hotel and passed Rockefeller Center, St Patricks Cathedral, and of course had to stop at Time Square along the way so that we can take in all the bright lights of Broadway!

After we got back to the hotel, the Dads went out again to check out McSorley's, an old Irish pub. It looked neat!

Nora loved her Rainbow bagel

You were not allowed up the top levels of the Hive

Walking the Highline

Playing at Little Park

Harry Potter store

Empire State Building

NY Library. AKA: where Carrie almost married Mr Big

Perspectives at night

Time Square and Broadway

McSorley's

Day 3: Lady Liberty, 9-11 memorial and Downtown
The Statue of Liberty was high on the list of sites to see and we picked Tue AM to go thinking it would be not as crowded and better (warmer) weather than the other days. Well, we got to the ferry line early enough that we mostly missed the crowds but we definitely did not get good weather! It was rainy and windy for most of the trip, but we Seattlelites made the most of it and walked around anyway. Unfortunately, they do not allow visits up to the crown anymore so we just walked around the statue, visited the museum and then went over to Ellis Island. I don't remember if I went to Ellis Island before but I think the answer is no if it didn't leave an impression on me! In any case, the kids found Ellis Island to be very boring because the displays required a lot of reading. It's too bad because it could be interesting if they made the exhibits ore interactive.

We got back to the city just in time for miss the lunch rush and was able to get a table at Fraunces Tavern, the oldest and most historic restaurant in NY. It was built in 1761 and had some association with George Washington frequenting the establishment, so it was neat to have lunch there. It FELT historic and old timey, but in a nice way. I can imagine it being creepy late at night though - the women's bathroom especially was very very dim and felt, well, old.

After lunch we did a detour to Wall Street and Alex Hamilton's grave and eventually got to the site of the World Trade Center. We opted not to do the museum, but did visit the memorials. I think they did a great job with it - the water falling into the open hole was very symbolic and powerful, much more so than (IMO) many of the memorials in DC. We also saw the Survivor Tree, which was THE top site that Nora wanted to visit after her teacher had told her about it.

Next we walked to Chinatown expressly to visit Yu & Me Books, an indie bookstore owned by an asian american gal named Lucy Yu. She was super friendly and gave us some book recommendations and then we wandered around Chinatown and Little Italy a bit before having dinner at Congee Village, a recommendation from Kathy's cousin Kristy. It was yummy chinese food that satisfied the "need to have rice and veggies" itch.

Lady Liberty

Wall street bull(y)

Yu and Me Books

Day 4: Brooklyn Bridge, Dumbo
Given the super scary subway shooting in Brooklyn earlier that week, we were debating whether we still wanted to explore Brooklyn while we were in New York. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge was on the top of MY list of things to do since this is something I had never done before. We ended up going for it using the logic that lightning won't strike twice, and I'm glad we went before it was a really nice day!

We let ourselves sleep in a bit and then headed to Katz' Deli for pastrami sandwiches and Russ & Daughters for smoked salmon before trekking over the bridge. The walk across the bridge is about 1.5 miles but took a while because we took so many picture stops! Once over the bridge, we walked around the Dumbo neighborhood before eating an early dinner at Juliana's for pizza. After that, we bribed the kids with some ice cream to make the walk back into the city.