A Family Trip to NYC

NYC is one of my favorite places in the world. V and I lived there for several years in the early aughts and grew up there, in a manner of speaking. Those years ended up shaping much of our world-view. Neither of us has been back recently but we have wanted to show our kids the city we love so much. The world feels unstable these days, and I thought we shouldn't wait any longer and travel there over spring break. 

We spent a few days in NYC last week- Wednesday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. The weather did not cooperate whatsoever; it was pretty chilly and drizzly almost the whole time we were there. It was no spring break, that's for sure! If the weather had been nicer, our visit would have looked quite different, but here's what we ended up doing--

• Arrival day- We checked in at a hotel on the Upper West Side- a great residential neighborhood. Walked around the neighborhood soaking in the atmosphere and ate dosas for dinner! 
• Day 1
• AM: This was the one morning of dry weather and we made the best of it. We took the subway down to the Staten Island Ferry (which happens to be free, and provides fantastic views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty), then walked to the 9/11 Memorial (V and I were both in the city when 9/11 happened and our kids were curious about what that was like) and the Oculus shopping center across the street for a quick lunch. Then we walked partially across the Brooklyn Bridge and back to the subway uptown for some rest in the hotel, stopping for gelato on the way.
• PM: We took the subway to Rockefeller Center and stopped by the iconic toy store FAO Schwartz. It was absolute wall to wall crowds and mayhem and we got out pretty quick. After stopping in the Nintendo store next door, we walked to Times Square for a few minutes at that dizzying intersection. Then back uptown for a relaxed dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant with incredible dips, fresh-baked bread, and falafel.

Artist rendition (by my 8 yr old) +
view of Lady Liberty from the ferry

View of downtown Manhattan from the ferry

• Day 2
• AM
• Breakfast was classic bagels with a schmear. We walked a couple of blocks from the hotel to explore Central Park- visiting Belvedere Castle and surrounding parts of the park. 
• Then we crossed the street to the Natural History Museum and spent hours there, including watching a wonderful show at Hayden Planetarium. The kids enjoyed the marine life hall with the life-size blue whale replica and the dinosaur exhibits. 
• We headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch and then back to the hotel to rest, stopping at a bakery on the way for some choux pastry.
• PM: We took the subway to Roosevelt Island, walked around there for more views of Manhattan, then took the amazing Roosevelt Avenue aerial tramway back to the Upper East Side, and walked over to have dinner and drinks at a friend's apartment. 

Avenue perspective, from the tramway

• Day 3
• AM: We had a lazy morning followed by brunch with an old friend- it was a happy reunion after not having seen him for decades. 
• PM: We took the subway down to SoHo. The kids wanted to visit the SlooMoo Institute- a slime play experience. I stopped at Pearl River Mart, the iconic Asian emporium. Big sis wanted to shop for clothing, so we hit up a bunch of stores like Cotton On, Uniqlo, and a few others. Stores were jammed with lines for trial rooms. Dinner was some takeout that we took back to the hotel suite- Asian and pizza from the neighborhood.
• Departure day: We walked over to Zabar's Cafe and market for breakfast, then strolled through Riverside Park, spotted a Banksy piece on the walk back, grabbed one last piece of pizza for lunch, and then checked out and off to La Guardia airport. 

Things we wanted to do but didn't: walking the High Line, watching a live show...and a hundred other things. 

Traveling with kids comes with its compromises- instead of seeking out special restaurants (I had a list, y'all), we grabbed food wherever it was most convenient; we did kid-friendly things like slime museums and what-not instead of going to other (you know, world class) museums and art galleries; we built in plenty of down time for the kids to just chill and play video games in the hotel room. 

We walked a LOT- like 20,000 steps each day, and that's honestly my favorite thing about NYC- walking around, people-watching, ducking into stores and food shops. Grabbing a slice of pizza here and there whenever you feel like it. The city hasn't changed a whole lot in 20 years! 

It was pretty hilarious to see my small-town kids reacting to big city things. My daughter smiled at every person on the street because that's just Southern small-town etiquette, and then turned to us and said, sadly, "No one's smahling back". Her other observation: "Everyone is dressed like Europeans." At our friend's apartment building, the uniformed doorman ushered us in, and my son asked, "Do all buildings have bodyguards and do they fight people?" 

Some of the things we ate-

Choux pastry

Mango gelato shaped like a rose

Neighborhood pizza!

Overly seasoned mushroom pizza

Steamed rice noodle rolls- something new to me!

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What I'm reading

Just before this trip, I happened to read a book that is set in New York City in the 1980s- Is There No Place On Earth For Me? by Susan Sheehan. Published in 1982 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction the following year, it is a masterclass in empathetic, immersive journalism. This book is a classic investigation of schizophrenia. Sheehan follows a young woman named Sylvia Frumkin (pseudonym) who suffers from chronic schizophrenia and navigates the mental health system. I was amazed to learn how many programs existed at that time in NYC, arguably more than what most patients get all over the world—hospitals, transitional housing, daycare centers, even sheltered workshops. 

What’s heartbreaking is how little they helped. Treatment was rarely consistent. Doctors didn’t always read her chart, medications weren’t titrated properly (antipsychotic medications don't have standard doses and have to be worked by for each patient), and some so-called therapies, like insulin coma treatment (horrendous pseudoscience) and vitamin megadosing, did more harm than good. Today, it is known that antipsychotics are needed to be taken lifelong to manage severe mental illness (schizophrenia can be managed but not cured) but Sylvia's doctors kept trying to wean her off the drugs, resulting in predictable relapses. To top it all, Sylvia had a form of schizophrenia that was particular resistant to treatment. 

One line that stayed with me comes after a wonderful Christmas party that the patients are treated to, but can't seem to enjoy: “Wherever I go, I take myself with me, and that always spoils it.” Another, when Sylvia contemplates her mentally well sister who enjoys an independent life and career: “When you know all of those things exist for other people but not for you, sometimes it’s very hard to endure the not having.” 

Since the 80s, many mental health institutions have been shut down, but not adequately replaced by community and out-patient care. Just yesterday, I read one more devastating piece in the New Yorker on the lives (and untimely, harrowing deaths) of people with mental illness. 

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I'll end this post with a link to a delightful article I read recently in the NYT, about a cake picnic in San Francisco. The premise is pretty simple- you show up to the picnic venue with a cake. No cake, no entry. Cakes are laid out, admired, then sliced, shared, and devoured. What fun! I would love to organize a copycat cake picnic myself. 

A Moment of Fitness is on break this week. If you have a fitness-related question, post it in a comment and I'll try to answer it in a future post!