Days ago I started talking about my family vacation in New York last spring. Today I keep telling you about the places we visited.
In New York there are countless museums, of various themes and for all tastes, many of them appropriate to go with children. Others definitely would not occur to me to take a little boy of 3 years, such as MOMA. However, art museums, the Metropolitan and the Whitney Museum have collections that they can love. But, definitely, if there is a museum that kids enjoy, it is the Natural History Museum. My son was delighted with the dinosaur fossils and the collection dedicated to marine life, where they have a life-size model of a blue whale, hung in the center of the room. They were the two things he enjoyed most about the museum. In addition to a small temporary exhibition of real spiders, which was on the occasion of the premiere of the Spider-Man movie. In that same museum there is a questionnaire that the somewhat older children will enjoy a world.
Another museum that I am sure he would have loved is the Intrepid, a collection of ships and aircraft from the Second World War located in an old aircraft carrier, but by the time of our trip he was in maintenance and remodeling.
The city is full of parks, most with playgrounds for the little ones. We spent one morning in Central Park and visited Madison Square Park. In Central Park on weekends there are outdoor shows, concerts and theatrical performances, but what Rodrigo liked best was chasing squirrels. Coincidentally, in Central Park, the producer of a series for MTV approached us and asked if Rodrigo could "act" in one of the scenes they were filming at the time. Three shots were enough for Rodrigo to do what he was asked: to approach the rocker who played on the tree branch, and greet him with the sign of peace.
In Central Park we also visit the zoo that although it is much smaller than the Bronx, if you do not have much time is perfect, more manageable and the visit is less exhausting. My son was happy with the penguins and the polar bear. Also next to the zoo there is a smaller one that we also visit with farm animals that children can feed.
In addition to Central Park, there are also Riverside Park and Hudson River Park.
When shopping, we took turns distracting Rodrigo, who also enjoyed visiting the city's famous toy stores. The Toys'r us chain store, where we ride the giant wheel, to which I recommend you go if you can during the week since on Saturdays and Sundays it seems that they were giving away the toys. But the funniest thing in toy stores was dancing on the giant piano of the classic toy store in the city Fao Schwarz. The piano is famous for Tom Hanks' movie Big. In Soho we discovered a toy store called The Scholastic Store, where they sell educational games and books and have an area for children to play as they please.
Another site we visited is South Street Seaport in southern Manhattan, where some ships from the 19th century are on display, one of which is a museum that unfortunately the day we went was closed. Instead at the insistence of Rodrigo who wanted to ride a boat, we took one of the tourist boats that make tours of the bay, to see the Statue of Liberty and to which my son baptized Mrs. Liberty. We were able to enjoy wonderful views of the city skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge.
These are just some of the wonderful experiences we had. So if you plan to visit New York with your children you will surely have a memorable trip and in this article in the magazine Travesías you will find many more ideas of places to visit.
