I fully intended on completing part 2 immediately, but as always, I found one million other things to do before I got around to it. Until now. I'm alone (shock me, shock me!) on a Friday night with absolutely nothing to do. The baby is asleep, the house is acceptable, and it would be just wrong to actually unpack the bags from our last trip, so here goes!
We finally got to our hotel at around 1:30 am. Our taxi ride directly to the hotel proved amazing, all except the part where we sat in the car for 15 minutes while our driver argued with the airport taxi attendant, in who knows what language. Scary. Our hotel was perfectly located in Times Square, a little (well, huge) 4-star gem I stumbled upon on a 24 hour 1/2 off sale on Priceline. Let me be perfectly honest, that was the ONLY way we afforded a trip to NYC! The best part about the hotel was that instead of being 100 sq feet like most hotels in the area, it was 3 times the size and promised a bathroom that could fit a crib. I was sold.
Such a lie!!!!
They wheeled in a metal crib, a little smaller than the one we have at home. The bathroom seemed large enough until we attempted to shove the crib inside. There was no way. We happen to have a child who is extremely picky about his sleeping circumstances and sleeping in the same vicinity as us just was out of the question. In typical fashion, I demanded Hank make it work. After much yelling/laughing and slamming, the crib fit inside by lifting it on top of the toilet, closing the door (with you still inside the bathroom), standing on top of the sink, opening the door the max 4 inches, lifting the crib back down from the toilet, and magically squeezing through the tiny door crack all while still standing on top of the sink.
In order to get the baby in there, we had to just squeeze him through the crack and drop him in, hoping that he didn't hit the metal bars on the way down. We were desperate! It worked like a charm :) This miserable routine occurred three times a day and we got pretty good at it!
The first day we moseyed out to see the Today show and scarf down pain chocolat from Bouchon Bakery. While I enjoyed every crumb of my breakfast, Kellen threw up his delicious carrot muffin all over the front of his outfit, Hank's pants and my hands. We pretended it didn't happen and continued on... We walked down 5th Avenue, awed at the Cathedrals, and ultimately ended up at FAO Schwartz. Despite being 100 degrees inside, we spent hours in there! Hank and Kellen played with every toy while I stood amazed by the expensive strollers and other products I've only ever seen online. It was heaven for everyone--that never happens!
We braved the Empire State Building and much to our surprise, there wasn't a line in the entire building. We walked through all the empty line formations and when we finally got to the big elevator, Kellen had a blowout. We both frantically looked around for a bathroom but the attendant ensured us the closest bathroom would be at the top of the 80th floor. Skeptically, we loaded the elevator like sardines with our poopy child. By the 5th floor, I couldn't contain my laughter. Hank hit me. Kellen screamed in part because he was being held like a disease and in part because he was covered in poop. We were SO EMBARRASSED!!! The elevator attendant at the top got a good laugh out of our situation and directed us to the nearest bathroom.
We rode the Toys R Us Ferris Wheel for Kellen, which he couldn't have cared less about...then ate at Carmines which did not disappoint. I dream of that chicken Marsala.
Hank and Kellen had the time of their lives running through Times Square. Kellen felt like he was on top of the world on his shoulders and would squeal in delight...it was the sweetest thing ever. In an effort to fatten my baby boy, I constantly feed him Mc Donald's french fries. Don't judge me. After eating at a Brazilian restaurant, we stopped by the Golden Arch to get Kellen a large fry. I got sick of holding them up above Hank's head for him to grab, so I got lazy and just set a few of them in Hank's hair. I glanced over to see if anyone had seen me and realized we were standing in front of a restaurant where diners were facing us--two women spit out their food they were laughing so hard. I was humiliated. lol.
The second day we had reservations for the 9/11 memorial. I successfully navigated the subways down there--horray! After eating the world's worst breakfast (not a Yelp find! see pic below), we arrived at the memorial site. Last year, Hank and I spent a good 72-hours watching documentaries on the attack so we were quite grateful to be there. Kellen, however, was not. At first he enjoyed tracing the lettering on the metal and sticking his hand in the water. Eventually, however, the cold wet hands and lack of breakfast caught up with him and he started screaming nonstop. He threw his first tantrum. I have never seen anything quite like it. We evacuated the premises immediately, but not without every person there giving us dirty looks like we had just beaten our child. It was lovely. Fortunately, it wasn't anything sleep, food and proper winter clothing couldn't solve.
