travel Archives - Page 5 of 6

Warwick Valley Bed and Breakfast

Posted on November 30, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

Located in Warwick, New York, only about an hour’s drive from New York City is the Warwick Valley Bed and Breakfast. Conveniently located in the historic district at 24 Maple Avenue, this bed and breakfast is housed in a restored Colonial that was built in the early 1900’s.

I recently visited this bed and breakfast with my husband, as a surprise weekend getaway to celebrate his 40th birthday.

The bed and breakfast has seven different rooms to choose from. Each room has a name and unique decor, with varying bed sizes and arrangements. All rooms have a small seating area, a desk and a private bathroom. Rates range from $144 to $229 a night, depending on the day and season. Children are welcome at this bed and breakfast at an additional cost.

Reservations can be requested online and a confirmation e-mail will be sent to confirm your selected dates and price. In our confirmation e-mail, Loretta, the Innkeeper also noted that she could help arrange appointments for massages or facials and make dinner reservations as well.

When you pull into the driveway of the bed and breakfast there is ample parking around back. You then enter through the back entrance. The bed and breakfast has a no shoes policy. Upon entering, there are shelves to store your shoes. Slippers are available to wear.

I booked the Paisley Room, which as you can see is named for the Paisley bedding. This room has a Queen-sized bed and overlooks the back driveway. It’s on the second floor, that is shared with two other rooms.

I took Loretta up on her offer and had her arrange for an in-room massage for my husband as part of his birthday present. While he had his massage, I went down to the sitting area and read a book.

A benefit of staying at a bed and breakfast is that a homemade breakfast is included in the cost of your stay. There are two dining areas in the bed and breakfast. We ate in the main dining room, pictured below.

We only stayed one night, so I’m unsure if the breakfast menu changes daily.

Loretta cooks everything herself in the kitchen adjacent to the dining room. During our stay, breakfast began with a bowl of cinnamon-spiced fruit and nut mix. We then had a choice of french toast, an omelet, or eggs cooked in any style of our choosing. Sides included roasted butternut squash and bacon. You could have any combination (or all!) of these breakfast options. I ordered the french toast with a side of bacon and butternut squash. It was delicious!

I love that the Warwick Valley Bed and Breakfast is conveniently located in the historic district. It is within reasonable walking distance to the nearby shops and restaurants. The day of our arrival, the weather was beautiful and on our walk into town we discovered the Craft Beer Cellar and Taco Hombre. The next morning we woke up to snow but still trekked back into town to check out the last weekend of the outdoor, local farmer’s market.

Saturday evening we had dinner at the nearby Iron Forge Inn. This is a farm-to-table restaurant located in a revolutionary era home built in 1760. Chef/owner Erik Johansen is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and provides a menu of Modern American cuisine that changes seasonally. We had an amazing dinner and I highly recommend dining here!

On our way home we stopped at Woodbury Common Premium Outlets to enjoy some child-free shopping! Other nearby attractions include Mountain Creek and the Warwick Drive-in Theater. Several wineries including the Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery and Applewood Winery are nearby as well.

My husband and I enjoyed our stay at the Warwick Valley Bed and Breakfast. It was great to get away to celebrate his birthday and we loved the town of Warwick. This was a perfect parents only get-away, as we decided our children wouldn’t appreciate the history and architecture of the village, that we found so charming. There is enough that we didn’t get to see and do that we’d like to make a return trip soon!

Carnival Sunshine {A Review}

Posted on October 20, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

Overview:
The Carnival Sunshine was previously the Carnival Destiny. In April 2013 the Destiny underwent an $155 million renovation and was renamed the Sunshine. The ship weighs 102,853 tons and carries 3,006 passengers. There are over 1,040 crew members coming from over 50 different countries. The ship currently departs from Charleston, SC, New York, NY, Norfolk, VA and Port Canaveral, FL and cruises to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada/New England and the Caribbean.

