East Side, West Side, All Around The Town!

On our last trip into New York City Jayden and I saw lots of sights, and that little guy really was a trooper, walking right by my side as we navigated through crowds, parades, and traffic, and he would even point out interesting things for me to snap pictures of!

We walked from the East side to the West side and back again, and we walked from midtown to downtown and back again!
We got off the bus near Radio City Music Hall on 6th Avenue (I'll post more about the Music Hall at another time as we'll be going there in early December for the Christmas Show) and we started making our way to 12th Avenue to see the Intrepid and the USS New York (previous post). We passed the controversial pedestrian mall area that is set up at Times Square now, and I actually like the idea of this area.



A few blocks later Jayden decided he was hungry, I spotted a diner with outdoor seating and Jayden said he wanted to eat outdoors, I thought that was a great idea and I figured we'd just pick him up a bagel, sit awhile and then he could walk and eat. Well, once we got inside he spotted someone eating pancakes and all of a sudden that is what he needed to eat most in the world. I told him he couldn't eat pancakes outside and he said, "That's okay, look they have lots of tables in here!" So we sat and waited for his pancakes to be served. He enjoyed both the pancakes and his chocolate milk very much (although he was a little skeptical of the powdered sugar on top of his hotcakes)!


We finally made our way down to the Pier and viewed both ships and then we started making our way back again. We were going to walk the parade route and head downtown to where Ray works, which is near Madison Square Park (where the parade starts). While walking I kept looking up and admiring the architecture of the old buildings and Jayden wanted to know what I was looking at and I told him pretty buildings. Then he started pointing to buildings asking if I liked this one and that one.
Well, I did like these buildings:




And I did like that one across the street:

(I love the old brownstones!)

So many of the brownstones have restaurants downstairs, and many have outdoor dining:


We passed many 'everything stores' as Jayden calls them, they have such unique things for sale.
This shop had some things that really caught Jayden's eye!







As we were making our way across town Jayden said he needed to rest. He spotted a bench in a bus stop shelter and planted himself! The only way I could get him to budge was to tell him that we were very close to Bryant Park, he asked if the park had a playground and I said no, the park with the playground was much further away, but this park had benches and chairs he could rest on and that enticed him.

(He looks like he's sleeping with his eyes open here! Poor kid! We did lots of walking!)

There was so much going on in Bryant Park! There were little make-shift shops set up and most were decorated for Christmas.



This shop with Star War Figures really got Jayden's attention!



And he was also very interested in the table-top games that were going on.



But mostly he was interested in sitting and resting awhile!
He loved these little single seats (I think they are a great idea and they come complete with cup holders!), I told him they reminded me of the old school desks that we used to have (does anyone else remember those desks with the old inkwells?).
Jayden decided he was going to 'play school' and here he sat looking very studious!


Then I made the mistake of asking him if that is how he posed in school and this is the face I got!

This kid is a character!

After he got a second wind we walked over to the ice skating pond and watched for awhile.


And then we were off again to find the parade. On our way out of the park we passed the Bryant Park Grill restaurant and I just thought it was so pretty, I loved the old building with all the ivy on the one side...



...and the other part of the restaurant looked like a bride to me with all the pretty white tulle!



We finally made it over to Fifth Avenue and the parade site, and as we walked the parade route toward Madison Square Park, Jayden spotted Lord & Taylor already decked out for Christmas:


And we got a quick little preview of the windows already decorated for Christmas too!
(Sorry for the quality of the pictures, there's glare, there's reflection, and they are blurry! I'll do better next time we go back!)

The smaller side windows were all decorated with birch branches and Swarovski Crystals.

The front windows were decorated in beautiful Victorian scenes.

Well, you know about the rest of our day from my previous posts. I hope you enjoyed walking along with us on the sidewalks of New York!

By the time we go downtown again the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center should be up!