The one passion the boy shares with his mom is his love of hats and SHOES! (With all these amazing post-Christmas sales I've been tossing the shoeboxes into recycling and keep my new purchases at the office, in case my husband notices. Shhhh, let's keep it a secret!).
I had promised the Boy a new pair of kicks for his size 9 men's feet (not kidding - he's not even 12 yet!) We thought that Macy's would be good place to start, and given that it wasn't too far from Times Square, another shopping mecca, we headed into tourist land first thing after breakfast. I had scoped out the subway route, but with a family of 4 it made sense just to hop into the nearest yellow cab. We lucked out - we got a clean non-stinky hybrid for our ride downtown.
We didn't luck out so much at the department store - although I'm continually amazed at my son's growing preference for neon bright apparel. The wooden escalator was cool though:
We decided to head into the thick of Times Square to continue our search - but we got hungry (and cold) again very quickly. So we stopped in at the Hard Rock for lunch -we don't normally like the chains when vacationing, but the NYC resto was actually quite good. You can't beat a good burger on a freezing day.
With our stomachs full, we continued on our quest for the perfect shoes. Thank goodness for the girlie that Toys R Us, complete with indoor ferris wheel, presented itself right next to the shoe store.
Lady Liberty in Lego glory...
Barbie, Barbie everywhere...
I still find this Toys R Us more impressive than FAO Schwartz. Maybe it had something to do with the hot chocolate:
Little G wanted make some small purchases, but I told her we were saving up for our visit with the American Girls. That promise and the cookie kept her content. In the meantime, the boys found fancy bright blue high tops - a great NYC souvenir for the boy.
The thing I love about Manhattan is that it is so walkable. From Times Square, the American Girl Store was but a few short blocks away. I'd never been exposed to the American Girl experience - and that's exactly what it is. When I first heard of this phenomenon, I found it a little creepy that the doll could be dressed exactly as its girl owner. On top of that, there was enough experience to occupy four floors - complete with restaurant, doll salon, pet shop ... I knew we would drop some coin once we went through the door. And this was heavenly for a 7 year old girl:
It took us a little while to settle on which doll was our mini-G, but we did it. I had to promise that if we were to go to Chicago I would arrange for an American Girl salon visit for mini-G - $12 for braiding is a little steep ( I offered to do it for $5 but it didn't cut it). When we left the building it was already quite dark and we decided to head back to the hotel. We were actually turned down for pickups by a few yellow cabs before we finally lucked out. Didn't think a cabbie would ever refuse a fare but I guess this was NYC. I guess with so many people hailing cabs they have the luxury of being picky.
At home base, the boy decided he wanted to check out the Urban outfitters across the street - cannot believe that he can actually fit some of those fashions. Hilarious that the boy noted that one of the sales guys was wearing majorly low, I'm talking down to his knees, low-riders. The boy noticed the boxers, but did think it was rather silly. We did score on a couple of cute striped T's for him, though.
Picked up some juice, fruit, yogurt and salmon and bagels for next day's breakfast - and headed back to our UWS headquarters.
For dinner we went around the corner Asian - Fusha West. Amazing pan Asian food and despite the look of the lounge once you enter, it was quite family friendly. We had sushi, tempura, soup - all with a little bit of a twist. We girls enjoyed it - see our shiny happy faces.
(Yes, that is a sari that was fashioned for Mini-G by the fabulous Bigger G. She's still an American girl under all that, after all, the US is multi-ethnic, isn't it? I suppose we should look for some mukluks for her, after all she's now in Canada, eh?)
And that was Wednesday. We didn't have too late a night, as Thursday would be our last full day in the city. So much more to do and see.
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