Bear Hugs & Piggy Kisses - Baby's 1st Trip ~ Updated 12/6: Aulani TR Started!!!

[AprilRenee]

Woohoo!! Sounds like a very successful 1st day!!

I laughed out loud about Izzy standing up in the ergo! Haha

And toddler tantrums are just fabulous aren't they?! I'd love to tell you it gets better...but it doesn't. Lol! although we are ALMOST to the point where he can tell me why he's mad and we are to the point where I usually know when something is going to set him off. And OCCASIONALLY I can talk him down from one. So I guess in some ways they get easier.

I can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip goes!

 

[Imagineer5]

You are going through what we went through - pleaseee give us some good vibes for our 6 hour flight to DL in 3 weeks! it is SO hard to keep them entertained. People behind us on flights can make or break it! LOL.

Sounds like the room is great and dinner was fabulous!! That's awesome! HOpe you are having a great day today!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sorry that Izzy was so much trouble on the flight - definitely frustrating. Sounds like a bit more extreme version of Peter our last flight as he would not stay still. We were split across 2 rows (with grandparents) and kept having to pass him back and forth over the seats.

Can't believe that van didn't have Latch! At least the drive knew how to handle it

Love all the little parks in NYC - so great to let the kids run around a bit. Little Italy is totally like that with people on the street trying to get you in to their restaurant. I guess they are all so similar they have to do something

It's funny how walking around NYC is great and you want to do it to see everything but for some reason walking there seems so much "harder" than elsewhere and tiring.

Hope the rest of your trip works out!

 

[jeni16]

Hope you guys have a great trip! DS is going to be a little over 2 when we are thinking about going to WDW & I'm worried we'll have the same issues with keeping him entertained on the flight. He gets crabby sitting in the car for the 20 min. ride to daycare.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Sounds like a pretty good first day! I totally understand about the flight! Charlotte was a nightmare on the way to CO last year and the way home from WDW last summer! For us, I think the hardest age was bettween 12-26 months. But you just never know how a toddler is going to act!

 

[Dugette]

Brief update, since Dug has his computer tonight and I'm on my phone and ready to get some sleep. Much happier toddler today vs. yesterday. Took another short nap, but spent a lot of mellow time in stroller and Ergo. Saw Statue, 9/11 Memorial, Wall Street. Nice day. Thank you to TheMaxRebo for the dinner recommendation of Les Halles. It was fantastic! And our waitress was in love with Izzy. Topped the night off with gelato and walked back. 20k steps on Fitbit today vs. 15k yesterday. So, according to Dug, like an Epcot day. Izzy giggled herself to sleep tonight. Brooklyn Bridge in the morning and off to the wedding. No cell reception and limited wifi there, so not sure if I'll be on for a few days. Have a great weekend!

 

[KKTwincess320]

You're trip report has been so helpful! We're taking our 13 month old twin girls next month and you've given some great tips and I have a little bit better idea of what to expect! Plus shes adorable!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Glad you had a better day yesterday and sounds like you got a lot of the sites in!

Glad Les Halles worked out for you as well!

 

[cindianne320]

Love hearing about New York- it's on my bucket list!

 

[olafgypsy]

Sounds like you're having a great trip! Can't wait to hear all about the wedding and the rest of your NYC adventures. Glad to hear the food's been treating you well, too. That's definitely what I miss most about the city....but NOT the snotty service, which I'm sorry to hear you experienced with the hostess at your first dinner. Kinda typical, I'm afraid....but the yummy food kinda makes up for it!

 

[Dugette]

Even though there's no cell phone service, there is indeed wifi here at our resort. Dug and Izzy are taking their afternoon nap, so I'm using his computer to relax on a nice porch couch and do some updating. Soon, I'll have to get them up and get ready for a wedding, though! On to the update from a couple days ago:

Despite not being happy about going to bed the night before, Izzy slept all night long.

We got up and tried to get Izzy ready. She was obsessed with crawling all over the bed, though:



Her new game lately is "Go, Go, Go!" She says that, to the tune of "Ready! Set! Go!" and then takes off...doing something. Running, rolling, playing, etc. It's really cute. It's like she's psyching herself up for a big task. So, I'm sure she was playing that game this morning.

After we got ready, we took advantage of the breakfast offered by the hotel. One thing that I got a kick out of was that Izzy is now able to walk independently to and from breakfast. She went with me to the elevator, took it, and walked along with me to where we would sit. Nice not to have to carry another person everywhere!

