Day Three - Ethan & Madison's First Trip to NYC (Summer 2014)

Day Three (Monday)

The time change and busy 1st 2 days started to affect us. We've been non-stop since Friday (Madison's promotion ceremony, and we flew the redeye to NY that same night). We were extremely exhausted from all the walking we did over the weekend. Since I had to work on Monday, Nancy and kids decided to stay in the hotel, and sleep in. They also decided to wait for me to come home from work and that we'd go to the city altogether.

"I'm lost, Officer"

Well, although not NYC-related, I just had to share this event. I was scheduled to visit one of our call centers in Hopelawn, New Jersey. My meeting time was at 10am, I decided to leave the hotel around
8:15 (it's about a 35 min drive to Hopelawn). Well, the drive to the area was not the problem but when I got to the area where the GPS kept leading me to, I, for the life of me, couldn't find our office. I circled around the area over a dozen times,  I called the person I was going to meet but she wasn't available. I even called my co-worker to help me figure out if I was in the right general area. Long story short, I made an illegal u-turn, and as luck would have it, a cop pulled me over. The moment he walked towards me, the very first thing I said was, "I'm lost, Officer!" He went through the normal routine of asking for my license and registration. After all the formalities, the officer asked where I was going, and he gave me directions. He told me about my infraction, but did not give me a citation. He clearly knew that (a) I had a California Driver License, and (b) I was driving a rental....definite signals that I wasn't from the area. So yes, I got pulled over...but was happy that I told him the truth and was not cited. Thank you!!!  :-)

After work hours - headed for NYC

After work, I headed straight to our hotel, and picked-up the fam so we could head to the city. From a theatre perspective, Mondays are not busy theatre days. We weren't that interested in catching the shows that were playing on Monday so we decided to sightsee again, and make our way towards Central Park.

Central Park

I've been here many, many times, and my favorite place to visit is Strawberry Fields which is a memorial dedicated to John Lennon. First of all, it's such an easy access to begin with, it's on the West Side between 71st and 74th Streets. While it gets crowded, with very heavy foot traffic, it's a great place to sit and relax, people-watch, and if you get lucky, get serenaded by one of the guitar singers. I've always enjoyed John Lennon's music, and do like listening to many of the songs sung by the Beatles. Ethan started to take piano lessons last year, and for his recital, he played John Lennon's masterpiece, "Imagine". During our visit, the guitar player sang "Imagine". It was just great!

American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

After leaving Strawberry Fields, we decided that we wanted to make dinner reservations at Serendipity III. But before that, we made our way towards AMNH. It was a great walk, a beautiful late Monday afternoon. We didn't have much time to explore the museum, but I wanted to make sure the kids got to see the different sections that interested them. The best part of it all....we didn't have to pay in full...it was "pay what you can" so we gave a donation instead. After spending nearly 2 hours in the museum, it was time to head to Serendipity III, but we got kinda lazy, and decided to head towards Midtown instead. HA!!! That's the beauty of not having an itinerary - we were quite flexible.

Miracle on 34th Street (Turntable Mad For Chicken)

We took a subway (the B train towards 34th Street Herald Square). Once we left the train, we found our way inside a JC Penney. Madison was in need of a tank top, the weather was that hot. After JC Penney, I looked for Turntable Mad for Chicken (highly-recommended), supposedly known for great KFC (Korean Fried Chicken). While walking around 34th St, the kids got to see the Empire State Building, so we took pictures of them being dwarfed by its enormity in size. We found the address for Turntable, and was at first concerned that the outside looked "blah"...nothing inviting at at all. The restaurant was on the 2nd floor, and we had to take narrow steps to get there. But man, once we were there, it was nothing like I expected. It was vibrant! Energetic! Trendy! Upbeat! There was a soccer game going on that was playing on the big screen. So glad we went here instead of Serendipity III. We ordered KFC, Bulgogi Sliders, Fried Shrimp and Calamari!!!! All so good! That was my Miracle on 34th Street!

Bryant Park Summer Movie Series

After dining at Turntable, we walked a few blocks towards Bryant Park. It was their 1st night that they were showing summer outdoor movies....the movie that evening was "Saturday Night Fever"....the park was packed, thankfully, we found extra green chairs and sat towards the far right side. Again, it was such an experience to be there. We love doing the same type of picnic here in California. But being in New York watching outdoor movies, with the big buildings that were brightly lit added great effect to the experience. The crowd had a great time the moment John Travolta started to strut down in the opening scene. 

Times Square at night

Yeah, yeah....so Times Square is Times Square! But it was my kids' first time so we had to go back and take pictures "at night". It was a great evening...perfect weather...everyone just having fun! Took lots of selfies  :-P

So there you have it....that's Day 3...quite simple, yet very memorable, especially that u-turn incident!  :-)