Central Park has many playgrounds dotted around so we chucked E in the pram and wandered off in search of some pint sized entertainment. I was intrigued to see the Diana Ross playground, but it was closed for maintenance so we went a few minutes further to the mariner’s playground, a vaguely nautically themed set of slides and swings. 

 E had enormous fun racing around and climbing the structures, which played perfectly into our plans: after all the excitement he crashed asleep and we headed to the nearby American Natural History Museum.

There were so many great exhibits here it’s hard to know where to begin. The space displays were great, with lots of interactive things for (older) kids to do. E was still out to it at this stage. 

 The hall of African animals was well presented but I found myself rather sad looking at stuffed white rhinos and other critically endangered species, thinking that these specimens were probably shot and brought back here by nineteenth century “conservationists”

Along with the huge numbers of animals there were hordes of school children and it was quite a noisy experience.

We had tickets to the “Life at the Limits” special display, which was all about life thriving at extremes of temperature, pressure, etc. Again, it was a really well presented exhibition and would be great for kids. One scary moment was the corpse flower exhibit, which they had a special device you could sniff to experience the rotting meat smell. I was worried that some kid had left it open as the smell was quite overpowering, then I realised it was actually the man standing next to me… I know it’s hot and humid here but man, that was rugged.

E chose this time to wake up and it coincided with our arrival at the best part of the whole museum – the dinosaurs! Seriously, the collection of dinosaurs and the presentation of vertebrate evolution was worth the price of entry on its own. There was a full t-Rex skeleton, triceratops, and more dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes that I could have imagined. E was rapt, he kept calling out “roar” and “hooray” – a budding palaeontologist perhaps? 

    

 After all the excitement we grabbed some pizza for lunch. Deb grabbed me a can of Dr Pepper which I haven’t had in a very long time. Pleasingly it tasted much less terrible than I remembered.

We met back up with Leanne, who had been exploring the highline and the 9/11 memorial. The girls were keen to check out Bloomingdales so it was a quick subway ride to Canal Street and Soho (South of Houston of course!) I was reminded distinctly of Bridge Road in Melbourne, lots of people, lots of clothes shops but nothing really that inspiring. E and I left Deb and Leanne to the shopping and took a walk to nearby Greenwich Village. On the way, E fell asleep so I took the opportunity to grab a cold beer and put my feet up. That’s how holidays should be, right?

A beer or two An hour or two later we were reunited with the shoppers and strolled up the road to a Cuban restaurant called, inventively enough, Cuba.

Great service, amazing food and a potent sangria. E enjoyed the rice and beans, and replete we returned home to crash. Another great day.

The day began with the rather distressing news of the sacking/resignation of James Hird. In solidarity I put on my Essendon running top and headed out for a run. There were two middle aged ladies in the elevator to the ground floor. “James Hird just got sacked,” said one of them. Sheesh.

It had just been raining so there was an almost tropical humidity to Central Park, making conditions pretty unpleasant for a run. Even at 6:30 it was hot and very sticky so I was soon a sweaty mess. Still, glad to get out and try my new running shoes, and work off a small amount of all the food we’ve been having. My phone informs me we are walking an average of 10km per day so that’s a start.

There were plenty of other runners out. In particular I love that the road around the inside of the park has a dedicated runner’s lane and separate bike lane. The lane for cars appears to be reserved for park vehicles, so apart from fellow runners and cyclists there was no traffic at all. Perfect!

Returning for a quick breakfast of average crepes, we caught the subway down to 30th street to meet Salli and Dottie and walk along the high line. This is an elevated railway which has been converted to a linear park, a lovely strip of greenery through the city. 

  

 Salli told me that this was where aspiring supermodels often come to be “discovered” so I had the camera at the ready! Much to my disappointment there were no supermodels, instead there were groups of Buddhist monks offering beads and other trinkets. Salli warned us that these are actually fake monks (Punk monks? Junk monks? Bunk monks?) and if you accept their gift they put the hard word on you for a donation. They passed me right by without offering anything, presumably I looked calm and centred already. 

  

 
There was lots of nice urban art and plenty of benches and fountains, it was a really enjoyable experience. 

 We took the elevator back to ground level, then wandered the meat packing district. Out of the cooling greenery the sun was a bit too hot for the kids, so we trooped indoors to the Chelsea market. This had lots of food and drink options, and looked like a very funky place to get food or sweets. Fortunately (?) the crepes hadn’t been that long ago so we just took a tour without any purchases. 

Salli mentioned that she knew of a nice place for a sangria, and given the perfect conditions for such a venture, we headed to “The Frying Pan” on pier 66 and grabbed a long cool pitcher of sangria and some lunch. 