Review:
Last week, my family cruised on the Carnival Sunshine out of New York City. We traveled to St. John and Halifax on a five night cruise. My husband and I had previously cruised on the Carnival Fantasy almost eight years ago. This was the kids’ second cruise, but first time on a Carnival boat. We drove into the city and parked at the terminal for $40/day. The check-in process was smooth, but very slow. Arriving at the port, checking in and finally boarding the ship took over two hours.

Once onboard we visited our stateroom. We chose an inside cabin that slept four. We were surprised to see that the kids’ beds were directly above us! They loved sleeping in an “upper bunk.” However, the setup of the room made the room feel especially small. Space on a cruise ship is at a premium and cruise ship rooms in general are not very roomy. This isn’t usually a big deal for us, as we tend to just use our room for sleeping and changing.

This was our first time cruising to Canada. The weather was a bit chilly and since we were heading north to even colder weather, we knew this was not going to be the kind of trip where you lay out at the pool. However, we were surprised to discover that the main pool on the ship is heated. My son took advantage of this on both sea days. My daughter wasn’t feeling well and she agreed she shouldn’t swim with the weather being so cool.

Each evening on the boat we received the FunTimes which provides an activity, music and dining schedule for the next day. This was helpful in planning our days on the ship. Carnival Cruise Lines has a reputation of being the “fun and party” cruise line. However, unless you like trivia or Bingo, we found the indoor planned activities onboard tended to be limited. This was especially noticeable on our first fun day at sea when the weather was cold and rainy.

Granted, if the weather was warmer, we would spend the majority of our time outside. The Sunshine has a WaterWorks area with three water slides. However, they are not heated!

Up on the SportsSquare our family played miniature golf and also completed the SkyCourse, part of which is pictured above. I was surprised at how well the kids did completing the course and how scared I was! But we all finished it and my husband and kids even did it a second time on our trip.

There is also a basketball court, foosball tables, pool tables, shuffleboard and a giant Twister game board and Checkers board on the deck. A jogging track circles the SportsSquare as well.

Carnival Sunshine has Camp Carnival, a kid’s club for children ages 2-11. Groups are normally broken down by ages (2-5), (6-8) and (9-11). Because of the low number of children registered during our trip, they combined sections and had one large (6-11) group. However, our kids didn’t participate in many of the Camp Carnival scheduled activities, opting to spend time doing things with me and my husband. Even though the camp is open until 10 PM at night free of charge, we only made use of this one evening so my husband and I could go see the Love and Marriage Show! Otherwise, the kids came with us to the evening shows. Late night babysitting is available until 1 AM for a $6.75 per hour fee, though we didn’t make use of this service. One of our favorite Camp Carnival activities was a family digital scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun!

My husband and I visited the gym once while onboard. Cloud 9 Spa offers massages, facials and more at an additional cost, which we did not partake in.

A casino operates onboard when the cruise ship is at sea. There are lots of different slot machines as well as tables. There are also more than nine different bars on board the Carnival Sunshine. Unfortunately, alcohol is not included in the price of a cruise. Luckily, my husband and I are not big drinkers. For those that do enjoy drinking, the ship offers CHEERS!, an all-inclusive beverage package that can be purchased.

Each evening there was plenty of entertainment. Playlist Productions put on three different shows while we were onboard, with Epic Rock being my favorite. There were also two different comedy shows, karaoke, the Love and Marriage Show as well as Hasbro Family Game Night.

The Carnival Sunshine has a shopping area known as the Fun Shops. Here you can purchase clothing, souvenirs, liquor, jewelry, watches and more. There’s also Cherry on Top, a candy shop onboard. Next to the candy store is the 24 hour arcade.

And last, but not definitely not least, we need to discuss food. The wonderful thing about cruising is that there is ALWAYS food available and most of it is included in the price of your trip. The Carnival Sunshine has several dining options.

