It's Always An Adventure

It sounds kind of crazy, but every once in awhile it is tough to actually figure out what to do in NYC. I know this sounds weird especially in the city that never sleeps and has a million and one activities going on at any one time. Just yesterday 15,000 people stood on line at the MET to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit!! But see, this is exactly the problem, there are soo many things to see and do that it can be a little bit daunting. I know, I know, you are probably thinking “nice problem to have, now shut up and stop whining!” and I get that, but hey, it’s my blog so I am going to whine if I want to 😉

On Saturday, I was reading the NYTimes and there were numerous ads and stories for exhibits, shows, events and performances taking place in the city. Soo many exciting and wonderful opportunities to take part in, right here. Too many in fact, I felt like I needed a piece of paper to write down all of the things I was interested in doing or seeing. As I sat there in my p.j’s drinking my cup of tea, I started having this irrational fear that we were missing out on the really cool and amazing things going on in the city. I feared that we were getting stuck in a bit of a NYC rut. Sure, we had been visiting a lot of the sites with recent visitors but I felt like we hadn’t been anywhere “new” as a family in quite some time. The past few weekends have started with the question “What do you want to do today?” and we always have fun but we usually end up staying in our neighborhood or not venturing off to see anything new. I vowed that this weekend would be different. Ron, used to my crazy rants and outbursts, readily agreed and we gathered up the children and hopped on the subway.

And did we throw caution to the wind? Did we stay up to all hours? Did we walk until our legs could walk no more? Did we try out new and fancy restaurants? See one of a kind exhibits? Wait on line to see limited engagement performances?

Not exactly. BUT, we did have an incredible time as a family hanging out in the most incredible city in the world and really that is all that matters 😉

On Saturday, we decided that we were going to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge into DUMBO. We had never fully walked over the bridge into Brooklyn and we had a fantastic time making our way through the crowds of people to the other side. There really is no better view of Manhattan. It is spectacular.

View of Downtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge

Once in DUMBO, Brooklyn (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) we feasted on delicious pizza at Ignazio’s and then had ice cream on the pier. The kids had fun playing at the park and we explored this very cool and artsy neighborhood before the clouds moved in and we decided to make our way back home.

On Sunday we again hopped on the subway this time making our way to the West Village. The girls wanted to see where the original Magnolia Bakery was and I have to admit Ron and I caved and we all had cupcakes… they just smelled too darn yummy. From there we wandered up Bleecker Street to So Good where the girls spent time perusing all of the jewellery and Ron checked email.

Too many choices!!

After So Good, we continued down the street to two of my favorite places Murray’s Cheese and Amy’s Bread.

I LOVE cheese!!

From the Village we walked into Soho, had a great lunch at Dos Caminos (hello Margarita!) and then ventured down Prince St. with stops at various stores along the way. We came home tired and happy to chill out on the couch in the air conditioned apartment. I felt like we had definitely made progress crawling out of the rut or in NYC it could have just as easily been a pothole 😉

The girls watching a 3D movie with very cool 3D glasses at the Oakley store

A little down time and sisterly love in the Scholastic Store

Don’t get me wrong, I am still working on my MUST DO/SEE list for New York City. I consider it a bucket list of sorts and I plan on adding to it daily. This is an overwhelming city and it can be a bit daunting but I plan on tackling it one adventure at a time!! =)