A sneaky little New York trip - August 2017 - Day 4 -Shopping, Times Square and back to Shake Shack!

[i love jack]

A sneaky little New York trip – August 2017

Index

Day 4 – Saturday 12th August 2017

Slept really well last night, heard the noisy neighbours at 00:30 but then slept til 6am whoop!

We went for breakfast just after 7. We weren’t first today but there was no one else there when we got the usual bagels and doughnuts. It was strange that the first day was so busy!

So today was ‘shopping day’! We had made a plan that involved Andy and I going out early and leaving the boys to chill/stay in bed. The shop on the top of my list to visit was just around the corner, a 10 minute walk away.

However, on checking, it didn’t open until 10.

We decided we’d head out anyway and have a little wander. So we left at 8.45, wandered down Broadway to the Flatiron. It was really quiet out. We asked a police officer if there was a Starbucks nearby (silly question really), she said there was one on 23rd Street but she wasn’t sure which direction! We headed east and came to one straight away. I had a Grande Skinny latte, my first hot drink ‘out’. I want to say it was cooler and a bit cloudy, but we were still out in just t-shirts (and shorts). Andy had a Mocha Frappuccino. We took them over to Madison Square Park. I’ve realised writing this report that my favourite moments were sitting in parks, just soaking up the atmosphere, people watching. I loved this park.

So 9am on a Saturday morning, there were lots of dog walkers, couples with strollers, cheeky squirrels! It was bliss. I could’ve sat here all day.

When we’d finished our drinks we took a slow mosey on round the park. There was a nice little play park that was quite busy and had a sectioned off dog area, I loved this! We also saw one of these in Washington Square Park. You weren’t allowed in without a dog!

We then headed down towards Park Avenue and noticed the road was closed to cars. There were people jogging and cycling up and down instead. There was a sign saying the road was closed until 1pm. Apparently, the first 3 Saturdays in August they do this.

We called into Walgreens for some essential items like ziplock bags, chocolate chips, cookies. We needed to be out extra early tomorrow and would miss the hotel breakfast so I also got a yogurt and fruit pot for breakfast. At the till I spotted chewing gum, I like to get a weird flavour when I’m in the States, it reminds me of germaline which is the same taste as root beer. It’s weird but it’s now synonymous with my holidays! So I picked up a packet and couldn’t remember what the flavour was called so I sniffed it to check it was the right one. I then got called to the till and they guy serving said ‘does the gum smell good enough for you?’

We came out of Walgreens and realised our actual destination was opposite and next to Starbucks, can’t believe I didn’t see it! Bath & Body

Todays offers included 6 soaps for $25 and buy 3 signature collection get 3 free. Oh I love this shop! Mum had also sent me an email coupon for $10 off too.

I bought 6 soaps and 6 shower gels and some little antibac hand sanitisers. Spent a good while pondering whether I should buy a matching soap and hand cream that fit into a little tray, both with a pump. Would’ve been perfect next to the kitchen sink but of course I talked myself out of it.

I couldn’t get my email voucher to open (despite logging onto Starbucks wifi!) so the sales assistant told me about a website called retailmenot I think it was, I search Bath and Body and it bought up the $10 coupon. Very helpful. $64.78 later we left the shop.

We got back to the room by 11am, we were earlier than the boys expected so they weren’t exactly up and ready!

The boys shopping requirements were, Dan wanted to go back to Macys, Josh wanted to go to Walgreens for sweets, he also wanted to get a ‘naf’ present for a friend (a thing they do, not because he’s mean!) and something for his now girlfriend (he asked her out at Nando’s if you’ve read the ‘pre-travel day’).

So we went up to Macy’s first, it looked like they’d got a really good discount, give $5 donation to a charity and get 25% off! I also took my passport to get the international discount (forgot about this the other day when Josh got his football shirt). On the way in I had a quick look at the Kate Spade handbags, I kept getting drawn to a red one, but again talked myself out of it.

Dan had purposely not spent any of his holiday money as he really wanted a Lacoste watch he’d seen the other day. My Jedi mind tricks were not working on Dan and the watch was all he wanted.
Unfortunately that good discount was only available on sale items (why didn’t I get that bag, that was in the sale! ), but we used the 10% international discount. This = happy Dan.

We then went down to the Macy’s arcade as I wanted to see if I could get little shopping bag to keep in my handbag. Which I did.

