Big Apple Boot Camp May 2013 - Day 4: West Village

[moosha]

Day 4 - Tuesday 28th May 2013

Today is the day of our holiday that I refer to as 'Grumpy Daddy Day.' It began just as every other day so far had: a pretty early start and out of the suite by 8 am, and he was ok at this point. We had decided to visit Pax Wholesome Foods on the corner of 40th Street and 6th Avenue for breakfast today. Having stayed at the Bryant Park Hotel for a total of ten nights in 2012 / 2013 up to this point, Pax is a sandwich shop that we had fully intended to visit for breakfast and so far had failed to do so

The lovely independent sandwich shop that we had frequented for breakfast most mornings in 2012 had sadly closed down, in fact several of the units surrounding the hotel had shut or changed hands since our previous visit including the Lily O'Brien's chocolate cafe that was next door, and the deli between the sandwich shop and Lily O'Brien's. The deli was all shut up when we arrived on the Saturday, but reopened during our time in the city, and had been pending approval from the City Department of Health. Anyway, a new burger restaurant had opened in one of these units, and a patisserie was due to open soon after we left (one for next time)

The point of this rambling is that we went to Pax for the first time and wished we hadn't waited so long. Seren and Freya got their cereal (Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies respectively), Mat and I had cream cheese and lox bagels which were really tasty, the nicest one I had on this trip to NYC, and the freshly squeezed orange juice went down very well too. We were faffing around with putting the cereal, milk, apple juice for Seren, water for Freya and one for the road on the tray, with the girls leaping up and down due to hunger. Once we had ordered the bagels, the manager told us to go and sit down with the food we had and that Mat could come back and pay once the bagels were made. He hadn't put it all through the till, had just observed what we had from behind the counter and encouraged us to go and get the girls set up to make our lives easier. We were really impressed with the service, so returned the following morning. He did the same thing again even though our order was slightly different (I had fruit instead of a bagel), and on our final morning (spoiler alert), when Mat was getting the breakfast to go (the girls and I waited in Bryant Park), he rang it through the till and said 'no water today?' The hotel had given us a few free bottles on check-out, but again we were impressed that he knew what our 'usual' was. We will definitely return to Pax, and I would recommend it for a quick and tasty breakfast or lunch. I'm sure they have a couple of other outlets in Manhattan

All breakfasted, we hit the road (well, the Subway) and took a train up to 96th Street on Central Park West so that we could take the girls to a fab playground we'd seen on Sunday morning when passing on our way to Henry's. When we came out of the Subway station we couldn't remember exactly where the playground was (there are lots of them located every few blocks just on the edge of the park) so we walked a few blocks in the wrong direction as the first one we reached wasn't 'the one' and while pretty good, didn't compare to the fantastic playground we'd all been impressed by a few days previously. The Tarr Family Playground at 100th Street was reconstructed in 2009 and for any families heading to New York, this is the playground I would recommend. We had promised the girls a play this morning after 'playground-gate' at Brooklyn Bridge Park the previous evening. I think they would have spent all day at this playground. There was only one other family with a toddler there when we arrived so the girls were able to run around and try everything out which they wouldn't have been able to do on Sunday morning as it had been rammed

I followed them around with the camera and my phone, taking lots of photos and videos













They were having a whale of a time, and Seren in particular is a real daredevil when it comes to playgrounds (despite being a theme park wimp.) Mat was chilling out on a bench, I think he was already a bit grumpy as we knew it was forecast to rain later and was already pretty grey. He was also complaining of feeling tired (he obviously didn't get the memo about boot camp.) I was feeling decidedly happy though, and wasn't going to let his mood get me down. We were in our favourite city in the world, the girls were having a ball, and I was looking across the street at the lovely apartment building and trying to imagine that we lived over there and had just popped to our local playground in Central Park. My only concerns at this point were that the girls may be worn out for a full day's boot camp after this exertion, and while we were doing much better this year at ticking places off 'the list', there was still quite a lot that I wanted to get done

After about fifteen minutes in the park, a school class of about 30 children came in to the playground all in uniforms with their teachers. We guessed they were having 'recess' in the playground as perhaps their school doesn't have much outdoor space. What lucky children, spending their playtime in Central Park. The children must have been about six, and we heard some of their role-play games: 'Pretend I'm a girl from The Village' said one future Carrie Bradshaw

With all these extra children at the playground it was a good time to head off



We took the subway back downtown to Penn Station / 34th Street...



