Mike and I travel to New York City a few times a year, and since it’s always for work we always leave the kids at home. Annabel is old enough now that this drives her bananas. It’s partly because she never loves it when either of us is gone, but mostly because she’s been dying to go to NYC. I needed to be in The City for some meetings, and with her school having a day off for the Jewish holiday it finally worked out to bring her and (my mom) along without Annabel having to miss any school.

I just love New York, and in a lot of ways I think I could move back here tomorrow. I look back on my time here fondly and I was really excited to show Annabel around the city – even if all she was interested in was all of the major tourist stuff. Those things can be fun, too!

I booked her into the window seat on the plane, and she could hardly believe it. She absolutely loved looking out the window during the flight, especially when we were on approach into JFK.

landing at JFK

Our room is so enormous for an NYC hotel – bigger than my apartment was, AND it even has a full kitchen!

our huge hotel room

Plus, the views are amazing.

towers of light

east river

downtown

After a Dunkin Donut breakfast, it was off to the Statue of Liberty, Annabel’s number one request. Our tickets to the island came with an audio walking tour, and Annabel looooved it. There was an adult version and a kid version, so Annabel and I did the kid version. It was really interesting and she completely ate it up.

Annabel at the Statue of Liberty
She’s holding the audio tour device in her hand.

learning about the statue

The weather was very dark and dreary, but luckily the rain stayed at bay for most of the day. It made for some ominous pictures, though:

statue of liberty

back to Manhattan

When we arrived back in Battery Park, we went to the brand new Seaglass Carousel that just opened last month. It was so cool, like no other carousel I’d ever been on. Everyone rides in glass fish that are amazing works of art, and the fish move up, down, and around on individual spinning platforms, while amazing music plays. I posted a video of it on my Instagram – it was really magical.

seaglass carousel

seaglass carousel

about to go for a ride

When we were done in Battery Park, we headed back up to Midtown and showed Annabel the gorgeous Grand Central Station:

grand central

We went down to the market there and got fresh food to keep back in our room. Annabel’s impression of the city after the first day was great, although she was not entirely pleased with how much walking everyone does here. My suburban girl is very used to needing to drive to get almost everywhere. Thankfully, she got a lot better with the walking on her second day here, which I will tell you about tomorrow!