Whirlwind Trip to NYC Day 4: New York to New Jersey--and Back!

This day was a day for wandering far and wide! Will and I had a bit of a lie-in while Matt and Syd ventured out for the best bagels in Harlem, and to play another game of "Dunkin roulette" at the eponymous coffee shop on the corner. We stopped there every morning of our trip, and the rules of the game seemed to be that you give your order to the barista, and then she makes you something random and you drink it.

Syd did not enjoy this game because she's very particular, and the barista especially horrified her one morning by serving her HOT matcha, which she loathes, but I kind of liked not knowing how many shots of espresso or what kind of milk was in my own morning coffee.

Once we were all finally up and dressed and caffeinated, with our tummies full of bagels, we went out for the day. We briefly hopped off the subway so we could see our first real, live Banksy--

--and then we were right back again--

--where, you'll be pleased to know, Will's NYC dream came true:

Then it was back on the subway for a long, long time--

--all the way down to the bottom bit of Manhattan and the Staten Island Ferry:

Is riding the free Staten Island Ferry back and forth from NYC to New Jersey and back the absolute most touristy thing one can do?

Possibly, but it also gives you a terrific view of the Statue of Liberty!

And the views of the Manhattan skyline, air pollution highly evident, are a big part of the fun!

Even if you plan to ride the ferry right back again, you have to disembark in New Jersey and hop on a different ferry that's ready to go. Matt used his time on the first ferry, though, to scope out the best views, so when we all got back on again he knew exactly where to lead us so I could take the best photos of my unwilling children with the skyline and the Statue of Liberty over their shoulders:

And another view of the Statue of Liberty! I 10/10 recommend the Staten Island Ferry for the free views without the fuss of actually visiting Ellis Island--although I DO want to do that someday!

In all our trip planning for NYC, Will was really just excited about seeing the vermin, so here she is feeding leftover bagel--which is very bad for them!--to a seagull:

She attracted so many bird friends that I bagged it and took the rest of my photos of her from a VERY safe distance...

After a delicious lunch (for us and the birds!) of bagels, we walked the Battery north to Castle Clinton. I had planned to explore Castle Clinton and have the kids earn their Junior Ranger badges there, but even though the place is technically open, it's really actually closed and pretty much just serves as the open-air ticket window for the Ellis Island ferry:

When Matt asked about it, though, a ranger did pop into the office and bring back Junior Ranger books and badges for the kids. Syd looked at me hopefully when she saw the badges already in my hand, but I still made the kids look over the two or three displays that we were able to access and fill out their books, anyway:

And then Ranger Google helped them with the rest of their books!

So, I don't think that we left Castle Clinton with any particular insight as to its merits or claims to fame (other than the fact that it was an aquarium for a time, which...), but regardless, Junior Ranger badges achieved, we headed northeast for some more sightseeing on foot:

I had been vaguely leading us more or less to the Wall Street bull statue, thinking we might as well check it off our list, but this is as close as we got to it:

You guys, people are standing in line BEHIND the bull, because they all want to pose for photos squatting underneath the bull's butt! That's... not what I'd expected. Hard pass.

We didn't really have an agenda for the rest of our day, but I knew that if we simply walked north up Broadway we'd definitely pass stuff we wanted to look at, so that's what we did!

We passed Trinity Church, where Eliza and Alexander Hamilton are buried, but the area is under construction and you can't access the cemetery, boo. I'd sort of had it in my head that we'd walk as far as the African Burial Ground National Monument, but instead we diverted and visited the World Trade Center Complex to see the memorials:

The sun was setting on our last full day in NYC and the kids still had some spending money burning holes in their pockets (Thank you, Grandparents!), so we took the subway back to Bryant Park's Winter Market. Will bought a new best friend--

--and so did Syd:

Syd had some dumplings--

--while Will had a cookie:

I had a hot apple cider and a gingersnap, both of which will remain unphotographed because my hands were full!

