Central Park

I've been to New York City many times, but Jeff had only been once.  He went with me, before we were married.  It was the week before Christmas, and we met my family there.  I thought he would love all the decorations, but his take away was that it was bitterly cold, ridiculously crowded, and dirty.  After twelve years, I finally convinced him to give NYC another try.  I knew I had to plan a day that would appeal to him, or NYC would probably never get another chance, so I decided to focus our day on Central Park, always a crowd pleaser.  We got especially lucky with the weather.  It was a beautiful summer day, not too hot and with a lovely breeze.

We waited for the morning commuter rush to pass, and then got a direct train from New Jersey to Penn Station.  The girls thought it was a lot of fun.

Despite Jeff's grumbling about NYC, he got a great shot of the Empire State Building as we were exiting Penn Station.

Our first Central Park stop was the zoo.  I had debated just doing the subway, but since it was Viv's first time in NYC, I wanted her to be able to see the city.  I also didn't want to use up Jeff's patience right off the bat.  So, we got in a taxi and headed uptown.  

I had gotten our tickets online ahead of time, so we walked right in to visit with the beautiful sea lions.

The girls were really hungry though, so we decided to fuel up before exploring further.  It turned out to be a good choice, because the outdoor seating filled up quickly after we sat down.

The zoo is pretty small, but it was just about the right size for a couple hours of fun.  Some of the animals were tough to find, but we still had some amusing encounters.  One of our favorites was watching a group of turtles in the pond.  Most of them were trying to just chill out on a branch, but this one smaller one kept trying to push the others off.

It was pretty funny.  We were making dialogue up for him.  We also found the adorably fluffy red pandas.  One was running all over the place, which was cute, but made getting a picture tricky.

The penguins were also moving all over the place, and they were a great hit.  They seemed to be intentionally playing up for the kids at the windows.

On our way from the main zoo to the children's petting zoo, we stopped to watch the 4D Ice Age movie.  It was really cute, and we all enjoyed it.  I got a picture of Viv with the Delacorte Clock, even though she thought its bell rendition of "Three Blind Mice" was super creepy.

Over at the petting zoo, the girls had more fun with the photo ops than they did feeding the animals.

On the way out of the zoo into the main park, we encountered a very strategically placed ice cream cart.  The girls were being very good, so we told them they could pick something.  Elena was drawn to the Minion ice cream on a stick and Vivian wanted a multicolored popsicle.  I got one picture of Vivian with her treat before it all started melting.

I think Vivian at least ate more of her popsicle than she lost to melting, but Elena was not pleased with her sticky fingers and legs, so we put about half of hers in the trash and then wiped her down.  That left our hands free to appreciate the Bethesda Terrace.

They were filming something while we were there, and Jeff said he'd seen at least one episode of Law and Order that took place in the area.  The girls were very impressed by the row boats, but Jeff had hurt his wrist on one of the roller coasters the day before, and I didn't trust myself to get us out and back on my own, so we put it on the things to do next time list.  We walked across the Bow Bridge and went for a wander in the Ramble.

When we finally emerged, we cut through the grass towards the Conservatory Water with a stop to visit Alice and her friends.

We managed to snag a table at Le Pain Quotidien for some much needed refreshments.

We sat there for a while enjoying the breeze.  There weren't too many boats on the water, but enough to be interesting.  I had one last thing on the convince Jeff to like New York list, and it was dinner at a New York steak house.  I had found one called the Lexington Club that was just a short walk away, and so we wandered over.  It was still quite early for dinner, and we were the first people there.  They had several happy hour specials, which they were nice enough to let us take advantage of while sitting at a regular table.  We decided to start with the shrimp cocktail which was delicious.

I don't think we realized how tired and hungry we were until we sat down, but Jeff and I inhaled the first order of shrimp and asked for a second.  We ended up ordering two filet mignons, some sides, and two extra plates for the girls.  The steak was delicious, and the most popular side was the loaded mashed potatoes.

The wines by the glass were also on happy hour special, so Jeff and I let the girls play on their iPads and took our time drinking to a well done New York City outing.  We even ordered a chocolate lava cake for dessert.

When we could eat no more, we went out onto Lexington and easily hailed a cab to take us back to Penn Station.  We were now in true city rush hour, so the trip back took a bit longer, but the really crazy part was the New Jersey Transit part of the station.  There are ten tracks that trains come in on, but the board doesn't announce what track the train will be on until a few minutes before it leaves, so there were 50-70 people standing around waiting, and then a number would pop up on the screen and there would be a mad dash for the stairs down to the track.  Jeff and I were a bit worried the girls would get trampled, but we managed to get on our train and get two seats fairly close to each other, with a girl on each of our laps.  

The girls stayed awake for the train and car ride back to our friends' house, but we all slept well that night.  Jeff still says he doesn't like New York City, but he admits to liking Central Park and being willing to go back, so I feel like the trip was a success.