While my family’s trip to New York City last November was all about meeting (and snuggling) my three-month-old nephew in Brooklyn, we did carve out some time for a couple of sightseeing trips in the Big Apple. At 9 and 11, my kids were ideally aged to visit iconic, historic landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

In researching our excursion before we left home, I learned that access to the 125-year-old Statue of Liberty is compromised until autumn 2012 for a $27.25 million renovation. That meant, alas, no grueling walk up multiple staircases to the viewing platform in her crown (which bummed me out more than the kids), nor could we enter the pedestal museum. Still, determined to get a close up look at Lady Liberty I went ahead and reserved ferry tickets online for our visit.

We made the trip on a blustery late-fall day. It was overcast and drizzly at times, but the bleak weather added to the allure and romance of visiting the historic sites. In my eyes, anyway; my children would likely disagree!

Consider these firsthand tips for your own visit:

Ferry ride

Purchase tickets online – or wait. Entrance to the National Monuments (operated by the U.S. National Park Service) is free, but you do need to pay for the ferry from Manhattan’s Battery Park to get to both Liberty Island and Ellis Island ($13 for adults, $5 for children). As I mentioned, we pre-booked mid-morning ferry departure tickets online well before our trip to New York City, namely so I’d have it “on the books” and we’d make this sightseeing trip happen. In hindsight, I might have waited until we arrived in New York and scheduled our excursion on a day with a nicer forecast. That said, during peak travel periods – say, spring break or mid-July – it would be disheartening to plan on a visit to the islands and encounter sold-out ferry departures at your desired time.

The multiple Statue Cruises ferries operate on a loop schedule, departing approximately every 25 to 30 minutes from Battery Park, Liberty Island, and Ellis Island. That is, you can come and go as you please from either attraction – spending as much time as you’d like walking the grounds around the Statue of Liberty or perusing the fascinating exhibits at Ellis Island. This is great for families if, say, someone has a meltdown (parent or child!) or the weather turns foul and you need to cut the day short.

Prepare for safety screenings. Since 9/11, security around the Statue of Liberty has been tight. You’ll pass through a metal detector and run your belongings through an X-ray before setting foot on the boat. Leave pocket knives at home. They’ll be confiscated, as my husband learned.

If the weather’s decent, head upstairs. Despite chilly weather, we made our way to the open-air seating on the top of the ferry for unrestricted views of Lower Manhattan as we pulled away from the Battery Park dock. Best views of the Statue of Liberty on approach are on the right side of the ferry; people flock to the railings – elbows flared – to take photos. But don’t worry; you’ll have plenty of time for photos of the statue once you’re on the island. And in my opinion you’ll get better pictures close up.

Bypass the food on board. There’s a small concession stand on the ferry, which sells overpriced hot dogs, chips, drinks, and candy bars. I recommend holding out for lunch at Ellis Island (the second stop on the loop) if you can. Pack snacks in case tummies start grumbling.

Statue of Liberty

Stop by the Visitor Information Center. The park rangers inside the Visitor Information Center are incredibly friendly and helpful, as I’ve found at most U.S. National Parks and National Monuments. Here, they’ll answer any questions you have about the statue, and you can watch a short video and view a wall exhibit about the history of the statue and the island.

Check out the Junior Ranger program. My daughter has collected patches from more than a dozen National Parks after completing Junior Ranger activity booklets, and the Statue of Liberty site was no exception. Delightfully, this was a relatively easy book to fill out, with answers found right in the small Visitor Information Center. Children learn why France wanted to give the U.S. a statue and what she symbolizes (trigging a nice conversation with my kids about the meanings of words like “liberty” and “oppression”), as well as why the statue is green. Kids who complete the book get a plastic pin; we also purchased a sew-on patch at the onsite gift shop.

No need to spend a ton of time here. With the pedestal and crown closed, visitors are limited to learning about the statue at the Visitor Information Center and walking around Liberty Island to admire the massive structure (at 305 feet from the ground to the tip of the torch’s flame, she is impressive). There is a self-guided audio tour (for a fee) and scheduled ranger-guided walking tours (free), though we did neither. I don’t think we spent more than 90 minutes on the island, though we did have to wait a while – more than 30 minutes – to get on the next ferry, as the line was quite long and we just missed boarding one before it filled up.

Ellis Island Immigration Museum

Plan to spend a ton of time here. The Ellis Island Immigration Museum is utterly fascinating, especially for American history buffs like me. The exhibits are housed in the actual building that once served as the country’s busiest immigration processing center. Twelve million men, women, and children passed through its doors, fleeing poverty and persecution in their home countries in search of a more prosperous life in the United States, mainly between 1892 and 1910.

The museum’s photos, artifacts, movies and plaques do an excellent job detailing why Ellis Island saw an influx of action at the turn of the century, what the newcomers encountered as they crossed the ocean, and how they were treated when they arrived on the island. The Park Service recommends spending three hours at Ellis Island, and I agree.

Fuel up before you start exploring the main building. The Dining Café serves hearty burgers, sandwiches, salads and hot entrees like fish and chips, pizza, and chicken tenders. Kids’ meals are reasonably priced under $6. Seating is at long communal tables; similar to what immigrants experienced there more than 100 years ago.

Prepare your tween for a tough Junior Ranger experience. Unlike the booklet at the Statue of Liberty, the activities and questions to earn a Junior Ranger badge at Ellis Island are lengthy and difficult. My daughter completed it – with her dad’s assistance – but it was time consuming. While it’s an educational experience I recommend, I wonder if my daughter might have gotten more out of the exhibits if she hadn’t been so intent on answering specific questions (but the girl likes her patches).

