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Old 21 Feb 17, 01:35 PM  
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moosha
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Five Trips In Five Years...NYC May / June 2016 - Day 6: American Girl, Tony's and 9/11 Fountains

Day 6 - Thursday 2nd June 2016


Apologies for the delay in getting this next day up, I had the lurgy that's doing the rounds for a couple of weeks and then it was half term last week. Back on track now and hoping to get the last couple of days up and running very soon.

This morning we headed straight for the subway and took a train up to Midtown. As per the rest of the week so far, it was a lovely hot sunny morning .



We had decided to get breakfast from our 'usual' breakfast place when we've stayed at Bryant Park before: Pax on the corner of 40th Street / 6th Avenue. We really like this little sandwich shop / deli and I think there are a few of them throughout the city. The lox cream cheese bagels are really good and they have a nice selection of bagels and fillings. They also have delicious freshly squeezed orange juice, and they do cereal and milk which always makes the girls happy.

We got a variety of bagels / cereals / juice and water and took them into Bryant Park to eat them. A lovely start to the day.

We were uptown this morning to visit the girls' favourite shop in the entire world: American Girl. The girls had saved birthday money etc to have a splurge here, but first Seren wanted to take her doll, Jessica, to the in-store doll salon to get her ears pierced. Seren had had her ears pierced a couple of weeks before for her 10th birthday and so it was time for Jessica to get hers done too (just as Jessica had also got glasses when Seren got hers). We knew the doll salon got very busy and we wanted to get there early to avoid a long wait.

Mat and I got coffees from Zibetto (the same one as before on 56th and 6th)...







….and then we headed to American Girl which is on 5th Avenue at 49th Street. We were there about fifteen minutes before the 10 am opening so we got in line (we were about the fifth party to arrive, and about another five to ten groups joined the line behind us).

At 10am we went in and headed straight up to the second floor to the doll salon.



We were the second party to arrive at the salon, and someone came out straight away to help us. Ear piercing is not done in the open doll salon, they take you into a private room (where they do personal shopping). Mat and Seren went off to do that while Freya and I had a mooch around the second floor.



They have a variety of historic / period dolls on that floor and the girls were both interested in buying one of those today.





It only took a couple of minutes for Jessica's ears to be pierced and it cost $16 including a pack of four pairs of earrings which we didn't think was too bad. We then spent a rather long time exploring the historic / period dolls while the girls sorted out what they were going to buy. Seren had chosen Maryellen who is a 1950s doll, and Freya had chosen Julie who is a 1970s doll. They both knew which doll they were purchasing before we had entered the shop, but there was a bit of negotiating with Daddy over the extra outfits / accessories that were available for each doll. The girls' spending money was very quickly eaten up as anyone who's seen the prices in AG will know .



Just a tip for anyone visiting NYC: American Girl has very good toilets up on the mezzanine floor if you're in Midtown and in need of such facilities. We've always found them to be clean and there are lots of them.

Finally we were all done in American Girl and the plan now was to head back to Bryant Park to meet our friend Sarah who works at the Bryant Park Hotel. While we'd been in American Girl I'd had a message from a friend back home who wanted me to try and bring back a Yankees cap for her daughter as their dog had just wrecked her old one. So we popped into one of those NY gift shops to sort that out. It ended up being not quite as straightforward as I first thought as we went backwards and forwards between about three shops trying to find the right one, but we got there in the end. The girls also bought some tat (keyrings and stuff) for themselves and their friends.

When we got back to Bryant Park, I got myself a juice from Joe and the Juice on 42nd Street (I may have already recommended this juice bar chain for anyone who likes fresh pressed juices, but this location has some seriously hot male staff . In fact they run a competition to win a date with one of the staff members as a customer incentive.) I like their AMG juice (apple, mint and ginger) and got myself a large one to take into the park. We found a table in the park and after a few minutes of sitting there, we got a message from Sarah to say that unfortunately she wasn't going to be able to meet right now as her little daughter was still napping. We had lunch booked so couldn't really hang around much longer, so we arranged to pop in on her at work on Saturday instead.

Beautiful Bryant Park:





We popped into the Disney Store in Times Square as the girls were after Princess Leia tsum-tsum which kept selling out in the UK at that time. We soon found that the same was true in the US too. Instead, Freya bought a Minnie tsum-tsum dressed as the Statue of Liberty and Seren got a lovely Stitch mug.

