Girls Day 4 - Painting and Central Park

It was an alarm clock sort of morning, but not til 8:00 am.  Then it was a long wait at Starbucks so we had to eat while we walked to the American Girl Store.  We had a painting class at 10:00 am.

 

The instructor began with a simple instruction... “Draw your pumpkins on the canvas”... no further direction or advice on how to make authentic looking gourds.  Within 5 mins, Sammy whispered that she was frustrated and with tears in her eyes, asked for a break. So we stepped out of the classroom only to be smacked by the crazy busy noises of the cafe.  We quickly ducked down the employee entrance to the kitchen and asked a waiter for advice on an escape.

A manager found us a quiet space, brought us drinks, and checked on us regularly.  As I held my girl and reassured her that her pumpkins were fine in quality and value, I became frustrated with myself for missing the signs... for not realizing she was upset before it got to this.  Ugh.  I guess in some way this trip has tricked me into forgetting what a struggle adventures can be... which in and of itself is incredible.  For four days, we haven’t had a single issue or even hiccup.  I dried my own tears and decided to be grateful instead.  It took almost 30 minutes to calm down but even then I could tell my girl was fragile.  I set her up for success in every way I knew how and we re-entered the paint class.  The teacher approached and told me that the manager had found a quiet place for us to paint together.  And so we were escorted to another room with couches and end tables fully draped in plastic and our very own little paint studio.  Oh thank you American Girl.

 

We painted around 45 minutes and when the final glitter was added, we headed out for lunch in the cafe.

  

We wrapped up a little before 1:00 pm and headed back to the hotel. The route we usually take along 6th Avenue was completely transformed into a street market... over 6 blocks of vendors of food, clothing, and all things for the tourist.  It was actually really cool.

After a quick rest time, we headed up to Central Park.  We walked it since this was an area of town we hadn’t seen yet.  And along the way we found Donut Project... a small bakery I had read lots about so we stopped in to see what the hype was all about.

It was a little hole-in-the-wall place with amazingly large donuts of all sorts of creative flavors. Seriously we took one of the “Black Gold” to share but I wanted to try them all.  We crossed the street and found a bench in the park to enjoy it.

 

We had almost an hour until our carriage ride was scheduled so we decided to head over to the playground but on the way we saw these amazing rocks that you could climb and decided that was a much better use of our time.

 

  

How fun!  I could have stayed for hours!

We got to the carriage ride a little early and Peter got us loaded up and whisked us away with Bazooka at the lead.

 

  

The tour was great!  And Peter pointed out so many iconic spots and views in the park from movies, history, etc.  I really enjoyed it.  We did have a stop about halfway where we met a photographer to take some shots of the two of us.  But those pics wont be ready for a few weeks.  As we wrapped up the tour, Sammy was snuggled in enjoying her movie.  We both had a great time!

By the time we had wrapped up, I was feeling hungry... so I suggested Ruth’s Chris for supper tonight.  I mean, how many chicken strips can one eat in one 4-day trip?  Sammy loves steak so I knew it was a plan.  We called for a table and walked the 6 blocks to the restaurant.  Yum!

On our walk home, we passed through Rockefeller Center and considered ice skating until we saw the crowds gathered so we decided to watch a bit instead.

My feet were getting pretty sore by now, so we took a pedi-cab (rickshaw) back to the hotel.

We snuggled in bed to watch a movie... and I hate to admit it but this Mama fell asleep for like 45 mins.  My sweet girl woke me as Ice Age 4 was wrapping up to see if I wanted to get a snack.  So I placed an order at Starbucks and we ran across the street to pick it up.

Back in our room, we put on our PJs and settled in for another movie.

What a great way to wrap up another excellent day!

Girls Day 3 - Subways, Tall Buildings, Big Desserts, and Pizza in Bed

We had a somewhat flexible morning today so we didn’t set an alarm.  But go figure, I was up by 8:00.  I made a cup of chai and then snuggled up with Sammy until she was ready to start the day.

We grabbed Starbucks from across the street again and decided to eat it on the Subway on our way to Southern Manhattan.  We made our way to the right Subway entrance (thanks to Apple maps that include public transit options) and asked the teller to explain everything :).

The 1 train comes through very often, so with literally less than 1 minute wait, we were on board and setting up for breakfast.  This was the very first subway trip for all three of us!

  

We got off at the stop in the basement of the World Trade Center.

And a short walk up to the road brought us to the 9/11 Memorial.  This is the south pool in the footprint of the South tower.  It is a huge reflection pool with a waterfall into the center.  The names of those who died are etched on the outer edge.  

After visiting the North pool where the north tower stood, we headed over to One World Trade Center and headed up to the Observatory.  This is currently the tallest building in the USA, and our hemisphere.  The 7th largest in the world.  It is 1776 ft tall (Independence Day) and the observatory is on the 102nd floor.

The elevator ride up is only 47 seconds... read that again 102 floors in 47 seconds!!!  The walls of the elevator feature a movie that show how the surrounding area of NYC have changed throughout history and was in and of itself incredible.  When the instructions were over, we were finally released on to the observation deck and it was breath taking!

After the 47 second plummet back to earth, we walked over to Battery Park.  We made a quick stop to feed Kit... apparently she was hungry.  A kind man even stopped to help give her a drink. Sammy was so appreciative!  Looking back across town, we had a great view of One World Trade Center.

In Battery Park, we checked out the Korean War Memorial and then took some pics of the Statue of Liberty from the shore.

Then it was time to head back.  We were both pretty tired and hungry so we visited a street vendor for some hotdogs and found a small wall to sit and rest a bit.

Then we headed back to the subway for our return trip.  This entrance wasn’t staffed so I was thankful we had pre-purchased the return trip.  However after Sammy walked through the turnstile, the machine wouldn’t read my ticket and I had a brief moment of panic.  Three swipes later, and a few silent prayers for help, and it accepted my ticket and let me through.

Once we got down to the platform I realized that we were about to board a different train than I had wanted so we talked to a very kind man who was on his way home from work and found out that this train would also make a stop close to our hotel.  So, we were fine - good lesson learned.

After we got back to Time Square we visited M&M World to explore all three floors of chocolate goodness.  To my surprise, we walked out without any purchases so to quench my sweet tooth, I suggested we stop for dessert.  Clearly, we made the right choice!

Even with two of us, we couldn’t finish it!  We played Ticket To Ride on our ipads at the restaurant and after Sammy beat me silly, we headed back to our hotel for a movie.  We had already walked over 9,000 steps before 1:00 pm and we both were ready for a rest.

After the movie, we decided to try some authentic New York-style pizza and ordered in a pie.  Sammy got a kick out of eating in bed!

About 5:30, Sammy asked ever so sweetly if I might be interested in going shopping... and wouldn’t you know, she was hoping we could check out American Girl again.  So we packed up for a quick visit to the store before we had to come home to clean up for tonight’s show.

I had told Sammy that we could buy her a new doll at the end of the trip this week, but after a lot of deliberating, we decided to bring her home tonight instead.  Kit has a new friend!  Her name Luciana, she has long dark hair and she is BIG into science!

The walk home was gorgeous...

And even more so from our hotel room as the sun set.

After a quick change and refresh on hair/make-up, we were out the door again and heading to Disney’s Aladdin.  The crowds tonight in Time Square were the busiest we’ve seen.  

We grabbed a shake on the way back to the hotel.  As Sammy snuggled into bed, she said once again what a great day it was... I agree!  It was incredible!  So glad to have this special time with my girl!