HubZilla, drop your daughter off at my house and I’ll babysit. I’m in love with Anya.
You might not get her back!
It hasn’t. It’s basically a well-stocked Toys R Us with lots of neat stuff. FAO Schwartz is still way better. I went to both last thanksgiving.
She’ll have to see if she can work you into her plans:
http://www.dulcemichaelanya.com/Small%20Hint1.jpg
http://www.dulcemichaelanya.com/Small%20Hint2.jpg
Have you considered this?
That is a fantastic thing to see- but call before you haul out to Flushing Meadow Park. It was supposedly being renovated for the last few years and I don’t know that they have put it back in yet.
( On a personal note, I wonder if they are leaving the WTC towers in the model or not… )
Totally irrational paranoia: I don’t think I would ever take that thing, since folks got stuck in it for hours one time. Plus I don’t like heights and being in a little car in the air. :eek:
As of last year, yes, with a note explaining that they wanted people to know where it was and how it looked in the skyline. Not sure what will happen when there is actually another building on the site, though. In general when a new building is built, the architect donates a scale model to the Panorama.
BTW, the Queens Museum has some nice Tiffany glass too, and the unisphere (as seen in Men in Black II) is out front.
We leave for NYC the day after tomorrow. And I am looking forward to it, as I have been for the better part of two months. Free hotel, free airport transportation, her plane ticket and per diem help with the expenses. The excitement of visiting the Big Apple and showing my daughter around (and of course, the myriad photos).
And yet, part of me still has that tendency to “look a gift horse in the mouth”.
From Weather.com:
Sun: Partly Cloudy
Mon: Partly Cloudy
Tues: Thunderstorms
Wed: Thunderstorms
Thurs: Thunderstorms
Fri: Showers
Sat: Showers
Frak.
However, I do note that they say “scattered” and “isolated”. Since Hawaii rarely has thunderstorms, how does this work in NYC? Are we talking 12 daylight hours of rain? Or a few hours (or less) of rain with the rest of the day being okay, albeit cloudy?
If they are really thunderstorms, they tend to be in the late afternoon/evening/night and have a few hours of rain. Now this time of year, it can rain literally all day (it did just last week, and not intermittently either) but that would be unusual for a prediction of a “scattered thunderstorm.”
Thanks!
I think I need to stop checking the weather every hour. It’s going to drive me crazy!
> Sun: Sunny
> Mon: Partly Cloudy
> Tues: Partly Cloudy
> Wed: Mostly Sunny
> Thurs: Sunny
> Fri: Isolated Thunderstorms (okay, this is the museum day)
> Sat: Sunny
I leave Saturday night! Woo-hoo!
Well, I’m back. It’s hard to exaggerate how much fun we had, because we got to do EVERYTHING I planned on doing. Anya sat in her stroller or walked/ran alongside. She never fussed nor got bored. When riding the stroller, she would often sit up and lean forward just to take in all the sights.
Some highlights:
[ul]
[li]Serendipity3: We went expecting a 30-45 minute wait per the concierge. We planned accordingly. We walked there and they had a table ready for us with no wait![/li][li]Central Park Zoo: She loved the penguins. It was cold the first few days, warm the last few. We should’ve done the Rain Forest on the earlier days.[/li][li]FAO Schwarz: She spent over a half an hour running & dancing on the big piano[/li][li]Carnegie Deli: Pastrami & corned beef: check. No mayo: check. Egg cream: check. Cheesecake: check. Cel-Ray: check (yes, really!). Is she a New Yorker now? She also ate some Original Ray’s pizza and an entire Gray’s Papaya hot dog. Plus she liked the Knish from the vendor.[/li][li]S’Mac and Peanut Butter & Co: Hit them both. Thanks for the tip![/li][li]NY Waterway to Jersey City and back: Great skyline pictures… and she liked the boat rides. [/li][li]Brooklyn Bridge: She walked the distance; sometimes refusing the pause when Daddy had to take his myriad pictures.[/li][li]Canal Street: She got a Dora watch to go along with Daddy’s “Rolecks”[/li][li]American Museum of Natural History: We split-shifted on the Rose Center show, so she didn’t see it. She was very enthralled with the “didosaurs”.[/ul] [/li]
The subway (“choo-choo”): This was her FAVORITE thing! She would step on and step off when it was time. On the train, she sit still on the seat smiling at me. After a while, she would ignore the “no eye-contact” rule and start waving “HI!” to everyone. It got to the point that she’d fuss whenever we passed a staircase on the street.
