Last days in New York

We went to the incredible Natural History Museum, which sits opposite the Met, on the other side of Central Park.  Many people are familiar with this brilliant museum - it has been mentioned in countless films, television shows and novels, as a real landmark of New York.

The museum had a fantastic temporary butterfly house exhibition.  This is really good advice:

This sign made me laugh.  I have to admit that I got the giggles, thinking of some poor little child shaking with fear because a butterfly landed on their sleeve.  Bad mummy!

You know how a shepherd has a cane crook, to gently field his sheep?  Well, a butterfly keeper has a giant feather on a long pole, for the same purposes:

The displays at the Museum are really beautiful - delightfully retro, each striking nature scene framed neatly with a heavy wooden frame.  The displays are amazing - many of them look real, almost like a zoo instead of a museum:

The life-sized blue whale is famous, suspended high above the Ocean Hall. It is breathtaking to view the size of this mammal:

Cute overload:

The space under the blue whale, the expansive floor of the Ocean Hall, was the perfect place for Tabitha to burn off some energy and practice her walking:

Did you know that New York is famous for its high quality tap water?  Admirably, the Museum does not sell bottled water, objecting to the use of plastic bottles and transport of the water.  Signs like this one, below, are throughout the Museum, sitting next to drinking fountains and taps:

This is a giant sloth.  Scary!

After the zoo, we went (again) to Bubby's Pie Co. for dinner.  Seriously, this place is brilliant!  Such a beautiful space, homely and cosy and inviting and family-friendly and full of character.  The food is really great, too.  We both agreed that Bubby's is exactly the kind of place you wish you had in your own local neighbourhood.  Lucky TriBeCa locals!

Can you remember I mentioned Tabitha's Snack Ball?  It's a really cute little round container which I fill with snacks like raisins, puffed rice and dried apple, to entertain her when we're out - particularly waiting for a meal.  Here is The Daddy playing with Tabby and her Snack Ball at Bubby's:

I had a delicious matzo ball soup, full of veggies and shredded chicken:

Tabitha had chicken schnitzel and broccoli:

After dinner, The Daddy had a peanut butter chocolate pie:

I had a 'mile high apple pie':

Here are all the pies in the rotating display cabinet.  I have had their book, 'Bubby's Homemade Pies', for a couple of years.  It's excellent - go and buy it if you like baking pies!

Here is the outside of Bubby's, so you know what to look for when you are next wandering around TriBeCa.  It's open 24 hours.

The next night, we went to Les Halles.  Tabitha was mostly interested in climbing over the partition wall to laugh at the people over the other side - they kept her pretty amused:

More chocolate cupcakes.  This time from Magnolia Bakery, which was a few doors down from where we were staying.  Magnolia is generally voted the 'best cupcakes in NYC' however it also has plenty of detractors - people who say the cakes are completely overrated, and are dry.  Well, I wouldn't line up for ten minutes out the front for one (which plenty of people do) but if you happen to be walking past, and there is no queue, it is certainly worth popping in.  The cupcakes are perfectly nice - not the best I've ever had, but the shop is cute and it's fun to watch all the workers frosting the cupcakes so deftly.

However.  One thing Magnolia Bakery DOES do really, really well is Banana Pudding.  In my opinion, easily the best banana pudding in the world.  The pudding is light, creamy and delicious.  Nicely vanilla flavoured.  The wafers are deliciously soft and cakey.  The bananas are nicely overripe.  I could eat a kilogram of this, no kidding.  I have bought a whole stockpile of Nilla Wafers to bring home, so that I can make my own banana pudding, otherwise I will go into withdrawal:

We left New York (sob, sob) and picked up our hire car, driving to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  This is the heart of Amish Country - I have always been fascinated by the Amish, and it's been a lifelong dream to visit the area.

On the drive, half way there, we stopped to let Tabitha have a play and to eat some lunch.  We couldn't resist taking her to Chuck-E-Cheeze for a play - there is all sorts of play equiptment, and a whole lot of scary Chuck-E-Cheeze characters.  Here is Tabitha hanging out with Chuck - she has her arm around his shoulders:

Here is Tabitha looking super excited:

We couldn't bring ourselves to actually eat at Chuck-E's, so we wandered further along the giant strip mall and ate at IHOP - International House of Pancakes.  I have never seen quite so much sugar in one meal!  Tabitha had some fruit - the one good thing I have to say about American 'family restaurants' like Denny's, IHOP and Appleby's is that their children's menus tend to have fresh fruit or vegetables as the 'default' side dish with their main, instead of fries.  Good to see - I hope that Australian restaurants follow that lead one day soon.