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We Went To New York City And My Son’s Reaction Was OMG

My family and I just got back from visiting New York. We spent a day in Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively, slept in Jersey City, and most importantly, we took the kids (and Scott) to their very first New York Giants home game. I’ll blog about our trip over this month (spaced out, I promise) because it was fantastic and fun, at times, hilarious, but not so much that Late Enough become of travel blog of blurry pictures.

Our first day, we went for the heart of Manhattan and the heart of our children and took the subway into the city to begin with the most important store in the world: FAO Schwarz.

Kids on the NYC Subway for the first time. All of us on the PATH for the first time.

My kids start announcing: WE ARE UNDERGROUND. HEY, YOU DID YOU KNOW WE ARE UNDERGROUND? UNDERGROUND IS COOL. I swear at least two New Yorkers looked up and one smiled.

PIPES! AND SQUEAKS! AND MORE PIPES!

When we got off at 59th and 5 Avenue, my son raced up stairs, and as his eyes travelled up the skyscrapers of midtown he gasps, OH MY GOD, and his jaw dropped. The best reaction to New York City I could’ve ever predicted.

OH MY GOD.

We were a little early so I took my fashionable daughter on a walk down 5th Avenue to critique the fashion capital of the United States. She was surprisingly easy on everyone’s store window. Probably because she dresses like that in Virginia so was all MEH.

My daughter critiquing Bergdorf Goodman with I like her hat. And becoming the talk of 5th Avenue. OF COURSE.

We head over to FAO just in time for the doors to open and, much to our surprise, the staff lined up and clapped for us (and everyone else) when we entered. I know what I would do if I lived in NYC and was having a bad day around 10 a.m.. The FAO staff would start giving out knowing my PMS cycles in matter of months.

We found the giant Lego statue of liberty that my kids refused to stand next to for a photo and the Big piano, which I remember playing when I was a kid.

We settled in the comic book section for a long time making my nerd heart happy.

Reading break

Captain Scott America Iwashyna

I’m more of a muppet. It’s probably why I vote democrat.

N tried to convince us she needed Bono glasses and a small family of penguins. She now owns the penguins.

Next, we headed to Central Park for lunch. The kids thought NYC hot dogs were too salty. I thought they banned salt in the city. Dude, who is watching out for my kids? Well, I was since I would never leave them alone in Central Park, but STILL.

I was laid back and supportive while also suggesting that the ground was SO MUCH FUN.

My kids didn’t even like NYC pretzels. Richmond has ruined their taste buds. I didn’t even try for pizza and bagels. I would’ve cried when they were grossed out.

Goodbye, 5th Avenue.

We finally headed back to the hotel after what seemed like an entire day — maybe even 2 days — but what was really about 4-5 hours in Manhattan with 2 kids. Holy crap.

PS. I have a little side story about Hello Kitty conning my children between leaving Central Park and getting to our hotel, but this post is long so I’ll save it for the NYC bloopers post coming up some time next week.