...and as we left the station there was a street vendor with a fruit stall. Freya wanted a banana and Seren wanted an apple, I bought a couple of plums (we were all missing our fruit) and we ate them walking down Broadway through the Garment District. When Mat and I had first visited New York in a very hot August 2005, we'd been intrigued by the old sweatshops above the shops on Broadway, thinking how hot and uncomfortable they must have been to work in. With some of the upstairs windows open again today, although they appear to be just stockrooms now, we pointed them out to the girls

It was still only just after 10 am and so far the rain was holding off. Our next stop was Madison Square Park as I wanted a custard shake from Shake Shack. We took the obligatory Flatiron photos before entering the park



Unfortunately the Shake Shack kiosk didn't open until 11 am so we decided to chill out in the park for a bit until then. There were these weird coloured rope walls in the park which the girls were fascinated with. We weren't sure what the point of them was. They were either 'art' or were being used as walls while a series of concerts were taking place in the park (or both.) As we have always found in Madison Square Park, there were loads of squirrels and they always come very close to you which Freya in particular loved















The squirrels kept her amused until it was time for Shake Shack to open, as did some teenagers doing laps of the park on a school PE lesson, being timed by their teacher. Mat and Seren went to join the queue that was already gathering at 10.55 and it took ages for them to return. Shake Shack is a fast food restaurant but they cook to order so unfortunately our shakes were delayed by others' burgers being cooked ahead of our turn. Eventually they arrived with the shakes and had opted for a strawberry custard shake and a vanilla custard shake for us all to share. I was wary of this as last year, my yummy vanilla custard shake had been pretty much stolen by my eldest daughter, but this year everyone got a fair share. I preferred the vanilla one, it has to be said. They're sickly but yummy

It was starting to rain a little, and as soon as we moved from the tree-sheltered bench, the rain got heavier. We put on our jackets and made a plan to head for the kids' book store, Books of Wonder on 18th Street, which we had enjoyed visiting the previous year. Once inside the shop, Seren's idea of heaven, she went off to sit down with a book and Freya was distracted by some cute little soft toys for sale by the counter. She was adamant that she wanted a squirrel toy, having been so taken with them in the park. Unfortunately they didn't have a squirrel, but Freya's not the best at taking no for an answer. She had a bit of a meltdown and got embarrassed when the lady behind the counter tried to help, but eventually settled on a cute little orange cat to spend her money on. Mat asked the lady behind the counter why everyone we met in New York seemed so enamoured by Freya. She's cute of course, but she seemed to have everyone cooing over her on both our trips to the Big Apple. The lady said it was due to her fair colouring, her rosy red cheeks and her cute little voice. At five she still has a high-pitched baby voice and so we're expecting her to sound like Jane Horrocks when she's older. So that cleared that up

There's a little cafe in Books of Wonder so Mat went off to get us a coffee while we sought refuge from the rain in there. The coffee was foul, although I remember enjoying it last year, but Mat drank his. Mine went in the bin after a couple of slurps. Seren eventually chose a book in the sale to spend some of her holiday money on, and then we headed out into the rain. The girls and I weren't fazed by the downpour, in fact it added a bit more excitement to our adventure, at least while it was still a novelty, but Mat was already moaning

We had decided to head for Chelsea Market first off as it's indoors so a good respite from the rain. We love looking at all the food shops here, especially the bakeries with their fab novelty cakes, but didn't buy anything today as we weren't yet hungry and didn't fancy carrying cakes or picnic lunch around in the rain. We made a mental note to return before the end of the holiday

We stopped at Posman Books which we had all enjoyed visiting last year. The girls had a good look at the books and Seren read some Curious George stories. Freya bought a cute illustrated book of the Wreck It Ralph story, and then we ventured back out into the rain

We were heading into the West Village next, and had quite a few things on our list to check off in this area. Mat and I love the Village so I was a bit annoyed that he couldn't just 'suck it up' and get on with exploring this lovely neighbourhood without moaning about the weather. In his defence, we were getting very wet, but with only two more days in New York we couldn't just call it quits, and go and lay around in the hotel suite. This is boot camp, people

