Summer is in full swing and it’s vacation time! You know the deal. Every summer we try and do at least two vacays to bookend the kid’s time off from school – one where we actually go away somewhere, and a smaller one where we stay here in town. We live where mostly everyone else comes to vacation, so there’s plenty to do and enjoy and we thoroughly look forward to whenever we plan a staycation.
But that’s not what we just did. For the first time in about 5 years, we made the journey up to New York City for our family vacation! The Big Apple, The City that Never Sleeps, blardy blardy blar. And boy, what a journey. A whole entire day in the car takes a heavy toll on everyone. Driver is tired, co-pilot is cranky (which isn’t too much of a stretch from the norm), the kids are “bored” despite having everything available to them that they do on a normal day at home (also not a stretch). But we did it.
The journey north was not so bad. We stopped halfway in good ol’ North Carolina. We left after the wife got out of work at 4:30 and drove till about 1 or 2 a.m. We planned it so we can spend the day at my sister in-law’s because for some bizarre reason she followed us up there and when we abandoned ship to come back south she decided to stay. That day’s rest was a good way to break up the trip because the next stretch of road is the fun one. Going through the mountains of Virginia and the Carolina’s reminds me they’re the only things I miss from living there. I love how the roads flow with the land and there’s so many hills and slopes and such. They can keep all that mess in the winter though. I unsubscribed from that and never looked back. Anyway, the last leg on the way to NY is enjoyable. Seeing the city in the distance makes it feel like some grand, fictional, futuristic setting where you can see this giant metropolis that you’ve heard and read so much about over the years. Hahaha, listen to me, as if I didn’t live there for nearly two decades.
The road back south is usually quicker. For some reason, it’s as if you’re going downhill. We left at 3:30 a.m. and drove straight on through till about 8:15 p.m. when we got home. We made stops for the bathroom and gas, but a hotel stay was not in the plans so we were determined to make it in a day. We didn’t really hear a lot of “are we there yet?” from the kids. But the youngest continued to hilariously ask “what country are we in now?” every so often. It’s one of those times as a parent where yeah, you CAN correct them. But you don’t really want to, you know? So I told him where we were and for a few glorious hours he was in awe with the fact that we were driving in Japan and it was magical.
But anywho, let’s get to the fun part! New York City is always a good time. We were there from Sunday night to Thursday night and every day was packed with things to do. Yet, at the same time, we tried to not let a heavy schedule burden us. And that’s mostly thanks to us staying in my sister’s basement while we were there. I know, your mind must be doing a few double takes, wondering how the heck that worked. But the basement was finished and made for a great place to crash.
The kids had an absolute blast playing with their older cousins throughout the trip and vice versa. We all hung out a lot everyday, and they joined us on our daily escapades in the city, wherever we went. So all in all, it was better than any hotel we could’ve gotten up there. One of fun things about staying at her place too is that they’re in Staten Island, so you know what that means! Daily trips on the Staten Island Ferry!
The wife is not thrilled about the ferry. I get it. There are some… interesting.. people who ride that ferry alongside you. But at the same time, it’s ultra scenic, being able to see the entire city close in on you as you get closer and closer.
And not only that, you get a great shot of the Statue of Liberty. And it’s free! I think the wife’s problem is mostly the fact that I take a bazillion photos while I’m on it and she has to sort through them when she does pictures. I’m guilty, what can I say.
Oh! And while looking at the skyline, the oldest found a building that looked just like Avengers Tower!
Can you see it?! Here, let us help.
We were both really excited, it was an awesome thing to see. No idea what it is, or if it’s even a building, it could be something in front of it making it look like Avengers Tower. But still, it was really cool seeing that with my kid, who is a fellow Marvel nut, and imagining it really being the famous superhero headquarters.
Our first day we did the number one thing on the kid’s list: visit Nintendo New York! Big N’s one and only retail store.
Check out my Instagram post here for some walkthrough videos. It’s tucked away in the back corner of Rockefeller Center and it’s two glorious floors of gaming goodness. I seriously could’ve spent hundreds of dollars in here but had to refrain because we would’ve been poor the rest of the trip.
So many awesome things and it was all reasonably priced! That was the biggest shock, I think. Every time we looked at a price sticker our eyebrows went up in complete surprise like we were a couple of elderly people who primarily shop using coupons.
I like to blame Disney for this sticker shock because we were so use to seeing shirts for $27+, so seeing them for $20 and under was foreign and out of place. The kids walked out with a few toys and Pokémon and Splatoon 2 plushes thanks to the sis. In hindsight, we probably should’ve left Nintendo NY for last because the kids were totally ready to go home after this.
The rest of the day had us continuing our tour of midtown. Check out this Instagram post for the highlights. We hit up FAO Schwarz and finally got our fix for exploring a proper toy store again. If only they were as reasonably priced as Nintendo was.
Still, seeing all the toys being demonstrated and played with made me so sad that there’s no sole toy store near us.
The oldest was exploring around but the youngest was perfectly fine hanging with his cousins in the grocery store area, with his grocery bag, grabbing all sorts of plastic foods and then taking them to the pretend check out counter. Man, I miss me a good toy store. This place was the number one reason why we wanted to make this trip back in December. Things couldn’t work out but maybe another visit during Christmas time should be called for in the future.
We kept going, walking a few blocks away from, but still able to see Times Square. We saw where The Tonight Show filmed, and the kids being Jimmy Fallon fans thanks to the Universal Studios ride, were extremely disappointed we couldn’t go watch it being recorded. We also hit up Magnolia Bakery to get my youngest cousin’s itch for cupcakes scratched.
By the end of adventuring we were all pretty hungry. Us being the visitors we left it to our hosts to pick somewhere they thought was good. We walked in and sat down and were promptly ignored for a good 20 minutes. We were talking so it didn’t occur to us, but when it did, I made the call to get out. We got up and walked 5 feet away from the table and the server had the nerve to ask us “oh, you guys changed your mind?” Maaaaaaaaaaaan, you better get away from me with that mess. We walked a little bit away and found a Pizza Hut, so at least the kids will eat. Walked in and heard this annoying beeping over all the commotion of everyone eating and talking. It took the wife about 90 seconds to trace the sound back to a panel on the wall that was blinking red, and had the words “CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED – EVAC THE AREA”. WELL. I guess we’re not having pizza. It was crazy how everyone was still just… there. Eating. Like they’re weren’t slowly being killed. We walked a few blocks to the nearest McDonald’s where we had a small snack because at this point we just needed something to get us back to Staten Island. And that’s where we were headed.
We got back on the subway since it was getting late and nothing else was in the plans for the day and we didn’t accidentally get carbon monoxide poisoning while having lunch. Like I said, the kids got what they wanted and were fine heading back to Florida after that. We got back to Staten Island after a few dozen more pictures from the ferry, and chilled out till it was time to sleep. The next few days were going to be full of lots of walking and good times, so we needed the rest.
As far as this post goes, here’s a little behind the scenes. Originally, I was going to make this all one post. One update for New York seemed fair and right. But thanks to me and my big mouth not being able to edit myself, I was staring at a 5000+ word essay on the things to do in NYC with kids. So I thought, ehh, I could split this in half. But nope, that wasn’t enough. Thanks to a crazy thing that happened to me on the last day that was just begging for details to be spewed out, you’re now looking at part 1 of 3 New York posts. Up next? Central Park. Hope you enjoy!
