New York, New York

Rockefeller Plaza

**I’m finishing up this post, just as New York is cleaning up after Hurricane Irene and we await our own fallout as the storm heads north. I’m grateful our trip was last weekend, but mindful of all the people this has affected and remain on watch to ensure friends along the coast are safe.**

As many of the Facebook group members can attest, I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months. While many seem to enjoy the luxury of travel, the last big trip Mr. Uncanny and I enjoyed was our honeymoon many moons ago. This trip was created from a spur of the moment realization that we will very soon be the parents of 2 very small children and I will most likely need to be on-call for close to 2 years with our second child. Seeing that we were already planning a trip to Ontario to visit our new neice, I realized it might be possible to jet off for a couple days, sans toddler.

Admittedly, I’ve never been away from my daughter for longer than 8 hours and definitely not overnight, so I was equally anxious and excited at the possibility of sleeping on my own schedule and actually enjoying a flight without a wiggling, shrieking toddler in my lap. I also knew I was going to miss our bedtime routines, the hugs and kisses and the whispers of “I love you, Mama”.

We had a few goals in mind for our babymoon: eat, walk, sight-see and enjoy. We accomplished that and more. Almost 4 days on a limited budget wasn’t nearly enough time to get to all the restaurants we wanted, but we managed to eat some great food and eyeballed a thousand other restaurants we may get to one day. We also made sure to find markets to enjoy lots of fresh, local fruit that always tastes flat and flabby by the time we get it in Sackville.

So, here are some highlights from our trip!

Pastrami on Rye at Katz's Deli

Us and a thousand other tourists seem to have one thing in mind: Pastrami on Rye, yes to mustard. Crazy busy, crazy good.

Il Labratorio Del Gelato

At the advice of David Lebovitz and some great luck, this fantastic gelato joint is right across the street from Katz. Perfect lunch and dessert. Walk a little further down the street on East Houston and you’ll find Russ and Daughters, which has a fine assortment of lox and cream cheese in bulk, as well as some delicious Babkas and if you’re lucky, as we were, you’ll have a celebrity sighting. Turns out, Sacha Baron Cohen is also a fan of their lox.

Seriously Tasty Croissant

So while our fantastic hotel served breakfast, it was definitely your standard fare and usually by mid-morning, you were hankering for a nosh, especially with all the walking. Thankfully, Dean and Deluca was right at the corner of our block and it became a frequent stop for seriously tasty coffee (which I often got lectured to about the perils of drinking coffee while pregnant) and pastries. I can personally attest to the amazingness of their croissants, toasted coconut doughnut and carrot cake doughnut. Yes, I’m a pig.

Lombardi`s Pizza

While totally another tourist trap, I’m so glad we made the trip to Lombardi’s Pizza. Their pizza was unbelievably good; the crust is crispy and the perfect amount of chewy, thanks to its coal fired oven. Key basic ingredients, given the right amount of care amounted to a fabulous experience and I didn’t walk away feeling the need to down a litre of water to deal with the high sodium.

Dinner a la Eataly

The Penultimate Cupcake: Magnolia Bakery

Most evenings were spent grabbing food on the go and bringing it back to our suite to reheat and enjoy at our leisure and in my case, it meant sitting in my pyjamas, watching Star Trek and falling asleep around 8 p.m. So much walking! While the food was incredible, there is so much more to NYC.

Like this:

Brooklyn Bridge

Flatiron Building

I Couldn't Resist.

The Metropolitan Musuem of Art

Me and Mr. Uncanny at Times Square

There you have it! It was an incredible 4 days and it was just the rejuvenation we needed before we embark on parenting another child. I would go back in a heartbeat and hope to introduce our kids to the sights and sounds of New York City before long. Thanks again to everyone who contributed their recommendations on places to eat, stay and things to see!