 The sangria was delicious, but I worried that it was deceptively strong as the floor started swaying slightly. Thankfully this was just due to the fact that it was a floating pier, rather than any great inebriation.

Our thirst quenched we dropped in on Salli’s hotel to say hello to her husband Patrick and dog Sadie. Otto was smitten with Sadie and had a lovely time playing, but it was soon time to make our way back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner, and perhaps a couple more cooling beverages.

The day started early with a subway ride to Chinatown, where Leanne was taking a bus on a two-day Niagara Falls adventure. Surprisingly the subway was less crowded than I’d expected, even the return journey into midtown was not too busy, much less so than the equivalent time of day in Melbourne. Perhaps it’s just the more regular trains, who knows?

I jumped off at Bryant park, where I met Deb and E for a coffee (Deb that is, not E, we’re not that crazy) then we sat in the park for a while while E ran through the gravel and used up some energy. He is having so much fun just soaking it all in, it’s hard to know how much he will remember but it’s lovely to see so many smiles.

Finally we packed up and bid farewell to Times Square, heading for the saner climate of the upper west side. The craziness of it all was kind of fun, I shudder to think what New Year’s Eve would be like though. Apparently the room we were in goes for $8000 a night on New Year’s Eve, so it’s about $200 a square metre for the night. Ouch.

Our new hotel is substantially bigger, with room for a crib (😐) and better facilities all round. We are also only a short stroll from Central Park, so I can’t wait to try out the new running shoes.

After settling in we walked to the park. We are right near the Dakota building where John Lennon was shot in 1980, and a small industry of Lennon memorabilia was set up nearby. There was a decided uptick in the incidence of English accents too, likely morbid pilgrims come to pay homage. The Imagine mosaic on the ground was covered in photographers wielding selfie sticks, and I was somewhat concerned they might come to blows, maybe not the greatest way to remember Lennon’s ultimate message of peace and harmony. Still, the area was a lovely spot, and the acoustic Beatles medley from one of the buskers was actually pretty good. 

 We tucked into a nice salad for lunch, then we met Deb’s “pen friend” Salli and her daughter Dottie. Deb and Salli have been writing to each other for over 25 years, but have never met, so it was pretty special to finally meet face to face.  

 Dottie is about 12 months younger than E, but they were quite interested in each other and after sharing some cake, I think they decided to be friends. We sat in the park and chatted, enjoying the shade on a 34 degree day. A lovely way to spend a Monday afternoon. 

 

After learning some tricks for queuing for cheap Broadway tickets, we set ourselves up for tickets. I was hoping to see Penn and Teller, who were touring Broadway and had their last night tonight. Unfortunately there weren’t any tickets available, but we picked up tickets to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and bought our tickets at 40% off, nice.

We then repeated my walk of yesterday up 5th avenue, this time with E awake and Deb and Leanne along too. We took some more time checking out the lovely architecture of Rockefeller plaza. I was particularly taken with the Lego shop which had incredible Lego replicas of some of the local features. A lot of time and love had clearly gone into these. 

   
Another stop through Central Park for E to stretch his legs and run around in the sun. Again, a large percentage of New York’s population seemed to be in the park.

  
We grabbed hot dogs and pretzels for lunch from one of the local vans. This proved to be somewhat of a mistake, the hot dogs were unpleasant and the bagel was so stale it was more or less inedible. Even the pigeons were giving it a wide berth, clearly they knew something about the standard of the local fare.

Heading back to Times Square Deb and I headed to the Barrymore theatre for our play. The story of an autistic boy’s journey through a family breakup, it was a really well done production, and the lead actor was fantastic. The show even ended with an animated maths geek out so it got extra nerd points in my book.

After the show as we headed back past the ticket booth we noticed that Penn and Teller tickets were available for the evening performance at 40% off too, so on impulse I grabbed a ticket.

 

 
We then added to our cheesy Times Square experience by heading to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Otto was having such a good time – he was bopping along to the music and playing with all the staff. The service was really good and the food and drink were not too bad either. E smashed his Mac and cheese and was giggling the whole time. He seemed to particularly like Stevie Ray Vaughan so that was pleasing.

After dinner Deb and Leanne and E grabbed an open top bus tour and I hit the Penn and Teller show.

Having grown up watching this duo, who have been together for 40 years, it was a little surreal to see them in person, but the show was brilliant. The whole show was highlights but some particular favourites were Teller animating a ball, transforming a “Pygmy spotted elephant” (cow) into a chicken, and the nail gun memory test. Such a good night.

