Dentists Need Hobbies Too!

One thing that you will learn about me through this blog is that I LOVE to travel!  Traveling is one of my families’ favorite hobbies and we are typically planning trips at any given moment… constantly looking for our next adventure.

Great idea for a family trip….New York City!

My husband and I took our four children to New York City last week for a long weekend trip, four days and three nights.  On the first day, we flew into JFK and our first adventure was to take the trains and subways to our hotel rather than a taxi.  With six people in our immediate family, if we cannot get a ‘van’ type taxi, then we end up in two separate cabs which is no fun and very pricey.  So, we decided to try our hand at the trains into Manhattan.  

Here is what we did; First, we downloaded an app onto our i-phones called ‘Embark NYC subway-New York City’ (free version of course) and it was the best app ever!! The app knows your current location in NYC, you then enter the address or landmark to which you are trying to travel via subway, then the Embark App will tell you exactly which trains to take, which subway station to use, how long before train arrives and the app is constantly updating to take into account construction and delays (so easy to use). We took the Air Train from the JFK airport to Jamaica Station which is a subway station hub. Then, we took the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) to Penn Station.  At Penn Station, we caught the subway to Columbus Circle to our hotel on the West Side of Central Park.  Another reason that we chose to take the trains/subways into Manhattan was that our flight arrived during rush hour on a weekday and we had been told that the commute into Manhattan via taxi or car would be around 3 hours!  Our commute into Manhattan via the trains was just a little over an hour, much better if you ask me. All of the trains and subways were clearly marked and easy to use and there were transit authority workers happy to help along the way with our frequent questions. There were a lot of tourists and families on the trains so we felt very comfortable and safe.  

We stayed at the JW Marriott Essex House for three nights.  This hotel is located on the West Side of Central Park and is in easy walking distance to Times Square, Central Park, several museums, and most importantly, the biggest toy stores in the world (according to my six year old)!

We ate breakfast each day at a nearby deli named Angelo’s (the hotel breakfast looked great but was too pricey for our family of six). We visited Little Italy on the first night for dinner at Pellegrino’s and Pastries at Ferrara’s Bakery. We took the subway to and from Little Italy. 

On the second day, we took the subway to Battery Park and the ferry to Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty.  Now this activity is a good four to five hour excursion, but it is definitely worth it to stand at the foot of an amazing monument and hear the FREE (yes I said free, which is a plus to any vacation) audio tour about what this monument means to many of our ancestors who came through Ellis Island.  

After the statue tour, we took the Subway back to the Central Park area and visited Dylan’s Candy Bar and window shopped at the designer stores along 5^th avenue… Then, we all took a long nap!  

New York City requires A LOT of walking. Like, more walking than we do in Disney world and that is a lot! My advice is to wear very comfortable walking or running shoes and carry a backpack/daypack for all of your ‘mom supplies’. Everybody there seemed to have a small backpack on, even the locals.  And another bit of advice… Don’t wear heels on the subway!  I tried to wear cute Wedge Sandals out to dinner to Little Italy on our first night and I ended up tripping getting onto the subway, rolling my ankle and falling backwards into the arms of a very kind stranger who broke my fall and kept me from injuring my head. It was flats for me after that for sure! 

The best part of our trip was when we toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a tour guide who was working on her PHD in Italian Renaissance Art. This guide, who was in her late 20s, was fantastic with kids, brought the art to life with stories about each painting, sculpture, and artifact. She told the most amazing stories about the Egyptian pyramids, mummies, tombs and kept the kids attention so well that the KIDS  requested that she stay with us an additional HALF HOUR (yes the children wanted to do more learning)! 

Other activities that we did throughout the weekend, that I definitely recommend... We saw Aladdin on Broadway which was fabulous! We ate dinner at John’s Pizza Times Square and enjoyed every bite. We also spent an afternoon walking through Central Park seeing the street performers and climbing boulders, which of course is my children’s absolute favorite thing about NYC… bouldering in Central Park (who'd a thunk it?).They love it so much that we got up early on our departure day so that they could climb more boulders!

To sum it up- NYC… GREAT family trip! 

And… by the way, I love to TALK about traveling too!  So feel free to ask questions if anyone is considering a trip to NYC with kids!

#nyc #familytravels #rohnerstakeNY #motherhood #children #kids #hobbies #art #centralpark #statueofliberty #broadway #aladdin

***Copyright 2014 Angelica Rohner Pediatric Dentistry