We walked to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes as we had the year before. I love this place as it smells divine, there are so many lovely looking treats on offer, and you can see staff actually baking behind the counter. It's very old-fashioned looking and lovely. Last year, we'd had to queue to get in, but today the streets were quiet and the bakery was empty. All except for one young man who walked in ahead of us and then dithered over which cupcakes to choose. It's self-service for cupcakes, and each variety is on a separate dish covered with a plastic lid to keep them fresh. There are about eight varieties at any one time. This man stood right in the middle of the table and even though I had a box in my hand and was tutting impatiently, he seemed completely unaware (or ignorant) of the fact that someone else might actually want to purchase some cupcakes today too. I tried to go to one side, he would move that way, completely oblivious. So I would go around the other side of him and you've guessed it, he moved back that way. Eventually we had each chosen a cupcake and had paid and left the shop before the indecisive man had even finished choosing

We were aiming for Peanut Butter & Co, a cafe / sandwich shop that specialises in, you've guessed it, peanut butter sandwiches and products. Only half of our family are big PB fans, Seren and I are decidedly anti the stuff, but they offer tuna sandwiches etc so we thought this would be a good place to pop in for a light lunch. If only we could find it. The Village is so hard to navigate, even with our street map we kept ending up at the corner of a street and finding the road in front of us was not the one we expected to find there at all. Bleecker and Bedford streets in particular seemed to just disappear and then reappear unexpectedly in random places. It was frustrating, and Mat was getting more and more grumpy as we got wetter and wetter

We ticked off the exterior of Carrie Bradshaw's apartment from our list





Last year, a couple of girls took so long to take their photos that they ended up being in our shot as they just wouldn't leave. This year, it was just Seren, Freya, me and the rain. The notice remains outside asking tourists to be respectful of the fact that the building is a private residence, but there is also now an animal charity donations box: 'you've taken your photo, now please donate to this charity.' We did, and kept telling our naturally cynical selves that they must actually donate the money

After the 'Sex and the City' apartment building (Seren: 'What programme is this from?' Mat: 'Er...'Carrie and the City') it had to be the 'Friends' apartment building (again)



Three trips to New York and this is one of very few landmarks we've visited on all three trips. What can I say? Friends is a classic. Seren is really keen to start watching the series, I've told her she's too young but she has watched one of my favourite ever parts which just happened to be on TV when we turned it on a few months before our trip. It's the bit with Rachel, Chandler and the cheesecake on the floor. I don't think she quite 'got it' and visiting the apartment building today, she wanted me to talk her through the scene again so that filled the time for a few minutes while we carried on pounding the pavement in search of Peanut Butter & Co



Continued below...

[moosha]

...continued

Unexpectedly ending up on a stretch of Bleecker Street we knew, we called it quits and headed into John's pizzeria. Mat and I had eaten there on our first trip in 2005 and loved it. Last year we hadn't managed to visit but did get takeaway from the inferior Times Square branch (I later learned they were no longer run by the same people as there had been an acrimonious 'split' in the company.) It was pretty busy inside but a booth had just become free nearest the door

John's is very... how to describe it? Well, it's 84 years old, certainly doesn't seem to have been gentrified and is definitely full of character. The restaurant, which was given an A grade health rating in 2011, had been shut down by the NY City Department of Health a few months before we came, but I've seen discussions on t'internet that those closures are actually all political (although it did mention filth-flies .) The fact that it had been re-opened was reassurance enough for us (plus we were soaking wet and hungry.) I think the girls were quite surprised by how, er, rustic it was. The wooden benches are all carved up with graffiti, the service is brusque, the music is loud...and we LOVED it. I ordered a glass of red wine that came in a tiny, old fashioned looking wine glass that reminded me of my nan's house in the '80s, and Mat had a beer. Both certainly hit the spot. We ordered a large cheese and tomato pizza with olives (the menu is limited and they don't do slices.) We love olives, the girls hate them but we figured we were paying so tough, they'd just have to pick them off . (John's is not the kind of establishment that I would try and order a topping on half the pizza only. I think you may die from the look they'd give you )









The pizza was very yummy, we all enjoyed our meal and the soundtrack that accompanied it (The Beatles, 80s Michael Jackson, some rock 'n' roll - erm - Christmas songs .) When we came before we had been seated in the other half of the restaurant which had an open kitchen but today that side was all closed off and a bit spooky-looking. In 2005 the whole restaurant had been busy and I wondered if things were still not great at John's after their closure if they were only operating half of the restaurant. As we regrouped outside we looked at all the photos of the celebrities that had dined here (in 2005 we had been swayed to try John's because of a celebrity endorsement from Jack Black .) Today there were photos of Emma Stone, Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, Jack Black, Johnny Depp, the guy who plays 'Wimpy Kid', Billy Crystal, Jason Bateman and Michael Cera. A pretty cool list, we thought

