i'm for sure an east coast kind of girl

growing up in the midwest (STL, what what! oh, wait, you didn't know i hail from the Show Me State? HA.), i always wanted to move to the west coast. i really thought i was a west coast kind of girl. i mean, when i read the babysitters club, i TOTALLY wanted to be Dawn not Stacey. (Stacey dots her i's with hearts. i mean REALLY.) my parents took us to california, uh, sometime (sorry mom and dad. it was a blast.), and i totally wanted to be a california girl.

(on a side note, does anyone remember that show? california dreams? early 90s? on before or after Saved by the Bell maybe? i found this on youtube and i PROMISE it is worth the 58 second watch. anyone? anyone? for some reason this show made an impression on me... probably fit in with my dreams of moving to CA to become a beach babe in my butterfly bikini.)

(uh, don't wake me up cause i am dreaming!)

Anyway, I thought California was, like, totally rad and I totally wanted to rollerblade live there. Like, really. (Hair flip.) (Yes, that was my teenage impression of CA. deal with it. i live in arkansas now where some people think we are obese, toothless and illiterate.) NOW I haven't been to the West Coast in my adult life, so my comparison might be a little off. BUT I can most assuredly say that the first moment i stepped off the plane in LaGuardia I knew I was (could be?) an east coast kind of girl. Seriously, in the airport. The energy, the ugly, the people one on top of each other, THE CUSSING (oh the cussing!), the instant gratification, the transportation options, the i'll-talk-to-you-briefly-but-don't-need-to-know-your-life-story attitude. (I grew up in a large city; you would think i would not have been quite so STRUCK. but i was.)

(on a side note, i would be happy to stay in Little Rock. Home is where Karl and Nate are and I love it here. But if the opportunity to move popped up (wherever...would depend on the opportunity, right?), we would probably take it.)

ANYWAY.

The first time Karl and I went to NYC we did it up tourist style - bus tour, theater, central park, MoMA, the Met, fancypants restaurants. It. was. awesome. The second time we went, we stayed with cousin Phillip on the Lower East Side and we did as he and his friends did - yankees game, restaurants where the waitstaff actually speaks their native german or french, rooftops, comedy clubs. It. was. awesome. THIS TIME we did it up family style. And it was also awesome.

Yet, I can understand why there aren't a terrible # of children in manhattan; I also think that with kids you probably would stick to your 6 or 8 block radius (or you live in Brooklyn and hire a babysitter to come into the city!). We did NOT bring a car seat and opted for the trains and the subways. This worked out quite well except for THE STAIRS and THE STROLLER and the TURNSTYLES. (i totally get the maclaren mamas now - it's not just a $250 umbrella stroller! it's sturdy yet easy to fold AND lightweight enough to carry up and down the stairs (with the baby still in it!) and fits on the skinny escalators. uh, unlike mine. which we had to fold up. which means one of us had to carry the stroller and one the baby. i tried to sling him and carry him but you. walk. a. lot. and he is heavy. and many of the places we went (zoos, museums) we wanted a stroller. it was challenging for sure. especially because it rained all day friday and saturday (we still did a lot of walking in the rain, but opted for transport when it was pouring. by saturday i was tempted to just get in a cab. i saw other infants and toddlers carseatless in cabs, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to do it.)

Here are some of the things we did: (Ahem, I present: NYC Part 2!)

Friday:
As mentioned it was raining. We (of course in our sparse suitcase) did NOT have an umbrella nor any sort of rain gear. We walked out of our hotel and bought an umbrella no less than 10 feet out the door. SOLVED. BOOSH.
We went to see the dinosaur rawr at the Museum of Natural History:
we ate and napped (karl and i got used to an afternoon nap!) and headed to THE APPLE FLAGSHIP STORE on 5th Ave. Snow Leapord was released while we were there and it was actually pretty nerdycool to buy it there. it was crazy busy and we were checked out in line by an employee walking around with a credit card swipey. Crazy Efficient.
We headed next door to FAO Schwartz (which I am told is much cooler during the Holidays.) The BIG piano was fun, but, other than that, not so exciting.

We hit up Times Square and packed it in for the evening. Crappy photo. Sorry. We wanted to see how far away we could get from the stroller before people started noticing.
There will be one final post (NYC: Part 3) and then I am DONE. (stick a fork in me.) i have like fourteen other blogs in my head i need to get out there as well. stay TUNED friends! (was it too much?)