First Adventure of 2013 - "The Event of a Thread" at Park Ave Armory

Our current bedtime routine is a family love fest. Savvy stays up late now that she's an old lady of almost 2 and a half, so Rob is usually home for bedtime. That leaves the three of us in our bed singing songs and tickling while we get Savvy in her jammies and get out her last ounces of silliness before she starts to calm down. Then we read ONE BOOK. But Savvy insists we all take all take a turn reading it. 

After a last minute trip to the bathroom for tooth brushing or using the potty it's time for lights out. That's when Savvy abruptly stops loving on Daddy and banishes Rob to the living room. "GO IN THE LUMI DADDY!"

It's our special time. "Big hug. I love you soooooo much," she says. "Let's talk. Let's talk 'bout what we did today." And so we recount the days events while we hug and I "itchie" her back. 

This is the time that I will miss the most when the new baby is born in March. This ultra lovey dovey Mommy/Savvy time in the quiet darkness of our bedroom. On days we don't anything and the talking "'bout what we did today" doesn't include anything more exciting than a trip to the supermarket, I get sad that pregnancy has slowed me down and kept us from having as many adventures as we had during the first half of 2012. 

After shedding a few tears Wednesday night about this very dilemma, I was excited to learn about an Ann Hamilton art installation at the Park Avenue Armory featuring giant swings when I checked Facebook Thursday morning. Indoor swings! A perfect mother daughter date! The exhibit closes this Sunday, January 6th -- definitely check it out if you're looking for last minute weekend plans.

Upon entering, you're confronted with a table of caged pigeons and performance artists reading from a scroll. Their voices are amplified in dozens of speakers placed in paper bags throughout the space. The swings hanging from the expansive space are connected to a large white curtain through a series of pulleys and ropes that make it sway. Even the swings sway on their own because they're interconnected.

Savvy wanted to ride by herself. The swings didn't go very high, but they certainly traveled 20 feet back and forth without so much as a push from me :)

She held on like a champ. 

 Notice in the video that I'm more afraid of her solo riding the swing than she is!

The best shot I could get of us swinging together. 

 Sav's favorite thing to do was push me on the swing. I got some serious distance! And she didn't get hit by the swing even though she would chase me after pushing. Always backed up enough afterwards. Phew.

So grown, yet still so small.

That night when we recounted our day in the darkness of bedtime ("We went to a art 'stallation!"), I told Savvy that I felt so blessed to go on exciting adventures with her. "When your new baby sister is born, things are going to change a lot. Instead of going out on adventures, there will be lots of new adventures right here at home that will keep us busy for a while."

"But we can take my baby shitter with us!" (Yup, that's how she pronounces sister. Love it!)

"That's right, Savvy. We can take your baby sister with us." My first born is wise beyond her years. She always knows what I need to hear.

Top NYC Staycations from Time Out NY, 2012

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Time Out New York just released a segmented list of 33 New York City staycations. Staycation is already a made up word, but they categorized the experiences even further by hipsterizing (also a made up word) it with sub-groups like "space-cation", "flea-cation" and "adventure-cation".

It would be virtually impossible to follow all their suggestions this summer. So here's how I further curated their list to come up with Top 5 NYC Staycations 2012. I'll have to make my own competing list soon and you can decide which is better. (I will definitely include Mitsuwa on my list!)


Sleep on a boat for $55! Adventure-cation
Spend a night at the Boatel. According to their website, The Boatel is an interactive art + sound installation where you are invited to stay overnight in one of their sixteen floating installations--a boat that sings, a patchwork treehouse, a Victorian-era naturalist's laboratory, a hillbilly kama sutra honeymoon suite. Sounds rugged and memorable!

Go on a Taco Crawl! Food Coma-cation
Please transport me to Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights immediately so I can visit the taquerias Time Out lists here.

Explore a new subculture - manga! Geek-cation
Go to Forbidden Planet, which sells manga, graphic novels and comics, and get lost in worlds beyond your imagination.


Visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for free! Unemployed-cation
The garden is free on Tuesdays, so add this trek to your calendar. You won't get away with paying nothing though - this park doesn't allow picnicking so you'll most likely need a stop at their cafe.

Swim in a $50 million pool! Burb-cation
The McCaren Park Pool in Williamsburg pool is certain to be great for people watching and the facilities should be top notch after a $50 million, 3 year renovation.

Rowboating in Central Park ~ Wordless Wednesday

Can you bring a toddler on a rowboat in Central Park? YES

After looking at website after website for age restrictions and coming across one that said children under age 5 weren't permitted on board, I found out from the source that any child can ride in a Central Park Boathouse rowboat as long as they use a provided life jacket.