Consider the movie and the self-guided audio tour. A 30-minute film “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” offers an overall introduction to Ellis Island (we didn’t watch it) and an audio tour enhances the information given at the various exhibits on three floors of the main building (we didn’t buy it). I learned plenty simply walking through the different exhibit areas rooms, reading the detailed information.

Did I mention you’ll want to spend a lot of time here? While my son and I breezed through “The Peopling of America,” which chronicles the history of immigration in the United States, we spent more time in “Through America’s Gate,” which details the step-by-step process immigrants went through as soon as they got off the boat, including a mental-health and medical inspection. I also liked “Treasures from Home,” which displays artifacts that people brought from their home countries: beloved teddy bears, Bibles and native clothing. Countless black-and-white photographs, original passenger manifests and passports are shown in “Peak Immigration Years.”

On the top floor, a cramped dormitory room has been restored to show what sleeping quarters were like for those who had been detained, such as parents whose child was sick and had to recover in the neighboring hospital ward before being released into the city. Parents were restricted to visiting hospitalized children only once weekly – what a heartbreaking waiting game!

Do research at the American Family Immigration History Center. For $5 you can sit at a computer screen, with staff on hand to help you, and search the passenger manifests and Ellis Island immigration records for your ancestors. This same database is found online at EllisIsland.org – so you can research from the comfort of your own home, where access is absolutely free. But if you think you’d need assistance from on-site staff, build some time into your sightseeing day to reserve a half hour on the Ellis Island computers.

I’m glad we didn’t take our kids to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on our first family trip to New York City in 2008 (though on that trip we did enjoy the Staten Island ferry ride for a glimpse of Lady Liberty from afar). The tween and teen years are probably best for introducing kids to the rich history of these important American sights. This New York City sightseeing adventure will be made even better when the restoration of the Statue of Liberty is complete at the end of 2012!

Freelance writer Kara Williams co-owns The Vacation Gals, where she covers destinations ideal for family travel, as well as girlfriend getaways and romantic escapes. She makes her home in the Colorado Rockies with her husband and two school-aged children.

So this time last year I wrote a Monday dreaming post about how I couldn’t believe that with all our travels, my family had never been to the circus. It is therefore a bit shamefacedly that I admit to you today the sad fact that we still haven’t made it. Which makes me even more eager to see the Big Apple Circus this season.

Their entirely new show is called “Dance On!’ and includes unicyclists from China, contortionists from Mongolia, Kenyan acrobats, an Ethiopian juggler, and (best of all from my perspective) twelve miniature dancing horses.

There may also be a partridge in a pear tree, but you’ll have to go and verify that for yourself.

What makes this circus special isn’t just the performances though. It’s a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to serving the communities it performs in by visiting pediatric hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. They also give tickets to needy kids.

Why am I writing about the circus if I haven’t been you might ask? Well, I’m writing about it because readers of The Mother of All Trips who would like to see the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center in New York City can get up to $25 off per ticket to the troupe’s performances this fall. They will be in Manhattan through January 9, 2011.

You can purchase your discounted tickets to the Big Apple Circus:

• Online at http://bigapplecircus.org/mommy11LC.aspx (if the code MOMMY11 is not automatically applied, submit it in the promotional codes box in the lower left of the page); or
• By calling 888-541-3750  and mentioning the code MOMMY11.

The circus will also be in Boston next April, if you can’t make it to New York. And if neither of those destinations is a possibility for you, to check out the six-hour documentary Circus about Big Apple, which starts airing on PBS stations tonight.

Perhaps the most dreamy part of our adventure was our visit to FAO Schwarz, that purveyor of everything any child could want from marbles…

to Muppets…

and everything in between.

I was probably seven or eight years old – the same age as Tommy – the first time I entered this iconic space. What’s amazing to me is that it was just as thrilling to go back at 39. There is just so much of everything, more than you’ve ever seen – more Legos, more dolls, more trains, more stuffed animals -  that children actually forget to be acquisitive while they are in there. I don’t think I heard one “can I get that?” It’s like visiting the Museum of Childhood Dreams Come True where everyone wanders around in kind of a happy daze. Everywhere you look there is something you never even knew existed, whether it’s giant stuffed dinosaurs,

or snakes,

or a piano you can dance on.

I know that there are other toy stores in Manhattan and that many people think an indoor Ferris wheel can’t be beat. I’ve got no beef with that, but nevertheless I remain loyal to this old-school store in this most magical of locations, close to the Central Park Zoo and facing The Plaza. So today I’m dreaming of a return to New York City with children, and especially to FAO Schwarz. Maybe next time we’ll even make a purchase.

A Happy Labor Day and unofficial end of summer to one and all. Please feel free to share your Monday Dreams below. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

One of the things I’ve learned about traveling with kids is that it’s very important to do a thorough cost-benefit analysis when making decisions about things like whether to pay extra for the hotel suite where you are separated from your children for the blissful five hours that they sleep by an actual door or whether to drop twenty dollars on a taxi that will get you to your destination faster than the city bus that you would surely take if you weren’t hauling around a stroller, a sticky backpack, and a whiny child. When Teddy and I were invited on the Jet Adventure trip to the Bahamas I had to make just such a decision, choosing whether or not I wanted to spring for a hotel room near the airport the night before we left. Since they wanted us at JFK Airport by 7 a.m., and since it’s a two-and-a-half hour drive from our house, I decided it was worth the money to stay over.

