NYC Trip: Day 3 & 4 ~ Taking it Easy

Monday morning was the start of Kyle's conference (which was just downstairs at the Marriott Marquis). It was like a work day for him because the conference was from 8-5. Isaac and I had our instant oatmeal in the room then took a walk to get coffee and hot chocolate. Of course the Starbucks on the first level of OUR own hotel was closed for a remodel so we had to walk the block away to the next one :-P which normally isn't a big deal, but hey I was very pregnant and it was very cold outside.


We were also killing time for Toys R Us to open. It was just across the way from our hotel. We walked around there for a little bit.


Watched the Ferris Wheel, which we probably should have rode... but we didn't.




We did pick up a play-doh toy at Toys R Us and came back to the room and played with it  before lunch. It's a fire truck that makes molds and other fun stuff.



Then we met Kyle for lunch downstairs and walked across the street to this little deli type place: Junior's (known for their cheesecake). We can actually see it from our room. It was a Jewish deli, with pickle and coleslaw appetizer and all! It reminded us of a place we have here called Mort's. Amazing sandwiches. 


Isaac being goofy and making funny faces.


Then back to the hotel for the first good nap since Thursday.


That afternoon we hung out in the room and played with his playdough until Kyle got finished with his conference. Here are some views from our room:


Finishing lunch








And there's the place we had lunch, in the bottom left corner of this photo:


Then we went uptown (West Side) to a BBQ place that had 'kid's eat free': Brother Jimmy's. Was already getting tired of buying $10 mac n chz that Isaac would just nibble on. Isaac was a big fan of the crayon holder, not so much coloring but taking the crayons in and out.


Of all the places in New York to eat we found the place that served drinks out of mason jars :-P


On our walk back, from the subway to our hotel we have to cross through the heart of Times Square. Right through all the dressed up characters and people taking selfies. It was so fun to hear Isaac yell out "Elmo!" or "Mickey!" as if he knew them. We got a little too close to Mickey because he insisted we get a picture with him (we otherwise tried to avoid pictures because well you can see below). Isaac was a fan of Mickey until he actually came up close, lol.
 

Tuesday was much of the same thing. We weren't in a hurry to get anywhere, had our instant oatmeal in the room, took baths, and got dressed for the day. I settled for the Starbucks in the hotel gift-shop (which was Starbucks but I couldn't use my rewards card here... what's the point of paying for Starbucks if it doesn't build up my rewards...)

We did go to the 9th floor of the hotel to go over by the windows and check out the view. Here's the hotel's elevator system, pretty fun and not your ordinary elevators


Instead of just going up and hitting up or down, you punch in the floor you need to go to then it gives you a letter and you go to that designated shaft to get to your destinations. Isaac had fun hitting the number and then calling out the letter and leading us to the correct set of doors.

Times Square view:




They must have JUST taken the ball down because it was up Saturday and Sunday when we walked by. But I noticed this day it was gone and on display down the road a bit inside some place that had a sign on the door saying come in and see the 2014 ball.


We sat there for a bit and counted taxi cabs and watched the characters wonder the street.




Hotel side:


I got a good view of the hotel we stayed at on New Year's Eve three years ago (2010-2011):


And there is the balcony we stood on to watch the ball drop:


Here's a good photo to show scale with Isaac standing watching the elevators:


We headed back to our room to grab our coats then went across the street to get lunch at a hot dog stand:


And back to the room for another good nap. He sleeps in such funny positions and I was stuck in the room with him so I couldn't help but snap a photo :-)


After nap we went across the street to the Disney store. Times Square isn't my favorite part of New York (maybe actually my least favorite) but I will admit it was kinda nice for a pregnant mama because at least we had things very close to keep us busy and make quick little trips out of for entertainment.

Isaac was happy to squeeze the Nemo... but again not so happy I wanted to take his photo.


After exploring the Disney store we went down a few blocks to the M&M store.


That night when Kyle was finished we met Cousin Patty for dinner on the Upper East Side at a fun little place called The Meatball Shop. It was a really fun place and really good. They obviously served meatballs, I got my 'naked' and Patty & Kyle got there's on a sub.

Isaac staying busy playing on his 'phone'.






We took the train back to Times Square. I haven't seen this kind of train on the tracks before so had to snap a photo.


Then off to bed, here's daddy reading books to Isaac before night-night:

NYC Trip: Day 2 Trip to Patty's

On Sunday of our trip we took it much easier than the day before. I was feeling all the walking so we knew we wanted to be low key as to not completely wipe me out. But it was Kyle's last full day before his conference started so we didn't want to just sit around and do nothing either.

I started the morning off with a walk by myself to pick up some Starbucks


And boy did that make a difference! It really lifted my spirits of the whole trip. As I mentioned in my previous post I had a minor melt down Saturday night when I realized how limited these babies actually made me and my desire to go-go-go. Traveling with Isaac is rather exhausting and out of habit I am continually on his level or picking him up etc. So being able to just walk by myself, breath the New York air and get a cup of coffee was all I needed to renew my excitement for the city again. Don't get me wrong I love my little muffin cakes but he involves bending over (even if just slightly) to hold hands, carrying a bag, and all that other fun stuff that comes along with toddler care.