The boys then wanted to go back and look at sportswear again (despite having no money now!) Dooney & Bourke NY Giants handbag anyone?

Then we walked up 6th Avenue. I had thought we could get a picnic from Whole Foods and eat it in Bryant Park as it looked so nice there. It was around 1pm and we were starving! So once at Whole Foods we headed upstairs to see what was on offer. There was lots of counters one doing pizza, one doing sandwiches and then I saw a huge salad bar so headed straight for there without looking around properly. I did detour briefly by the cookies and got 3 double chocolate chip, 3 chocolate chip and 2 cream filled cookies. Then we all grabbed a box to fill with salad. The sign above the salad bar said $10.99. There was so much good stuff! Pasta salads, blue cheese crumbles, grilled chicken and there was a hot counter with rice, curry, samosas.

Josh came to me with a pathetic attempt at filling his box, it was barely half full, so I sent him away to get more.

We had to join the quite large queue to pay which was a little frustrating as Andy had gone for hot food and, it would have been cooling down waiting to pay. It was also at this time that Josh noticed the sign said $10.99 per pound and NOT per box ... ! So $90 later, 4 boxes of salads were our most expensive meal in New York!

We took them over to Bryant Park and sat at a table and tucked in. Dan struggled with his as he’d got quite a lot of buffalo chicken on his which is quite an intense flavour.

Mine

Andy's

Josh's

Dan's

I nearly forgot to say, the salads were really nice! Andy said he would happily pay $20 for what he had, it was really tasty.

This was another lovely place to sit, it was a busy park but had a lovely feel. There were people playing petanque, it was a nice 24 degrees, cloudy, but a pleasant temperature. While we were eating, a young boy came to the table to show us his ‘roses’. He had a folder of drawings of roses and told us he was 12 years old and was saving to go to art school and was selling his roses to fund this. We said no thank you and he moved to the next table where the girl there was really interested and bought one. I then felt awful, the next few tables he went to also said no. I wanted to check it wasn’t just me that was mean.

While we were sat I was formulating another plan in my head. I thought we could go up to Times Square and see if we could get tickets to a matinee. Before we came away we’d discussed as a family whether to see a show. Andy and I would have liked to but the boys weren’t bothered. In fact, the last few we’ve seen here in the UK including the Lion King, Dan has opted not to go and preferred to stay at home! Being sensible I didn’t see the point in paying around $100 a ticket if the boys weren’t bothered! But... I would have really liked to see Aladdin!

We left the Park and I thought a matinee would be 3pm but when we got to the theatre it said matinees were 2pm. We asked in the box office and he could do us tickets for the night show for $140. We decided against it... something to go on the list for next time.

We then began the tricky task of Josh’s present shopping! A quick look in Sephora for girlfriend present. Nothing doing in there. They did have some really nice rollerball perfumes in well known fragrances like Prada, Angel, Daisy. But guess what, I talked myself out of one!

Then goodness knows how much of our lives we lost in an I NY shop for the naf present for his friend. He ended up downstairs in the everything for 99c and got a keyring with his friends name on.

Then, as I'm still thinking about a show, I walked towards the screen by the TKTS booth to see what was on offer. The queue was crazy long but in hindsight the time we were in the last shop we could’ve got to the front! On my way to the screen I get intercepted by a man with a clipboard, who asks me what show I’m interested in. The other one we’d thought about was Chicago. We love Chicago. I love the songs and Andy loves the costumes . I’m pretty sure in the UK it says not suitable for children under 12 and I know they are scantily clad but I can’t actually think of any inappropriate content. So I mention Chicago to the man who looks at me horrified and says I can’t take children to Chicago. Then starts a spiel about Anastasia, much better, great set, great costumes etc, etc, I don’t know the story but I’m pretty sure the boys wouldn’t be interested in it! He then collars some woman who appears to be walking by and says ‘she wants to take her kids to Chicago’. He was annoying me now and it took me a while to twig that he was nothing to do with the TKTS booth and obviously was a tout trying to sell Anastasia tickets.

We were bemused by all the ‘characters’ around Times Square! Mickey and Minnie wandered around with their mouse head perched on top of their heads generally looking really fed up! They did at least pull the mouse head down when someone wanted a photo!

We were a bit lost at this point and didn’t know what to do. This is obviously ridiculous in New York! But we’d done everything we wanted to do and had done so much in the last couple of days. Quick Family meeting, anyone want to go to a museum? Library? No and no. We didn’t want to do things for the sake of it. So we decided to go back to the hotel. Had a cup of tea and a cookie (one of the Whole Foods ones which we were too full for at lunchtime!).