Yes, technically, we could have gotten up at 4, driven to a long-term parking lot, and been there in plenty of time. But I guarantee you that by the time our plane touched down in the Bahamas my eye would have been twitching and Teddy would have been a humid wreck. So instead, we left early on Friday afternoon so as to avoid rush hour traffic, and made our leisurely way to the end of the earth through three of New York’s five boroughs.

If you’re flying out of JFK Airport and have an early morning flight, I highly recommend that you stay at the Fairfield Inn on Rockaway Boulevard. Why? The rooms are immaculate and the beds comfortable – in fact, dare I say luxurious? A few more bonus points: there is free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and the restaurant serves food that is reasonably edible. More importantly, it has a full bar. (Which you will need to avail yourself of after driving to the end of the earth on the horror that is the Van Wyck Expressway. But I digress.) And I was able to find a room for less than $125.

I was seriously impressed by this hotel, which has a friendly and welcoming staff and is quiet as a tomb. This latter is particularly surprising given that it is only five minutes from the airport. Teddy and I slept well and after availing ourselves of the free 24-hour shuttle, which dropped us right at the terminal, were rested and more than ready to swim with the dolphins at the Atlantis Resort when we arrived later in the day. Much more so than if I had gotten us up at 4 a.m. and driven all the way from Delaware. Yes I would have saved a little money had I done so, but I know from experience that I would have sacrificed that first afternoon and evening of fun. Not. Worth. It.

And while I’m at it, let me also recommend AirPark as the place to put your car if you will be leaving it at JFK while you travel. For one thing, it’s two blocks from the Fairfield Inn – Teddy and I dropped our luggage off, then went and parked the car, returning on foot. I wouldn’t say the walk was the most pleasant I’ve ever been on (and I wouldn’t want to do it in the dark) but there was sidewalk the entire way and it wasn’t unsafe.

Better yet, when we came back to New York, tired and cold after our days of fun in the sun, the staff at AirPark went out of their way to make our return a pleasant one. Although they were busy, they picked us up within ten minutes of my call. When the shuttle pulled into the parking lot, my car was out front, engine running so that it was nice and warm. We were two hours past the time I had dropped the car off, but the nice man working at the counter took that time off without being asked, charging me only for four days instead of five.

And I have to say, small details and a little expense make all the difference around the margins when you’re traveling with kids. I had put Teddy in his pajamas at the airport and bought him a snack that he ate while we waited for our luggage. It made things so easy to put him in his carseat in a warm car and speed him back to Delaware – he was asleep before we even hit Staten Island. And so our trip ended on a happy and positive note, even if I did have to drive on the Van Wyck for the second time in a week.

Please note that although I both my flight and the trip to the Bahamas were paid for by JetBlue, LEGO, and the Atlantis Resort, I covered the costs of both my hotel in New York and parking my car while we were away and was in no way compensated for this review.

We decorated our Christmas tree this weekend and before it tipped over leaving a pool of water and shattered glass in its wake (miraculously only two ornaments were irredeemably smashed) both of the boys remarked on the large number of angels that don its branches. And it’s true. I have an inordinate love of angels from fat naked cherubs to Victorian damsels dressed in red velvet and feathery wings to their more ethereal, shimmering cousins in gauze and sparkles.

I have of course seen many wonderful angels in my travels (the Uffizi alone is home to untold numbers), but a sentimental favorite place to visit them is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

My mother took me to the Metropolitan Museum a number of times, starting when I was about Tommy’s age. She would dangle a visit to the Egyptian wing in front of my nose while coaxing me to look at paintings. Once we were in a gallery she would ask me to look carefully at every picture. “What do you like about it?” she would ask. “What colors do you see? What shapes? Why do you think the artist painted the shadow here, the light there? What secrets is that woman hiding?” And she would tell me stories about the artists, explaining who was friends with whom and why he painted pictures of the same church over and over again.

I remember her laughing at paintings that struck her fancy, a laugh of such pure delight that I would laugh too as if I understood, while peering at a still life with a dead chicken at its center or a portrait of a woman holding a lapdog or a picture of a resigned-looking Mary receiving the word of her miracle from an angel. As a child I didn’t get what would possibly be funny in Mary’s expression (Who me? You’ve got to be kidding!) although now that I am a mother myself, and know the combination of joy and terror that accompanies a positive pregnancy test, her air of patient exasperation makes me smile too.

One of the last visits I paid to the museum with my mother before she died was at the holidays. We walked all the way up Fifth Avenue from Grand Central Station, a distance of about forty blocks. By the time we arrived we were windblown and tired and in need of refreshment (I’m sure I was also snappish and annoyed with her as I tended to get when she did things like insist that we walk all that way). I let her guide me and she pulled us in through the busy lobby, into the dim medieval sculpture gallery at the heart of the museum.

Ah yes, how could I have forgotten the angel tree? Any tiredness or irritation was instantly gone as I gazed up at the impossible beauty of those angels draped in satin. The tree was gorgeously illuminated against a delicate screen, the angels ready for flight. A huge nativity scene was spread out at the bottom. It was as if every Renaissance painting in the museum had come suddenly to life and converged on this one sacred space.

This past weekend as we eventually righted and stabilized our tree and cleaned up the mess I thought about that visit and about my mother who loved Christmas and also tended to suffer from disasters big and small.  While we were completing our second, more successful round of tree trimming, Teddy said, “It’s OK that your mom isn’t here to help us Mommy. Because she’s an angel. She’s watching us from heaven.” It is of course my fondest hope that he is right. But I wish that she could be here to show them the earthly angels on their first visit to the Met, perhaps on her birthday. She would be turning 67 next Sunday.

