A Manhattan Adventure

Well I certainly had quite the adventure on Sunday. It was the day after the wedding and I was taking Forever Friend and her Husband down to JFK for their flight to San Diego. I had made arrangements to take God Daughter to the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, but none of us had a chance to print directions to there or the airport.

We miraculously made it to the airport and got them squared away and then Forever Friend had me use her phone to map quest the directions into the City. I got them all written down (had a writers cramp after) and God Daughter and I were on our way. About an hour later, I made it into Manhattan and was driving around looking for somewhere to park. I had found a spot but realized after I parked that there was no parking there, including Sundays. At the same moment that I noticed the sign and man came out of the building I was parked in front of and I asked him where the nearest public parking garage was. He told me it was only two blocks away.

I made it to the parking garage on the corner of E 68th and Lexington, the Imperial Parking Garage. Sounds so noble, huh? Got God Daughter and all of her things together and began the 5 block trek to the Central Park Zoo. Keep in mind the blocks in NYC are smaller than the ones in Albany so it really wasn't that bad of a trek. What made it interesting though was that God Daughter didn't want to walk so I had her on my shoulders the whole time.

We got to the zoo and she was so excited. Walking around and looking for the gate we saw a sign that said last tickets sold at 4:30pm. I looked for my cell phone and it was 4:51pm. I knew I needed to make this up to her somehow. She was very disappointed that she didn't get to see the "aminals." So I decided we would go to FAO Schwartz. If you have never been there, it is 3 floors of majorly impressive toy store!!! But I'll get back to that in a minute. I started heading down 5th avenue in search of FAO Schwartz. I had never been there and was never able to find it when I went to the city...maybe I wasn't really looking that hard for it but I had heard it was incredibly fun! So I began asking street vendors if they knew where it was. When I saw the puzzled look on their faces I explained it's the really big toy store. A couple didn't know so God Daughter and I continued on.

We passed by a really big brass band. It had about 3 trombones, a tuba, some trumpets and they were really, really good! There was a child in the band (I'm assuming it was a family/friend thing) who couldn't have been more than 5 years old and another no more than 8, both playing trombones. So we listened to them for a while and continued on our way. I finally asked one more vendor if she knew where the store was. Again I explained that it was the really big toy store and she pointed across the street and said, "Did you try over there? That's a big toy store over there." I thanked her over and over again and we made our way across the street.

At this point my shoulders were throbbing and I was glad for the relief of God Daughter walking on her own. As we entered the store there were massive amounts of people all being greeted by someone dressed up like a giant toy soldier. Once inside, there were toys everywhere! It seemed like they were stacked floor to ceiling with displays everywhere! God Daughter immediately made her way to a display of Accredited dog breed stuffed animals...Translation...$25.00 for a little stuffed k9! I told her we'd look around and maybe we would come back to it.

We made our way past a huge candy store section, past the Make Your Own Muppet section and down the escalator to the toddler section. There she found a ball that she liked that was pink and had "sunny flowers" on it. She opted to get it and I was okay with that choice. Then we made our way up to the third floor and checked out the giant stuffed animal zoo display (she did kind of get to see the zoo after all) and all of the other toy displays. They had the Barefoot Reading Room and we opted for a book called Shopping With Dad. It's really cute!

One last stop and we would be ready to head home. When I checked out in the Barefoot Reading Room I made sure I asked about the Big Piano. Thankfully it was still open and we made it just in time for the second to last group of children to make their music on the Big Piano. We got in line and got her shoes off as I prepared my camera. I wasn't about to miss that! She had a blast dancing away on the Big Piano as the keys lit up and sang notes underneath her.

I think that everything kind of wore her out. She needed to sit and rest. As God Daughter was dancing on the Big Piano I suddenly realized that I had not gotten directions OUT of the city!!! And my cell phone was dead at this point. I asked a clerk if she knew where I could get a map nearby. She said I could just talk to their concierge and he should be able to help me.

Wait...This STORE has a concierge???

Yes it did!!! And he had a map! And he gave me directions to the thruway! I was amazed. I wasn't going to end up stuck and lost in the city all night! So I left the store with God Daughter and bags in tow. We were hungry at this point so we got some NYC stand hot dogs and hailed a cab. "Imperial Garage E 68th and Lexington please." I actually felt like I knew what I was doing at that point. Back to the garage and then on our way home!

We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home and no wonder because it was almost 11:00pm! Got God Daughter settled and into bed and I quickly followed suit.

And that is the Sunday Adventure I had!