NYC With Kiddos

View from top of ESB

New York City is the quintessential Christmas vacay spot, there is so much to see and do there during the holidays, that are not to be missed.  We have been wanting to take our kiddos for awhile, but while they were so young it would have been difficult.  This year the weather has been incredible there, so we jumped on the chance to go.

Rockefeller Tree

My kids have been all over, and I thought Disney World, and the Disney cruise would remain their top favorites of all time.  NYC has taken over that spot, my girls loved the big city.  My oldest has vowed that one day she will live there.  While we only had 24 hours there, we made the most of our time.

Enjoying the decor

Arriving at 830 pm on Tuesday, and leaving at 830 pm on Wednesday didn't give us a whole lot of time.  Researching the MTA website before leaving, it was decided that public transportation would be easiest.  The MTA has a handy tool for you to type in your starting point and destination, and tells you exactly what to use to get there.  The employees were incredibly helpful too.  From LGA we took the Q70 bus to Roosevelt and then caught the 7 train to Times Square, which takes about an hour.  On the return flight we left early-around 430ish, and it took a lot longer.  We ended up on an express train, which makes limited stops, and being rush hour it was packed.  My kids didn't enjoy being touched on every angle, surrounded by strangers.

She was freezing

Rockefeller is a must do at Christmastime.  The tree was beautiful, and my girls were mesmerized by the ice skating.  Saks was lit up with a light show, and the window displays were beautiful.  The kids also loved all of the lights on Times Square.  We ended up walking around until after midnight, we felt completely safe because there were NYPD all over.

Macy's all decorated

Wednesday morning we got going around 930 am.  We hit up Macy's in hopes of seeing Santa Clause, but the line was extremely long, and they have him hidden behind a display so you can't take a photo of him.  Being on a tight schedule we didn't have time to wait in a long line, if you want to see him plan for it, he is hidden on the 8th floor, amongst the home goods.  The windows were done in a Charlie Brown theme, absolutely adorable and creative.

ESB

She was freaking out

After Macy's we walked to the Empire State Building.  My kids are obsessed with Elf, my youngest can quote the movie.  The ESB was on the top of their must do list, they wanted to see where Walter Hobbs worked.  I am not going to lie, I reluctantly paid the $130 for the tickets-a bit insane in my book.  The kids loved it though, seeing Lady Liberty was the highlight of the view for them.  A word to the wise, if you'd like to go into the Statue of Liberty, you must book months in advance. My husband and I looked forward to seeing the Freedom Tower, it is a beautiful sight.  If we go again, we will not pay to go to the top, but if you've never done it, I would recommend you pay the price.

My goofball husband

After Macy's we walked back to Rockefeller to go to the American Girl store.  If you have girls, you get it, it is the holy grail of destinations for girls.  We've been to the one in Dallas and Atlanta, and Dallas is large, but this one is huge.  They have a layout on one of the floors with Grace's bakery, a place to make t-shirts, a doll salon, a hospital, and the restaurant among other things.  They also have a display with all of the retired GOTY dolls.  It was a really cool store for the girls to see.

Pretending to be Matt & Savannah

We hit up lego, NBC, and the stores in the NBC building.  Lego was incredible, their designs are bar none to anything I've ever seen before.  Inside NBC my girls tried sitting at a replica chair for The Voice, and The Today Show.  They'll even create a video and send it to you via email.  There are several stores in the building, my favorite was Rain Africa.  The entire hallway smelled delicious, all coming from this store.  They have body butters, lotions, body wash; all cruelty free-I kick myself for not buying the Wild Cotton body cream.

Having a celiacs child, we sometimes run into issues with food here in TN.  Sadly, a lot of places do not accommodate for us; however, we had no issues in NYC.  The first night we ate at the first restaurant we saw getting off of the subway-Ruby Tuesday's.  The staff there was phenomenal, they sent the manager to speak with us, ensuring her food would be kept separate.  Kudos to Ruby Tuesday's!  The next day we ate at PizzArte , hands down the best GF pizza we have ever eaten.  Usually, GF pizza's taste like foam (I've never eaten foam, but I assure you it must taste like that).  My husband and my girls also ordered a pizza with salami, and another one with sausage.  I tried the sausage one, and it was very good, but truth be told, I actually liked the GF pizza better.

Exhausted

Overall fantastic trip, my husband wore his fit bit and we ended up walking around 14-15 miles.  My older girls walked the entire time, our youngest wore herself out only two times.  By the time we boarded our plane our kids were plumb wore out!  The Gremlin sprawled out across the seats on the plane, and slept the entire flight home, we couldn't even wake her up when we landed.  My older two are already planning a trip back next year.

God bless,

Brandi

Happy holiday's from our family to yours