Upper East Side, US Open, 9-11 Memorial Museum, and Le Bernardin

When I booked the flights four months prior, a 6:00 AM flight from MCI to LGA sounded like a great idea because of the financial savings. When the day arrived, and we were setting our alarm for 3:30 AM after working a long day, this previous idea seemed terrible.  This felt especially true when I had to wake up my 13 month old in the middle of the night to take her to the airport.  My mom (Tari), husband (Michael), baby (Rosalie), and I headed to the airport to meet my parents-in-law (Mike and Mary Jo) to head to New York for a mini vacation, a five day weekend. My older brother Jacob spurred the trip when he got us an “experience gift” for Christmas. He offered to take us to a three star Michelin restaurant in NYC of our choice. He worked with Michael’s dad Mike on the surprise, and he set up for my mom to watch my baby while we went out. Because this was my fourth or fifth time to NYC, I was excited to not feel pressured to do all the touristy things.

DAY #1: Upper East Side, Luke’s Lobster, Saba’s Pizza, Flex Mussels, Beyoglu

The flight was fairly uneventful and smooth. Michael’s dad surprised us and upgraded us to Business Class, which was helpful since I was holding Rosalie. We scheduled pick-up at LaGuardia since we needed a car seat and didn’t want to try to find one when we arrived. Dial7 was on time and was able to fit us all in one vehicle as we journeyed our way to Jacob’s apartment in the Upper East Side (UES). Jacob works in downtown Manhattan on Wall Street for Morgan Stanley, and he got caught up at work. We got Mike and Mary Jo checked in next to Jacob’s apartment at The Mark, and we dropped off our luggage. We headed out for lunch to Luke Lobster (YUM!), where we enjoyed lobster, crab, and shrimp rolls with some salt and vinegar chips and ginger soda.  Michael wasn’t quite full, so he looked up a recommended pizza place, so we headed over to Saba’s pizza where we all shared a slice. After that, we were able to get into Jacob’s apartment. We had to take stairs (no elevator in the building) up to the penthouse level (so to the very top). No wondered Jacob looks skinny lately! We enjoyed Jacob’s apartment, unpacked, put Rosalie down for a nap, and rested some ourselves. After a while, we took a stroll two blocks west to Central Park and walked up and down Museum Mile. We had wonderful crisp weather. Jacob was finally able to get away from work, so he met us for drinks and food at Flex Mussels. We shared some rosé, crab guacamole, flex fries, and two types of mussels – another good recommendation! Before dinner that evening, I took an Uber to a condo of one of Jacob’s friends to borrow a stroller and pack n play (lifesaver!!). That evening we decided to stay in for dinner (since we woke up at 3:30 AM), so Jacob and Michael picked up Turkish food from Beyoglu, and we all gathered on Jacob’s rooftop balcony which made for a relaxing evening with perfect company, conversation and weather.

DAY #2: Maison Kayser, US Open Tennis, Milkflower Pizza – Astoria

The entire group headed to breakfast at Maison Kayser where we had a French breakfast and coffee. From there, we all headed to the US Open in Flushing. We navigated through several subway trains to get there. Because we had a stroller, we got to go through the premium ticket line which sped up the process a lot. The US Open grounds were quite impressive. Tennis stadiums were everywhere (way more than I had anticipated). Our first stop was to get our small radio from American Express for being card holders. We tried to head to one of the popular matches, but there were no seats. We decided to split up and just enjoy the grounds. Mike and Mary Jo went to some on their own, Jacob met up with some friends, and mom, Michael, and I tried to navigate with a stroller and baby, but it was very difficult. She was very fussy. We found some lawn space and let the baby burn some energy and to give ourselves a break. Michael found a couple matches to watch on his own. After a while, mom joined back up with Jacob and his friends, and they made it a goal to see Gabine and Sloan play. Michael and I enjoyed the lawns and eventually made it into our assigned seats at the top of Arthur Ashe stadium to see Venus Williams play. It was late afternoon now, well past Rosalie’s naptime, so she finally fell asleep in my arms in the stadium. That evening, the group went separate ways. Michael went to NJ to see a USA Cup soccer game with his friend Dennis. Mike and Mary Jo had dinner together, and Jacob, Rosalie, Mom, and I went to meet up with our friends Nikias and Amber in Astoria at a pizza place they recommended called Milkflower. We had great seats in the outdoor back part of the restaurant. The atmosphere and lighting was great, and there were grape vines (with grapes) serving as our roof. We had some amazing food there.

