She'll Take Manhattan After two days in New Jersey, we were ready to move on to "the city." New York was great, but you don't realize how stroller-unfriendly it is with its crowded restaurants and huge stairways into facilities like the subway which are somehow exempted from the ADA.
With no Chanukah bush in sight, the tree in the lobby of our hotel made a nice substitute for a family picture. We saw the big tree at Rockefeller Center and a few store windows and basically did what we do best in NYC--walked. And we shopped. And we ate. Zoe passed on most of the culinary delights the city offered in favor of applesauce.
The highlight of our trip was a visit to the Childrens Museum of Manhattan on the Upper West Side. They have a big Dora the Explorer exhibit. Dora is one of three American toddler cultural icons Zoe has embraced (the other two being Elmo and Mickey Mouse) and she was genuinely thrilled to be there. No holiday road trip to NJNY would be complete without somehow celebrating our friend Julie's birthday. Zoe had a great time hanging out with Michelle and Rebecca at the Menlo Park Mall. The Cheesecake Factory's menu probably has about 200 items for Zoe to choose from, and she thoroughly enjoyed her applesauce.  ¶ 9:57 AM