We flew up to LaGuardia early on a Saturday morning. As a family of five, it can sometimes be difficult to find a taxi that is big enough for all of us and our luggage. We decided to use the Uber app on our iPhones https://www.uber.com. I would highly recommend this service. Although it is slightly more expensive that using a taxi...the convenience and safety advantages make it totally worth it. Your iPhone app will show you how close your driver is, send you a picture of him/her and tell you what kind of vehicle they are driving. We had a nice, black suburban pick us up. Everything is charged to your credit card, including the tip, so no money changes hands. Very professional drivers and a wonderful service!
We stayed at the DoubleTree Times Square http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/hotels/new-york/doubletree-suites-by-hilton-hotel-new-york-city-times-square-LGASFDT/index.html . The location of this hotel is perfect. Right smack in the middle of Times Square. The kids were able to look out the window and see the action going on below. My parents had arrived a few days ahead of us, and met us at our hotel. We had breakfast at a Times Square institution called the Evergreen: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d1238514-r121925309-Evergreen_Diner-New_York_City_New_York.html . The food was delicious, the service was quick and the hot chocolate was excellent. Very kid-friendly place.
After breakfast, we decided to see the sights of Times Square. We visited the M&M store, the Hershey store and ToysRUs. The kids had blast on the huge ferris wheel in the middle of ToysRUs. That evening, we ate a late dinner at another NYC institution, Smith and Wollensky. http://www.smithandwollensky.com. I've been going to this restaurant since I was a young girl and was thrilled to share it with the kids. Our middle child declared that it was the "best" hamburger he had ever eaten. My favorite is the roasted chicken. It is absolute amazing. Once we finally arrived back at our hotel, we collapsed in bed. Of course, I had to get up early and make sure our elf-on-a-shelf, Henry, was behaving himself and located in our room where the children would find him in the morning.
The next morning, our little group split up. The boys headed to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks and the Celtics play. Our two boys are SO into basketball...this was an absolute dream for them. The girls headed to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular. http://www.radiocity.com. When I had purchased the tickets a few months prior, it appeared that we were 4th row center. We thought we had awesome seats. Apparently with the orchestra pit in place, our 4th row seats were actually front row center. The look on my stepdaughter's face when we sat down and she looked up at that stage...priceless. We were able to see every smile on the Rockettes' faces. It was truly an experience we will never forget. After the show, she had her picture taken with a Rockette in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall, then we headed towards the American Girl Place. http://www.americangirl.com/stores/location_ny.phpFor any of you that have young girls...you know that this is equivalent to a pilgrimage to Mecca. We looked around the huge store and picked out a few things to take home with us. We then had lunch (myself, my mom, my stepdaughter and her doll, Julie) in the American Girl Cafe. Once we finished lunch, we headed for our salon appointment to get Julie's hair done. My stepdaughter was able to pick out the hair style she liked and we watched as the doll had a stylist work on her for about 30 minutes. My stepdaughter then had a photo shoot with her doll...and their picture was put on the front cover of an American Girl Doll magazine for her to frame and take home. An 8 year-old girl's dream afternoon.
That evening, we hopped on the subway and made a trip to Chinatown. We had heard how amazing the soup dumplings are at Joe's Shanghai...and we had to try them. http://www.joeshanghairestaurants.com/. It was very cold outside and had begun to snow that afternoon...so hot, comforting Chinese food was the perfect thing. For those of you who have never had a soup dumping from Joe's Shanghai...you must. It is the perfect little package of warmth and goodness. Beautiful dumpling on the outside...steaming hot with an amazing aroma. Once you bite into it...a burst of yummy soup with meat and vegetables pours into your mouth. So so so good. The kids, my husband and I ate so many dumplings, I was worried that we may have to crawl back to the subway station. It was a highlight of our trip.
The next day, we spent our time looking at the beautiful Christmas decorations around Rockefeller Center. We arrived in time to watch the Today Show filming that morning. We were even able to get the kids on camera, which was fun. In the afternoon, we traveled to Macy's so that our youngest could sit on Santa's lap. Let me tell you...there is no Santa like a NYC Macy's Santa. Beautiful costume and a real white beard. He was just lovely and our girl was thrilled. Check that one off the bucket list.
Our final meal in the city was spent at Eataly. http://www.eataly.com/nyc. This place is heaven for food lovers like my husband and myself. It is a HUGE Italian food market that has these wonderful, different little Italian restaurants nestled within it. Each restaurant has a specialty (i.e. fish, vegetables, etc). We chose to eat at La Pizza & La Pasta http://www.eataly.com/nyc-la-pizza-and-pasta. We had a great meal of pasta and homemade pizza that made us feel that we were eating in a little place in Florence, Italy. It was really that authentic and delicious.
The next day, we made our way to LaGuardia airport to fly home. Our trip gave us wonderful memories, as a family, to look back on and talk about for years. Although I was fortunate enough to visit New York City many times as a child, there's nothing like seeing it once again anew... through the eyes of the children you love.
No comments:
Post a Comment