Grandmas & Kids to NYC 4th annual trip

We usually make our annual Grandmas & Kids trek to NYC in the fall, but had to bump it up this year since our third little studerbaby is due in September and I'm figuring tri-state visits will be out of the question between newborn tending and basketball season.  

I plan our adventures using Tripit and this year decided that at the ages that the kids are, it would be both fun and possible to visit Coney Island, the High Line, and make a stop at Knoebels on the way home.  It was such a great trip this year - the best yet? - and I am continually grateful that I have this weekend to share the city with my country-raised kids and that is solely due to the fact that I have a Mum and Mom-in-law willing to make the trip with us each year.  I could not do it without their support and help!  (thank you!!)

We drove out this year again (second year now after two years of 7hr one way train rides the first two years!) and we try to leave by 6am to keep the kids snoozing for most of the ride.  We make a stop around Reading, PA for some breakfast and then get back on the road to head to our New Jersey hotel.

The most important thing about our hotel for the kids is that it has a pool, and our stay at the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel Nework Airport delivered on the pool requirements.  We checked in and freshened up a bit from our 5hour drive.  The grandmas are great for packing snacks and hotel treats on our trips.  Our room is fully stocked with snack bags, fruit, water, and granola bars for the weekend.  It really helps save on vending machine snacks (my kids get hungry approximately every 3 and a half minutes) and also are easy to transport in the diaper bag when we head out on our adventures.

From the hotel, we took the shuttle to Newark airport where we hopped on the Coach USA bus to Port Authority NYC for $28 (round trip adult and kids ride free).  Where we then got on subway to make the very long trip out to Coney Island in Brooklyn for the afternoon.  It was a long day of traveling with three kinds of transportation:  car, bus, subway; but the kids did great (and grandmas did too!)

After the very long subway ride all the way to the end of the line and an extreme meltdown from Gemma (she didn't want to neither walk nor ride in the stroller), we finally made it to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.  The aquarium is still undergoing some renovations from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, but the kids loved the exhibits and we all enjoyed dancing and cheering at the sea lion show.  Since we visited on a Friday afternoon after 4pm, the entry fee is a donation of your choice, we made the visit extremely affordable.

Afterwards, we headed out to the boardwalk and the kids went bonkers over the sand and water.  I was startled by how clean and beautiful Coney Island looked, which I'm assuming is because of all the clean-up and reno that needed to happen after the storms last year.  Last time I was in Coney Island it was sort of dirty and littered - not somewhere I'd think someone could lounge peacefully near the ocean.  But when we arrived it was lovely, clean, and not very crowded at all. 

 

The kids ran up and down the beach chasing seagulls and even stood knee dip in the water joyfully giggling.  

We had dinner on the boardwalk at Nathan's to pay homage to the famous Coney Island hot dog (although our own Johnstown Coney Island hot dogs beat Nathan's dogs; no contest.)  The kids had a blast on the kiddie rides at Luna Park.  After another visit to the ocean, we hopped back on the subway for a long return to Port Authority to catch our USA Coach bus ride back to Newark to quickly fall fast asleep in our hotel.

On Saturday, we headed back into the city for our favorite brunch of NY bagels and cream cheese.  Then we walked the High Line from the most northern point at West 30th Street and 10th Avenue down to Chelsea Waterside Park at West 23rd Street.  The High Line was pretty but it was a really hot day and we were so grateful to get to the water playground to cool off.  The kids had a blast splashing, digging in the sand, and transporting bottles of water to and fro. 

We stopped at the Chelsea Waterside Dog Park before taking a short walk (with another playground and ice cream break along the way) to Chelsea Market to window shop and get back onto the High Line.  Walking back north on the High Line was more pleasant than the morning because it had cooled off significantly and the sun had started to set.  We loved the High Line water feature at 15th Street!  By the time we had trekked back up to the 30th street exit, the kids were zonked out in the stroller.  

But have no fear!  The kids were back up for our room service pizza party at the hotel followed by a visit to the indoor pool (it was freezing though!) My mom got in and swam with our fish-baby Gemma while Gigi hopped in and out and came to sit by me with towel blankets on the sidelines.  (Way to take one for the team, Abba!)

On Sunday we said farewell to Jersey and headed East toward home, but made an stop along the way at Knoebel's Amusement Resort to tire the kids out a little and to break up the long car ride.  Knoebel's was amazing and comes with a high recommendation from the Studers.  Parking and entrance into the park is free (!!) and we bought $40 worth of tickets for the kids to have more than enough fun on the kiddie rides.  They rode and played to their full hearts content that afternoon and it was a wonderful way to break up the long ride home from the city.  

The grandmas even rode a 'spooky house' ride with each kid which - as suspected - did not go over well with two little scaredycats.  But it was them that had insisted and we all had a good laugh about the 'spooky guys' and Gem still talks about the spooky house and that she 'don't want to do it' again.  

It was really such a great weekend and maybe the best Grandmas & Kids trip to NYC yet!  Thank you to Abba and Gigi who go along with my scheduled weekend of city exploring and stroller-pushing.  I would not be able to do this trip alone.  We are so lucky to be able to do this all together and I am so grateful that the kids get to experience a little piece of their city-loving mumma every year.