We did a lot more, like the Roosevelt Tram, Children’s Museum, Central Park, Times Square, etc. Right now, there are about 1,300 photos to sort through, so posting pictures will take a while. But I just wanted to thank everyone for their suggestions, especially S’Mac, Peanut Butter, and especially Serendipity3!! 
Okay, due to overwhelming request, I have deigned to release some of our New York City pictures. Rather than do the slideshow route, I thought an alternative would be more fun:
I’ve created my own custom map on Google Maps, which you can view!
- Go to Anya’s web page (http://www.dulcemichaelanya.com/), and there will be an updated link the the NYC map.
- It will link to Google Map’s “My Maps”. You will see an aerial view of Manhattan Island (works best if window is maximized).
- You can click on any icon to read a bit about it and see one of our pictures! It’s easy to scroll and zoom in on the map using your mouse.
- You can click on the links on the white bar at right.
I have lots of pictures to go through, but this should hold you for now 
I enjoyed the NYC tour, but couldn’t get the whole captions to show. That is a neat way to show your trip, putting locations with the pics. It would be easy to just think, “Oh, a NYC pic”, but the map helps put the pics in perspective (at least for me).
I’ve put the same pictures and captions on another board, just in case the Google Maps didn’t completely show up.
I’m the OP, I can resurrect.
My daughter and I are returning to our “summer home”. Okay, my wife has business here and I’m tagging along. Like last time, she’ll be working, Anya and I will be exploring NYC. She fondly remembers the choo-choo (subway) and “giant piano” (guess where?). Everytime she sees a collection of skyscrapers, like Waikiki, she points and yells “New York!”
We did a lot last time and now that she’s three, I’m going to try some new things. Recommendations/suggestions/answers appreciated.
I will repeat a few things since I loved them so, like Top of the Rock, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, American Museum of Natural History, etc. But I want try some new things:
[ul]
[li]Circle Line Cruise: I want to do the whole 3-hour job. What’s the easiest way to get from Times Square to the pier?[/li][li]Coney Island: How long is the subway from Times Square? Which is the most scenic subway line (that spends time above ground)? She won’t be riding the Cyclone, but will she have a problem with the Wonder Wheel?[/li][li]Guggenheim: Is it currently covered with scaffolding?[/li][li]Playgrounds: Loved Heckscher Playground in Central Park. What’s another recommended one?[/li][/ul]
Oh, I’ll be heading out in mid-June.
Junior’s Cheesecake is now in Times Square. Great food and the best cheesecake around.
Hey, that’s pretty neat. I was thinking of making a day out of Brooklyn, where I was going to hit Junior’s over there.
Heights, Promenade in early morning.
Then Downtown & Fulton Street mall
Maybe the children’s museum (which I’ve read is better than Manhattan)
Go down to Coney Island
Wrap it up with a sunset walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
As you can see on this map, the Central Park playgrounds tend to be on the outer edges, forming a sort of ring around the park. When my kids were little, we occasionally went “playground hopping.” We would spend an hour or two at a playground, then pack up and move on to the next one. The variety was fun.
This page has links to all the playgrounds, so you can get an online preview to see which ones might appeal to your kid. Our favorites were the Diana Ross Playground, which was closest to where we lived at the time and catty-corner to the Museum of Natural History. We also really liked the Billy Johnson Playground, which is just north of the Children’s Zoo.
Here’s some help added into your quote for logical reasons !!