So onto the lake we went!

(Thanks to the ominous clouds, the line for boat rentals was only 5 groups deep.)

You can see a smidge of Ladies Pavilion in the distance

p.s. This is cheap, iconic, family fun! The boat rental only costs $12/hr plus a refundable $20 deposit. (Cash only.)

Old New York ~ Brooklyn Bridge Style ~ Wordless Wednesday

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge during Memorial Day weekend. The air was hot and humid; there was a traffic jam of tourists. These photos tell a more perfect story.

Made this the cover photo for the Staycation Mama Facebook page. Like it!

The hot husband/photographer

Love Long Island City? Could we live here?

That's what I'm trying to determine.

Do I love Long Island City? That's what I'm trying to figure out, exploring it as part of my mission to find a new neighborhood to call home, possibly as a home-buyer.  For many years, I've had a love/hate relationship with this part of Queens. Extreme hate because every time I take the Queensboro bridge from Manhattan to Queens, I get lost in LIC looking for the LIE. And extreme love because my favorite museum, the MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center is located here near 5pointz, an awesome place to see graffiti art. But could one museum sustain me? Hmm.

During a recent weekday afternoon, I took Savvy to explore LIC. Here is a photo tour of us visiting my favorite spots and discovering some neighborhood finds that have me a little bummed about being priced out of real estate here, at least according to one real estate brokerage firm I popped into. I'm still determined to find something.

Goodbye Upper East Side!

Hello shabby-chic Long Island City

First stop, 5 Pointz

Graffiti artist at work. Never saw that here before.

Dancing without any music. Must've been the spirit of hip hop taking over.

Savvy loved the elevated choo choo tracks in the distance.

Next stop was the MOMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center, housed in a former public school building. They don't allow photos in the museum; you're only allowed to take pics in the outdoor courtyard, which was closed for installation during our visit. But I snapped a few clandestine shots anyways, just not of the exhibits. Hope I don't get in trouble for posting these!

The look of sheer wonderment

This exhibit recreated a 40 voice choir, each voice given a dedicated speaker arranged in a circle along the perimeter of a cavernous room. Amazing listening experience--almost better than live because you could put your ear up to each speaker to hear the individual singers or sit in the center for a concert-like experience.

While at the museum, we met a family that lives in the Hunters Point, a gentrified section of LIC a stone's throw from the industrial scent of car repair shops, food cart storage, taxi parking lots, etc. They told us that their neighborhood near 50th Ave is the place to be -- 3 minute subway ride on the 7 train to Grand Central, 15 minute walk to Greenpoint, 25 minute walk to Williamsburg. The father, a 20 year resident of the West Village said he was shocked to like living in Long Island City so much, and they're planning to stay for many years. And like a true resident of a gentrified area, he spoke enthusiastically about the organic grocery stores.

Here's what we saw on our walk to Gantry State Park and Hunters Point:

Awesome truck!

Lots of "tachies"

A sense of humor + abandoned lot = art installation

We reached civilization on Vernon Blvd after 10 minutes of walking. This street has improved a ton even since we looked at renting on the waterfront 2 years ago. There are a handful of cute date spots, a comedy club, a family friendly burger joint, a veterinarian, and *ding ding ding* a pediatrician's office. Maybe if they take our insurance, it would warrant the hefty price tag for 2 bedroom condos...

Vernon Blvd

We finished our afternoon trip to Long Island City with a trip to Gantry State Park on the East River, with great views of Manhattan, although from our vantage point, the UN blocked our view of the Chrysler Building.

I've been here before, and aside from the skyline view I'm not a big fan of the park. There isn't much shade on hot sunny days, I now learned that the playground doesn't have swings, and the atmosphere feels very forced, kind of like the artificial neighborhood created by the slew of luxury high rise apartment buildings.

Savvy in the foreground, McHighrise in the background

Oh hai Manhattan

A destination for every Long Islander!

Yeah, this is beautiful, but do we want to live here? Hmmmm.

Fun playground, but no swings and LIMITED SHADE.

We had a great afternoon here, but I'm still not sure if it feels like "home".

What criteria do you use to decide on where to purchase or rent a home? Aside from the biggies like schools and cost of living.  Maybe I should create a neighborhood rating system...

The next neighborhoods I plan to visit as part of our home-buying exploration are Astoria, Forest Hills and the Upper West Side. I'll write more posts like this in case anyone else is apartment hunting.