Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is enormous.  After visiting this zoo I read that (area wise) it is the largest zoo in the U.S.  It is so big that after we entered the gates we walked a good seven or eight minutes before we saw an exhibit.  I honestly thought that we were lost and walking down a service road.  We weren't- there's just a lot of space between exhibits.  This zoo didn't necessarily have more animals than others we have been to, but it did have different animals than we've seen at other zoos.  Of course all the "usual" animals were present, but there were also polar bears, hyenas, African wild dogs, and geladas.  We spent the majority of one day at the zoo.  Before leaving, we saw an area where they were doing camel rides.  I kids were begging to do this, and I have always wanted to do it- so we did.  And it was a lot of fun.


So, this is my last New York post (believe it or not).  We had a lot of fun.  Considering how close New York is to Brian's dad's house, I'm sure we'll be back.  There's something to look forward to.

Day at the Museum

Since the kids were such troopers during the art museum visits, we decided to visit a museum geared toward their interests- that being the American Museum of Natural History.  This is the museum featured in the movie "Night at the Museum".  Thankfully, none of the exhibits came to life while we were there.  This place was truly a kids paradise.  There were halls and halls filled with all types of stuffed animals.  In the ocean life room there was a huge model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.  That was really cool.  There were also interesting exhibits about gems and minerals (Olivia's favorite), Native Americans, and loads of dinosaur bones.  The kids were in no hurry to leave this museum.  Included with the admission were tickets to see the show at the planetarium that's attached to the building.  We have never taken the kids to see this type of thing before, so we weren't sure what to expect.  The show was educational and really well done.  It certainly caught Olivia's attention.  She leaned over toward the end of the show and said to me, "Mama, I'm not going to take a picture because I know we're not suppose to, but I really want to because this is cool".  Owen fell asleep during the show.  Bless his heart.

Brooklyn Bridge

We spent a portion of one afternoon walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.  We took the subway to Brooklyn and walked toward New York so that we could have a view of the skyline as we made our trek.  We were also treated to views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  Before beginning our journey, we stopped at a restaurant in Brooklyn to use the restroom (because Olivia just had to go).  We ended up getting drinks and cookies here as well which we ate while on the bridge.  Walking the bridge was a nice change of pace, and everyone really enjoyed it.

Art, Art, and More Art

I love fine art.  I could spend hours in a museum.  Now, I'm not artistic at all.  I can barely draw a decent stick person, but I appreciate the work of those who are talented.  My favorite part of our New York trip was being able to visit not one but two top-tier art museums.  We spent one morning at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and another morning at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).  I was so excited to visit these world class facilities.  We started our day at the Met by checking out the medieval armor.  This was really cool.  We then proceeded to the Egyptian section.  It was at this point that Owen started saying that he was ready to go.  So, Brian took him outside of the museum, bought him a pretzel, and they spent the next hour and a half feeding the pigeons.  Olivia stayed with me and granny Mel as we checked out the paintings.  Olivia is going to be an art lover- I can tell.  We saw tons of paintings.  When we got to "Autumn Rhythm (No. 30)" by Jackson Pollack, Olivia recognized it as the painting that Olivia the Pig "just didn't get".  I couldn't believe that she recognized this work from her children's book and pointed it out.  She wanted her picture made with it, and I obliged.  Later on we saw the Degas painting that Olivia the Pig loved, and my Olivia wanted a picture of it as well.  This began the trend to taking our pictures beside our favorite paintings.  This was a fun thing to do, and it kept Olivia interested.

As excited as I was to visit the Met, I was even MORE excited to visit MOMA.  This museum was smaller, but still outstanding.   Inside of MOMA was Van Gogh's Starry Night, which is Olivia's number one absolute favorite painting.  Also in this museum was one of my favorite works, The Persistence of Memory (melting clocks) by Salvador Dalí.  I was surprised by how small this work was.  I always imagined it as being very large, but it's actually about the size of an 8x10.  Melanie loves Monet, and there was a huge work of his in the museum as well.  Owen had to stay with us the entire time here, and he got in on the "take a picture with your favorite painting" action.  I thoroughly enjoyed the visit to each museum and I would love to return to both one day sans kids so that I can spend more time in them.