I met the rest of the family and we turned in. Tomorrow Leanne heads to Niagara Falls and we move out of Times Square to Central Park West. It’s been a fun experience being right in the middle of it all but I’ll be glad to have saner surroundings.

I started the morning early heading out shoe shopping. No Manolo’s for me though, there were a couple of really great running shops nearby to check out.

The range and prices were great, about half what you’d expect to pay in Melbourne. There were some very special Brooks GTS with a Statue of Liberty print on the toe but disappointingly they didn’t have my size, much to Deb’s relief. A pair of runners for me and Deb, as well as some trail run shoes for me, and we headed back to Times Square, time to queue for cheap tickets. We picked up tickets to see Matilda for Deb and Leanne.  

While they were enjoying their show I took a sleeping Otto on a stroll down 5th avenue, checking out Rockefeller plaza and all the fancy shops. 

  At the top of 5th avenue, just south of Central Park, I embraced my inner fanboi as we hit the legendary Apple Store. It’s an impressive piece of architecture, and on Saturday afternoon it was packed, heaving with fellow fanbois and fangirls.

 
E was still fast asleep so I decided to escape the concrete jungle and head into Central Park. In the shade of the trees it was much cooler and half of New York had clearly decided to come here, it was very busy.  

 There seemed to be a theme of people getting super dressed up and coming here for glamour shots not sure of the purpose but there were lots of well dressed young men and women getting around with selfie sticks and other such accoutrements.

After a pause we wandered back down 6th avenue which was mostly closed to traffic for a market, mostly t-shirts and Mexican food. 

 Meeting back up with Deb and Leanne we grabbed a quick but tasty Italian dinner, then went our separate ways. The girls took E and headed to Madame Tussaud’s and I hit 44th street to make my pilgrimage to Birdland.

 
Back in my Legs and Brass days, one of our signature numbers was Birdland, so I was pretty excited to be coming to such a famous place.

I settled back with a quiet beer at the bar and made friends with James the barman while waiting for the show to start. The act was the Ben Allison quartet – well, it was actually the quintet apart from a dose of food poisoning for the guitarist.

Their set was great, a really tight group of very talented musicians. An enjoyable evening of tunes and some of the local brews, an evening well spent.

Even at 1 in the morning, Times Square was heaving with people, so it was slow going back to the hotel, surely nothing to do with the quantities of IPA consumed.

We had a brief false start on the subway when we went to the platform going the wrong direction. A simple changeover to the other side was thwarted by the ticketing system, which made us wait 18 minutes before we could scan back in – to avoid ticket fraud apparently. Don’t tell the Myki people or they will want this too!

  
We took a short trip to the lovely Madison Square park (not gardens) and caught up with Deb’s friend Rishe who works on Madison Avenue.

  
It was a gorgeous warm afternoon so everyone was queuing at a place called the Shake Shack, which is something of an institution here – we had a caramel and bagel flavoured “concrete”, basically a full on thick shake, and a coffee and doughnut flavoured frozen custard. After a few mouthfuls our teeth were vibrating and the park was shimmering – crazy amounts of sugar!

E had a lovely time tearing around the park and making friends with dogs, pigeons, squirrels and passers by.

We hopped back on the subway for a quick changeover, then Deb and I grabbed the number 7 out to Citi field, home of the New York Mets. Tonight’s game was the Mets vs the Pittsburgh Pirates, and there was a big crowd gathering.

  
We picked up our tickets with a minimum of fuss and headed in via a couple of souvenirs. Friday is free t-shirt day so we are now kitted out with some fancy Mets gear.

In keeping with the spirit of things I decided to grab a can of Bud – turns out that as with everything else, the cans are massive – 25 oz or about 750 mL. Fortunately it’s sex in a canoe beer, so it was more about thirst quenching than anything (at least that’s what I told Deb)

 
We had great seats towards the front of right field so we settled in and made friends with our neighbours. As baseball novices we needed some expert tuition and the guys next to us were very patient and obliging.

The atmosphere was great,and there was a great mood – something Deb and I hadn’t experienced enough of with our respective footy teams this year. The Mets had won 11 of their last 13 games so expectations were high.

The main pitcher, the amusingly named Colon, was warming up near us. With a physique reminiscent of the legendary David Boon, he looked an unlikely figure, but by god he was throwing bullets in his warmup.

 

 
The game kicked off to much action, with a home run in the Pirates’ first innings. Lots of action and excitement, it’s a really enjoyable game to watch and gets very tense.