Although she isn’t here, I do look forward to the day when I will walk into that hall with my boys and see that magical tree covered with angels, the nativity scene at the bottom like the true Christmas gift it is. Then, maybe, they will understand why I love angels so dearly.

And maybe they will connect that love with the watercolor of an angel that their grandmother painted, a painting that watched over both of them while they slept as babies. Maybe they will see a bit of her, the woman they never knew.

If you’re looking for a way to be an angel for others this holiday season, please visit the Passports With Purpose site where we have surpassed our goal of $13,000 for a school in Cambodia and are now working to raise even more money to fund things like clean water and a school nurse. All funds raised go directly to American Assistance for Cambodia (AAfC), which is a non-profit 501(c)3 registered in the United States; this organization will oversee all aspects of building the school. Ten dollars buys you a chance to win $150 to spend on photographs at Shutterfly or one of many other wonderful prizes. Chance to win make wonderful holiday gifts.

What are you dreaming of on this Monday? Please feel free to share a link below, making sure you link directly to your post, not your site’s homepage and that you link back to this post. Questions? See About Monday Dreaming.

Photo of Angel Tree courtesy of kamalaboulhosn via Flickr.

Photo of nativity scene courtesy of Genista via Flickr.

One thing that has been really nice about all of the travel we did this summer is that we’ve hung out with lots of friends who have kids, many of whom we hadn’t seen in years (and some of whose children we had never met). What better excuse could we have to travel than to see what the next generation is up to?

My favorite thing about this is that any awkwardness for the grownups was eliminated by the automatic way the kids instantly become best friends, even if they weren’t close in age.  In this picture Tommy plays with our friend Tom and Karen’s daughter on the Staten Island Ferry. Boy did he make her giggle!

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Please visit there to see many other terrific travel photos.

Note: I’ve been writing about New York for the past two weeks. Starting next week, I’ll be celebrating the arrival of fall by doing a wrap-up of what I learned during our 4000 miles on the road between June and September. Stay tuned!

When we were going home from our dessert-as-dinner feast at Dylan’s Candy Bar, Matt said to me “Just for the record, I’m yet to have a meal this weekend that I’ve enjoyed.” He made a fair point. Although our lunch at Grand Central was tasty, our other food choices were adequate at best. I take full responsibility for this, as it’s generally my job to figure out where we’ll eat. Normally I come prepared with a detailed list, but I had mostly left our dining options up to chance figuring that in New York there would always be something great nearby. And there often was – but it wasn’t usually an appropriate place to bring the kids. We ended up eating several meals that were adequate at best and had the added bonus of being fairly pricey.

I’m happy to report that thanks to Twitter and in particular Sam Chapnick, aka @nyc_mom, who blogs about everything New York and families at KidCity I did a much better job of planning for brunch on our last morning. I had posted a request for restaurant recommendations in the neighborhood of the American Museum of Natural History, and she suggested Café Lalo. I loved everything about this charming restaurant, from the breezy, bright dining room with its windows wide open to the leafy street to the coffee, which was served in large bowl-like cups with a side of steamed milk. They serve brunch all day every day and have a really fun menu with choices from around the world such as the Caribbean Breakfast of tropical fruit with a pastry and mango butter or the fabulous Moroccan Delight which is eggs mixed with fresh tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, and jalapenos and served with pita bread.

This is definitely a kid-friendly place with a big enough menu to satisfy even the pickiest eater. I discovered at the end of the meal that they only accept only cash as payment, and while Matt took the boys to the nearest ATM, I stood at the sidewalk and watched as the staff cheerfully helped families with children stow their strollers in a basement room. It would make a fabulous place to stop for an afternoon treat if you were exploring the Upper West Side – the pastries and cakes looked absolutely dreamy. And if you need a pick-me-up with your brunch, there is an entire menu of champagne cocktails.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Even in a big city like New York it’s best not to leave your dining options to chance if you can help it. Doing a little research beforehand and giving yourself several places to choose from for each meal will guarantee that you eat the way you and your kids like and is also likely to save you money in the process. If you’re not sure what your exact location will be at mealtime, scout out places that surround attractions you know you’ll visit or that are an easy walk from your hotel.

After brunch we headed over to the American Museum of Natural History. The boys were very excited to visit the museum from the movie A Night at the Museum and we had to take lots of pictures of the entrance with its statue of Theodore Roosevelt who figures prominently as a character in the film.

Our friends Tom and Karen met us there with their two little ones and after a quick look at the dioramas of stuffed North American mammals, we headed for the Hall of Biodiversity. I was surprised at how interested Tommy was in the various charts and graphs, most of them distressing testaments to the sad state of our environment and the contributions we make to it. We read about how many resources the average Indian uses versus the average North American, how many people go hungry on a daily basis around the world, and how many species are disappearing. This was sobering stuff, but Tommy was fascinated – and optimistic. As I read him grim statistic after grim statistic, his response was almost always “well, it could be worse” or “that’s why we shouldn’t throw stuff away or waste food.”

We spent a good amount of time hanging out under the giant blue whale in the Hall of Ocean Life watching the underwater video and listening to the sounds of the sea. Teddy loved the dioramas showing a variety of marine scenes, especially one in a dark corner where a sperm whale devours a giant squid.