Izzy enjoyed some scrambled eggs, some yogurt, and some fruit, among other things. The yogurt was a big winner. I had actually never given her a container of yogurt and a spoon, since I was worried she's throw it on the floor. However, she did quite well and actually (messily) ate the whole container:



She also got a kick out of the animals she saw popping up on the TV in the breakfast room. She kept pointing and giggling.

We had to hurry out afterwards to get to Battery Park for our Statue of Liberty visit. On the way, we noticed this cool playground with cool boats in the background:



We also got a kick out of this truck's decorations:



We were a little worried because we arrived after 9am (by more than a few minutes) and Dug's ticket was for 9am. Mine was for 10am because there was only one ticket left at each time. I followed Dug through the security line, not knowing if he'd be allowed on the boat. Turns out, they don't much care about the times and allowed both of us to go together right away. No problem at all.

The security here was actually worse than at the airport (remembering we had the awesome family lane at the airport). I was wearing my fleece jacket over a zip-up sweater over a t-shirt. I not only had to remove the jacket, but also the sweater. Because, you know, zippers apparently can be deadly? Just saying, if the sweater had no zipper, no problem. Odd. It didn't even have pockets or anything. Also, we had to remove Izzy's jacket too. Shoes stayed on, but Dug had to remove his belt. Had to fold stroller and put through on moving belt. So, very much like airport security. We made it through fine.

After that, we waited for the boat. The nice part is that we were able to keep Izzy in the stroller for the boat ride (just on the first floor, if you're going up, there are stairs). We got on early enough to get seats and park her next to us. The ride was fine and soon we were here:



Once on Liberty Island, we planned to switch off on going up to the Pedestal, because strollers weren't allowed. I hadn't called to ask about stroller check, as April suggested, but I sure couldn't find anything about it online, so we had doubts that it existed. Dug got an audio tour thing and planned to walk around with Izzy doing that. I went to the Pedestal entrance. Asked the attendant about strollers and, sure enough, they can hold them behind the desk for free. So, I ran to find Dug and Izzy and we came back and checked the stroller to go up together (and he didn't really get a chance to do the audio tour).

I had Izzy in the Ergo carrier at this point. We had to wait in line again for another security check. Izzy was very mellow, but awake. Once we got there, we had to take her out to go through. Same drill again. For reasons unknown, since he had absolutely nothing on him, the metal detector went off for Dug, so they had to do their more extensive wand thing with him. Annoying, because he wasn't able to help me gather all of our stuff and get Izzy back in the Ergo. Oh, well, they let him go and we were fine.

We went in and checked out the original torch. There was a guide there talking about it and he was very interesting. We went through the museum. There was one part where they had a "for touching" model of the Statue of Liberty. We asked Izzy where it's nose, ears, etc. were and she pointed them all out! Too cute!

We walked around both outdoor levels of the pedestal and took pictures. Dug has them, so I'll have to find some to post when we get home. We then went back to the ground level.

One thing I thought was neat while walking around the statue was hearing all the different languages, where people were clearly saying "one, two, three" before taking pictures. (Dug then decided to make one up - "Oinko, Doinko, Troinko" - silly!)

I went to change Izzy's diaper while Dug got us some lunch from the cafe there. Turned out she didn't need a new diaper yet. Weird. Anyway, we ate outside (they keep the high chairs out there) and had a nice lunch with birds that Izzy enjoyed watching:



After lunch, we headed into the family restroom and got the diaper change done.

One of Izzy's obsessions this day was removing her shoes and then sometimes her socks too:



Up next, Ellis Island!

I've got to go get ready for the wedding, so later!

 

[AprilRenee]

Woohoo! Great update! I'm loving the play by play we're getting!
And yes! It's so nice when they start walking places themselves!! Izzy is reminding me a lot of Caden while we were in Chicago. Is she about 18 months right now?
Lol I love go go go. Caden plays that game too! He also likes to yell "aaaand GO!" While in his stroller or in the car if we aren't moving. It's kinda hilarious.

I'm so glad they had a stroller check at the statue of liberty. I figured they'd have something. So many people have strollers in the touristy things. I'll betcha you really don't have much issue with any of it.