Our lunch was booked at 1pm at our classic favourite NYC restaurant; Tony's Di Napoli (Midtown) on W43rd Street. We've been to Tony's at least once per trip since 2012 and it never disappoints. We like the atmosphere (especially when it's busy on weekend evenings), the food is very good and it's good value too for New York City. The dishes are served family style so Mat and I usually share a portion which works out at just a little bit too much food for the two of us (and we have big appetites). They'll usually do a half portion for the girls which is a good size for them too. We had the primavera which we always have as it's full of tasty vegetables. We usually have it with linguine (you can choose your pasta type) but today we had it with a gluten free pasta, I think it was fusilli ($32 for the two of us). The girls had penne with marinara sauce ($11 for the two of them). The pasta was delicious and we also all really enjoyed the bread they bring out at the beginning of the meal, it's so good. Mat and I also treated ourselves to a glass of wine each, a montepulciano at $12 per glass.

The girls enjoying the bread (it really is very, very good bread ) :







We left Tony's full and happy as we always do, and after finally sorting out the Yankees cap, we took the subway back to the hotel to drop off our shopping.







The girls got changed into some shorts and we headed back out onto the streets. Unfortunately we have no idea what we did this afternoon apart from visiting our favourite bookshop in New York, Strand Books near Union Square, which is definitely worth a visit for any bookworm Dibbers. Seren loves books and I always come away with a long list of books for her as they have some really interesting children's books in the store. (I only know we went there because Seren has a Strand Books bag in her hand in the photos below.)



I think we probably walked down the Hudson River Park when we were finished in Midtown, and then we went to Sarabeth's for happy hour cocktails and food. Happy to be back at Sarabeth's (for the fourth time this week.)



They have live jazz on Thursday evenings so Mat had been really keen to visit today.





I don't have a receipt for today's visit to Sarabeth's but I remember that we did eat there today. I think Mat and I had our usual shrimp poppers, crab dip and chips, and truffle fries and I believe the girls had pizza.

Outside Sarabeth's:





After Sarabeth's we decided to take a walk as it was a lovely warm evening. Pretty TriBeCa buildings:









continued below...
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Old 21 Feb 17, 01:37 PM  
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...continued

We walked to Battery Park and took a stroll around the financial district, past the Winter Gardens...











….the NYPD memorial...





….and then towards the World Trade Center site.









We stopped at the 9/11 fountains for a while to pay our respects and walked all the way around both of them. As I said earlier in the report, we had visited the fountains a few years before when they first opened and found it all incredibly sad. I felt the same way today, it's a very emotional place to visit. I think the fountains are a lovely tribute though, I think they work very well as a memorial. One of the fountains was off today so the sound of the water was quieter than usual but it is a very peaceful place. We spent a while looking at the names, some of which had flowers poked into the letters.



















As I said, I felt very emotional and shed a few tears but I felt glad we had visited the site again. Mat and I had been on our honeymoon in Florida when 9/11 happened and spent two days glued to the US news channels while the theme parks were all shut, so in some ways we felt 'closer' to it than we would have if we'd been in the UK. The first time we went to New York in 2005, they were still clearing the site so it felt good to have been able to see the tribute completed. Again, it confirmed to me that I would not be able to visit the 9/11 museum as it would be too sad for me, especially with the girls in tow. In 2013 we'd visited St Paul's Chapel across the street from the site which had been used as a base for the 9/11 rescue efforts. They'd had a little museum / memorial / video set up and it had been terribly sad, I was in a right state the entire time we were in there. Maybe one day I'll feel like visiting the 9/11 museum but for now it's not for me. I hear it's extremely well done though.









All done at the fountains we walked back to the hotel and chilled out before bed. This is the view from our hotel room window:

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Old 21 Feb 17, 02:58 PM  
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i love jack
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I've just read all your days so far, I need to make a list of your tips! Bubbys looks lovely and I'd have loved American girl when I was young, I used to buy pins to pierce my Sindys ears
You make it all sound so easy, I know you've been loads, but I hope it will be to a novice
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Old 8 Apr 17, 09:31 PM  
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Sounds like a lovely New York day! And what beautiful weather!

Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know but the flowers are inserted to indicate a birthday, it's all so sad isn't it. I can highly recommend the museum but I did cry my way round the whole thing so probably not one for little ones as you said.

Love Tony DiNapolis! Pretty sure we went there on your recommendation in fact xx
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Old 9 Apr 17, 09:17 AM  
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Beautiful weather again. I've really enjoyed reading your report.
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Old 19 Apr 17, 09:45 PM  
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Oh, ho! Another book shop!

Children's books are Poot's absolute FAVOURITE thing to bring back from America. The selection is just so much better.
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