The remaining hours of our trip were that unremarkable combination of packing, eating the weird combo of all the last bits of groceries (chicken strips and leftover take-out pizza and Matt's regret that he'd bought whole jars of peanut butter and jelly that we for sure weren't going to be able to finish), subway stations and Grand Central Terminal--

--and the airport shuttle and security theater and the sunset over the East Coast--

--and the hassle of dealing with overly-gregarious and WAY too hyped for the time of day fellow riders of the airport shuttle and the hour-long drive on top of it AND the detour to pick up the dog from the sitter that make you especially happy to finally walk in your own door, be furiously greeted by the cats who are outraged to tell you that STRANGERS ENTERED THE HOUSE AND PLAYED WITH THEM WHILE YOU WERE GONE, take a shower in your own bathroom, dry yourself off with your own towels, put on clean pajamas that don't smell like Saturday's spilled coffee for a change, and eat... well, it was more take-out pizza. 

But it was take-out pizza that tasted like home!

Whirlwind Trip to NYC Day 3: Central Park, North to South

 We treated ourselves to a nice lie-in on this day, partly to try to recover from last night's downstairs rave, but also because our only plans for the day were to meander across the entire length and breadth of Central Park... and to watch Hadestown that night.

A block and a half walk and two subway stops put us right across the street from Harlem Meer.

We took the easternmost path south, strolling past Untermeyer Fountain--

The Central Park Dialysis Center is so lovely!

--and the Conservatory Garden--

--before stopping to rest our feet and enjoy the view on top of some likely looking bedrock.

We saw a couple of really great dogs as we walked south between the North and East Meadows, and I don't feel like we even spotted any other tourists until we reached the west side of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir:

We strolled in a very non-jogging fashion down the Shuman Running Track, then left the reservoir at South Gate. We tried to peep at the Temple of Dendur through the window of the MOMA but we couldn't see it for the glare, which was a bummer. Fortunately, there's an obelisk just out in the open to peep at!

I highly recommend enjoying it from a nearby bench while eating a bag of m&ms. 

We didn't see any turtles in Turtle Pond, but we did spy this belligerent squirrel!

Will wanted to see Belvedere Castle--

--which has a lovely view to the northwest:

Afterwards, we rambled down The Ramble:

Note the typical view of my family from my perspective in the far rear.

The best thing that we did all day was happen to stumble upon this holiday tree dedicated to pet memorials.

I think that between the four of us, we looked at every sweet photo, and read every heartfelt, heartbroken word:

And now I can say that I've cried in Central Park!

I, for one, needed a boost in spirits after that, so we went to find Alice!

There's a good view of Billionaire's Row from Conservatory Water:

Will wanted to do Central Park Zoo, but it didn't seem cost-effective for the remaining hours it was open, so instead she just gazed longingly at it as we walked by. We did hit a couple of playgrounds, though, because apparently a million-mile march in 40-degree weather doesn't cause one to lose one's enthusiasm for SWINGS!!!

By the time we reached the Grand Army Plaza, Syd was having a major hankering for bagels, so Matt Google Mapped us down 5th Ave. and then who knows where to score the BEST bagels Google Maps could offer:

I don't really know where we went or the path we followed or what we saw on the way, however, because I was pretty busy having a very quiet panic attack. I was SURE our evening performance of Hadestown was going to be canceled, and I kept checking my email and the message boards to try to find some info, and whenever I didn't come up with anything I didn't feel comforted--I just started again.

Finally, sitting in this bagel shop, feeling like I was about to puke except the shop didn't have a bathroom, I agreed with Matt when he suggested that we might as well just go check out the theatre, make sure there was no sign up canceling the performance. We had to be over there in a couple of hours, anyway, so we could kill the time hitting up all the tourist shops around Times Square. 

Of course, when we got there, there WAS a sign up canceling the performance. Matt swore and I burst into tears standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Like, I was so pathetic that a random security guard even popped into existence out of nowhere to comfort me. Thank you, Random Security Guard! You were so nice! 

I think the decision was made to shop for presents in Times Square anyway, because I remember at some point standing in the middle of a billion I Heart NY T-shirts, and I have this photo:

And by the time Hadestown *would* have started, when Matt and the kids had already brought me back to the AirBnb and tucked me up onto the comfy couch in my pajamas and put food and a stiff drink in my hands and queued up more Supernatural episodes on someone else's Netflix account for me, Broadway.com had already refunded all our ticket money back into my Paypal account, so at least there's that, I guess.