New York!

We went to New York City today. My in-laws are in town so we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to bring the boys into the city. A ratio of 2 adults to 1 child should be manageable. :) In the end, we did just fine.
We caught the express train from Princeton Junction to Penn Station. The train was somewhat full so we didn't get to all sit together. Stellan and I grabbed a seat with an older (not old) gentleman. It ended up that he was extremely nice and we talked for the entire ride. He even gave up his window seat so Stellan could have a better view. At one point Jameson even joined us. I have never seen the boys so excited. They had a blast on the ride. They were so good! They were a bit loud at time but it was due to pure, unabashed excitement.
We got into Penn Station just under an hour after we left Princeton Junction. How convenient. We were a bit confused but eventually found our way to the right subway line. The boys were thrilled to be going on another train. Since this was all underground they really had no idea where we were. Jameson was convinced that we weren't in New York yet. So funny.
We got to our stop, The American Museum of Natural History. We debated for a while as to where we were going to spend the day. I had heard that this was a terrific place to bring kids so it won. Great choice! Before heading into the museum we decided to head over to 80th and Broadway to buy bagels at H & H Bagel. This was a recommendation by Nina and now I know why; what delicious bagels!!! Not a fancy place but truly delicious bagels. We all had a bagel and then headed back to the museum. This was a great opportunity for us to see a residential street in New York. What cute little row houses. I would hate to guess what one of those places goes for. And that's not even the nicest area of New York. Crazy to see cars double parked all along the street to. What a driving nightmare! Couldn't do it.
We got to the museum and then decided on a rough plan of attack. We had the kids with us so we knew we needed to visit the kid friendly exhibits. Our first two stops didn't fall in that category so we quickly left. My kids are definitely not interested in geology or space. A bit young for that. Especially boring rocks and mountain formation. (I don't mean to offend any geology lovers.)
The boys loved the animal exhibits. It's crazy how life like the exhibits are. So amazing! The boys are used to going to hands-on museums so this concept was a bit new to them but they still did relatively well. James and I divided up responsibilites. I was in charge of one and he was in charge of the other. My father in law was pushing the stroller laden with coats and my mother in law was filling in the gaps, helping out where needed.
We got through the North American animals, Biodiversity, Ocean Life, African Animals and Dinosaurs. I have to admit, I didn't care for the dinosaurs. Just not a particular area of interest for me. Everything else was cool though!
The boys did well even though they were obviously quite tired. We headed out and grabbed lunch at a deli. We took the sandwiches to Central Park and rested there while we ate. The BLT's hit the spot. We decided to head back to the subway to make sure we caught an early train. We did not want to be in Penn Station with two tired boys during rush hour. We ended up on the 3:33 train. Not an express but not a problem. The wonder of the train hadn't worn off so the boys still had a blast. They were tired and cranky by the end but we still got home without any troubles. Stellan fell asleep in the boring car in almost no time at all. Jameson fell asleep about 3 minutes from home. Go figure. Unfortunately we couldn't let them sleep since it was getting late; I didn't want it to intefere with their night sleep.
Got home, ordered chinese and then rested for the evening. What a great day!