It was still raining so we headed into Bleecker Street Records which we had somehow missed on our previous visits and had not come across in our planning. We are big music lovers and love an independent record shop. We also still buy CDs, usually in very occasional 'splurges' when we are away. I controlled myself and bought just one in Bleecker Street Records while the girls were engaged by the two massive overweight cats that sat in cat beds by the stairs. They even had cat branded merchandise and a sign that said 'stroke at your own risk.' The girls didn't take the risk

Amazingly we finally located Peanut Butter & Co so went in and bought Freya a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich to have for her tea later on. We also bought a jar of their 'Cinnamon Swirl' peanut butter which Mat and Freya have devoured since we got home. Unfortunately they don't ship to the UK but I have seen their original peanut butter for sale on amazon for the bargain price of £15.69 per jar. Oh well, guess we'll have to just go back and get some more

The cafe itself seemed nice and I will put it on the list for a future visit. Bizarrely they were also playing Michael Jackson in there (this was the third time in 24 hours we'd been somewhere and heard a Michael Jackson song.) Mat pointed this out to the girl behind the counter and made a comment along the lines of 'maybe he's died.' She gave him that 'we Americans really don't get your British sense of humour' look and we awkwardly finished up in there and moved on

We headed towards the East Village and went into Other Music which is a must-do record shop for us when we're in New York. We always try and buy any albums by New York artists that are on our list and we both achieved that this time. In fact we went a bit mad (bought about eight CDs) and spent a bit too much of our holiday spends in here. In my defence I did get some very good albums

It was still really chucking it down when we had paid for our CDs so we took cover in the shop for a couple more minutes before we left. I wanted to visit a few places in the East Village such as an ice-cream shop and a candy store that also sold dried fruit and nuts. Mat wasn't keen. He had been moaning the whole time we had been outside since it started raining, only stopping when we were under cover, such as in John's. The camber of the roads in Manhattan is raised in the middle and there are barely any drains at the edges which means that the rain really collects by the kerbs, causing massive puddles. As we crossed the roads, sometimes there was no way of avoiding getting wet feet. The girls thought this was great, but our shoes and socks were getting a bit soggy, as were our jeans and sleeves from walking through the persistent rain (anything that wasn't covered by our raincoats in fact)

I suggested we do something different such as go to the cinema or a gallery to get out of the rain, but after a 'heated discussion' Mat said we should just stick to the original plan and go to the East Village. What he really wanted to do was go back to the hotel, but I really didn't want to waste some of our precious time in New York sat in the suite

We went outside and walked for a bit, getting wetter and wetter. It wasn't much fun, Mat was still grumpy and the girls were still jumping in puddles. I realised just how wet their canvas trainers were and that they might not be dry to wear the following day, so gave in and suggested we go back to Bryant Park to dry off and come up with a plan

We headed for the nearest subway station. I was holding Freya's hand and a guy walking behind us commented to me as he overtook us 'I can't tell whether she's trying to avoid the puddles or step in them .' I assured him it was the latter. We took the train from 2nd Avenue back to Bryant Park, went up to the 18th floor and peeled off our wet clothes and shoes. We put on one of our new CDs, sat at the table and dived into the Magnolia Bakery bag. The cupcake box was wet and I was worried the cakes inside were going to be a soggy mess, but luckily the rain hadn't got to the cakes. I was very disappointed when I took my cake out of the box to find that the beautiful blue icing with sprinkles was actually on top of a chocolate cupcake rather than plain sponge. Luckily before I threw a big strop :angry:, one of the girls offered to swap with me

We didn't enjoy the cupcakes as much as we had the previous year but we think that might be because last year we had eaten them in the freezing cold at a picnic table up on the High Line (elevated park. Spoiler: will feature tomorrow.) Today my cake was a bit of a disappointment and very sickly. Freya ate her peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwich instead (which beat her, so Daddy Dustbin had to polish it off) saving her cake for later. Mat, Seren's and mine were all gone before I remembered to take a photo, so here's one of Freya's cupcake. Magnolia Bakery cupcakes certainly look impressive



I think Mat would have been happy to just chill out at the hotel for the rest of the day but as this is boot camp I rounded up the troops and decided we should tick something else off the list before the end of the day. The girls wanted to buy My Little Ponies from Build-A-Bear which are the cutest soft toys in the world and frankly if they hadn't bought them, I would have got one for myself. Here is a photo I borrowed from t'internet to prove my point



