A little Bit of History

Well seeing that we had checked the kids out of a week of school. I felt like we need to see a few “educational” sites while we were in NYC .

First things first we stopped to drop thier classes a post card.

Then we visited the New York City Library in the heart of Manhattan.

 Taking our pictures by these to famous lions.

I never knew the labor of love this building took during construction.

We learned about how they brought all the marble into town to build the massive structure.

The detail that went into the ceilings

 And arch ways was amazing.

We visited the main reading room

The children’s floor

Here they housed the original stuffed animals that the author of Whinne the Pooh based his stories on.These had been his daughters play toys that inspired him.

We spent just an hour walking all over the library and would have stayed longer had daddy let us!

This would classify as movie history right?

Can’t pass up F.A.O on 5th ave and dancing on the BIG piano.

 Then it was on down to Battery Park to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island.

 I think Gabe could have just rode the boat back and forth all day and been as happy as a little blue bird.

Not sure if the Coast Gaurd boat and machine gun made me feel any better.

We spent three hours on the island

And learned more about the Statue of Liberty than I ever dreamed of.

Walking up to the platform I was able to get a view straight up inside her.

Did you know that she is made of copper and is just a bit thicker than a penny?

Here is the original torch that she held. We replaced it in the mid ‘80s.

The weather was fabulous and we got to see all the great views from her pedestal.

This is where ships that came to America entered and the first thing they would see was Lady Liberty.

After many long days of walking this sign was so much funnier at the time!
 Having spent three hours on the Island left us with about 45 minutes to tour Ellis Island.

I know that the kids would have stayed three hours here too, if we didn’t have a Yankee’s game to catch.

 But the highlight of the day was taking the ranger oath and becoming National Park Jr. Rangers.

Gabe was so proud…only 400 more parks to go!

On our last day in town we visited the National History Museum…all four floors of it.

The kid’s main goal was finding Dexter, T-Rex and Dum Dum form the movie Night at the Museum.

Only to be saddened that not everything looked just like it did in the movies.

The museum was unreal

 It felt at times they had two of every animal on earth, and I would almost venture to say somewhat like Noah’s Ark. Sadly the underlining tone of evolution was prominent everywhere and we by passed a lot because of it.

That evening Ryan took Gabe back to catch another Yankee’s game


And I took Hannah to her first Broadway show

The Lion King

She LOVED it and can’t wait to see more.

This Little Piggy Went to Town!

We spent last week in one of our favorite places to visit New York City. The kiddos were with us this time and we were able to see a lot of educational sites. But today I wanted to talk to you about FOOD!



We sure did our fair share of eating.

It all began with our layover in Chicago and McDonalds for the kidos.

I have to say this is one of the best investments that we got our kids a couple of years ago. They each have their own itouch and it makes for great traveling.

Here they have swapped to watch movies they have rented. I see it as a portable DVD player, Play station for games, music and we have even download books and homework tools.

 Upon arriving in the city and checking out the view from our hotel room {this time we stayed in the heart of Times Square}. We took the subway over to Madison Square Park to stand in line here

The original Shake Shack. Where we ordered singles with cheese, fires and black and white shakes, yum!

The next morning we went uptown to my single handed favorite place for breakfast in the city… Zabar’s!

Yes, I got my usual Nova, salmon, cream cheese on a bagel.

Hannah enjoyed homemade breads

and Gabe loved his #B2 breakfast. He asked to eat breakfast here every day! Now that’s my boy!

We then took the train out to Brooklyn and Coney Island….

Where we rode the Cyclone

the Wonder Wheel

 With views to your right of Manhattan

And to your left the Atlantic Ocean.

Walked out to the beach

 And then grabbed lunch at the original Nathans Hot Dog.

 I am glad to say that we made it out to Coney Island but it’s just a sad site to see what it used to be and what it is today. We won’t be going back there anytime soon.

 That afternoon, after walking Canal Street in Chinatown, we hopped on the Subway and took it over to the lower East side to sample the Doughnut Plant.

OMG…. We made it here twice on our trip but this first visit we arrived about 30 minutes before closing. Got all our doughnut's half off and then the owner was visiting with us and started to give us FREE donuts of everything he had left!! As well as his chi tea which was out of this world delish.

I forced Hannah to try the Tres leches cake donut, she HATES donuts! But when she tried this one….

It was love at first bite! I can’t say enough about how wonderful these were. We all loved the Tres Leches but I also liked the blackberry jelly doughnut with toasted peanut butter glaze..sigh……


We tried out a few new places this time like Five Points in Soho, not so good. I was sadly disappointed as all the reviews raved about this place.

The kids ended up eating a lot here

And by the looks of it

I think they liked it best!

Pizza is a must on each trip and this time we gave Bleecker Street Pizza a try.

This picture makes the pizza look a bit greasy but it was hands down one of the best pizza’s we have had in NYC. Just a step above John’s on Bleecker. Not to mention, in this Pepsi drinking town, I was able to find a Dt. Dr. Pepper here!


Walking a few blocks down Bleecker, one of our favorite streets to haunt, was Popbar.

A kid’s heaven with freshly made popsicles in just about any flavor.

Hannah licked down a double chocolate in no time flat.

Our trip would not be complete without a pastrami on rye from Katz’s deli.

Hannah was a tad skeptical

But dived right in…

Stopping at Russ and Daughter on the way out for some Turkish dried apricots and apples.

Our greatest disappointment was the Clinton St. Bakery. They had some fabulous reviews and were voted best pancake in NYC in 2008. New Yorkers really need to make a visit down South for some REAL breakfast cookin’.

It took us 30 minutes to get to the East side and then another 40 minute wait to be seated. This was at 11am on a Tuesday morning! So I was pumped as we watched through the windows as customers devoured their dishes with a smile.

Ryan ordered up the Banana Walnut Pancakes

I ordered what they are known for, the Blueberry pancakes.

Gabe got the Big Country breakfast.


Hannah just got a plain waffle and they charged us $15.95 for it!


We all dove in and said nothing…


The food was eatable but that was just about it. Little man didn’t even eat his bland eggs and we each left half a plate of pancakes behind.


Nothing can compare to The Original Pancake House in Dallas, TX. It truly is out of this world delish!


I plan to follow up with two more posts on our trip to the big city and then I will be back in the grove of crafting and fall cooking!