Day three in New York and we woke up….tired. After a full day 2 exploring the city, we were worn out and Maxwell was weary. I was nervous that we weren’t going to have enough to fill up the day. We did head up to Sarabeth’s on Central Park South for breakfast which was a good start. Pancakes are always a plus!
After that there was a little bit of twiddling our thumbs while I tried to figure out what to do. Maxwell thought he wanted to go back to Nike Town again so we walked over there…but they didn’t open until 11:00 on Sunday and it was only 10:00. So, we headed back towards the park and stopped in the Plaza to check it out. (Maxwell was unimpressed! ha!)
We then decided to take a carriage ride in the park. In all my years of living in New York this was something I had never done! Well, it was money well spent! Not only was it a fun ride but it showed us all the neat areas in the park we wanted to go explore. Maxwell wanted to hop out of the carriage mid-ride to go start climbing rocks!
We spent the next 2.5 hours in Central Park and it was FANTASTIC. It was a beautiful 72 degree morning with a slight breeze. Just perfect weather! Maxwell has no idea how lucky he was to experience such a beautiful day in New York.
He was the happiest camper around climbing on all of those rocks and running his heart out!
It’s like a game of Where’s Maxwell?!
The carriage ride also showed us that they set up a carnival in the Wollman rink space during the summer. We obviously had to go ride some rides and play some games!
We needed to check out of our hotel by 2:00 so I had to drag him away from the park to go pack up our bags. He was having the best time! I should have known better than to worry about finding things to fill our time – New York always delivers! After checking our bags with the bellhop, we headed to the Upper West for a quick lunch at Shake Shack (note the Nike jacket – best purchase of the trip!).
We then went across the street to the American Museum of Natural History. We got lucky there – apparently there was a huge line to get into the front entrance. We had to walk around the whole building to get there so passed the Planetarium entrance where there was zero line and you could walk right into the entire museum from there too! If you ever go, skip the main entrance! We spent about 2.5 hours there and had just enough time to hit up all the floors and see the things Maxwell wanted to see…
We took our souvenirs and went back down to the hotel to get our bags…
But it wasn’t quite time to go to the airport yet. I had kind of planned on grabbing dinner but we weren’t hungry so we did what Maxwell wanted to do – climb rocks! We went back to Central Park (with roller bag in tow!) and I let Maxwell run around, climb up and down, and have fun. We also saw the most gigantic raccoon I’ve ever seen in my life! ha!
Playing in the park was the perfect ending to our trip! We got to the airport in time to eat some dinner and then wait for our plane to be delayed for over 2 hours! ugh.
We finally made it home around 12:45am…completely exhausted but so happy for all that we had gotten to do and see!
Maxwell was the best travel partner and I can only hope that he enjoyed it all as much as I did. For the record, Maxwell’s favorite part of the trip? Climbing the rocks in Central Park. I have to agree – as I sat in the park on Sunday watching him run around and enjoy the city that means so much to me…well, it just doesn’t get any better. I’m so thankful for this awesome kid and loved surprising him and creating memories that I hope he never forgets…I know I never will.
I ❤️ NY and I ❤️ Maxwell.