They were pretty much the same price in dollars as they were at home in pounds, so even though they were pretty big and bulky to bring home, the plan had always been for the girls to spend some of their holiday money on them because of the saving

The Build-A-Bear on Fifth Avenue is the flagship store and is only a few blocks from Bryant Park. It was still a bit rainy, and with our trainers attempting to dry out by the A/C units in the suite, the girls and I headed up Fifth Avenue in sandals while Mat unfortunately only had his trainers so had to squelch his way to Build-A-Bear. This, I feel, resolved our long running dispute about how he thinks I pack too much stuff and how you only need one pair of jeans, one pair of shoes etc when you go away

We arrived at B-A-B just under an hour before it closed, but didn't leave the store until they were locking up at 6 pm. There were only two different My Little Ponies available at the time, and luckily it was decided before we arrived that Seren would have the blue one and Freya the pink one. But as anyone who has ever visited any branch knows, it does take a while in there with stuffing the toy, giving it a heart etc and then of course there were outfits to choose from a very limited selection of pony attire

Very happy with their purchases, the girls skipped out of Build-A-Bear and we found it had pretty much finally stopped raining. We popped into Madison Marche for water and Wild Cherry Pepsi Max. At the till, the lady was so taken with the girls 'so cute!' that she told them to choose a free chocolate bar each. I said they could share a four-finger Kit Kat but she was insistent they had one each (which meant that Mat and I got to share some too when we did finally eat them)

Mat had been really keen to try the new burger restaurant, LT Burger, that had opened a couple of doors down from the hotel as he had seen a veggie burger on the menu in the window. We went in and placed our take-out order: veggie burgers for Mat and I. They come topped with spices, avocado, wheatgrass, jack cheese, and barbecue sauce. I don't really like cheese so I had mine without. We both had waffle fries and shared some onion rings, and got a portion of skinny fries for Seren. We enjoyed eating our meal at the dining table in the suite, the food was nice and we'd go back to LT Burger but we were stuffed at the end of it. Seren couldn't finish her fries as she said they were too salty. Freya ate her Magnolia Bakery cupcake that she hadn't had earlier

The girls were in bed at a reasonable hour and Mat and I chilled out in our bedroom reading for a bit before getting a nice early night

[disney owl]

another full day, shame about the rain

Thanks for posting

[laurac1988]

Another great day. Added a couple of places to my list :-)

[princess-pink]

It was a shame about the rain that day, we went to intrepid that day and then up towards Central Park and got soaked too. But better weather to come lol x

[abiknox]

Only just spotted that you have added another day! And a good one at that!

Glad to hear you like Shake shack & the Chelsea markets as they are on our must do list!

I will have to visit the SATC building too as well as the Friends one! I absolutely love that episode of Friends with the cheesecake! When Joey just rocks up at the end and pulls the fork from his jacket and sits down with them, no questions asked! Too funny

[bambikate]

lovely day xxx

[moosha]

Originally Posted by disney owl

another full day, shame about the rain

Thanks for posting

See more...

Thank you Sue

Originally Posted by laurac1988

Another great day. Added a couple of places to my list :-)

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Great! I need to have a look at your NY trippie too, but best wait until I've finished mine or it will never get done

Originally Posted by princess-pink

It was a shame about the rain that day, we went to intrepid that day and then up towards Central Park and got soaked too. But better weather to come lol x

See more...

Yes, the rain was a bit of a downer but you're right...the weather is about to take a turn for the better

Originally Posted by abiknox

Only just spotted that you have added another day! And a good one at that!

Glad to hear you like Shake shack & the Chelsea markets as they are on our must do list!

I will have to visit the SATC building too as well as the Friends one! I absolutely love that episode of Friends with the cheesecake! When Joey just rocks up at the end and pulls the fork from his jacket and sits down with them, no questions asked! Too funny

See more...

Glad you have Chelsea Market and Shake Shack on the list. And yes, the SATC building is a must do

Definitely one of my favourite episodes of Friends Glad I'm not the only one who finds it hilarious

Originally Posted by bambikate

lovely day xxx

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Thank you Kate

[Glee Fan]

Read this some time ago and just realised I hadn't commented.

Such a shame about the weather but it certainly seems like you made the most of it.

Magnolia bakery is definitely on "the list"! Hope everyone's shoes were dried out the following day!

[juliab]

Another lovely day, even with the rain . My daughter has got the Build a Bear pony, they are so cute