DAY #3: Barney Greengrass, National September 11th Memorial & Museum, Up Thai, Bemelmans Bar, Le Bernardin

We had a full day planned. Michael did some research and saw that Barney Greengrass was nearby for breakfast and had a lot of history and high ratings. It’s a Jewish deli institution known for its smoked fish and has been around since 1908. We had dishes like the Sturgeon and Nova Scotia Salmon Scramble with eggs and onions. It was delicious and packed, and at the end they wouldn’t take my credit card (cash only!). Luckily our party had enough cash on hand. From there, we journey to the National September 11th Memorial & Museum. I had high hopes for it, and they were far exceeded. It was incredible and really well done. I highly recommend it. We spent over two hours in it, but it could easily have been five hours. It was powerful, especially the room the scrolled through each victim saying their name out loud, showing pictures, and highlight their story. Outside the museum is a tree known as the Survivor Tree. It’s the only tree in the area that made it through the attack. After that, we went back up to the UES to Up Thai at 73rd street and 2nd Ave, a place with colorful lanterns and a delectable fried rice claypot (made with sea scallop, shrimp, chicken, Chinese sausage, onion, scallions, and shiitake mushrooms). After this, we decided to go back to Jacob’s apartment to rest because our three star Michelin dinner was that night at 9:00 PM.  Prior to the fancy dinner, we met for drinks at Bemelman’s Bar at The Carlyle, an upscale piano bar, adorned with Ludwig Bemelmans’ famed murals. He was the creator of the classic Madeline children books, and the walls were covered with his paintings. We read that he painted for them in exchange for free room and board. It was really incredible. After that, we hopped in an Uber because it was so rainy, and we were all dressed up. We arrived for our dinner at Le Bernardin, the elite French restaurant with Chef Eric Ripert’s refined seafood. My expectations were so very high though, that I was a bit disappointed. Other restaurants of this caliber found ways to make me feel special, and ways to wow me. This place didn’t really do either, but the food was terrific (see pictures) and had great presentation. Everything was very professional. 

DAY #4: Lexington Candy Shop Luncheonette, Calexico, Pinkberry, Insomnia Cookies

We were all pretty worn out by day four, and half of the group had gone back home to Kansas City, so the remaining group rested a lot on this day. We had a late breakfast at Lexington Candy Shop, a place with an old fashioned soda counter and standard diner breakfast. It was cool and rainy. We looked up the location of F.A.O. Schwarz Toy Store, so I could take Rosalie. We got there, and it was permanently closed! I was so bummed. We walked around for a while longer, and then spent the early afternoon napping. Mom and Jacob went out for a ride on Citi Bike, and I stayed back with the baby to give her a break. For dinner, Jacob had a great Italian place picked out, but the wait was too long with a little baby, so we walked across the street to Calexico, a mediocre Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the tennis tournament on tv though. After that, we walked a few blocks to introduce my mom to Pinkberry and Insomnia Cookies.

DAY #5: EJ’s Luncheonette, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Roosevelt Island, Blackwell Island Lighthouse/Four Freedoms Park, NYC Ferry, Wall Street

It was our last day (Labor Day) in NYC, so we packed a lot of things into the day. We started with breakfast at EJ’s Luncheonette, a delicious greasy spoon diner. One of Jacob’s friends Stacy joined us for the day. We then walked across the street to shop at a little store with cool knick knacks. I got a gift for the people that let me borrow the pack n play and stroller for the long weekend. From there, we walked awhile to catch the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The line was long because one of the trams was shut down, and it was also Labor Day. We packed into the tram and took the scenic journey alongside the Queensboro Bridge over the East River to Roosevelt Island. Roosevelt Island had a free shuttle that went in a circle around the island. We took it to the north side of the island and walked around Lighthouse Park. It was a great view of the city as well as Astoria. We then caught the shuttle bus back to the south side of the island to Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. It’s a beautiful place, and we saw the Smallpox Memorial Hospital and learned about the history of the island (which you can read about here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Island. We decided to take the trip back to Manhattan via the NYC Ferry. We were later than expected, so we had to jog about half of the island to get there. The line was so long (even though we’d already purchased tickets), and it hardly moved because there were already a lot of people on the ferry, and very few of them got off the ferry. So we decided to go into the shorter line and go to Astoria to try to get on that ferry to go back to Manhattan. They made us all get off the ferry, and get back in line at Astoria, so we missed that boat. It was quite the ordeal, and Rosalie (13 month old) was being a pretty good sport. Finally we got on the next ferry on the Astoria Landing and took it to the bottom of Manhattan to Pier 11, Wall Street. It was a nice boat ride with an amazing view of Manhattan’s skyline as well as several of NYC’s main bridges. We saw where my brother worked on Wall Street, and then walked into Federal Hall, so that I could get a stamp for my national parks Passport Book. We bought some fresh mango from a lady on the street, and then enjoyed the subway ride back up to UES to my brother’s neighborhood. We grabbed food to go at Mamagyro, a laidback Greek shop. They had delicious food. I had to get back to pack, return the pack n play and stroller, find an uber with a carseat to get Mom, Rosalie, and I to LGA to catch our evening flight back to MCI.