 

[Denovagirl]

Sounds like fun! Lovin the updates!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Looks like a fun trip so far! Charlotte did the same thing at Disney with her shoes, only she kept putting them in her mouth after removing them. We kept saying don't eat shoes. A statement she still repeat daily. The silly little things you never though you would have to say in your life, right?

It is nice when they get a little older and can do a little bit for themselves isn't! I love the Minnie place mats, its like you took a little Disney with you!

 

[Dugette]

The ferry over to Ellis Island was standing room only, but it was a short ride and that was fine. Soon enough, we were there:



By the way, while we were at lunch, Dug did some family research and found that most of our relatives came to the US before Ellis Island. However, my Italian grandparents (mom's mom's parents) came over (separately) through Ellis Island. In particular, he was able to find records that my grandma's mom came through in 1920 (as a 23 year old), so that was cool. She was coming to live with relatives that were already in Wisconsin.

Shortly after arriving, Izzy decided it was nap time:



I love how resourceful she was in pulling her hat over her eyes to block out the sun (though she freaked out several times, presumably because she briefly woke and couldn't see...but then went back to sleep). While she napped, we bought some bottles of pop and took turns sitting at the outdoor cafe with her (no drinks allowed inside) and going in to the big room upstairs where the immigrants waited to find out if they got in. There were a few displays and some original benches there. Neat to think that, if my grandma's parents hadn't come through that room, I wouldn't be here (her parents are both from the same small town in Italy, but did not meet until they were in Wisconsin).

We made our visit as quick as possible to catch a ferry back to get to the 9/11 Memorial on time. However, we had to watch the ferry we wanted come and go, since the line was so long. Still okay, though. Izzy was still asleep in the stroller. We got on the next ferry and it was also standing room only by the time we were on. I chose to stand on the lower floor with Izzy in her stroller and sent Dug upstairs to find a seat.

This was by far the worst ferry ride. The others were fine, but this one was miserable. I parked the stroller (with me behind it) as out of the way as possible - we were against a wall and the same width as the trash can behind us. Not in any pathway. However, the stroller that I thought was red is apparently completely invisible - at least the way people were acting with it. I have no idea how so many people managed to come by during a boat ride and run into and/or trip over a stroller with a sleeping baby and not even look to see what they hit or apologize. Men, women, children, adults, they all slammed into a sleeping baby like it was nothing. Granted, there wasn't a ton of space, since the aisle next to us became partially occupied by a group that didn't seem to notice they were in an aisle. But still. Not cool. The worst was the lady that knocked the entire canopy from a down to an up position and didn't even blink.

When we started getting near the dock, the people from the upper floors decided to clear out, so they came streaming down the stairs, which were not far from me. I decided to follow them and get in line to leave, even though we were still moving, because Izzy was going to get trampled if we stayed there. So, I followed the crowd and stood. It's funny how, when you're pushing a stroller, you are no longer a person in a crowd. Nobody would step on my feet to cram themselves in front of me if I were right behind another person. However, they totally were okay with stepping on the front wheel of the stroller and diving in front, even though I had it right up to the ankles (without touching) of the person in front of me at all times. For some reason, we were really delayed and must have been waiting to dock. The boat rocked back and forth quite often - and enough to nearly knock most of the crowd off its feet. However, the stroller was a nice brace for me and I didn't lose my balance a bit, so there was that small victory.

As you can imagine, all this action woke Izzy up after only about an hour of napping (vs. her usual 2+). So, she was crying and crabby, but stuck in the stroller. I was so happy to finally get off that boat - I literally ran down the ramp. Then we waited for Dug and were on our way. I guess he had a nice ride upstairs.

We still had enough time to walk Wall Street before going to the 9/11 Memorial, so we did that. Lots of security there. Neat to see, but nothing overly exciting.

Then we made our way to the 9/11 Memorial and more security. It doesn't surprise me that there is security here, but I was a bit surprised that I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere online or anything. At any rate, this was a bit better. I started to take Izzy out of her stroller and they told us to put her back in and roll her through - stroller was okay. However, I guess they didn't notice the small bag we had in the basket and had to take that out and send it back through. Everything went smoothly. They checked our tickets at about 1000 different points in the line. And soon we were there:



It was such a strange feeling being in the area in general and especially right at the site. Just picturing all the things I'd seen on TV and knowing it was there....very eerie. The memorial fountains were beautiful, though. They did a really nice job.