Then it was on to the Fossil Halls, practically a museum unto themselves, which we made our way through much more quickly than I would have expected, given Teddy’s love of all preshistoric life. But you never know what’s going to seize your children’s imagination on a particular day. Tom and Karen’s son desperately wanted to see the large figure from The Night at The Museum who says “Dum-Dum, give me some gum-gum” and so we ended up in a back corner of the third floor where there is a fascinating exhibit about Margaret Mead and her study of the people of the South Pacific islands. The kids loved seeing “Dum-Dum” but were also intrigued by the Javanese puppets and other artifacts to be found there. Our visit ended with a quick stroll through the Hall of Planet Earth and a speedy turn around the outside of the Hayden Planetarium theatre where we got to see how much we would weight on the Moon.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Grabbing a guide and making a rough game plan with your kids when you first arrive at a museum is a great idea, especially if it’s a larger museum. But be sure to be flexible and let their interest and enthusiasm guide how long you spend in each area. Most importantly: treat every museum like you’ll be back. Nothing can kill the joy like tromping through exhibits once you and your kids are “done.” I usually plan to stay two to three hours even in the most engaging museums. If you leave when there’s still stuff to see, everyone is excited for a return visit.

The museum is huge and we definitely left plenty for next time – we didn’t get to see a show in the planetarium, the meteorites, the Hall of Human Origins, the collection of spectacular opals, or the giant canoe in the Grand Gallery or the galleries dedicated to Native American life. But we were all ready to get a quick snack in the cafeteria and head out.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Give the kids a camera to use. Mine have my old digital one that I don’t use anymore, but a disposable camera works just fine too. They love taking their own pictures, and you’ll always learn something about what captures their imagination by watching them do so. And there’s lots you can do with the photos when you get home: print them off and paste them into a journal for your children to decorate with stickers or write in; help them make a poster to decorate their room or playroom; or make photo books at one of the websites that offer this service.

We had driven up the museum and parked in its garage on 81^st Street and so were able to hop right into our car, zip on down to the Lincoln Tunnel and make our way home to Delaware by dinnertime. All in all, it was a great getaway weekend, very easy to pull off with a minimum of planning, even if I clearly needed to do a little more on the dining front. And you know what? We didn’t purchase any souvenirs (unless you count candy as a kind of edible souvenir). But we did leave with tons of photos, enthusiasm for the wide selection of playgrounds available in Manhattan, and a definite desire to return soon.

If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll visit the first and second posts I wrote about our 2009 Labor Day weekend trip to New York City.

September 11, 2001 is the day that I can say that I truly felt like a parent for the first time.

When the first plane struck the World Trade Center, I had no idea what had happened as I was in a dentist’s chair having my teeth cleaned and fighting back first-trimester nausea. I had learned I was pregnant for the first time only about ten days before and it still felt completely surreal, except for the constant struggle not to throw up.

On my way home out of habit, I turned on National Public Radio and was listening in horror to Tom Gjelten reporting from the Pentagon about what had happened in New York. All of a sudden, he paused, and sounding vaguely alarmed said that he had just heard an evacuation order over the PA system. After a few moments, it became clear that something terrible had happened there as well. My brain started to process things as if I were drunk and trying to be overly careful to compensate.

My first thought was “I’m on Interstate 95, right between New York and Washington D.C. I must get home, and quickly.”

My second thought was, “What kind of world is my child going to be born into?”

My third and fourth and fifth thought were, “The baby. The baby. The baby.” I drove the rest of the way home with one hand over my stomach like an evil eye to ward off whatever could possibly fall on us from the sky, perhaps even the sky itself, which at that moment seemed quite possibly to be crashing down.

When the government sent us a check a month later, telling us to “go out and spend money” as if that would fix the problems the United States faced, Matt and I decided that we would take that money right back to New York. Matt had actually gone to Manhattan on September 15 to stay with a friend whose wife was on a business trip to Spain and who was having a terrible time getting home, so he had been in the thick of all the immediate grief. And we had seen the stories about how the tourism industry there had been decimated, how restaurants and stores were closing, and we decided that if we were to spend money, it should be there.

We arrived on a gorgeous October afternoon. The city was decorated as if for the Fourth of July; American flags everywhere. The posters put up by family members of loved ones who had been lost in the tower were still in place, no longer at all hopeful, but as shrines to those who were gone. The faces of those who had died were everywhere, pictures taken at weddings or family picnics, the words “Has anyone seen?”, “We Need Your Help”, or “Missing” a stark contrast to their smiles.

When we got to our hotel in midtown, we discovered that it was full of firefighters in their dress uniforms. They were streaming into the city from all over the country so that every one of their comrades who died would have a full honor guard at their funeral.

After we checked in, we walked up Fifth Avenue. The lions in front of the New York Public Library wore Yankees caps and it was possible for a moment to feel only optimism, to forget the images that had filled our television screens and minds for weeks.

That is, until we came upon one of those funerals in progress.

It was unspeakably beautiful and sad, everything that is the best and worst about being human.

