Big Easy to Big Apple and Back

Well, what's been happening? I'll tell you. We—Sarah, the gals, and I—went to New York City for a long weekend. Sarah and I lived there for a spell back in the Nineties, but the gals had never been. (Well, Louise went as a lil' baby, but that doesn't quite count.) I'm happy to report their minds were appropriately blown. A rough rundown of (the dizzying) events:

Day 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

• Up, up, and away.
• A genuine NYC cab ride (their first) from JFK.
• Foodie-geek-out at the Madison Square Park food stalls.
• Gawk at the stunning range of hyper-fancy baby strollers at some kiddie-fest in the park.
• A subway ride (their first) to Downtown Brooklyn.
• Purchase discount ticket for "West Side Story".
• A failed attempt to eat at Patsy Grimaldi's. (The line was down the block.)
• Ice cream.
• A vigorous walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (headed upstream against mobs of people dressed in vivid breast-cancer-awareness pink).
• A walk through China Town.
• Late lunch at Great NY Noodle Town.
• Early dinner (all that walking burns a lot of calories): pizza, hot dogs (from a street vendor), and more ice cream.
• Sleep like the dead.

Day 2: Cultcha

• A brisk walk from Chelsea to Midtown, passing through Times Square (with its kiddie-mind-blowing glitz).
• Bagels with our dear friend Tory and her family in their 27th floor apartment (with its kiddie-mind-blowing view).
• Kids: Spend the afternoon with a genuine New York City babysitter (with a genuine New York City hourly rate), going to see the aforementioned "West Side Story" and traipsing around the theater district.
• Parents: Spend the afternoon and evening watching "Gatz", the (deservedly) highly acclaimed six-hour, word-for-word theatrical rendition of "The Great Gatsby", in which the aforementioned dear-friend-Tory plays the part of Daisy. (During breaks, we tally the famous people in the audience and gawk at the stunning range of hyper-fancy eyewear.)
• Parents: Dinner (during the mid-play dinner-break) at Momofuku.
• Everybody: Sleep like the dead

Day 3: Feet and Ferries

• A leisurely traipse along the High Line.
• Pizza.
• A slog through the West Village, during which the gals begin to unravel (understandably so).
• An attempt at shopping on lower Broadway, during which the gals kind of lose their marbles (understandably so).
• A round-trip on the Staten Island Ferry, during which the kids regain their marbles and become giddily—almost violently—happy (at which point, the adults start to lose their marbles).
• A playground break, during which we listen to genuine New York City parents discuss the complicated logistics of genuine New York City parenting.
• Chinese for dinner, with a good gaggle of friends.
• Times Square at night (during which the glitz is even more kiddie-mind-blowing), including a ride on three-story-tall Ferris wheel inside the mega-Toys-'Я'-Us.
• Sarah spots Patti LaBelle at Mario Batali's Eataly.
• Sleep like the dead.

Day 4: Oh, God, We're Tired

• Breakfast from a street cart.
• Meet with friends in Central Park. The gals traipse across the rocks, marveling at how un-flat everything is. (Parks in New Orleans pretty much stick to two dimensions.)
• Pack up.
• Off to the airport (during which the cab-driver discusses the tranquility that can be found by listening to one's own heartbeat).
• Home again, home again, jiggety-jog. (Yay!)
• Sleep like the dead.

Whoosh! We're still recovering. (Stay tuned for photos.)