Your Guide to Family-Friendly Day Trips in New Jersey, New York…and Beyond
We did our annual NYC excursion on Black Friday to see the lights, the windows and the crowds. This post shares some random things we saw.
We headed to the Bryant Park Winter Village to see the holiday shops. They have a lovely tree. In addition to the skating rink, they have igloos you can rent out, and nearby curling as well (not on ice). In January they’ll have on-ice bumper cars you can rent! As always it’s crowded.
Continue reading “Holiday Scenes From NYC 2023”
This post is one of two about the 2023 NYC holiday windows. This is the Bergdorf Goodman & Bloomingdale’s edition. Click here for the 2023 NYC Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue window post.
The theme of the 2023 Bergdorf Goodman holiday windows is “Isn’t it brilliant?” and you’ll see in the next set of pictures all the brilliant reflections. The window above is “first light” and has two giant roosters and disco balls and a bedazzled llama and other farm animals.
Continue reading “2023 NYC Holiday Windows: Bergdorf Goodman & Bloomingdale’s”
The NYC holiday windows are up, and here’s what you can expect to see. This post has 2023 NYC holiday windows: Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, and you’ll find the Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdale’s windows in another post.
If you’re in need of a vacation away from the kids, and don’t want to go far, go to New York City. Spend the weekend in New York without kids. It won’t be cheap, but if you live within train or bus distance, you save on plane fare. Here’s a sample itinerary for a weekend in New York without kids.
We’ve stayed at a number of hotels in New York City, from StayPineapple, to Hotel Elysee, to The Muse, to Hotel Giraffe, to Yotel. And that doesn’t include all the more corporate hotels I’ve stayed in for conferences, since I didn’t want to head home late at night. This time we stayed at the Archer Hotel in midtown. It was a few blocks from Bryant Park, a good place in the summer to go for outdoor drinks.
Continue reading “Weekend in New York Without Kids”
The Balloon Museum arrived in New York City in late October 2023 and will be in Manhattan at least through mid-January 2024. We went to check out the Balloon Museum With Kids in NYC so you can decide if you want to go too.
While the name is Balloon Museum, it might be more appropriate to say “Inflatables Exhibit that is Instagram-friendly,” but that does not have the same ring to it. When I think of balloons, I think of fragile airy floating things that are ready to pop, and most of the balloons in the exhibit seem more sturdy. Granted, they should be since you can touch many of them. And some are just balloon-shaped or balloon-inspired.
Continue reading “Review: The Balloon Museum With Kids in NYC”
Most of our posts are about things to do with kids. This one is a little different. I took my kid – my adult kid who is now in their early 20s. We had a fantastic time. This is not a comprehensive list of what to do, but if you don’t plan to spend all your time at the honkeytonks on Broadway, this will be a good guide. Most of these links go to more in-depth posts we wrote about what we did in Nashville, so please do click and visit!
While in Nashville recently, a friend suggested we check out Cheekwood Estate and Gardens. It’s about 20ish minutes outside the downtown area. While planning out our trip, I saw that they had a Bruce Munro exhibit at Cheekwood which got me excited. I visited Sensoria in Paso Robles last year, and it was breathtaking. Acres and acres of changing lights, viewed in the darkness.
When in Nashville, you really can’t miss a trip to the Grand Ole Opry. We unfortunately did not catch a show there, but we did get a backstage tour. As we are not country fans, the Opry was a bit foreign to us and the younger ones in our group were not looking forward to the tour at all. Turns out they had fun and learned a lot, and it was a highlight of the trip for them!
One of the highlights of our Nashville trip was the Hatch Show Print Block Party. For two hours, you can create as many posters, postcards, linen bags, etc. as you want using the stamps and ink available. So much fun!
In addition to murals, donuts are a big thing in Nashville. While we didn’t eat our way through Nashville, visiting every donut place, we did a bit of damage and will share our findings with you.
