NYC
Easter Weekend 2008
with Miranda and Kaeli

at the New Haven train station	on the train to the Big Apple
Grand Central Station	checking into the Millennium Hilton
view of Ground Zero construction from our room	waiting for the subway
eating orange beef at the New Green Bo	rice cakes at the New Green Bo
	Kaeli eating a dumpling at the New Green Bo
Kaeli & her dumpling	Miranda and Kaeli at the New Green Bo
more of that orange beef	moving on to the next meal...the Doughnut Plant on Grand Street on the Lower East Side
The girls went to see Spring Awakening on Friday night at the Eugene O'Neill theater on 49th. Don't know how it happened, but by chance there were 4th row seats available on-line!!! The place was packed, but they were right up front.
Lunch on Saturday at Andre's Cafe on 2nd Ave on the Upper East. We can't imagine why the girls didn't want to join us and chose to shop instead.	The Easter Bunny found Miranda & Kaeli, even in NYC.

Friday, March 21, 2008
Took the train from New Haven and arrived in the city at 11am. Hopped on the 4,5 express to Fulton Street and were checking into the hotel by 11:30am. We walked over to Chinatown for lunch and ate at our favorite, the New Green Bo. Kaeli was a real trooper...as she is not a big fan of Chinese cuisine. She tried and enjoyed a Shanghai steamed dumpling as well as rice cakes and a bit of orange beef. From there the girls browsed the Chinatown shops and picked up a few souvenirs as well as brand name purse/wallet copies. We walked through Little Italy and the Lower East Side and arrived at the Doughnut Plant for some sustenance. The doughnuts were interesting and tasty, but probably not the drop dead doughnut experience we were hoping for so no need to visit there again. We walked through the Jewish Quarter and visited a cheese shop, but by then it was getting late and so we headed back to the room so that the girls could use the pool before starting to get ready for the show.

At 6:45pm, we took the girls to a sandwich shop for dinner (they had had more than enough "weird" food by that time) and then put them in a taxi to the show. They called us when they were safely seated and then we went and had Cuban food for dinner at La Tina's Comida Latina. Very tasty, but nothing compared to the Cuban food we ate in Little Havana in Miami back in December. After dinner we strolled the city for a while and then stopped in at Artisanal, a hopping fondue restaurant (with small cheese shop) that we would like to eat at in the future. We checked it out and sat at the bar for drinks and dessert. We'll definitely go back for the full experience on another trip.

Saturday, March 22, 2008
Slept in a little and then took the girls up to Herald Square where they wanted to go shopping. They skipped breakfast because it would have made them "too fat to try on clothes". That's a quote! While they shopped, we took a cab to Mocca Hungarian on the Upper East Side only to find out that they were CLOSED for business. Thankfully, Stuart noticed a Hungarian church and we thought that perhaps it was a Hungarian neighborhood and we'd find something else if we walked. Sure enough, in less than five minutes we stumbled upon Andre's Cafe and enjoyed Wienrt Dchnitzel and Veal Goulash. We lingered over pastries, tea and coffee after the meal until the girls called us. They had shopped and eaten at the amazing Macy's gourmet cafeteria. They were not interested in meeting us for walking so we told them to get a taxi back to the hotel and we walked the Upper East side enjoying the sunny weather and mild March temps. We took the train back to the hotel an hour or so later and they were happy as clams messaging with their friends and looking over their purchases. Then they gave us a fashion show before dinner.

We wanted to eat dinner at the Turkish Kitchen, but when we arrived they were too busy and we didn't have reservations. Plan B went into effect and we headed over to the famous Katz Deli and ate dinner there. After dinner the girls took a taxi back to the hotel (do you see a pattern here...the young, healthy teenagers don't want to do any walking at all), but the adults needed to walk off the heavy meal. We walked through the Lower East, down Mulberry for pastry and Italian Ice in Little Italy, and then through Chinatown where we stopped to try some roasted pork. Yup...a second dinner. We were lucky again with a clear night and mild temperatures for March. It was all very pleasant. We continued our walk after our second meal and got back to the room to find the girls playing a wild game of cards.

Sunday, March 23, 2008 EASTER
This morning we slept in again and then packed up. Around 12:15 we gathered our luggage and hopped in a taxi up to the Grand Central area. We saved plenty of time to stop in at Darbar for their fabulous Indian lunch buffet around the corner from the train station. They're used to us shlepping in there with all of our luggage. Kaeli tried a miniscule portion of several items. Go Kaeli!!! We'll make an adventurous eater out of her yet. We arrived home at 6pm. What a fun weekend!!!