New York State of Mind

“New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one, top of the list
King of the hill, a number one” – Frank Sinatra

Of all the cities in all the countries around the world, NYC is probably my #1!  Going to college 30 minutes by train from the city gave me plenty of time to explore the city.  An internship one summer while I was in college, gave me the opportunity to “live” the city by living in the Bronx.

Recently I was able to take my daughter, whose 8, to New York City for the first time.  We had three days (not nearly enough) for me to give her the Christmas in NYC experience, as well as show her some of my favorite haunts.  I want to share with you some of the highlights of this trip, which was an amazing mother-daughter trip that she is still raving about! 

First of all, we happened upon a quaint Belgium cafe as we were on our way to the MoMath museum.  We got there right when it opened and were given a prime window seat, which was better than any entertainment that I could have brought to amuse her.  She was mesmerized by the yellow cabs, counting over 160 in 5 minutes!  After a “relaxing” lunch (which is sometimes hard to find in NYC), it was off to MoMath, a hands-on museum on steroids, that applied to my geeky science side.  While not a favorite haunt, I wanted to do something educational since I took her out of school for a couple of days for this trip.  It was a great first place to stop after getting up early and catching a flight.  It gave her time to move around, touch stuff and recharge!

Next up – The Empire State Building!  We chose this tower due to location and the fact that Sophia had heard of it,  but the Freedom Tower or The Rock are equally good choices.  Make sure you choose a sunny day and the views are amazing!  It is a great way to see the entire city, get a visual of the city layout, and happened to be our only chance to see the Status of Liberty due to foggy weather.  Adults and kids alike love to be on top of the world!  (Note:  By your tickets in advance to avoid waiting in lines to buy tickets; you will have lines for the elevators unless you splurge for the fast pass option!)

From there, we walked over to Macy’s as we had just watched the Thanksgiving Parade and Elf.  We made reservations in advance (required) and braved Santaland!  Wow, I was not ready for this!  Even with reservations, it took over an hour to get to see the Big Man, but it is a quintessential NYC Christmas experience that you should do once!  

Then, it was time for Times Square and a hot dog from a street vendor!  There is nothing like it anyplace in the world.  Now that Times Square has been cleaned up, it is quite a fun place to hang out, do some shopping and experience the NYC vibe!

We met some family at Bubba Gump’s for dinner, which in a city where there are over 24,000 restaurants in Manhattan alone as well as 5 Michelin star restaurants, probably wouldn’t come to your mind as a first choice.  But let me tell you, with kids, it was awesome.  Besides a good-size kid’s menu, we made a reservation for a window seat.  Again the kids were enthralled with the lights and action on the street below.  No “I’m bored!” or “When is our food going to be here?”  It allowed us adults to have a leisurely dinner and actually have a conversation!

From there, it’s Broadway!!!  So many amazing shows to see and definitely not time!  We had tickets for Frozen, but one of my friends used Broadway Roulette for her ticket that night.  (TKTs is another great option if you find yourself with some free time and no plans).  Frozen was amazing!  The staging and sets were world class, the acting was great and there were even new songs, not in the movie!  The 2 1/4 hour show kept our attention, even though we were tired from a really busy day!

We packed a lot into 1 day – stay tuned for Days 2 and 3 – see what other adventures we found!