I know it’s July, but how about a little throwback to last December, when we went up to New York City with the kids, to enjoy their holiday atmosphere. We had a blast, and it was the kids first time to NYC, but they handled it like champs. Z was pretty much a subway riding expert by the time we left. We fit a lot of sightseeing in on our trip. The first full day, we hopped on the subway to head down to one of my favorite space in NYC; Grand Central Station. I never stop loving it’s architecture and history. We made a quick pit stop subway transfer near Times Square, so we showed that to the kids as well. At Grand Central, we visited a fun little train set up, which O is always a fan of. Then we explored Grand Central, and had a little snack as well. They have so many food options there, it’s great for a quick break when you’re hustling around the city with kids in tow. After that, we headed to my other favorite place in NYC, the NYPL building. Outside of the beautiful holiday decor, we got to see a little more than I had seen previously, which was fun for my nerdy self. It’s such an impressive space with art, books and gorgeous architecture as well. That evening, we headed to Macy’s for pictures with Santa. After a long day, O found standing in line very challenging, so we skipped the bulk of the North Pole Village, and went straight to Santa. I appreciate the elves at the North Pole Village being accommodating to disabled children, it kept our experience fun!
The next day, we went to do more classic NYC Christmas sightseeing. We checked out the Plaza hotel’s holiday decor, which was absolutely stunning! Then, we saw a lot of beautiful Christmas windows along Fifth Avenue. So much creativity goes into them. We also saw Rockefeller plaza and the tree. It started raining on us, so we ducked into FAO Schwartz, which was super crowded. But, we did treat the kids to some Build a Bears while the worst of the rain passed. That evening, we got to see the Rockettes on stage in the Christmas Spectacular, which was a long time dream of mine. The show did NOT disappoint, and we all loved it.
The next day, we were excited to see some snow! Everybody bundled up, and we headed out for a chilly trip to see the Statue of Liberty. It was really fun to walk through the streets of NYC while it was snowing. I’m sure many locals would disagree, but it was just the right amount of snow for these Texans, and it gave us some holiday magic. We took a ferry ride over to the Statue of Liberty, which was fun. It was really exciting to watch her get closer and closer. The museum was fantastic, and Z was very excited to see the original torch, as she had been reading about it before our trip. They also had a lot of fun historical items from when the Statue was unveiled. Then, we jumped back on the ferry to head to Ellis Island. It’s definitely a powerful place, and they had some amazing items from people who had immigrated in from all over. Back on the ferry we went, and then we relaxed for a little while, before heading out for our evening plans. Z finally got her NYC skating in at Central Park. Then, we went on an evening carriage ride through the park. It was very cold, in case you are curious. Sadly, I had a photographer’s nightmare occur, and my flash decided to stop working before our carriage ride started. I just raised my ISO and did my best with whatever available light we had (which, wasn’t much). Thankfully, I still got some cute images of the kids with our beautiful carriage horse. If I did another carriage ride, I would do it during the day, because there’s not a lot of artificial light in the park, and you miss out on a lot of the things your driver talks about. But, the carriage driver was very nice and informative!
The next day, it was time to bid farewell to NYC and head on home. We all had so much fun, and I’m really glad we were able to give the kids this experience and those memories. Thanks for stopping by!