First Trip With Our Princesses April 2012 - Day 17 - Macy's, Serendipity 3 and MoMA

[moosha]

Day 17 - Exploring NYC: Macy's, Bloomingdales, Serendipity 3, MoMA

There are a lot of photos of buildings today. We love the New York architecture and kept snapping away, but forgot to take many pictures with us actually in them

The weather was still pretty grotty as you can see in this morning's photos







It didn't rain so much but it was still very cold. It was our mission to get ourselves some coats to make exploring more enjoyable, and as mentioned yesterday we had done some research and found North Face jackets were stocked at Macy's, so that was where we were headed

We had set our sights on breakfast at the Europa Cafe at the bottom of the Empire State Building on the way down to Macy's. We had had cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon) bagels from another branch of Europa every morning on our last visit to New York. These weren't the best bagels we had this trip, but they were tasty enough and set us up for the morning. It was still early, probably about 9 am by the time we were all done with our breakfast, so we decided to have a wander around the buildings by the Flatiron like the Met Life and New York Life buildings and take some photos

We took a lot of photos of buildings













This church has lots of yellow ribbons on the railings. We were told by the guide on our open-top bus tour the following day that there is one ribbon for each US soldier who has been killed in Afghanistan



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[moosha]

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We had to pop into a Starbucks to thaw out again. It had very few chairs and was packed with people grabbing a coffee before work. Most people were hovering with their coffees, but we managed to bag a seat and warm up with Americanos (Mat and I) and hot chocolate (Seren.) Freya doesn't like hot drinks so she was pretty restless and was messing about, so we had to spend less time in the warm than I would have liked :-/

As we were heading towards Macy's, we saw one of those cool parking lots (well, I think they're cool) where they park cars on top of each other using ramps. While we were marvelling at this and taking photos, a nice man in a suit who was walking past offered to take a photo of us all together



He spoke to us about the parking lot, and then pointed out a rooftop bar in the hotel behind the parking lot, saying that when the kids are grown up and we come back, we should go there as it's very nice. He may as well have been talking about visiting the moon, as with small children the idea of going to a trendy bar is so far off our radar, but we appreciated the sentiment

One thing we were very aware of on our trip, and our last visit to NYC too, is how nice the locals are and how proud they are of their city. Several times people came over to ask if they could help us find where we were going, or just chatted to us. The traditional stereotype of New Yorkers being rude and brash just wasn't the case in our experience. Maybe it's a post 9/11 thing, but it really helped make our time there very special. I forgot to mention in yesterday's report that I was sat next to a girl on the Subway who was a student at Columbia and had lived in New York all her life. She was gushing about how much she loved the city, and was suggesting great places for us to take the girls. Just lovely

We also saw this beautiful glass memorial in a fire station window (terrible photo, apologies for the reflection)



We arrived at Macy's about ten minutes before it was due to open at 10 am. There were quite a few people already waiting, and they had opened the outer doors so shoppers could wait in a foyer. It was again a relief to get out of the cold. When the doors opened, we made our way to the North Face jackets. Mat and I immediately found what we wanted, and were very happy to be paying $90 each for coats that cost £90 back home

Adults all sorted, we headed to the children's department where the North Face jackets were all a bit big for the girls. I had Seren in one and was trying to roll up the sleeves to stop it looking like she was wearing a coat of mine, saying 'she'll grow into it' when the department manager walked past and said 'That's too big for her. Come with me, I'll hook you up, girls.' We followed her to the smaller girls' section where she pulled out a jacket for each of the girls, which fit them perfectly AND were in the sale. I think they were about $25 each. They aren't what I would necessarily have picked out, but they looked good and I wasn't going to argue with those prices. Our jackets feature in pretty much every photo of us from here on, of course, so there will be plenty of opportunities for you to see our purchases

We popped downstairs to use the toilets and came across some lovely brightly coloured prints of dogs with NYC landmarks. We bought one for each of the girls' bedrooms and I bought a little thick vinyl bag in one of the designs too

Freya's (rubbish photo, sorry)



Seren's (another rubbish photo, excuse the flash)



Happy with our purchases, we decided to make a move before anything else caught our eye. We hadn't intended to do much shopping while we were in New York, but the coats had been a necessity. I also wanted to go to Bloomingdales to get one of those thick vinyl 'medium brown bag' shopping bags (I have a small one but it's too small to be very useful) We hopped on the Subway and took the N train to 59th Street at the edge of Central Park, then walked across to Bloomingdales

Another building



I like this one as it's very 'authentic' with a yellow cab and an NYPD officer in the shot



Here is Bloomingdales on the left hand side of the road



Mat wanted to look at the Ralph Lauren polo shirts that he had spied when we had popped into Bloomingdales the previous day, and I wanted to see if they had any J Brand jeans in my size as I knew they were much cheaper in the US than buying them online as I had previously done. Time was ticking on and we had a lunch reservation, so we had a quick look and agreed to come back after lunch

