We got home a week ago from our second-ever family vacation (I mean, that was only the five of us, not the entire extended family.) We were originally going to go to the Pacific Northwest, but uncertainties around the costs of car insurance for teenage drivers and because our mortgage went up a LOT thanks to stupid *$#%& homeowner’s insurance, we opted to save a bit of money and go to New York instead.

Why New York? I mean, why not? The boys had only been once before, and loved it, and I love it, and George loves it. And I was able to get a good deal on our plane tickets, thanks to Southwest miles. (Not to be confused with Southwest Miles, which is Miles in New Mexico.) (Sorry, dumb joke.) (You know what, I’m not sorry.)

We stayed in a fantastic hotel, one I highly recommend, the Life Hotel. It was small, so not overwhelming, and the rooms were absolutely adorable (but not tiny.) And I mean, two big hotel rooms for five nights in NYC is going to be a lot of money no matter what, but for what it was, it was quite reasonable. (And it’s the former home of Life magazine. Pretty cool!)

So, on to what we did:

Thursday

Arrived in the late afternoon. After a taxi ride to the hotel (did you know that even the minivan taxis can’t really accommodate a family of five? George and the boys had to sit four across in the back seat. Yeesh.) we unpacked and rested for a little bit before going to find some dinner.

We ate Detroit-style pizza, as one does in New York. (Look, it was somewhere we’d eaten in 2019 and so it was an easy decision.) On the way, we went into the lobby of the Empire State Building, and then we passed a Paris St Germain shop (Miles’s team) so had to peruse the goods there before heading to dinner. We took the subway to a nerd store for George, then we walked around some more and headed back to the hotel to sleep.

TIP: You won’t spend more than $34 per person riding the subway/bus if you tap to pay with your phone. And we took the subway (and buses) a lot. I put my Apple card on the boys’ phones so I wouldn’t have to tap them in at every station, and we ended up hitting the cap on Monday.

Friday

We went to visit my company’s office space. It was gorgeous! There were free snacks and lovely views and a weird vibrating chair.

Then we walked to a store that sold vintage soccer jerseys, and after that, headed to the 9/11 memorial. (We were going to take the Staten Island ferry there and back, but decided against it when we learned we’d have to wait an hour for a ferry back.) Ate some lunch, then I made them go with me to the Peloton store so I could get a shirt for my classes.

So it turns out, I have a really terrible sense of direction in Manhattan, because I was constantly getting us lost. I cursed Google Maps many, many times, and used the compass app on my phone a lot. And we retraced our steps frequently. And don’t tell the others, but once we stayed on the bus a bit too long and had to backtrack.

We rested for a bit, then took a shorter ferry over to Brooklyn, then went to Grimaldi’s for pizza.

It was a long and exhausting day so I was about to drop by the time we got back to the hotel.

(Did I mention the heat was worse in NYC than in New Orleans? It was so draining – at least in New Orleans, we hibernate when it’s this hot. We don’t walk miles around a city.)

Saturday

In the morning, we met up with Erica and her family at Bryant Park. I finally got to meet her son!! (and her husband, who I know I hadn’t met before, but it felt like it, you know?) We had some food and hung out, then went across the street to the library (not the huge one with the lions, but the building across the street) where there’s a terrace on the 7th floor that was perfect for 2 year olds to run around and grown ups to chat (and teenagers to lounge, sulkily.)

After saying goodbye, we went to the Natural History Museum, which was of course fabulous. Sitting in the Planetarium for a show saved us, but we nevertheless only lasted a couple of hours there, because we were all still pretty wiped from the day before. We did eat an overpriced lunch there, where we had…pizza. (Among other things.) We took the bus back to the hotel (stopping at the PSG store again as well as the Apple Store) and chilled until dinner.

Did I mention the amount of ice cream the boys ate? It was a lot. They’re big soft serve fans, and basically wanted to get a cone any time we passed a truck, which was often.

Dinner was takeout pizza from a really adorable place near the hotel where everyone was delightful. After this, George and I vowed no more pizza.

Sunday

My first Peloton class!

After, we took the subway to Brooklyn to meet Madi and her boyfriend Aaron at a cute little cafe. Madison used to be so shy and now she is almost THIRTY which I cannot handle and it was such a delight to hang out with them. And I was happy to see a part of Brooklyn I hadn’t been to.

We decided to go to the Transit Museum after, because it wasn’t too far away. It was an unexpected delight! It wasn’t huge, but the lower floor was an old platform that was filled with old train cars. We had a lot of fun critiquing them, and sitting a lot.

The boys and I went to Rockefeller Center after that to go to Oliver’s team store as well as another vintage soccer shirt store, and I had banana pudding, so even though we got lost a bunch, it was worth it.

We went back to the hotel for a while, then George really wanted to go to a diner, so we went to the Tick Tock diner that turned out to be in the lobby of the hotel we’d stayed in for our fifth anniversary trip, so it wasn’t our first time eating there. The breakfast fiends were in heaven.

Monday

My second Peloton class!

Afterwards, I went to Mood and I was VERY PROUD of myself for being decisive and just buying two gorgeous pieces of fabric and then getting the hell out.

The boys and George were sitting in Bryant Park again, so I met up with them and we went to the Intrepid, which was George’s big ask of the trip. (And after I went to two Peloton classes, I couldn’t exactly say no, not that I would have.)

We spent several hours there. George was in heaven. It was pretty good, but I had my backpack and it was very heavy and I kind of wish I’d dropped it off at the hotel before we went, but I survived.

We walked around Central Park a bit after that and then went back to the hotel.

Our hotel was in Koreatown, so we found a ramen place around the corner and had delicious soup for dinner. It was the boys’ first time having “real” ramen, and they all enjoyed it.

Tuesday

Sadly, time to go home. I went for a nice peaceful walk by myself because it was FINALLY not sweltering. I also went into the Harry Potter store but did not buy anything because I’m not about to put another dime in that evil woman’s wallet, but it was fun to look around anyway.

And then it was time to head to the airport. In an Uber this time.

And then we came home and picked up Ziggy and all was well with the world.