Josh still hadn’t got his sweets or girlfriend present. I did a Google search ‘where do New Yorkers do their grocery shopping?’ It came up with Fairway and there was one round the corner. Andy, Josh and I went out. Fairway was a nice supermarket, it had lots of nice fresh fruit and veg and meats and cheeses. We just bought a bottle of lemonade, some honey mustard dressing to bring home. We decided while we were out we’d go back to Walgreens for the sweets and go back to bath & body as I hadn’t bought enough!

On the way we passed another nice food place – Eataly which had a Nutella Cafe. We had a quick look but didn’t get anything.

On the way back to the hotel Josh got an iced tea from Shake Shack – a fifty fifty. Half tea, half lemonade. We got back to the hotel at 7pm and started the packing.

After those huge salads we weren’t hungry for an evening meal but we could do something I REALLY wanted to do...it was dark, we could go back to Shake Shack and sit under the twinkly lights and have a shake.

Josh (always hungry) was peckish so got a slice of Hawaiian pizza from Broadway Pizza below the hotel. I asked if we could have it in a box to go, the man said sure and put it in a brown paper bag. This really made me laugh.

We got to Shake Shack at 8.15. It was so lovely. It was so busy, nearly all the tables were full and the queue to order food was huge. It was 8 o’clock on a Saturday night, I just couldn’t think that anywhere in the UK people would be sat eating burgers in a park. Another perfect moment.

I had a raspberry cheesecake shake, Dan had a cookies and cream shake, Josh a peanut butter shake and Andy had a beer (or two!). I really wanted a beer, but I wanted a shake more!
It was so pretty.

While we were sat a young child came to the table with a box that had packs of oreos in, asking if we would like to buy some snacks. Again we said no. So did most other people that I saw her go to. I really didn’t like that people came up to you to ask for money. There was a lot of homeless people on the streets with signs but they didn’t approach or ask for money.

We got back to the room for 21.30 (we are such party animals!) and watched impractical jokers, looking out for familiar sights!

[mick]

A good shopping day Shake shack at night looks very pretty

Joan

[disney owl]

a good shopping day

[Fuellady]

There were a couple of times when we found ourselves wondering what to do next as well, like you say, ridiculous in a city with so much to do! Wow, those salads... expensive, but it looks like you got a lot of food for your money.

Good shopping, especially at B&BW

[i love jack]

Originally Posted by Fuellady

There were a couple of times when we found ourselves wondering what to do next as well, like you say, ridiculous in a city with so much to do! Wow, those salads... expensive, but it looks like you got a lot of food for your money.

Good shopping, especially at B&BW

See more...

I think you feel like you should always be doing something to make the most of it!
Expensive but they were good!

[Goldia]

I'm glad it's not just my kids that seem to take an age making a decision what to buy! It seems like today was a lovely relaxed day.

[beegnjasmum]

Another lovely day. Loved the salad story, particularly sending your son back to fill up his box with more ; ). I'll be keeping this in mind if we're having lunch in the same place.

Hope your travel home day went well. Have really enjoyed reading your report, great photos too. : )

[i love jack]

Originally Posted by mick

A good shopping day Shake shack at night looks very pretty

Joan

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Wishing now that I hadn't talked myself out of so much though! Maybe I'll put a Kate spade bag on my Christmas list

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm glad it's not just my kids that seem to take an age making a decision what to buy! It seems like today was a lovely relaxed day.

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My word, it was painful waiting in that shop

Originally Posted by beegnjasmum

Another lovely day. Loved the salad story, particularly sending your son back to fill up his box with more ; ). I'll be keeping this in mind if we're having lunch in the same place.

Hope your travel home day went well. Have really enjoyed reading your report, great photos too. : )

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Thank you 😊 I would recommend the salad it was lovely!

[mick]

[QUOTE=i love jack;12768204]Wishing now that I hadn't talked myself out of so much though! Maybe I'll put a Kate spade bag on my Christmas list


And how much do they cost🤑🤑

Joan

[fuelman]

Another good day.

We loved Bryant Park just sitting there people watching in such a great setting surrounded by huge buildings. We found shopping a nightmare in New York, and didn't really enjoy it but I think its maybe because we prefer shopping in Florida too much.