Thursday night...

...we enjoyed the deliciousness that is White Chocolate Fondue.

It is (and I do not exaggerate here) pure liquid heaven.

We dipped strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, banana, and pretzels. I think strawberries were the best, with kiwi and banana a close second. Pineapple didn't quite work. And being a chocolate and salt lover, I thought the pretzels were delicious.

Next, we may try a caramel fondue. I can't wait.

brought to you from...

... sunny southern California.

Have you noticed the paucity of new posts lately? W1, L1 and I flew to California late last week for an extended visit with my parents. So, the next few weeks we will be bringing you posts from across the country!

A note: while we are happy to be skipping a bit of the Rochester winter, don't make the mistake of thinking we are basking in the sunshine. The last few days have been gray, rainy and quite cold!

NYC Thanksgiving Trip, Day 4

What, you say? Thanksgiving was weeks ago?

Right. I'll make this quick.

Saturday morning started off with the obligatory trip to FAO Schwarz, where W1 fell in love with a teddy bear larger than himself.
He had to settle for a slightly smaller and no less adorable version, which he then carried around the rest of the day.
After lunch we visited the Sony Wonder Technology Museum, which was moderately interesting, but mostly a big marketing scheme.

And then came my favorite, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I could live in this place (isn't there a children's book where a couple of kids do? They collect change from the fountains at night to buy food? Does anyone know what I'm thinking of?).

This is a great place for wandering aimlessly, getting lost, and stumbling upon really amazing stuff.
Thanks for following us through our big city adventure!

NYC Thanksgiving Trip, Day 3

On Friday, to recover from the overindulgence and gluttony of Thanksgiving, we ate some more.

But this time an entirely different genre of food. R1's stepdad, Guy, is a big fan of dim sum, so he took us to Chinatown to the Golden Unicorn Restaurant for a dim sum brunch. It was very delicious.

W1, at first, tried to use the chopsticks for their intended purpose,

but mostly ended up using them as drumsticks. If you want to try dim sum, I recommend going with someone who has been before and knows what the different dishes are.

After brunch, we walked around Greenwich village, admiring the shops and fun restaurants. W1 most admired the small playground we happened across.

We spent the afternoon catching up with some friends from Virginia who also happened to be in the city for the holiday. It was fun to relax and let our kids play together.

On the way to dinner, we stopped by Macy's (you know, the largest department store. On black Friday. Oops.). We were overwhelmed by the masses of humanity.

Dinner was at Patsy's Pizzeria, thanks to Jen for the recommendation!

NYC Thanksgiving Trip, Day 2

First, I want to show the view out of the living room window of the apartment where we stayed.

Nice, right? A view like that might make up for the lack of square footage.

Like everyone else, we dedicated the bulk of Thanksgiving day to food. We spent a leisurely morning at the apartment,

and then headed out for a walk. We happened by Lord & Taylor's department store and stopped to admire their window displays. W1 was riveted.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was at the Salmon River restaurant.

We were able to choose an appetizer; soup or a salad. The salad was the highlight of my meal, maybe even my day. It was a grilled Portobello mushroom topped with greens, warm goat cheese, and a vinaigrette dressing. I could have had several helpings, it was so good. For the main course, the choices were turkey, salmon, or filet mignon. R1 choose the turkey, I had salmon, and W1 had the filet mignon. I don't think W1 had even one bite of his main course because he had filled up on soup. There were 5 or 6 desserts to choose from: I went traditional and chose the pumpkin pie, while R1 had the bittersweet chocolate pie, which was excellent.

After dinner, we walked back to the apartment to nap the afternoon away.

Later that evening, after shaking off our food comas, we took the subway to Canal Street where we had fun browsing the many interesting shops in Chinatown, and taking a side trip into Little Italy for cannolis (it's amazing we were hungry enough, but you can't pass up a cannoli).

NYC Thanksgiving Trip, Day 1

We had a wonderful time last week in NYC with R1's mom and stepdad. Every day was busy, and we walked around until our legs were sore. The details of the trip are already getting a little fuzzy, so I'd better write some down. I'll put in some pictures to make it easier on you.

We left town Tuesday morning and drove most of the day down to New Jersey. We had decided not to drive into the city this time for a multitude of reasons. Thanks to the NJ Transit system, we were able to leave our car parked in Denville, NJ for just $3 a day. Then it was just a lovely hour ride into Penn Station.

Tuesday night we started things off right by eating pizza and going to bed early.

Wednesday morning we stopped by the NY Public Library, where W1 really wanted to dive into the fountain (which was turned off for the winter, but the bottom was filled with dirty rain water):

Then, we headed straight to the American Museum of Natural History, where we enjoyed a show in the planetarium, and some amazing exhibits. W1 especially enjoyed the mammals exhibit where he could identify some of the animals (like the bears, which you will hear more about later).

After spending most of the day in the museum, we stepped outside to watch the inflation of the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Some of the balloons were already inflated, and held down with nets and weights. We watched them inflate Kermit the Frog, and at one point he was listing off to the side, and they had to correct his position. It took about 20 people to bring Kermit back into line.

We watched the balloons until it got too dark and cold, then hopped on the subway and went down to Times Square, where it doesn't matter if it is dark...

This is how far into Toys R Us we ventured before we decided it was way too crowded.

After stopping at Junior's to pick up a cheesecake, we headed back to the apartment for the night. Check back later for further big city adventures!