This week’s dreaming post has me a little closer to home. Less than three hours away in fact. But sometimes it’s those close-to-home places that get ignored, or if not ignored put off until some other time, “when it’s convenient” (like after the kids go to college). For our family New York City is such a place, much discussed because we do have dear friends who live there in apartment blocks similar to Lincoln Towers, and not visited for years although it is an easy drive, flight, or train ride from our domicile.
Who knows why New York has become a place we talk about and don’t visit. The last time we were in New York, I was pregnant with Teddy, Tommy was but a toddler, and the Plaza was still just a hotel. Tommy was more thrilled to ride the subway than anything else and we all crowded into our friends’ small apartment (this was back in the halcyon days when they also only had one child ). They live in one of the best NYC neighborhoods and that’s plain to see when you visit for yourself – sometimes, I do wonder about looking at properties here too! Our sightseeing on that trip was fairly minimal: a few hours in the Central Park Zoo, a quick trip to FAO Schwarz, and that was about it. The only restaurant food we ate was pizza. It wasn’t an expensive trip, certainly, and one that would not be difficult to replicate. Heck, at this point we could probably take the kids up there for the day, since neither of them naps anymore.
But I don’t really want to do a flying, on-the-cheap daytrip to Manhattan. No, I have a fantasy of spending a week there, staying somewhere really nice – maybe an apartment maintained by someone like nycapartmentmanagement.com, and living it up. This would preferably happen during the holiday season (which is why this is a fantasy because such a trip would cost a small fortune) so that we could see the show at Radio City Music Hall and the tree and ice skaters at Rockefeller Center. On this trip we would also be sure to visit:
- Lincoln Center, where we would see the New York City Ballet’s Nutcracker. One of my favorite childhood memories is putting on a velvet dress with a blue sash and going to see this with my mother after I had spent hours poring over the book A Very Young Dancer by Jill Krementz. With two boys I wouldn’t get to dress anyone in velvet, but I think they would both love this confection of a ballet.
- The American Museum of Natural History. Can anyone say Dinosaur Halls? To say nothing of the planetarium. Or the fact that the exterior is the museum from the movie Night at the Museum.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I would get my fix of the Impressionists, Matt could take in all the 18th-century decorative arts, and the boys could go inside a pyramid. Art museums don’t get any better than that.
- And of course Central Park, with its zoo, playgrounds, ponds, and paths.
My question for you this week is what wonderful place is right under your nose but somehow unattainable? Maybe if we all articulate these easy dreams our collective energy will help them to come true.
I’d also love to hear from all of you about your favorite NYC landmarks to see with kids, or any suggestions for hotels and restaurants. Maybe then we’ll motivate to get up there one of these days. Until we do, this photo of Tommy and me will just have to remind me of when we were a slightly smaller and more portable operation and could more easily do a weekend jaunt to The Big Apple.
I think every day is for thinking about New York 🙂
I’d love to take my kids to the Lower East Side (LES)
We’d visit the tenement museum, get sandwiches @ Katz’s, Gelato at Il Labratorio de Gelato, and Doughnuts @ Doughnut Plant. My kids would LOVE the pickle guy and I’d probably hustle them past economy candy…
NYC is my right-under-my-nose-yet-unattainable trip, too. We haven’t been there since long before the child was here on the planet (we got engaged overlooking Time Square, in fact).
All your ideas for kids sound fabulous. My brother lives just outside the city in NJ, too, so we really have no excuse not to go for a weekend. One of these days…
I also dream of a leisurely long weekend in Cape May. I know, how much more under-your-nose can you get, right? But we didn’t make it to the DE beach or Jersey shore this summer, not even for an afternoon. I’m going to pencil that into next summer’s calendar right this minute!
Hi,
Thanks for all the information.
Ah, New York City! My kids were born there, but we moved away almost 6 years ago. I have plenty of fond memories – one place I’d like to quickly mention is Dylan’s Candy Shoppe. Yes, it’s a store, and yes, it sells candy – but it’s a lot of fun, and it can be a reward after making young kids suffer through MoMA or The Met. 🙂
Great post, and I love that photo.
hi Mara. when you do make it back to the apple let us and know and we’ll meet up with you and the fam. hope you’re all well. i love your blog.
Thank you Debbie – please note everyone that she has an informative section about visiting NYC with kids at Delicious Baby: http://www.deliciousbaby.com/travel/usa/ny/new-york/
Such great feedback from everyone! Tall Girl, I’m happy I could help you motivate. Cape May is lovely – and I haven’t been there since before children.
And Mudslide Mama, I know my kids would love that candy store (of course I wouldn’t at all…)
Yay! More NYC info. I’m heading there w/ my family for Thanksgiving (so I don’t think the tree will be up yet, but we will see the Radio City Xmas Spectacular Show). And yes, accommodations over holiday week are outta control, but we found a relative bargain w/ AAA memebership at the Affinia 50. There will be five of us (Grammie is coming) in a one-bedroom. Eek.
We have made it a tradition to do a trip to NYC every year around holiday time. The first two years we did the day trip thing (up on the China bus early, home late) but last year we made it an overnight trip (and we’ll do the same this year). We went to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show last year and Ella really loved it, though we’ll probably wait a couple of years to go back as Sam is so small. Our family highlight is going to Bryant Park– we walk around and look at the “shops,” grab hot chocolate, and sit and watch the ice skaters. Ella loves it and it is always one of my favorite memories of those trips.
This year we are planning to take the Chinatown bus from Wilmington, saving us the drive up to Philly.