2013 Grandmas & Kids to the Big Apple Trip

We made our third annual trip to the Big Apple with the grandmas and kids in mid-November.  (to read about our previous trips - check them out here for 2011 and 2012).  After the last few years of taking the 7hour (one-way) train ride from Johnstown, PA to NYC,NY - we decided that maybe this year we'd spare some of our sanity and drive most of the way.  Let me assure you:  it was the right choice.

We all piled into our car early Friday morning and made the drive to Newark, NJ, stopping along the way for breakfast.  We left early enough that the kids slept most of the way and we didn't hit much morning commute traffic in Jersey since we arrived after the morning rush.  It was sort of great timing.

We stayed (and enjoyed!) the Holiday Inn Newark Airport and received shuttle service to and from the airport to catch NJ Transit into the city.  I am NOT a city driver, so it was important to be able to catch public transportation in and out of the city.  (Plus, we saved a pretty penny staying outside of the city versus inside).

airtrain to NJ transit

This year on our trip, as in past years, the kids got to enjoy all kinds of transportation.  We rode a car, bus/shuttle, elevated train (at the airport), actual train (NJ transit), subway, and on foot/stroller!

subway passengers

After taking NJ Transit into the city, we hopped onto the subway to Soho for a quick lunch before making our first stop of the weekend at the Children's Museum of Art.  It wasn't exactly a cheap place to visit ($11 a person), but the kids had a blast making crafts, checking out the bird exhibit, and most of all -going crazy in the ball pond.

floam station

CMANY also had this really cool installation in the hall near the ball pond that my kids loved running through.  It was a great spot to spend some time burning up energy that was pent up from spending the morning on the road. 

Afterwards, we headed outside to walk the streets and made a stop at Vesuvio Playground on Thompson street between Spring and Prince.  My kids are definitely playground kids and they loved running and climbing and swinging well into the dusk. 

 

We spent the rest of the evening visiting shops along Broadway.  The kids and I spent quite a while browsing the Scholastic Store!  We caught dinner at Kelley & Ping (delicious, even after I knocked over an entire bowl of noodle soup- oops) and then we headed back into Jersey to rest our weary bones.

We started Saturday bright and early and made our way into Brooklyn to meet up with my dear friend, Elena and stroll the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.   We grabbed bagels at Le Bagel Delight then ate and caught up with Elena at Van Voorhees Park while the kids made new friends with little playmates.

Elena and tab :)

photo credit:  Greyson

Afterwards, we walked along the Promenade until Brooklyn Bridge Park where we made our way into Brooklyn towards our next stop.  It was quite a walk that we took from Brooklyn Bridge Park all the way to Prospect Park Zoo, but we made it with a stop for coffee and the kids snoozed in the stroller for a bit.  Sidenote:  The grandmas have vowed to not return to NYC until we get a new stroller (hah!) - any suggestions on a sturdy, easy to push double stroller?  eek!

Prospect Park zoo was absolutely wonderful.  It was so kid-age-appropriate for my kids and very entertaining for all of us, actually (ask the grandmas about how they cracked up at the baboon exhibit!)  It is a fairly small zoo, but wasn't crowded in the least, so the kids got to explore and observe without any issues.  We had a fantastic afternoon checking out the animals and exhibits - we even caught the last sea lion feeding show of the evening!

The indoor exhibits were awesome - honestly, can not say enough about how much we enjoyed the Prospect Park zoo! It was a great stop for my very young kids.  There was even a petting zoo section and the kids had a staring contest with the geese.  

 

After a great time at the zoo, we met up with one of my favorite people on the planet; Sabrina, at Gino's Trattoria for dinner.  Sabrina and I taught together at PS27 when I lived in Brooklyn back in 2005-2007 and we haven't seen each other in about three years.  Oh, it was a joyous reunion and full of laughing and catching up.  Miss her everyday.

Brina, Tab, and grumps ma-gee (aka Gemmer)

After a long dinner, we all loaded up in the subway to go from Brooklyn to Penn Station in Manhattan and then waited around for our NJ transit train to arrive.  Then we took NJ transit back to Jersey to pile into the car and drive two hours to King of Prussia, PA where our hotel was reserved for Saturday night.  

The trip seemed daunting after spending the entire day Saturday, walking all over Brooklyn - but it was actually a big relief to be heading back into the direction of home on Saturday night instead of having the whole distance to travel on Sunday.  We made it to King of Prussia without any issues and fell happily into our beds at the Hyatt House that night.

this is what we look like waiting at Penn Station at 9:00p for NJ Transit after a day of walking - Hahahhhah!

We had a great night of sleep (we loved the Hyatt House!) and took our time in the morning packing up and even hitting the indoor pool that morning!

Then we headed out to the King of Prussia mall to walk and check out the shopping.  We stopped at the play areas so the kids could burn off any last energy, and luckily for us one of the play areas was situated right outside of H&M which meant we could take turns watching the kids and shopping.  I was even able to do a little damage to my Christmas list! 

The drive home was mostly painless as the kids slept the majority of the way and we had decent driving weather.  We made it all the way back home in time for Sunday supper.  It was a great year for our NYC trip!

I am so lucky and grateful to be able to make our annual visit to the city with my kids and their grandmas since it's such an important piece of my history.  I love introducing my kids to a place that helped make their mum who she is - showing them such a different world than the one they see everyday growing up.  Thank you Abba & Gigi for going every year despite miles of walking and not ideal strollers and very long drives.  I am the luckiest.