Lunch was at Serendipity 3 and we were very excited about it. We had read online that the food wasn't that great, but that's not what we were going for. Serendipity is one of our favourite films (especially Mat's) and we watch it every Christmas Eve once the girls are in bed. When we were choosing a name for our first unborn baby girl, I suggested 'Seren' which is a name I have always loved since knowing someone at school with the name. Mat wasn't convinced until I said we could call her Serendipity, like the film (not officially, just as a nickname.) He was sold, and we do call her Serendipity (so does her class teacher and so now Seren writes 'Serendipity' on the front of her workbooks.) For anyone who isn't aware of the excellent (cheesy) rom-com starring the lovely John Cusack, it's set in New York and they visit Serendipity 3 for frozen hot chocolate, which is the restaurant's signature dish. Seren is aware of all this so was looking forward to visiting this very special place too



We had made a reservation before we left the UK (Mat had phoned the restaurant) so at 12.30 we were sat down in the beautiful downstairs dining area. I'm pretty sure Mat and I had a veggie burger and fries, and they was nice enough. We were taking in all the detail as the decor and artefacts in the restaurant are what you might call eccentric, lots of Tiffany lamps and odd signs, but it really appealed to us











The service was quite slow, so we had plenty of time to look around at everything. After our mains, we ordered some ice-cream for Freya, Mat had some sort of sickly pudding and Seren and I shared a frozen hot chocolate which was delicious. Seren didn't really like it, but between Mat, her and myself we made a pretty big dent in it

They had a little gift shop at the front of the store, and we wanted to get a T-shirt for Seren with her 'name' on. You know in shops where they have personalised keyrings or pencils or mugs on a stand? Well, Seren knows that they are never going to have her name and doesn't even bother approaching those stands anymore. So this was our apology for giving her an unusual name: something that did come with her name printed on it. They had a fitted beige t-shirt that had Serendipity written in purple sparkly gems on the front. In the smallest women's size, it would be just like a baggy t-shirt on her. Perfect. I also treated myself to a blank canvas bag with 'Peace Love Serendipity' printed on in bright letters which I love and use all the time

Freya was again starting to mess around so I took her outside while Mat paid. He heard a man (another Serendipity fan) ask the owner about which table had been used in the film. So he took Seren upstairs to see the table that John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale had sat at in the film, while I tried to stop Freya from having a big meltdown in the middle of the street. Short straw for me then :angry:

Happy and full, we walked back to Bloomingdales where the nice sales lady in the Ralph Lauren menswear department sent Mat to get a tax-free shopping discount card from Customer Services so he could get the things he wanted even cheaper. He bought a bright coloured striped polo shirt and navy jumper. Not to be outdone, I took Seren back to the women's jeans department and managed to find a pair of J Brands in my size. As with the North Face coats, the jeans cost in dollars what I would have paid at home in pounds. It was a no-brainer. I got those and my 'medium brown bag' (yes I did buy three shopping bags in one day ) and we left the store before we could spy any more bargains

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[moosha]

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Our next stop was to be the Museum of Modern Art. Mat and I had visited the museum on our last visit and had to leave after about an hour as it was so hot in there and I was suffering with morning sickness. No danger of either of those issues this time. Just before we reached MoMA we stopped to look at a section of the Berlin Wall which has been installed in a tiny open space. We took some photos









and mentally ticked it off my very long list of places to visit (the actual list was constantly in my hand or in my pocket, it can be seen in a couple of photos from this week. Needless to say it came back very dog-eared and rain-stained, but I will be using a pristine copy of the same list for our return trip this year as there's so much we didn't manage to do, particularly outdoor stuff, due to the weather)

We had bought New York CityPasses for Mat and I (the girls were admitted free at most of the attractions we visited as they were under 6 so it wasn't worth buying passes for them.) We had done some research and this was the best discount ticket booklet for us based on the attractions we wanted to visit. You can use it at six attractions over nine consecutive days and a couple of those are an either / or option so it's slightly flexible. We used it for Top of The Rock, American Museum of Natural History, MoMA and had been planning to use it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which we ran out of time to do) and the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise (we did the evening one on our first night here in 2005 and it was fab, but we didn't make it onto a boat this trip for fear of turning into blocks of ice.) We definitely would have saved money if we had visited all five attractions we had intended to visit but I'm not sure whether we still saved money using it just at three as I can't find the paperwork. Let's assume we did just to make me feel better

The other benefit of CityPass is that you generally don't have to get in the main queue to buy tickets. At MoMA I had to go to a separate desk which I think was just for collections and annual memberships, so we saved a bit of time not having to get in the big line for admission tickets. Our smugness at this lasted only a moment when we saw the ridiculous queue for the cloakroom. They don't allow you to take rucksacks / shopping bags in so we had to check our baggage and coats. It was nice to lighten the load but we had to wait about fifteen minutes to get to the counter. There was a very authoritative man assigning every party with a letter of the alphabet which corresponded with which window he wanted you to line up at. It was all a bit of a mess, they could have used some Disney Cast Members to come and show them how it's done

