My favorite feature of hotels is blackout curtains. After our rather eventful day yesterday, the kids slept in until 8:30, which is really late for them (seriously). We finished the movie we’d started the night before (Uncharted, starring Spider-Man) and then headed out for our final day in New York.
Logan wore his new m&ms shirt. He was feeling much better after a night’s sleep.
We found a different Bodega and tried their breakfast sandwiches. The kids are now convinced that Bodegas are the best thing in the world. Clara said that if we ever live in New York, she’s going to get a breakfast sandwich from a Bodega every day before catching the subway. We’ll make New Yorkers out of these kids yet.
First up, we caught the subway and headed over to the Museum of Ice Cream.
(Now HOLD ON. I know what you’re thinking: “Jonathan, didn’t you induce vomiting in your children yesterday without a trip to a place called ‘The Museum of Ice Cream?!” And the answer is yes. But our trip to New York is not yet done. And there is one more diem to be carpe-d!)
The Museum itself had come highly recommended by a coworker of mine and it did not disappoint.
Highlights included:
**some fun art-installation play-ish areas
**the tallest indoor slide in New York,
** and (of course) really good ice cream (including Dole Whip!)
One of the workers let the kids take the elevator back up to the top of the slide and ride it again, which I thought was pretty cool. I rode it as well and it was a solid 10 second ride.
At the end of the Museum was a sprinkle pool, which was the true highlight of the visit.
As newly-minted connoisseurs of ball pits, we can tell you that balls are better for burrowing under, but the sprinkles are more comfortable to sit in. We sat in the sprinkle pool for probably two hours and the kids loved every minute of it. Incidentally, giant sprinkles look a LOT like hotdogs after you’ve been sitting in a pool of them for 2 hours.
In both the Museum of Ice Cream and the Color Factory, the lighting in all the rooms was perfect for pictures. We saw countless people come through, take a selfie or two and then leave. It’s interesting to consider that one of the main draws of both places was their inherent Instagram-ability.
Anyhow, after the MOIC, we jumped on the subway and went to the tip of Central Park. We grabbed smoothies (holy wow, they were overpriced) and wandered over to Hecksher Playground. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and there were tons of families and kids just hanging out and enjoying the day.
The play structure itself was perfect for a hot afternoon. There were large cement “mounds” that had walkways connecting them. All the walkways had about a half inch of water running through them and the main area was a splash pad. It’s hard to describe, but the kids had a blast.
I will also mention one interaction our kids had that just warmed my heart.
At one point, Jonas and Clara just got in a huge fight about the rules to hide and seek. Clara yelled at Jonas and stormed over to me while Jonas went to the splash pad for a while.
I helped Clara cool down, then Jonas came back and said (completely unprompted) “Clara, can we try again? I’m really sorry. That was the bad part of me that was acting like that before. Can we try playing again?”
It was the sweetest interaction. They have their moments, but I’m glad that our family’s culture is one of admitting fault, asking forgiveness, and moving on. It made me happy.
After an hour and half or so, we decided to start heading back to our hotel. Our train back to Boston was going to leave at 7:30 and we did not want to be late.
I wanted to swing by the Manhattan Temple on our way out as I’ve never seen it in person and it’s really close to Central Park (and also close to a subway station). We walked over and took pictures, then jumped on the subway and went back to the hotel.
Our last task for the evening was grabbing dinner. We got pizza for the boys and soup dumplings for me and Clara. Ever since she discovered Din Tai Fung, one of Clara’s favorite foods has been soup dumplings (xiao long bao) and in our wanderings by our hotel, we’d found a place that served them.
So, I left the kids on a stoop to eat pizza and then jogged a block over to Tipsy Shanghai and got some dumplings. When I came back, the kids looks like the boxcar children, sitting in a doorway with their backpacks, feeding pizza crusts to pigeons.
We then walked over to Penn Station and I, of course, walked in the wrong entrance. In most cases, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in order to get to the proper spot (Moynihan Train Hall), we had to walk through a rapidly growing crowd of Harry Styles fans, waiting for his concert at Madison Square Garden. I have no pictures of the madness, but trust me: there were a lot of feather boas.
At any rate, we finally arrived at the right spot and changed into our “long-sleeved pants” for the train ride (the first Amtrak train was cold).
When they called our train number and platform, we walked out into the train hall and found a MASSIVE crowd of people forming into a line. We ended up at about the halfway point of the line, but people were NOT happy because there had been no announcement about where to line up prior to that.
As we were standing there, one of the conductors came up and told us that passengers with children could go to the front of the line. YES!
As we gathered our things, a couple behind us (early 20s) said “Man, I wish we had kids!” To which I responded “Well, there’s a pretty simple solution to that — and it’s pretty fun!” (they blushed).
Another older lady said “I could help you with one of them!” and we all laughed. But a few moments after we’d arrived at the front of the line, the same lady walked up too! The conductor had heard her say she could help and said “Sure, go right ahead.”
We had a good laugh and introduced ourselves and promptly adopted her as our Aunt for the evening. Her name is Lori and she was very nice. She comes up from Florida every year to see Broadway shows and then spends time in Boston.
I surreptitiously took a picture of her on our trip down the escalator.
At long last, we boarded the train and we were lucky that we’d gotten to the front of the line — it was a FULL train.
I don’t have many pictures of the ride itself because Clara, Jonas, and I all fell asleep while Logan watched Mythbusters.
We arrived back in Boston at around midnight. The stop snuck up on us, actually — I’m glad we woke up at the right moment!
Jill and the twins came and picked us up and by 12:30, we were all flopped into our beds at home.
It was a wonderful trip.