A bloke came round selling beers so I grabbed another and did the fun game of sending my money down the row to the seller and getting my beer passed back along, what fun! Shame it was Bud Light, again 25 oz of watery, but mercifully ice cold, “beer”

The match continued and at the bottom of the 9th scores were level at 1 run apiece so it went to a 10th innings.

  

Unfortunately due to some somewhat insipid pitching, the Pirates scored a double, so the Mets were up against it to stay in the game. Some late heroics resulted in one more run, but it was too late and the Mets went down 3-2.

No one was particularly annoyed and we filed out to the train after a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We may have to try to get into some games when we are back home.

The subway proved much easier and felt far safer than we had been led to expect from movies and TV. Even the massive crowds at Times Square weren’t too much of an issue. There were some ladies wandering around wearing nothing but g-strings and body paint, much to the delight of the ten year old boys in front of us, whose parents weren’t sure how to explain the situation to them. No photos sorry.

Alas E was still a bit jet lagged so we had struggled a little overnight, but a beautiful morning greeted us and we headed off to the Empire State Building, a relatively short walk from the hotel.

The 1930 Art Deco influence has been beautifully preserved, and the entrance hall was simply stunning. 

  
We had tickets to a somewhat pissweak “ride” which was a flyover of New York narrated by Kevin Bacon, in what was probably not a high point of his career. E being too small meant that he and Deb were spared this particular attraction, and we headed on up. Due to the early start the queues were short and mercifully quick, and we were soon at the 86th floor observatory. A lovely clear day gave us gorgeous panoramic views of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. My particular favourite, the Chrysler building, was sparkling nearby, and the Statue of Liberty was tiny in the distance.

  
Deb and Leanne were reliving the  Hollywood moments that had taken place here, meanwhile we were dodging the forest of selfie sticks spiking up from the crowds.

The views were fabulous and well worth the visit. We headed down and dropped into Macy’s which was just around the corner. Really, it ended up being a somewhat larger version of Myer, not particularly exciting, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a brief rest prior to tonight’s ballgame.

Our spot for dinner was recommended by our friendly concierge Michael, and was a southern style barbecue joint in the Hell’s Kitchen district, a ten minute stroll from our hotel.

We settled ourselves in with a quiet beer. Deb asked for a small cider, and was mildly surprised to find a pint turn up. Turns out that a pint was the small size – if she’d asked for a large one she would have been given a pitcher… Everything’s big in Texas, right?

    
Unsurprisingly the meals were enormous, two main courses was plenty for three and a half of us.

E flirted outrageously with everyone and we soon made friends with surrounding diners. A very pleasant evening all up. The American beer was even good, although I must admit I’ve steered clear of Bud, Coors and Miller so far…

We woke late this morning after a mild dose of jet lag, but otherwise unscathed after the long journey.

Fearful of Starbucks, we had been told of an Aussie-run cafe which turned out to be less than five minutes walk from the hotel. Sure enough, it was pretty Aussie, I had a decent flat white and we all grabbed Vegemite toast for breakfast. Maybe this is the equivalent of Americans coming to Australia and heading straight for McDonalds but what the hell, the coffee was good.

  
It was a lovely sunny morning, so we strolled to the Asics store on 42nd street for a squizz at some running shoes, then headed up to the Museum of Modern Art. It was somewhat surreal to be heading down the streets with the Chrysler building poking out of the skyline, heading past Radio City, and so on. 

  
The crowds weren’t too crazy, thankfully since E was in the pram, and we made it to MoMA unscathed.

The breadth of the collection at the museum is astonishing, I didn’t expect so much variation and so many famous works. We started our tour with the Yoko Ono exhibit, which was quite interesting but unsurprisingly surreal. One piece consisted of a performer on a small raised platform undressing inside a large black velvet bag. Must have been bloody stuffy, was all I could think. 

  
E was particularly excited about the Matisse nudes, and gleefully yelled out “Boobies” every time he came across them. 

  
 The Picasso cubist paintings and Van Gogh’s Starry Night were particular highlights. 

 

 

Elliott loved the children’s section and spent time colouring in and exploring the various activites.

  
There was also a big collection of Warhol’s soup tins if that’s your thing – I was reminded of the great quote about Warhol – “the only genius I’ve ever met with an IQ of 80.” Still, it was cool to see the Marilyn Monroes in person.

 

 
A quick lunch and we finished the museum quickly while E slept in his pram (or stroller if you prefer – why do Americans call all the baby things differently? Diapers, pacifiers, strollers, cribs…) then back to the hotel for a pre-dinner rest.

The hotel is serving as a recruitment/careers expo for NYU law students so it’s full of earnest young kids in suits looking nervous and clogging up the lifts.