There are two assigned dining times in the main dining room for dinner at 6 PM and 8:15 PM. However, for those cruisers who don’t want to be tied down to a set dining time, Carnival also offers My Time Dining. When we booked our cruise we were assigned to the 8:00 PM dining time. However, with two children who are normally in bed at 8 PM on a school night, I didn’t want us eating that late. The first evening we were able to dine during the 6 PM seating and by the next morning the maitre’d we spoke with had assigned us to the My Time Dining. This dining program allows you to check-in at the desk anytime between 5:15 and 9:45 PM and be seated within 15 minutes in the dining room.

Each day that night’s dining menu was available to peruse outside the dining rooms. If a three course, sit-down dinner is not your thing, the Lido Restaurant offers a buffet for all meals. The Carnival Sunshine also has Cucina del Capitano (Italian), JiJi Asian Kitchen (Asian), Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse and Bonsai Sushi restaurants which require an additional cost to dine.

Our family found that the BlueIguana Cantina and celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s Guy’s Burger Joint offered some of the tastiest food on the ship. The BlueIguana Cantina had made-to-order breakfast burritos as well as tacos and burritos during lunch hours. Guy’s Burger Joint, available for lunch/early dinner offered a selection of burgers served with fries.

There is a 24 hour Swirls frozen yogurt and soft-serve station. For an additional cost JavaBlue Café offers coffee and pastries and the Shake Spot sells all kind of shakes, including some “grown-up” shakes that contain alcohol.

Overall, we found the food on the Sunshine to be just okay. There is plenty of food available in terms of quantity on the ship, however the taste and quality weren’t impressive.

Our family had a great time on the Carnival Sunshine. A vacation where this mom didn’t have to worry about the cooking and cleaning is a good one! Unfortunately, we didn’t have control over the weather, which wasn’t great for a majority of our trip. While what we saw of St. John and Halifax was beautiful and when we cruise again, it will be to a warm location!

Sahara Sam’s Oasis – New Jersey

Posted on May 24, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

I had won passes to Sahara Sam’s Oasis from a blogger giveaway. I didn’t realize that the park, located in West Berlin, New Jersey, was 2 1/2 hours away from our house in Westchester County, New York. So, when we recently took a trip to Philadelphia over the kids’ spring break we planned a stop at Sahara Sam’s on our way home.

We arrived pretty close to the 10 AM opening. We had to use the Route 53 entrance, as the facility is in the process of expanding the outdoor water park area, and is slated to open this Memorial Day weekend. We had our complimentary passes, however, one day tickets cost $29.95 and twilight tickets, valid after 3:30 cost $24.95. If we lived closer to the park, we’d purchase an annual pass, which is currently on sale for $59.95.

While at the desk, we rented a small locker to store our things. The locker cost $7 to rent but we also needed to pay a $20 deposit, which we got back when we returned the key. The lockers, pictured above, use keys, but they give you a waterproof key holder that you can wear around your neck. The small locker was big enough for us to store a book bag that held changes of clothes for the four of us.

The water park was pretty empty when we first arrived. We threw our towels on some chairs, but very little sitting was done on this visit by anyone except me! Indoor cabanas are available to rent for $85 a day. They honestly were pretty small, and like I mentioned, our family is not one to just sit and hang out, so this wasn’t a useful option for us.

We first headed to Congo Bongo, the lazy river that spans almost the entire length of the right side of the park. There are a couple of waterfalls that I managed to avoid, as I was not quite ready to be soaked at this point!

After the lazy river we decided to try some slides. Mount Kilimanjaro is the family slide, where the four of us were able to slide together in a giant tube. There are two different Snake Eyes tube slides which you can ride in either a single or a double tube. As there were super short lines, we rode these slides a couple of times. Be warned that except for the family slide, you must carry your tube up the steps to the other slides. None of us opted to try the Nile Mile body slide.