Shop Til You Drop

There are certainly no shortage of shopping opportunities in NYC.  We spent more time shopping on this trip than we have on any trip we've ever taken.  We didn't end up buying much, but it was fun to look around.  Of course we saw stores like Tiffany's, Bergdorf Goodman, Prada, etc- but we didn't go inside any of those.  We did, however, thoroughly explore each and every "kid" store that we came across.  In Times Square we visited the M&Ms store and the Hershey's store.  We did buy something at both of these.  We just couldn't help it.  In the M&M store they pump in the smell of chocolate through the air vents.  How could we resist?  Lining the walls of this store were tubes and tubes of M&Ms.  Customers could fill a bag with their preferred candies and pay by the pound.  Owen and Olivia were in heaven.  Another stop in Times Square was the Disney Store.  Here we found a magic mirror.  Whenever Olivia waved a wand in front of the mirror, a princess would appear and a little clip about that princess would play in the mirror.  That was also pretty cool.  The last stop in Times Square was the flagship store for Toys R Us.  Otherwise known as Brian's mecca.  He has  talked about the TRU in Times Square for years, and the store definitely lived up to the hype.  Inside the store there was a full size ferris wheel, a two story Barbie dreamhouse, and an animatronic T-Rex.

 Later in the week we took a stroll down Fifth Avenue where we came across the American Girl Store and FAO Schwartz.  Owen, Olivia, and Bailey enjoyed playing on the "Big Piano" at FAO Schwartz.  Since Olivia's birthday occurred while we were in New York, we asked her to point out some things that she would like as a gift.  She asked for a toy dog from Toys R Us, which Granny Mel gave her.  She also wanted a matching dress for her and Addie (her bitty baby) from the American Girl Store.  This is what Brian and I got her for her birthday.  Seeing as how this is pretty much all we bought, I think we got off pretty cheap.

A View From the Top

On our first full day in The Big Apple, we headed up in order to check out the full scope of the city. Our first stop was Top of the Rock.  I had never been here, but I enjoyed the views.  It was also cool that the elevator had a glass top so you could see exactly how far and how fast you were going. The observation deck was well laid out and offered a great view of Manhattan.  I especially liked the thick glass partitions.  They allowed the kids to safely see everything without us having to lift them.

Later that evening we went to the top of the Empire State Building.  We decided to do this so that we could see the city lit up at night.  It was an awesome view, but it was sooooo cold.  We stayed up just long enough to get a good look and then came down immediately.  Brandon, Sandy, and Bailey went to the top about twenty minutes after we did and they said it started snowing (flurries) while they were up.  That's cold!

Good Eats in The Big Apple

It's a good thing that my mother-in-law has been to NYC a number of times.  Not only does she know how to get around, but she also knows where to go for good food.  We were certainly well fed while in the city.  Although we ate at a number of interesting places (including numerous visits to street vendors)- there were three that really stood out to me.  The first was the Carnegie Deli.  This restaurant was lined with photos of all the famous people who had eaten there.  The food was good, and the portions were massive.  I couldn't even come close to finishing my meal.  The Carnegie Deli is the home to the most fantastic cheesecake that I have ever tasted, and for this reason, it makes my memorable meal list.

The second restaurant on my list of memorable restaurants is Sylvia's.  I'm glad that Melanie knew about this place because I would have never found it on my own.  Sylvia's is a soul food restaurant in Harlem.  It is located about a block from the Apollo Theater and a short walk from Bill Clinton's New York office.  The waitress said that Clinton and other politicians eat there frequently.  The president has even gone there twice.  Anyway, the food was good southern cooking and was delicious.  Brian says they have the best hot sauce that he has ever tasted, and we ended up buying three bottles to take home with us.  An interesting thing happened while at Sylvia's.  Melanie went to freshen up and came back with a lady that she had met in the restroom.  The lady had family in South Georgia and we soon discovered that her Aunt had been my fourth grade science teacher.  Who would have thought that we would have made this kind of connection in Harlem?

The last memorable restaurant was Bubba Gump's in Times Square.  The food was the same as any other Bubba Gump's, but it was the location that set this one apart.  Our table was beside a large window that looked out on Times Square.  We were able to see all of the activity taking place.  At one point I saw the creepy Elmo on the corner in front of Toys R Us.  I looked across the street was another guy in an Elmo costume.  That's right- two Elmos across the road from each other competing for tips.  In my mind I imagined an Elmo turf war, but it never happened.  The Elmos stayed on their respective corners.  Anyway, all of the food in New York was good and the dining experiences were overall positive.