This past weekend, when we were in Battery Park, I watched as tourist after tourist posed, smiling in front of “The Sphere” – a statue symbolizing peace that used to sit in front of the World Trade Center. I looked at the eternal flame in front of its bent and dented form and at the perfectly blue sky, so exactly as it was on that Tuesday eight years ago. And I felt so grateful for New York, all its beauty and grittiness, for its ability to remember even if others have perhaps forgotten. I looked at my boys who were more interested in pigeons than the statue and I prayed fiercely at that moment that they – that none of us – should ever know a morning like that distant one when I lay my hand over my stomach and knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

Note: I’ve been writing about New York all week and will be back soon with the story of our last day there. This post is for Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Here’s something that I discovered about making my children hoof it around New York: It leads to good nights of sleep for everyone. Often when we travel, Tommy wakes up absurdly early and then is too exhausted by the time attractions like museums actually open to enjoy them (this happened to us last fall when we went to Washington, DC). But after a long day during which we covered most of the southern end of Central Park, to say nothing of the east side of Midtown, the boys were exhausted and actually slept until just past 6:30, a veritable triumph for us. (It didn’t hurt of course that Tommy was at the University of Delaware football game until 9:30 p.m. the preceding evening. I may need to schedule all our travel days so they follow night games.)

We didn’t want to sleep in too late anyway as our game plan was after a hit of coffee and donuts to walk directly up 33^rd Street from the apartment we rented to the Empire State Building. As I mentioned last week, this was the place the boys most wanted to go. It was a perfectly clear morning and getting there early worked – we made it quickly to the top and were able to enjoy the view without an overwhelming crowd. Tommy took loads of pictures, including one deeply blue one of the sky. There’s something absolutely stunning about being up that high over such a big city, and doing it with kids is even more fun. Tommy was most enthralled with the taxis flashing yellow below us and it made me look more carefully at the pageant below, so perfectly visible in the crystalline air.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Getting to the Empire State Building during the first hour of operation is a great idea (they open at 8 a.m. every day). So is buying tickets online in advance and printing them off. We did both things and were at the observatory on the 86^th floor in 25 minutes. By the time we descended the lines were already twice as long. I’m glad I chose to skip the much more expensive Express Pass in favor of getting going early.

I’ll admit that I was a bit slapdash in planning this trip and didn’t think to bring breakfast food with us to Manhattan. This was a real oversight since we had access to a full kitchen. By the time we’d been up in the observation deck for about twenty minutes the boys were completely chilled and ravenously hungry (apparently a couple of donuts and some juice just doesn’t cut it until mid-morning). So we never did make it all the way to the 102^nd floor observatory up in the needle. But that leaves something for next time right?

After a coffee shop breakfast (and by coffee shop I really mean diner – think the place where Jerry Seinfeld hung out) we headed down to Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan where we met our friends Tom and Karen and their little boy and girl who are almost five and two respectively. The kids enjoyed the view of the Statue of Liberty and a good romp on a playground before we caught the Staten Island Ferry, one of those exceptions in life that proves the rule in that it is a) absolutely free and b) beautiful and fun.

In addition, I’ve since discovered that the beers for sale on the boat are very cheap. I’m feeling a bit disappointed in myself that I didn’t notice this at the time, but will plead the exigencies of making sure my four-year-old didn’t fall overboard or get swept up with one of the hundreds of other families also occupying the deck. Of course, most of those families did just what we did at the other end, which was exit the boat, turn around, and get right on the next ferry heading back to Manhattan.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT pay to ride a boat around the Statue of Liberty. The Staten Island Ferry is clean, fun, and most importantly, free. The view of the statue is fabulous and the ride takes about 25 minutes each way. It is in every respect an absolutely perfect outing with kids. And on the Manhattan side there’s a playground right across the street from the terminal.

When we returned everyone was hungry. We wandered across the street toward the financial district to discover the New Amsterdam Village, constructed as part of the 400^th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival. It came complete with a windmill, clogs, herring, and French fries. But it was also crowded and the food lines were slow, so instead of stopping we walked about ten minutes over to the South Street Seaport. This is another place that is very touristy and yet has its own specific charms. We had a forgettable lunch at the Heartland Brewery where the beer was better than the food, which took forever to arrive.

But lunch was basically just a chance to sit down and get something in our stomachs and was far from the main attraction. While we ate, two different balloon-animal-making clowns showed up. Teddy requested and got a giraffe, but Tom and Karen’s son was the one to truly score, with two swords, a holster, and a balloon hat. He immediately decided he was a pirate. And so we swashbuckled our way past the tall-ship replicas, past the tourists buying margaritas in plastic cups, past the guests arriving for someone’s wedding, to the water’s edge, where the East River was our oyster.

The steps at the end of the tourist strip are like one sitting in the middle of a Bryon Barton book about transportation. In addition to admiring the Brooklyn Bridge and watching the automobile and pedestrian traffic crossing it, there was a veritable feast of vehicles to watch including helicopters, tugboats pushing barges, speedboats (some of them with bows painted to look like sharks) and finally a replica clipper ship, which our very own Pirate King declared to be his. And as if in answer to his claim, the boat sailed up and docked right next to us while we munched on a tasty mix of root- beer and island-punch jelly beans.

After we had filled up on jelly beans and the view, Tom and Karen decided it was time to head for home. Matt and I didn’t have a clear plan for our next move, so we happily crossed South Street to the small playground that Tommy had spied with his eagle eyes. While the children were delighting in the crowds of kids playing there and making new friends left and right, I got the idea that instead of dinner, we’d just have dessert and that I would take them up to Serendipity3, an Upper East Side landmark famous for its frozen hot chocolate (or frrrozen as the menu says) and ice cream sundaes, to say nothing of the kitschy gift shop and celebrity sightings. (I had my own brush with glory there when I was 16 and ran directly into Bryan Adams as he was leaving. He literally had to help me up off the floor while I gaped and sputtered.)