Tim-Buk-Tu, the large play area, pictured at the beginning of this post, is in the center of the park. The kids loved being soaked by the water bucket and playing on the structure. I liked that there’s plenty of seating in front of it, so I could sit and keep an eye on them while they played.

The kids had a fun time crossing Crocodile Flats. You have to hold onto the ropes as you traverse the lily pads to cross from one end of the pool to the other. They also enjoyed Sam’s Slamdunker aqua basketball area, located adjacent to Crocodile Flats, and spent a lot of time in this area with my husband. Unfortunately, there is not an inside wave pool, though one is being built for the outdoor expansion. The aqua basketball area got pretty crowded with parents holding toddlers and little kids trying to swim. So, you had to be super aware of the basketballs being thrown.

I was super surprised that my daughter wanted to ride The Flow Rider, surfing simulator. Waivers need to be signed prior to riding and riders need to be at least eight years old, so unfortunately, my son couldn’t ride. After signing the waiver, which required a photo ID, my husband and daughter were given special wrist bands. Riders are given approximately five minutes of “surf” time. They both rode a couple of times and had a blast!

For little ones, Lizard Lagoon offers slides and bucket seats perfectly sized for infants and toddlers.

Outside food is not allowed into the park. The Desert Palm Café Food Court offers something for everyone. They have pizza, sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and more. We found there to be plenty of seating inside the food court, but if it is crowded, food is allowed to be taken into the park.

We found the prices to be on the more expensive side. Burgers were $11 + and Italian Sausage or Polish Sausages were $10+. The four of us ended up sharing a Family Fun Bucket for $32. This came with 9 chicken fingers and way too many fries for the four of us to eat. They accept credit cards but require a valid ID with it. This policy held up the line as people had to run back to their lockers or bags and get their license.

If you didn’t have enough fun in the water park, there’s an arcade that you can play in either before or after your visit. The arcade is accessible without water park admission tickets.

As I mentioned earlier, the Beach Club Outdoor Water Park opens this weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) and stays open until Labor Day. The outdoor park includes a pool, splash zone and wave pool. The recent expansion also includes outdoor water slides and an indoor pool leisure pool.

We had a fun time visiting Sahara Sam’s Oasis and enjoyed getting in some water park and pool fun during the winter. However, the park is open year-round with outdoor attractions available from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The park is located in Southern New Jersey and is easily accessible from the Philadelphia and New York City areas.

Philadelphia Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Express – Penn’s Landing

Posted on April 26, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

We decided about a week before Spring Break to visit Philadelphia. At that point, we were scrambling to find a hotel room for our trip. The last time either my husband or I visited Philly was in our childhood, so we were unfamiliar with the size of the city or the locations of the various points of interest. When perusing expedia.com and tripadvisor, the Holiday Inn Express (HIE) Penn’s Landing popped up with some of the most reasonable rates. The hotel is conveniently located in the historic Old City on Christopher Columbus Boulevard, right off the highway. We booked our room a week in advance directly via the hotel website and took advantage of their “Book Early and Save Price.” This price was even cheaper than the AAA rate. However, this rate is available only for those stays booked at least 7 days in advance and is non-refundable. We were going to make it there no matter what! After researching hotels we realized that almost all hotels charge for parking. At the HIE Penn’s Landing, it costs $30 per night to park your car or $20 per day. What ultimately sold us on this hotel was the free Express Start Breakfast and the free shuttle.

We left our house in Northern Westchester County, New York around 6:30 AM and with a couple of rest stops make it to Philadelphia around 9:30 AM. We drove directly to the hotel and parked the car, but check-in was not available until 3 PM. We walked from the hotel to the historic district and started our day. We didn’t return to the hotel until close to 5 PM, when we checked in and relaxed in our room for a bit.

