NYC & DC Trip Day 1: Brooklyn & Midtown
JFK Arrival (Day 0)
We made it to New York! Off to the Air BnB in Brooklyn tonight, and to grab some dinner. The kids did not nap on the plane very well, so they are pretty exhausted. We took the Air Train from JFK trying to connect to the A train which goes through Brooklyn. You pay for the Air Train when you get off at the transfer point to the subway. The worker at that point informed us that that particular subway station was closed, but there was a bus bridge set up. He told us to take the elevator down to the bus bridge. He didn’t make us pay for the train. The bus bridge was slow but fine. We reached the subway station and saw a daunting set of stairs up the elevated tracks. We had two kids, a stroller, a big suitcase, a small suitcase, a car seat, a crib, two backpacks, and a diaper bag. It was kind of a nightmare, but we made it up the stairs. Some very kind women helped us get out stuff onto the train before it left without us. We made it to our stop in Brooklyn (stairs only again). A nice gentleman helped up get out stuff up the stairs to the street, then we had a short walk to our place. We got settled and walked to Barboncino for some pizza. It was great! Then, it was off to bed.
Brooklyn
After a delicious breakfast at a biscuit place called Brown Butter, we took the A train over to the High Street station this morning and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. This is one of the monuments highlighted in Rockwell’s New York book. He was pretty excited about it. We walked over to Manhattan and back and then headed over to a playground at Brooklyn Bridge Park so that Rockwell could play. If you ask him, his favorite parts of the day were the playgrounds. Next, we walked over to Jane’s Carousel, still in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and rode it with the kids. It was celebrating its 100th anniversary this year! Also, tickets are only $2. Both of the kids loved it! From there we took a pedestrian bridge up to Squibb park. There’s lots of pickleball action happening. I wish we had our stuff. We found another playground up there, so we let Rockwell and Eleanor play. Eleanor spent a good chunk of the day in the baby carrier and some of the day in the stroller. We headed down to get some more Brooklyn pizza from Juliana’s. We timed it so we got there right when they reopened for dinner. As we sat down to wait it started pouring rain outside. The pizza was great! By the time we finished eating, the rain has calmed down. We finished everything we set out to do in that area or Brooklyn and we’re debating what was next. We noticed some foot passenger ferries at one of the piers in the park, so we decided to check out the schedules.. we ended up on a ferry that, after a few stops, took us across the East River to midtown.
Midtown
We took the ferry over from Brooklyn to Midtown. The sun was starting to set as we set up shop at yet another playground. After the playground, Rockwell took a nap in the stroller and we walked toward the Empire State Building. We didn’t have any real plans just wanted to explore. We popped into Macy’s (another feature in Rockwell NYC book) to check out how big it was. Also, we found these 100-year-old wooden escalators that are still operating. Rockwell loves any and all escalators. We decided to end the day with some cheesecake from a place called Junior’s. It was in Times Square, which we didn’t really have any desire to see this week, but we wanted the cheesecake. It was cool to see Rockwell and Eleanor reacting to all the lights anyway. We headed to the subway station as it starts to rain. Just as we took shelter under the station entrance, it started pouring with lightning. We hopped on the train back to our place in Bed-Stuy. When we popped back up out of the subway tunnel, the rain has finished.
