Day Two - Ethan & Madison's First Trip to New York

Day Two (Father’s Day in New York City)

Our rising stars 

Not sure I mentioned this, but we didn’t really have an itinerary for this trip. Well, there were definitely key sites we wanted to visit, but because of my many trips to the city, I decided we’ll pace ourselves and just go with the flow. Sunday would’ve been another perfect “theatre” day, but we decided to sightsee instead. Why? This was the only day I'd be spending in full with them, the rest of the week, I'll be at work and they'll be on their own

Highlights of the day

First subway ride 

I’ve been telling the kids that only way we’d survive in the city is through lots of walking and subway rides. Knowing that we’d be in the city for 7 days or so, we decided to get the 1 week unlimited rides card for $30/each. Each ride is $2.50, but we knew we'd be riding over a dozen times. After purchasing 4 cards at Port Authority, we were off to Chinatown. 

Subway ride

Joe's Shanghai 

I took them to Joe’s Shanghai, highly recommended by the New York Times. I went here earlier this year, and enjoyed the soup dumplings. The difference this time….there was no snow. It was a gorgeous Father’s Day in the city (mid-80s)….so, so, so very warm!!! We enjoyed our lunch; we also ordered salt n pepper pork chops, and shredded pork noodle soup – delish! There’s always a line at Joe’s so be patient. If you have a small party, depending on their availability, they might end up having you sit with other customers and share a table with them….that happened  to me in Feb, I didn’t mind.

Justin Timberlake's Hairstylist

After lunch, we walked around Chinatown some more and turned to a small street/alley with quite a few barbers/salons. Ethan was in desperate need of a haircut. We saw a sign for a $7 haircut. The selling point? Justin Timberlake got his haircut here….well his picture was posted outside hahahahahaaha. So I dared Ethan to get his haircut….and he agreed! Haircut accomplished. Ethan brought SexyBack. Directly after getting his haircut, we needed to get something cold to drink and opted to buy boba.

Staten Island Ferry 

Since today was a major sightseeing day. I’ve read up so much re: the Staten Island Ferry, and for the 1st time, I tried it and took my family along with me. It was a gorgeous Sunday as I had mentioned, and the waiting room was filled with lots of tourists. We took the 4pm ferry, and when we boarded, we sat on the left side, however, the views of the skyline and statue are on the right side. On the left side, we saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, and Governor’s Island….not a bad side at all. The moment the ferry arrived at Staten Island, many of us rushed to catch the other ferry that was getting ready to leave and head back to Manhattan. This time, instead of sitting on the left and right side, the ferry, we stood in the rear side of the ferry (which gave us an easy opportunity to move from right or left side). We stayed on the right side which gave us plenty of opportunities to see the Statue and the skyline. What a great experience. We asked and offered the kids to take another cruise directly to the Statue of Liberty, but they said the ferry cruise was perfectly fine, and they were happy with it. Staten Island Ferry - such a great deal.

World Trade Center 

Nancy and I - Friday, Sept 7, 2001 (before the attack)

The new One World Trade Center

A little bit of a backstory. Nancy and I were in NYC a week before the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. I was in a training class. She and I were scheduled to fly back from JFK to LAX on the morning of 9/11itself, but we changed our flight, and left on 9/10. We just had Ethan then (9 months old) and we missed him so. We have this picture of us when we got to the Statue of Liberty, and we took a picture with the skyline in the background – the twin towers in all its glory (this was on the Friday before the attack). Although we’ve visited NYC as a couple since the attack, we’ve always referred to ourSept 2001 visit to our kids, and this time we were able to show them Ground Zero, the water fountain, and the new WTC. As expected, it was a solemn, peaceful kind of visit.

Katz’s Deli

After visiting the WTC area, we headed off to Katz’s Deli. I’ve never been here before; I’ve only seen it from a far when I ate bagels at Russ and Daughters (another famous bagel institution in the city). I had to tell the kids about this restaurant, but the pictures on the wall, and the energy

was more than enough to convince them about the popularity of this iconic restaurant. This was the same restaurant featured in Billy Crystal's and Meg Ryan's movie - When Harry Met Sally. Of course, I had to order their famous pastrami sandwich….cravings satisfied!

Father's Day greetings    While I spent Father's Day with Ethan, Madison, and Nancy, the other 2 kids we left at home made sure they greeted and celebrated with me somehow. They gave me their gifts prior to our trip and hugged me tightly before we left for New York. Daddy loves you, Caitlin and Evan :-)

That’s how we spent Father’s Day, another crazy good day that we will never forget. That's Day Two folks.