When you enter the hotel there is a fireplace and seating area, with the check-in desk to your left. There is a decent size dining room with tables and chairs, as well as a separate Express Start Breakfast room with taller tables and stools. (On a side note: Sunday night it ended up raining and then snowing. When we got back from dinner, a family was sitting in the dining area with some takeout Chinese food that they had ordered. I thought this was a great idea and great use of the dining room, instead of trying to eat in a hotel room!) The hotel also has a fitness room, which we didn’t visit. The kids were disappointed that the hotel had no pool, but we were so busy, that they wouldn’t have had time to swim. Plus, they were unaware that we were visiting Sahara Sam’s Oasis on the way home.

We reserved a two queen bed room, which we found to be spacious enough. We were only staying for two nights, and in general we don’t need a lot of room (just more space for the kids to leave/lose their things!) I especially enjoyed sitting in the corner arm chair and ottoman to read and the kids liked laying on the bed to watch television.

While I normally bring my own shampoo and conditioner, since this trip was so short I didn’t bother. My daughter was super excited that the hotel had Bath & Body Works toiletries, since she’s a big fan of the store.

The Express Start Breakfast is served daily from 6 -10 AM. This was one of the best staffed hotel breakfast bars that we have experienced. The breakfast selection included hot items like sausage, bacon, eggs, western omelets, biscuits and gravy, and a pancake machine, cereal, bagels, toast, muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs and the kids’ favorite, cinnamon rolls. There was also a juice machine and a coffee, tea and hot chocolate bar. While eating, we saw a mix of people staying at the hotel including families, older couples and several school groups.

We used the free shuttle only once when headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our driver was super friendly and took us all the way out to the museum, even though they normally don’t drive out that far during morning and evening rush hour. The driver was a great resource on food recommendations – ordering your cheese steak with cheez whiz is a tourist thing to do and a must-try at Reading Terminal Market is the pork sandwich with broccoli rabe and provolone (we had already eaten this before his recommendation!). and the location of points of interest – where we could find the famous “Love” sign, though we didn’t get a chance to see it.

Overall, we were very happy with our stay at the Holiday Inn Express Penn’s Landing.

*This post was not sponsored by Holiday Inn Express. We just had a great experience and wanted to share it!

More Philadelphia Foodie Finds

Posted on April 14, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

This is the third post about our recent family trip to Philadelphia. In the first post I wrote about our food finds at Reading Terminal Market. In the second post I wrote about our 2-day itinerary of Philly with the kids. Today, I sharing some of our additional foodie finds while on our visit. Philadelphia is a great city for foodies and we barely sampled all of its great eats. Which of course gives us reason to go back to visit!

Franklin Fountain: The Stock Market Crunch – Located at 116 Market Street, the Franklin Fountain has been featured on television shows like Man vs. Food and Best Thing I Ever Ate. Although it was established in 2004, this ice cream parlor has the look and feel of times past, with the “soda jerks” dressed in “old-timey” garb. The four of us shared “The Stock Market Crunch” sundae, which consists of rocky road ice cream, peanut butter sauce, salted pretzels, whipped cream and a Bordeaux cherry. For $11, it was definitely worth it! Please note, this is a cash only operation. Although we were there on a pretty cold and rainy day, the place was still crowded!

Cuba Libre – This restaurant, located on 10 S. Second Street, was walking distance from our hotel. After a long day of walking through the historic district, we were looking for something close by but different. We don’t get to eat Cuban food often. We didn’t realize until sitting down that this restaurant is a chain. We ended up ordering a couple of appetizers including Cuba Libre Chicharrones and Empanadas and some tapas including Grilled Baby Octopus, Coconut Crab Fritters and Bruschettas de Tostones.

Logan Square Pizza & Grill – Instead of eating at the cafeteria-style Franklin Foodworks eatery at the Franklin Institute, we opted to walk to Logan Square Pizza. This pizza place is located at 161 North 21st Street, just a short walk from the Franklin Institute. They offer a variety of different specialty pizzas, sandwiches and other eats, including gyros and tacos. Unfortunately, unlike most New York pizzerias, we couldn’t order specialty pizzas by the slice. So, we ended up splitting a 16″ Margherita pizza. While tasty enough, this was no New York pizza, in either taste, or size! However, it was reasonably priced and in our opinion, much better than eating “cafeteria-style” museum food.

