Tuesday is the Day We Eat ... A Lot!

First thing Tuesday morning, we set off in a cab for the Upper West Side to fill our tummies with some yummy Sarabeth's.  Sarabeth's is a family favorite--so much goodness wrapped into a "ladies who brunch" UWS classic.  Rich, dark coffee; Four Flowers juice; fluffy pancakes; thick French toast; shortrib hash; chicken and apple sausage floating in warmed apple sauce; and an egg white omelette (yep).  So, so good.  Sarabeth's is the kind of place where they bring you an extra plate of toast and preserves just in case they took your plate too soon.  It's the kind of place where a lovely older woman stops by on her way out just to tell you that you have beautiful children (even when they've looked like this over the course of breakfast).

What's not to love :)

Best of all, Sarabeth's is about two blocks from one of our must-go destinations each time we're in the city: the American Museum of Natural History.  We've been going since the kids were in strollers and diapers.  They're a bit more mature now.

Given our now close personal friendship with NdGT (ahem ...)

We started out at the Hayden planetarium, where we immediately received a message from another galaxy (or it was a note from one of the thousand schoolchildren on fieldtrips there today. Who's to say?)

After catching the planetarium show and a cool IMAX on great white sharks, we hit the cool, dark halls of AMNH.  There's something so wonderfully old school about these rooms, like they're nostalgic gifts passed down from generation to generation family to family.

Instead of snapping photos with brownies or instamatics or disposables, now we take digital shots.  But the appeal is timeless.

A newer feature in what we call "the Blue Whale" hall is the designated "fall on the floor and stare up at the whale" square.  No one had to tell Ned and Harper twice:

We also got to re-enact an old New York Thanksgiving--

Hang with Uncle Teddy--

And interact with a super cool interactive Hurricane Sandy media surface:

Plus, we found a photo booth. I'm guessing we've got one more year before getting all four of us into one of these will require a forklift.

AMNH conquered, we traveled to dinner via art and music filled Subways.  Walking ...

Swimming ...

Roboting ...

And, discovering some little folks who might look very familiar to Rochesterians:

Our dinner destination: Momofuku Noodle Bar.  We had scored an elusive Momofuku Fried Chicken Dinner reservation!

Thanks to our fried chicken dinner, our table was covered with brown paper.  Harper and I played tic-tac-toe, and Penn drew himself in the style of "Over the Garden Wall," complete with some tiny Lego buddies.

Then the chicken arrived (to the oohs and ahhs of the surrounding, non-fried chicken tables).  Two whole fried chickens: one sweet and spicy Korean style, one Southern via NYC style.  Both crazy delicious and, as Harper put it, "just so succulent.'

The chicken comes with mu shu pancakes, four different sauces (hoisin, chili, ginger/jalapeno vinaigrette, and ginger/scallion), and some fresh sides.

We did a pretty good job of demolishing that pile of chicken--and Penn did a pretty good job of drawing his father while we ate.

One cannot go to Momofuku and skip dessert, regardless of how much fried chicken one has eaten.  Tonight's options were pretzel cake truffles, a Ritz cookie, and peanut butter soft serve with freeze-dried strawberry crunch.  Our only choice was to get all three!  The verdict for the best: Ned and Penn/truffles, Harper/PBJ, me/Ritz.

After dinner, we grabbed our leftovers and pushed past the crowd of people waiting outside Momofuku for the slimmest hope of a table (reservations, people!) and decided to drop by the hotel before skating at Bryant Park.  Look what we found in our room:

The Andaz felt so bad about messing up our dinner order the night before that they sent up two absolutely beautiful and truly delicious apple apologies.  Oh, and they wanted to buy us dinner.  Since we had already eaten our weight in fried chicken, we declined.  They countered with breakfast tomorrow.  We're in!

And, we were in.  After the day of eating and walking and eating and walking, the thought of passing on skating to snuggle in to watch our Tuesday line-up sounded perfect.

Oh, and some of us city-Hobbits had second dinnerses.  Because that's what vacations are for!