Tuesday, September 28, 2010

veni vidi vici!

Hazy Sunset en route to Long Island                      Photo Credit: Filia Artis


We're back from New York City and figure that we're starting to become experts at traveling with a baby - this trip made about 20,000 Km that Baby has travelled since she was born less than a year ago. Because we were mainly there for a family function, there was not a lot of time for sight seeing in the city. However, since I belong to a family of power-shoppers, no less than four pairs of shoes made the trip home with me along with a few outfits and a good bottle of scotch.

I took advantage of my CAA membership at Banana Republic where the discount is apparently 10% for card holders. Sadly, the folks at Nordstrom somewhat laughed at me when I asked if they too have that discount. It seems that "discount" and "Nordstrom" cannot be used in a single sentence. Oh well, even "retail" was less expensive than here.


Based on a Prada design, but made for wide feet!


A bit more of an evening look

From Banana Republic
From White and Black


























As for the actual New York experience, we did make a trip down into Manhattan for a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which really is a world-class gallery. One of our favorite sections was the early 20th century sculpture garden and I'm a sucker for all things mediaeval too!


"Fallen Gladiator"                                 Photo: Filia Artis

Late Mediaeval horsemen                                   Photo: Filia Artis


I think there is probably a DIY debate going on here at The Do-tique on the topic of whether we should have taken the train from Rockland County, or driven ourselves. We got down there in no time at all, but spent an hour and a half looking for parking as 5th Ave was closed for a race and our plan had been to park right under the museum. It came down to me getting out of the car and begging a cop to let us onto a closed street where I'd seen a couple of the runners heading back to their car to leave. It worked. The parking was free. It just all resulted in a fair amount of swearing to get to that point!






Sunday morning traffic                                                      Photo: Filia Artis




The best part was walking around on the Upper East Side and envisioning the characters from Gossip Girl coming around the corner. Every doorway there did have a doorman standing guard and I saw a lady whose dog was wearing a Hermes collar and leash! In other words, it was just like on TV.

"Blair Waldorf"

Finally, we managed to find a restaurant on 2nd Ave that was an awesome baby friendly location for dinner. (By the way, did everyone in Manhattan suddenly decide to have a baby? They were everywhere!)





Try Tony's di Napoli. It was so loud in there, that it didn't matter what kind of fuss your kid was making and there were at least a dozen other little ones in there to boot. They have a dedicated handicapped washroom on the main dining floor equipped with that holy grail of bathroom fixtures, a baby change table! The servers were very nice, the food was great and the price was fantastic.

My main recommendation would be to bring a small bike lock for your stroller. You have to leave them at the front of the restaurant and since ours has already been stolen once, I was more comfortable locking it to a rail there than leaving it free for the taking.

I may or may not have mentioned that we opted to drive down, which was about a 600 Km (375 mile) trip each way. I consider a major road trip a DIY project in and of itself. It was a long trip, but we were able to make some good stops both there and back. In the end, we didn't have to worry about baggage weight and the general airline hassles and we got home sooner than my mom and sister who actually flew!

All in all, a very enjoyable trip! Now back to some "doing" around here!


DIY Ratings: 

10 for enjoying the "New York Experience", especially the MET and dinner at Tony's

7 for the driving vs. flying there depending on where you're coming from

5 for the shopping. They have AMAZING stuff at pretty good prices, 
but the malls are very busy, so be prepared for it to be a major excursion!

4 for trying to park in Manhattan, even on a Sunday



2 comments:

  1. I so love NYC. Such a magical place. If I was recommending places it would be...Conservatory in Central Park, Cathedral, MET museum, MOMA (only if you have time because the art is out of this world), Stroll down Fifth Avenue (around 72nd to 50th is AWESOME), Eat the best pizza in NYC by the Brooklyn Bridge (it's a hole in the wall - Grimaldi's Pizza. Okay, I'll stop now. and finally...Ellen's stardust diner where all the actors are waiters and they sing amazingly straight from broadway and have names like Zap. Sigh. Such a wonderful, wonderful place. I have to find my way back... :P Your account only makes me miss it more! Sigh.

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  2. Thanks, Niki! In fact, I did think of you over the weekend while I was in the city.

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