Unfortunately, after a zippy subway ride up there on the Lexington Ave. Express, we discovered that the line for the restaurant was ridiculous. Since being a blogger doesn’t exactly make me famous enough to walk right in (looking at the website I can see they only get excited when the Jonas Brothers or Brad and Angelina drop by), we didn’t even bother to ask how long the wait was but instead walked a block back to Dylan’s Candy Bar, much to the boys’ delight.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: When you’re traveling, a playground is pretty much always a good idea, especially if there are other children on it. Don’t assume that because to you it looks lame or untended or because there’s already been a playground break in your itinerary and who needs another one? that your children will feel the same way. They will relish the chance to run, yell, and interact with others their own age who are not their siblings. And assuming your kids are old enough not be in continual mortal peril, you can sit on a bench and relax. That is what I call a win-win.

We had visited the store on the previous evening as well, for an orgy of candy buying. This store really is amazing, decorated as if by a trippy Willie Wonka with giant lollypops and gummy bears. Even the illuminated steps have candy embedded in them. I’m not even certain I really saw everything that they had on offer, but the website says they offer 5000 kinds of candy and I believe it. I know that they do have:

• Every kind of chewy sour candy you can imagine from Cherry Coke Bottles to Sour Skittles
• Gum balls the size of my fist
• A rainbow selection of rock candy, jelly beans, and M & M’s
• A dizzying array of chocolate bars, including milk chocolate with bacon
• An entire section dedicated to vintage candy including Charleston Chews, which I hadn’t seen since I was about ten years old
• Cotton candy

Unfortunately, I don’t have such favorable things to say about the café on the top floor, which is where we headed on the second night. The décor is as bright and whimsical as the rest of the store, and there is the added enhancement of videos that show and endless loop of old candy ads. A favorite of mine was the bride and groom kissing for the duration of the Big Red commercial – at the end the maid actually dusts them off with a feather duster

I was able to enjoy this ad, along with all the others, multiple times as the service in the café was slow to the point of absurdity. Matt had to wait in line for at least twenty minutes to place our order. Then the befuddled staff took another ten minutes to serve him his cupcake and make Teddy’s ice cream sundae. Tommy and I had ordered frozen hot chocolates (only one r on this menu) and we waited and waited and waited with no sign of them. When I went up to check on their status after fifteen minutes I got blank looks and the explanation that “we ran out of whipped cream and had to make more.” It was another ten minutes before they finally served our treats and when they did I discovered that they had made me the wrong one. By then I was in no mood to complain.

And really, what did I have to complain about? I watched Teddy devour his Perfectly Peanut Butter sundae and Tommy alternate munches of chocolate-covered marshmallow with slurps of his Simply Perfect frozen hot chocolate and thought that every child should have a chance to enjoy dessert for dinner as part of a Manhattan spree. Eloise herself would be proud.

As we walked back to our apartment, Matt pointed out the illuminated Chrysler Building, which prompted us to look back at the Empire State Building all decked out for Labor Day in red, white, and blue. “I like New York at night,” Teddy said. I agreed.

I hope you’ll visit the first post of our New York City story as well as Day 3, in which we finally got a good meal as well as a good dose of dinosaur bones.

So I made good on our promise to take lots of pictures during our three-day weekend in New York, returning home with over 300 of them, including about fifty taken by Tommy (don’t worry – you won’t be subjected to nearly that many – I’m just making my point). And although I said planned to, what I couldn’t seem to do was stay away from Central Park. On a gorgeous end-of-summer weekend it was just too hard to resist. And so resist it we did not!

We didn’t begin our first day in the park. After driving up from Delaware and then dropping off our car and bags at The Envoy Club in the Midtown neighborhood of Murray Hill, we walked up to Grand Central Terminal. My two suburban children were hungry and after we had walked about halfway there Tommy revealed that he needed a toilet and that he was tired of walking (this proved a theme of the weekend – for reasons that are difficult to comprehend, my child who will hike for miles in the woods poops out after four short city blocks. His brother, for whom we did not bring a stroller, was much more good natured about walking. But then he did get carried more than occasionally). So it was with cajoling and perseverance that we made it to our destination, about fifteen blocks from where we started.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Instead of using the bathrooms in Grand Central Terminal, duck into the Grand Hyatt next door. The restrooms right behind the elevators in the lobby and are spacious and clean.

I chose Grand Central for lunch because there are numerous options in the Dining Concourse; I thought it would be fun if everyone could choose for him- or herself what to eat. Tommy and I enjoyed sushi, while Matt had Indian food. Teddy, sensing that parental guard was down, had an apple turnover for his lunch. And earned a big smile and a thank you from the woman serving him when he peeped thanks at her (Little Chick is back in force these days). It was really fun to eat under the low arches, listening to the announcements of arriving and departing trains and watching the continuous parade of travelers. “This is certainly different than Delaware!” Tommy kept exclaiming and I knew that he was enjoying the feeling of being at the center of someplace important, even as it overwhelmed him a little.

After we finished our lunch we took the boys up to the Main Concourse so that they could see the starry ceiling and the famous clock. I explained that when I was a girl the ceiling was dark with soot and how I love to visit now and see it in its pale-green glory, the signs of the Zodiac twinkling just as they should. Teddy was especially enchanted to see Pegasus, and I think Tommy loved the idea that people have been meeting under the clock for generations. And of course, since they are both huge fans of both Madagascar movies, they loved seeing the “real live” version of the train station where the animals were captured after they escaped from the zoo.

