Memorial Day weekend | Tourists in the city

Ever since we moved out from NYC to the ‘burbs Victor and I go to the city and stay there overnight a couple of times a year. We’ve never done that with the girls – until now that is! We were thinking about a quick Memorial Day getaway with the girls and after Victor dismissed a few of my suggestions (Philly – were there recently; Boston or DC – too far to drive for one night) he recommended New York and of course I can never turn down a stay in my favorite city! We chose to stay at Andaz on Wall Street – we stayed there with Victor a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. It is located in the old JP Morgan building – and I used to work literally next door at 10 Handover Square back in my IT and Business Consulting days:) And the first apartment that the girls spent the first year of their lives was just a few blocks away on Liberty Street. So that whole downtown area was our old hangout – favorite places to walk, favorite restaurants and cafes. And that’s what we decided to do this weekend – just hang out in our old ‘hood’! We did do one semi-touristy thing – took the Staten Island ferry! I have to say that if you have not done it you gotta do it – it was awesome! The views from the ferry were really cool and you cannot be beat a free ride:)

We walked along South Street Seaport:

went to one of our favorites restaurants (lunch at ‘Acqua‘ right under Brooklyn Bridge – some of the best italian food I’ve ever had!) and dinner at Smorgas Chef on Stone Street – yummy Scandinavian !

We saw ‘XMen’ and walked around South Street seasport:

We checked out Irish Hunger Memorial and took a nice leisurely stroll through Battery Park City :

And all of that was just Day 1! And the next day was more of the relaxation – walking through downtown (and past our old building), brunch at Sarabeth’s (super yum!) and a walk on Brooklyn Bridge, which was so hot and crowded that we abandoned it less than half way through:)