After we were all ready and ate some breakfast in the hotel room (of instant oatmeal, unfortunately we didn't have a refrigerator as we had planned to get milk and some other things to be able to eat a few meals in the hotel) we hopped a train to make the transfer to the Tram for Roosevelt Island.


We boarded the tram (I was very excited for Isaac to get to ride it)


He was not so excited for me to be taking his picture




Blurry, selfie of the fam:


(I decided to leave my nice camera back in our room as to help make our travel a little lighter - and easier)
Clearer photo but no smile from Isaac:


And one with the passing tram in the background!!! Isaac probably thinking "really? are we done with these selfie's yet?"


Honestly I have OODLES of photos taken from the tram from when I lived there and our last visit, so it wasn't as much a priority to get all the good views. But I couldn't help getting one toward Cousin Patty's apartment:


And a quick one before we landed looking toward downtown Manhattan (there's the UN)


We had a nice visit with Patty and her two boys. Josh was even there with his girlfriend for a bit before he had to catch his bus back to Rhode Island. Isaac was acting like he wanted to nap the entire time, snuggling in my lap and even laying with me on the couch. But he never actually fell asleep. Patty had to head to work shortly after Josh left so we visited with Patrick and Anthony for a bit then we headed back to the island as well. And we knew as soon as we got to moving Isaac would be out and he was. Sleeping on the tram:


We weren't sure what else we wanted to do for the evening, but we knew we'd need to eat eventually. So once off the tram we transferred to a train downtown and got off near Union Square. It was pretty cold, okay really cold. But we took a seat in the park and searched our phones for a nearby place to eat


We ate at a pub: Heartland Brewery. Nothing fancy but they did have good mac'n'cheese which Isaac insisted on and really didn't eat (which becomes a common theme this trip, we got to try a variety of mac'n'cheese).

We took the subway train back to times square and called it a night. We got Isaac down and then watched a bit of the Oscars via closed caption before hitting the hay ourselves.


(We were so happy there was a pullout bed to put Isaac on, he's quite the wiggler through the night. He did really well sleeping by himself)

NYC Trip: Part two first day - Brooklyn Bridge walk

After we ate dinner (late lunch...) we walked the few blocks to the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge. This was my number one priority on our short list of 'sight-seeing adventures' during this visit. We knew with my condition of being very pregnant (with twins) and with Kyle attending a conference most of the time that we weren't really going to get to explore NYC like we would without those two given scenarios.

My main reason for wanting to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was because 1) I hadn't done it... funny how I lived in New York for a year and have visited three different times but still have a few 'big' things on my list of never done. This one and the Broadway show thing... yeah yeah someday. 2) I wanted to take a specific photo to replace a canvas I have on my wall. This photo vision would go opposite the one I got of Grand Central in 2010/2011 when we visited:
GRAND CENTRAL PHOTO

Approaching the bridge pedestrian walk entrance:


It was nice having Josh around because he was able to help out with the stroller.


View of Manhattan Bridge from standing on the Brooklyn Bridge:




Got some portrait photos on the bridge:




Isaac was asleep in no time, ended up sleeping the entire way across the bridge, luckily for him we have photos so he can remember this wonderful adventure :-)


We made it!


View of the Statue of Liberty:




It was a pretty cold day, luckily one of the nicest temperature days during our visit since it was the most time spent outside out of all our days there. But still not the greatest weather for walking outside all day. It was about 32-34 degrees at this time and was starting to get cooler as the sun went down. And here Kyle and I are, Minnesotans with Kyle in his light jacket and me in my coat but having to waddle very slowly with my brother and his girlfriend with California blood freezing their tooshes off. They decided to walk ahead of us to try and warm up so they ended up walking to the second pillar and back toward us, and of course we hadn't gotten very far.

Made it to the first 'pillar'


View of midtown:




Nice shot of the bridge and World Trade Center 1:




I don't have the exact photo I choose to get printed to share, but it is very similar to this one:












Lots of photos of the same thing, but hey it's what I like to do. And I felt so accomplished to have made it given we weren't even sure a few months ago if I was going to get to go on this trip!

After this we hopped on a train up to Columbus Circle


and walked a short distance to our cousin Patty's place of work to say hello. Isaac was cold, poor guy. So we jumped at the opportunity to sneak into a store when we saw "free wine tasting" on the door. Isaac and I warmed up while my brother, his girlfriend, & Kyle enjoyed the free wine samples. Then we continued on to Patty's work,by this time my body was saying "enough with the walking already". We had a quick, nice visit with Patty then dropped into CVS to pick up some snacks and lotion for poor Isaac's chapped face.

Our plan was to walk the ten blocks back to our hotel... well I was hoping to. Ten blocks is usually nothing. But when you're 30 weeks pregnant with two babies and you've been walking all day it was enough to push me over the edge and I had a little meltdown. Mainly because the fact that I wasn't going to be able to explore NYC the way I used to or the way I'd want to and that I knew if I didn't take it easy then I'd be miserable the rest of the trip, which I didn't want either. So we hailed a cab for a measly 5-7 blocks or so. Luckily all our sight seeing was completed that first day, well the big things we had on our list to do Saturday and Sunday completed in one day at least. Leaving more time to take it easy on Sunday. I knew come Monday when Kyle had his conference that I could get lots of rest in so I didn't want to need it too bad on Sunday since that was the only other day to explore with Kyle.

Will blog on Day 2 soon.....