Friday, September 28, 2012

Adventures in the Big Apple

Last weekend was the perfect autumn weekend in NYC! The air was crisp and the sun was shining. We were excited to go out and about for some fun family-friendly activities.

On Saturday, we ventured to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Local - a collection of local vendors selling their products and offering food and wine tasting. 

We took the baby on the subway for the first time for his first trip to Brooklyn. This was a real team effort to carry the stroller up and down the stairs to get in and out of the subway. Some subway stations have elevators but not all, so it was good to have more than two hands to get baby up and down. I wouldn't try the subway by myself with the stroller unless I knew for sure there would be an elevator. Seriously, help a sister out if you ever see a mom with a stroller trying to get up and down stairs in a subway station!

Once across the East River, we strolled to Brooklyn Bridge Park where the event was taking place. There was mandatory stroller parking, so Dad ended up holding baby the whole time as we walked through the rows of vendors. A baby carrier would have been more convenient but Dad didn't mind holding the little bug. The baby loves being able to look around at anything and everything and being a part of the action. He loved the hustle and bustle. Eventually, he fell asleep on Dad's shoulder. It was sweet...

We tasted really great local wine from upstate New York and Long Island. There were spicy pork sausage sliders, mini hotdogs topped with macaroni and cheese, green bean salad, cheesy foccacia bread, bacon bourbon flavored popcorn, and cookies and chocolates galore! It was a sweet-tooth's paradise!

To top it off, I crossed paths with a girl I knew from college who is now the founder of her own bakery out of Brooklyn called The Good Batch. She makes the most delicious ice cream sandwiches I've ever tasted! Sea salt is the magic ingredient... if you've ever dipped french fries in a Frosty, you know what I mean.

I really had fun for the first time in a while! It was nice to do something that was fun for adults and also included the baby. Plus, we also brought a friend and my grandma with us so it was a good company. 

After the market, we strolled around the Brooklyn Heights Promenade along a street of old Victorian mansion townhomes overlooking the water and southern part of Manhattan before heading back to NYC.

Sunday was another fabulous relaxing day. We packed up the family and took the subway to Columbus Circle (which has a great elevator by the way) en route to Central Park for a picnic. First, we stopped by the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center to pick up our picnic lunch. The Whole Foods is AH-mazing! And fun fact from my husband: it's the highest grossing Whole Foods in the nation (I see why). I'm glad we stopped there because it also made me realize the TWC is the closest thing to a mall we have in NYC which may come in handy on cold days this winter when I want to walk around somewhere.

Then we found a grassy spot in Central Park to eat our lunch, drink a bottle of wine, and doze off! Ahhhhhh... Before heading home, we walked the Park taking in the nice weather and scenery. It's so quiet in the park. Even near the surrounding streets, the trees and kids playing really muffle the typical NYC traffic. A true oasis in the middle of the crazy Big Apple!

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