We don't understand the fascination with M&M world, but since it was next door to our hotel we felt obligated to pay it a visit.
We later ventured back south to check out Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge via the subway. We ended up at the last stop in Queens. When we stepped off the subway and were immediately approached by a police man asking where we "meant" to be, I knew I had royally messed up navigating! North, south, big difference??!
The third day we grabbed breakfast at Amy's Bread and walked forever until we ended up at Central Park. I had a grand vision of taking my baby boy on the Central Park Carousel and was determined to make it happen. Two hours after aimlessly walking through the park, I found it and watched the worker close the doors. There was a sign that said, "Closed for Renovations." I honestly thought it had closed just as we approached, but he assured me it had been closed for about 5 months! Isn't that a bit of information they could maybe put on their website? In case you have the same dream---you've heard it here....its definitely closed!
We checked out the Plaza Hotel (a must for every Home Alone lover) then took the subway to John's Pizza and Molly's Cupcakes. Except for instead of making it to our stop because that would have been too easy, we ended up in the last stop in Brooklyn. Again, we were approached by a policeman. Apparently we look nothing like locals :)
Both eateries were completely worth getting lost. Kellen ate two HUGE pieces of pizza. Molly's will forever be the best thing I've ever eaten. Life changing. I am planning my next trip around a visit there... although, next time it would be fun to take someone who enjoys treats!
This one's for you dad!
On our final day we grabbed breakfast at Amy's again, then took some pictures by the bar called "The Snug." We've always called Kellen snugs. For literally one day only when he was a newborn, he seemed super snuggly and it just seemed right, but it couldn't be further from the truth. The child hates snuggling and is more ADD than Hank and I combined, but it stuck so we were beyond thrilled to find a few kegs with "the snug" marked on them. We ran back and packed up and headed to the airport.
Our flight went to Baltimore then to SLC. We had about an hour layover which went by so quickly that we almost missed our entire boarding group.(Our vascilating between nasty options of Mc Donalds vs. Arbys took forever after being spoiled by the delightful options in the city!) Thankfully, they let us cut the line because we had a child. I am never traveling with Hank again. Or Kellen. To say he was awful would be a complete understatement. He cried from the tarmac in Baltimore to the tarmac in SLC, a total of 4.5 hours. IT WAS HELL! He was overly-tired and to make matters worse, the fasten seatbelt sign remained on the whole time due to turbulence. Hank and I were both in tears...seriously.
It was four hours of taming a lion. He opened and closed the window over one million times, banged the tray table nonstop, and screamed at the top of his lungs. We were completely terrified by the situation. Every soul on that plane will talk about that experience for as long as they live. Naturally, Kellen was fast asleep in his stroller within one minute of getting off the plane. We quickly grabbed our luggage off the caroseul and got the hell out of there. I pray that we never see any of those people again.
*Please don't judge my photo quality. Despite having an excellent camera, I didn't discover it was on low-resolution until the LAST day. An epic meltdown followed.
**If you're going to NYC anytime soon, I demand that you dine at and order the following:
- Bouchon Bakery-- carrot muffin & pain chocolat & croissant
- Trattoria Trecolori--chicken fettuccine alfredo & ceasar salad
- Shake Shack--strawberry shake only (not a fan of their fries or burgers)
- Carmines--Chicken Marsala & fried zucchini
-Wu Liang Ye-- the best Chinese food we've ever had--Sesseme Chicken or anything on the menu
-Ipanema Restaurant-- Brazilian food, Grilled garlic chicken & passion fruit juice
- John's Pizza-- anything or fresh mozzarella pizza
- Molly's Cupcakes-- cookie dough, cake batter, red velvet, anything with their cream cheese icing
Must Try's we never made it to: (I needed more meals in the day!!)
- Donut Plant, Sergimmo Salumeria, Merliu, Crumbs, Luke's Lobster Truck, Two Little Red Hens
2 Words from the Wise:
I love reading your blog! I laugh so hard every time! I'm glad you had fun, and sorry your plane ride was so terrible!
I love all of your pictures! That Kellen is so sweet. Next time you have a long flight, slip him a little dramminine in his milkshake. Works like a charm ;) glad you guys could have a family trip!
Post a Comment