Eventually we were coat and bag-free and made our way to one of the galleries. MoMA was very busy (everyone sheltering from the cold I should think) and we knew we weren't going to get around all the galleries as the girls (and I) wouldn't have the attention span. I am a bit like a child when I visit museums and galleries. I'm interested for about an hour, two hours tops, and then I just can't focus and want to get outside. So we had planned which galleries to start with: the Contemporary Galleries which had objects like radios, crockery and chairs, and was pretty engaging for the girls (and Mummy.) We then moved on to the Architecture and Design (Daddy's favourite) which had some great little architectural models. Even though we had told her repeatedly not to touch anything, the models were too tempting for Freya. I was mortified when a staff member came over as he had caught her touching one while Seren and I were briefly looking at something the other side of the display and couldn't see what she was doing

Freya's little wandering hands meant that we moved through this section of the museum pretty speedily. We had a quick look at some of the photography (my favourite) and a brief stroll through the 1940s - 1980s Paintings & Sculpture gallery to look at the Lichtenstein's, Pollock's and Warhol's before deciding to call it a day. As we walked back, we passed a Uniqlo store which was advertising their 10th anniversary printed t-shirts for something ridiculous like $6 each. They had dozens of different designs for men and women, mostly recognisable characters and brands. For men they had some cool movie ones and music ones and Mat decided on Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup and David Lynch's Eraserhead. I chose a lilac Speedy Gonzales one, two Hello Kitty ones and a Lulu Guinness one with small black cats printed all over it. The girls were really tired and were playing up while we chose our t-shirts, so we decided that we would pick up something for them to eat at the hotel on our walk back, rather than go somewhere and sit down where they might be a pair of pickles

We headed to Shake Shack on Eighth Avenue, a fast food place on my list to get the girls some chips. It was pretty busy, we had to wait about five minutes to get served and then about another ten minutes for our order of two portions of fries and a frozen custard shake (the shake was for me, but Seren had a pretty good go at it too.) They cook the orders fresh, which is great, but when you're only waiting for fries it's a bit frustrating

We were only about five minutes from the hotel. When we got back, there was a long line of glamorous people outside the hotel and a security guy slowly letting them in. There was a party going on in the cellar bar, for the NBA Draft event which was taking place at Radio City. Mat says there was also a fashion show taking place in the Penthouse that night, but I'm not sure whether it was the same night as the NBA thing or not. Either way, it was weird strolling past the line of people who were all dressed up while we were all scruffy in jeans after our day sightseeing and as hotel residents, we were welcomed through the door by the security guy. We felt like A list celebs

I'd enjoyed my yummy shake on the way back from Shake Shack and so took the girls upstairs to eat their fries while Mat popped into the deli / grocery store a couple of doors down to pick up something a bit healthier for us grown-ups. Unfortunately the store was just closing up so all Mat could get was a very large pack of sushi. It was very tasty but there was too much of it so some went to waste. The girls only made a dent in their fries as they weren't massive fans of Shake Shake's chips because they're crinkle cut (which obviously makes them taste different to straight cut fries )

The girls were in bed pretty early and we weren't far behind (after I had devoured the New York Post of course )

Here are all three bags I bought that day



Day 18 is here

[mick]

A busy but cold dayglad you managed to get coats for you all we went To New York in May and it was cold a rainy!,! But awesome as the Americans would say

[moosha]

Originally Posted by mick

A busy but cold dayglad you managed to get coats for you all we went To New York in May and it was cold a rainy!,! But awesome as the Americans would say

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Thanks Mick & Joan. New York is awesome

We are going back at the end of May this year and hoping that going a month later means it will actually be warm enough to spend some time outside. Fingers crossed. I guess their weather is just very unpredictable and we should be used to that living in England

[PIGLET38]

Another great read - such a shame about the weather. Loving the bags - I also have a bit of a bag problem and have a couple of the vinyl bloomingdale bags from previous trips which I never use, but I bet still have to buy another one on my next trip! Love the dog design one - may have to put that on my list

[Guest]

You managed to fit a lot in today, with some very successful shopping outcomes Glad you enjoyed your lunch - what a lovely experience, and I had been wondering about the origins of Seren's name.

[Lisa29]

I love those bags!

I haven't seen Serendipity for years, I really like that film.

Great day again and glad you managed to find your coats.

[moosha]

Originally Posted by PIGLET38

Another great read - such a shame about the weather. Loving the bags - I also have a bit of a bag problem and have a couple of the vinyl bloomingdale bags from previous trips which I never use, but I bet still have to buy another one on my next trip! Love the dog design one - may have to put that on my list

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Thanks, Piglet. Glad it's not just me with a bag problem I'm sure I will buy some more Bloomingdales ones when we go back in May too

Originally Posted by TheBeast

You managed to fit a lot in today, with some very successful shopping outcomes Glad you enjoyed your lunch - what a lovely experience, and I had been wondering about the origins of Seren's name.

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Thanks, Terry. Mystery solved about Seren's name

Originally Posted by Lisa29

I love those bags!

I haven't seen Serendipity for years, I really like that film.

Great day again and glad you managed to find your coats.

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Thanks Lisa. Glad to have found another Serendipity fan

[disney owl]

lovely bags! you fitted a lot into your day too