Last Friday as I posted earlier the Hubby and I took our nephew out for a Pre Christmas visit to the NY Botanical Garden, lunch on the famed Arthur Ave in the Bronx, and then wandered New York City.
The Botanical Garden, the first stop on our whirlwind day, was showcasing a Holiday Train Exhibit. Laid out in half of the Conservatory area were all varieties of plants and flowers accompanied by Train sets. Nestled in with them were recreations of famous New York Landmarks, from Citi Field and Macy’s to Row Houses and the old TWA Terminal from JFK, all made from natural materials like twigs and berries.
Macy’s
One of the NY Bridges
I don’t recall what this was but it had subway cars underneath
This was part of the exhibit that wasn’t NY Landmarks
These 2 pictures re included for someone in particular. It is the TWA Terminal from JFK complete with Airplane and runway.
After the Train part of the exhibit we wandered outside to take in some more of the Grounds, The Botanical Garden has 50 gardens and more than one million living plants, including 30,000 mature trees, on its 250-acre landscape. We were barely able to get a good look at everything in the time we were there. Most of it was seen from the Tram that travels around the grounds and nearly all of it was covered in snow. The hubby and I definitely plan on going back, even the nephew wants to go with us. March they are doing an Orchid exhibit and when the Azaleas and Roses are in bloom the place will be spectacular.
Here is one of the trains that the Hubby took video of.
This is a video of the Bronx River which flows through the Garden grounds.
Once we finished the tram ride all the way back to the entrance we hopped in the car and headed out to Arthur Avenue for lunch and window shopping. I will spare you all the pics The Hubby took of the Butcher Shops, he took a LOT.
Crabs and Fishes just in bins on the sidewalks.
Dried Sausages hanging from the ceilings.
Olives by the Bucket full.
Cheese and more meat.
Our nephew was actually the one who inspired this trip. We have brought him into Manhattan a few times and he has been asking my brother when we were going to bring him again. This trip worked perfectly as Christmas was all around. The famed Rockefeller Christmas tree, seen below, hails from the city of Shelton, CT where I work. I was glad to have gotten a chance to see it all in place and lit up.
Here we are the 3 of us posing for a selfie with the tree.
Flags in silver and gold.
In the background of the above picture is what was the highlight of the trip, for the 11 year old not us. Although not a very large store the Rockefeller Center Lego store was in high gear with kids, and hot daddies. We walked out of there with one Lego set and 3 Lego people, and another Lego set on order from amazon as a Christmas present. Bringing kids to pick out their own presents is the only way to shop.
This was one of the famed Christmas windows at Saks 5th Avenue. Their theme was the Yeti, the line to walk on the right side of the velvet ropes wrapped around the corner, so we just looked as we walked by on the sidewalk.
From Saks windows we traipsed over to Grand Central Station. By this time it was getting dark so everything was starting to get that glow about it. Especially Times Square which seems to always glow even in day light. I almost forgot it was a week day until we entered the main floor of GCS and saw all of the commuters hustling to an fro.
Not only does Rockefeller Center put up a tree for Christmas but so does Bryant Park. To be honest this one looks just as good. Bryant Park was home to these cute pop up stalls for shopping, one of my favorites was the Max Brenner shop, mmmm chocolate.By this time of the day/night we were all getting hungry so we decided to wander back to Times Square and find some dinner. Again not thinking about the day and time we had a bit of a wait once we settled on going to Juniors Most Fabulous Cheesecakes.
Surprisingly Juniors has a huge menu not just filled with Cheesecakes. The Nephew had Grilled Cheese with Bacon, almost the size of his head, open face served on thick cut Challah bread. The Hubby ordered the Corned Beef and Pastrami Combo – served on twin Onion Rolls with Sweet Potato Fries. I ordered the Brisket Melt – Brisket of Beef with Sauteed Onions and Peppers and Melted Mozzarella with Fries.
After that meal we walked back to the parking garage and headed home. Everyone had a fabulous time!
Below is the screen shot of my Fitbit for the Day. Yes we all walked that much, ah city life.
Fear the Drum Major 