Well unfortunately, I got a bit behind in my recaps. I got some little stomach bug on Sat evening and while it didn’t wreck me, I spent most of my down time sleeping as opposed to internetting. It didn’t last long, but I never got caught up.
It will take way too long and be way too boring if I recap EVERYTHING we did day by day, so I won’t. So here are some highlights:
Brooklyn Flea Market was great. It was smaller than some of the flea markets I’ve been to, but, as Kelly said, really well edited. Tons of great stalls. We bought some great tshirts, a couple vintage toys and tasty food. I also got some interesting leather stamps.
We actually hit Momofuku Milk Bar twice it was so great. They had super tasty cookies and cereal milk milkshakes. Odd, but super good.
We had many great meals, but of course some stood out more than others. Craft Bar was excellent and had my favorite desserts (aside from the aforementioned Momofuku). Tabby slurped her first raw oyster there.
Scarpetta was my favorite meal over all. Excellent food and super great service. Ben was a fan. Heck, everyone was a fan. We also had a delightful breakfast at Nice Matin, a wonderful dinner at Blue Ribbon Bakery and super tasty lunch at Les Halles (downtown).
The Bronx Zoo was incredible. We loved the Monorail through the Asia exhibit and the Wild Asia exhibit. The Mouse House was another favorite – we loved seeing all of the interesting rodents from around the globe.
We all loved the American Museum of Natural History. They had a large selection of great animal dioramas and a really interesting frogs exhibit (all live frogs). The kids got to dig up dino bones and we got to check out their spherical planetarium.
We did quite a bit of shopping of course. The kids loved FAO Schrwarz. I was a big fan of Fishs Eddy where I tried not to break the budget buying cool and interesting dishes. I also really enjoyed Uni Qlo, sort of a Japanese H&M, and Muji, a Japanese home goods store (I’d been there before, in Paris!).
Though I would not necessarily count it as a highlight, one morning we took a Circle Line tour around the harbor and checked out the sights form the water. The kids LOVED IT, so I’m happy we did it, but I was a bit motion sick and that plus the smells and about 80000 Chinese tourists that kept crowding us, it wasn’t my thing. If we had it to do over again, we’d try the Staten Island Ferry.
We also took some time and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Everyone enjoyed that. It was a neat way to see the city. Matt and I also ran from our apartment over to Brooklyn and back the morning we left. That was a cool experience.
Highline Park, a park built on top of an old 1-mile section of unused elevated railroad bridge was neat. We’d not spent much time in the Chelsea area and it was a good tour of it besides being a neat park for its own sake.
The kids had a wonderful time! I was a bit nervous about taking them around the city but they did awesome. I have huge respect for folks living in a city like that with kids. It’s super exhausting just trying to get around. I cannot count the number of steps we carried the stroller up and down. Yikes!! I’m very glad Tabby has been hiking all summer. I wouldn’t be surprised if we walked MILES some days. The restaurants were great with the kids and super friendly and accommodating. Honestly, I’d say the nicer the restaurant, almost, the nicer the welcome for our kids. Our kids in turn were great and I was very proud of them. We did play it smart, making early reservations and not testing their patience too much. I was shameless about allowing them to watch TV on our phones and we had tons of activities for them at all times so I’m sure that helped.
The trip was great fun for all of us. The only bad bit is that with my scheduling error we didn’t get to visit Maker Faire. But we will have to save that for another time. We’re glad to be back home.