We had planned to take the subway uptown, but there were so many people waiting to buy tickets in the station that we hopped in a cab instead. I know that this may be considered a controversial move, but I will admit that when it really seems prudent, I will take my children into cabs without car seats, especially now that they are bigger. They both wore shoulder seat belts and enjoyed riding in the cab very much, and since it only took us about five minutes to reach Central Park South, I felt like it was a reasonable risk.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: Although I’m generally a huge proponent of mass transit, and that’s mostly what we used, it’s a fact that during light holiday-weekend traffic driving around Manhattan can be faster than public transportation. And if your destination is close but just outside walking distance it can be cheaper too – we paid the same amount to cab from Grand Central to Central Park as it would have cost to ride the subway.

The park was crowded, which didn’t bother me as I had expected crowds since it was Labor Day weekend. The line for the Central Park Zoo stretched a good block and half and I dreaded the wait. But it took less than fifteen minutes to get through. The zoo is not one of the great ones for studying a wide variety of animal life but is pretty much just a small and lovely zoo in a fabulous location. There’s a children’s zoo with bunnies and peacocks and pot-bellied pigs and a giant spider’s web, which was of much greater interested to Teddy than Tommy. Inside the main zoo it is the penguin exhibit that is really worth the cost of admission. There are so many of them and they are so funny and close that even though the air smells of ammonia and fish it’s possible to spend a long time in the dim, cool space watching them waddle and swim. Tommy was especially delighted when one decided to hang out in the water right in front of us.

After a long visit with the penguins, we admired the polar bear, the snow leopard (who was fast asleep), and the red panda before taking our leave. Then, with a number of wrong turns, we made our way over to the carousel where we had planned to meet up with Wendy Perrin and her family. Wendy is the consumer news editor for Condé Nast Traveler and a lovely person whose passion in life is travel and mission in life seems to be to make travel easier and more fun for others. If you haven’t checked out The Perrin Post, you should– it’s full of great tips and deals. In fact, it was thanks to Wendy that we were in New York in the first place – I rented the apartment we were staying in after she highlighted Labor Day deals.

Her two boys (who are five and seven) and Tommy and Teddy were old friends pretty much as soon as they met. After a quick carousel ride – you knew that there had to be a carousel ride right? – they insisted on an immediate play date, running ahead of us all the way to the playground (so I guess Tommy’s feet couldn’t have hurt him that badly after all).

Travel-With-Kids Tip: If you’re hanging out in Central Park, you might want to purchase a map of the park or print one off before you go. You can also buy one from numerous vendors in the park itself. It can be tricky to find even major landmarks – I couldn’t locate the carousel once we left the zoo and finally broke down and bought map myself. And if you’re there with kids on a hot sunny day, pack swim suits and water shoes (or have your kids wear them, which is what I did). Many of the playgrounds have water play areas.

The eight of us were joined at the Heckscher Playground by some long-time friends with two small children of their own. Everyone got very sandy and wet and Tommy triumphantly acquainted himself with every crevice of the huge rock that dominates one side of the play area. Later he talked with casual bravado about how he was even able to climb even “the hardest part, ‘cuz I figured out how to hold on.” Once everyone had a chance to get completely filthy and to eat some frozen treats, we decided to make our way through the crowds of vendors selling caricatures, photos of John Lennon, bottles of water, and carriage rides to F.A.O. Schwarz.

Now I know that lots of people think the indoor Ferris wheel at the Toys “R” Us in Times Square is much cooler. But I’ll never forsake the classic pleasure of this enormous toy store at the corner of 58^th Street and Fifth Avenue; it has been one of my happy places for many years. Every time I return it surprises me how good I feel, since I’m generally not much of a shopper and it’s always packed to the gills with people. But there’s just something really magical about it, that even the children pick up on – there’s a distinct lack of whining or begging. Maybe it’s because the people who work there seem to like it. The “toy soldier” guarding the door knew just what to say to every child who entered, including my two. “You look just like Harry Potter!” he said to a beaming Teddy. To Tommy, who was finishing the messiest popsicle I’ve ever seen, he said, “It’s the Joker!” eliciting guffaws from the surrounding crowd.

Like everyone else, once inside we wandered about with our mouths open staring at the acres of toys. From dolls to blocks to puppets to enormous stuffed animals, there is truly something to please every child. And of course, there’s the Big Piano, made famous by Tom Hanks in the movie Big. Teddy had his own five minutes of fame, hopping from one end to the other and peeping.

Then we wandered and wondered for a good hour without buying anything although I was very tempted by the Whatnot Workshop where it is possible to design and make one’s very own Muppet. I wanted to make one to keep in my office. A blogging buddy if you will.

But I resisted temptation and then we said good-bye to all of our friends (and another big thanks to Wendy) and walked over to Dylan’s Candy Bar. I’ll talk more about this place in my post tomorrow (yes, we were there two days in a row). Suffice it to say that they have every candy you’ve ever eaten or dreamed of eating. And then some. Several pounds of the sweet stuff and forty dollars later, we staggered out into the street intent on finding some food that didn’t contain sugar. I had planned for us to eat dinner at the Landmarc Restaurant in the Time Warner Building overlooking Central Park, but I couldn’t see making the kids haul all the way over there. So we walked over to the perfectly adequate Pop Burger on 58^th Street, had some sliders and fries, and made our way back downtown and to bed immediately thereafter, sated in every sense.

Like this post? You might also enjoy MOAT takes Manhattan: Day two which includes The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, to say nothing of clowns, sharks, and pirates and Day three in which we finally got a good meal as well as a good dose of dinosaur bones.