We also peeked into the (not yet opened) museum. I guess there are some original beams and such in there (it appeared). We also saw this structure being built and were baffled as to what it was:



Dug asked a security guard and he was very friendly, telling us that it was a dove and showing us some pictures on his smartphone of what it was going to look like. Very cool.

We headed out then, making our way to dinner. We saw this on the way:



We took TheMaxRebo's suggestion of Brasserie Les Halles for dinner and I made an Open Table reservation a bit earlier that day. Here's a picture from upstairs, looking down to the area we were in:



The service and the food were both fantastic! They happily took our stroller behind the front desk and seated us at a nice, big corner booth with a high chair. They gave Izzy some crayons, which she was happy about:





Our waitress was so great with Izzy. As were some of the other staff members. She got so much attention and love. Izzy even got to "cheers!" with the waitress (yes, our baby says Cheers and clinks her sippy cup! ) Our waitress pulled out her smartphone at some point to show me pictures of her little nephew, I think?

Dug had French Onion Soup and said it was the best ever (I had a few bites and it was tasty). We split the deviled eggs, which were good. We got a side of green beans, thinking Izzy would like them. She ate a couple, but mostly got a huge kick out of feeding them to me. Yes, I was hand-fed by a toddler. So weird. She was having a blast, though. We shared a meal with steak, fries, and salad and it was great. I was stuffed full and let Dug have a bit more steak. Izzy had some of the food we'd brought and a few bites of our dinner.

We switched off using the restrooms upstairs at some point and noticed there was no baby changing area. We asked if they had anything to do that, not expecting much. Wow, they went out of their way on this one. Sent me and Izzy upstairs and around a corner to a dining area they were setting up, had the staff clear off a table (I offered to use the floor, but they wouldn't hear of it), left me alone for privacy, and were waiting around the corner, cheering Izzy on as she ran down the hallway. Everyone was so very nice!

After dinner, we were so very full, but had seen a gelato shop across the street earlier. They had Bacio gelato, which I hadn't found since our honeymoon in Italy, so I had to have some. I got a small dish of that and Dug had a coffee drink with gelato mixed in. We both enjoyed our desserts while walking back.

We got to bed at a decent time and Izzy woke once briefly overnight, quickly nursing back to sleep.

Overall, a great day!

 

[amazingact21]

I'm loving your mini NYC trip report! Thanks so much for posting it.


You guys got a lot done in that one day! Especially since you had a toddler with you.


I can only imagine how...surreal(?) humbling (?) not sure what word I'm reaching for here....it would be to see Ellis Island the 911 Memorial in person. To see that kind of history up close and personal....


Dinner sounded wonderful! What a great wait staff to clear a room for you. Seemed like just the thing you needed after a long day of sight seeing and a CRAZY ferry ride.

 

[AprilRenee]

What a great day!! I'm impressed with how much you guys are accomplishing!

 

[Leshaface]

Finally all caught up!

That's too bad that you weren't able to eat at Mama Melrose, however dinner at Sci-fi sounded like a hit!

Oh wow! It sounds like you had what I had when I went to Vegas. Maybe it was the combination of smoke/lights that made me get a headache all of a sudden and that made my stomach started to hurt to the point where I wanted to get sick. How strange!

I actually like when people talk to each other on the bus and converse, instead of just staring at each other awkwardly. Especially when you're facing people straight on.

The 18 month photos are absolutely precious Especially the one of you holding her. We'll miss those moments when they don't want to be held like that anymore. Awesome that you got that moment captured!

I completely agree with you on the bus situation. Luckily for us, we were never in a situation where someone didn't give up their seat for me or DH while holding DS or we were always first in line to get a seat. But I was always in the mindset that I never expected for someone to jump up and give us their seat either.

Your trip to NY sounds fantastic so far! And i'm getting anxious about the flight already. Let's see he'll be a little over 2 (27 months) when we fly to FL and i'm so worried about how it will be. A five hour flight isn't that fun to begin with, but throw a toddler into the mix, and it just sounds terrible...

 

[TheMaxRebo]

sounds like you got a lot done and glad everything worked out timing wise, though sorry to hear about the issues on that last ferry.

Glad Les Halles worked out - sounds like some great service!

 

[Mom&RN]

I'm loving your NYC mini trip report! So great that the staff at Les Halles was so wonderful to you. I'm sure it made that dinner all the more special. You packed sooooo much into one day - I'm impressed!