Nine Ting – I saw pictures of the Korean BBQ at Nine Ting on Instagram (#phillyeats) and had to go! All you can eat Korean BBQ for under $30 a person. That is just unheard of in New York for that price! We had short ribs, chicken curry, corn, two types of steak, pork belly and pineapple, although there were lots of other bbq choices available. We were just too stuffed to try them! They have a make your own sauce bar and gave a small selection of banchan (small dishes). Surprisingly, they didn’t give us kimchi! If we ever visit again, we will have to try the hot pot!

T-Swirl Crepe: Chocolate Nut Party – While we were walking to Nine Ting, we passed T-Swirl Crepe and both of the kids mentioned that they might want a crepe for dessert. After stuffing ourselves with Korean BBQ, we stopped in to check out the crepes. The crepes are made with gluten free rice flour and are made to order. The kids chose Chocolate Nut Party, which is almond, crushed pistachio, chocolate gelato, chocolate truffles, chocolate sauce, whipped yogurt, chocolate custard cream, chocolate pearls and Pocky sticks. There were so many tasty looking crepes (I’m looking at you Blueberry NY Cheeesecake!) and they serve both sweet and savory crepes. The Chocolate Nut Party crepe was super delicious. The crepe was about $7. There are several T-Swirl Crepe locations in New York City, but we were super excited to learn that they will be opening up a T-Swirl Crepe right near my husband’s office in White Plains.

Vivi bubble tea – For those of you who aren’t familiar with bubble tea, it’s a Taiwanese tea-based drink, usually mixed with fruit or milk, in which tapioca balls or fruit jellies are added. I am not a fan of bubble tea…(it’s a texture thing) but wandering through Chinatown, my son really wanted one. He chose the peach ice jelly, which he shared with his sister. We ordered the regular (smaller size) which cost about $4. This is a franchise, with locations throughout the United States, including many in New York City. The Philadelphia franchise is located at 145 N. 10th Street in Chinatown.

Sonny’s Famous Steaks – Located at 228 Market Street, we stopped here on our last night since we hadn’t had a cheesesteak yet, and I wasn’t leaving Philly without having at least one! We ordered a Cheesesteak with provolone and grilled onions. Hand-sliced rib eye on a sub roll, topped with melted provolone and sweet, grilled onions…..deliciousness all for just $9! The four of us split one and enjoyed it. We were full from our dinner earlier, but all had room for this sandwich.

2 Day Philadelphia Itinerary with Kids

Posted on April 5, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

Over spring break, our family took a short two day trip to Philadelphia. We live in the suburbs of New York City, so it’s only about a three hour drive for us. We knew we had limited time and wouldn’t be able to see everything we wanted to in two days. We had a great trip though and wanted to share our family’s two day itinerary in Philly. Please be advised that we did a lot of walking on this trip! Our kids are used to walking long distances and Philadelphia is very walkable. There is plenty of transportation options available if needed, although parking for a lengthy amount of time can be hard to come by and expensive.

Day 1:
We got up at 5:30 AM so we could be on the road by 6:30 AM. With breakfast and restroom stops it took us about three hours to get to Philadelphia. We arrived at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express Penn’s Landing at 9:30 AM, but couldn’t check in until 3 PM. We ended up leaving the car in the hotel lot and walking into the historic district.

We walked by Christ Church, founded in 1695 and also known as “The Nation’s Church.” We then walked down Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest residential neighborhood in the country. It was very cool to see residents living in the same houses that had once housed people from the Colonial era.

We walked to the Betsy Ross House at 239 Arch Street and paid the $5/adult admission and $4/child admission to take a self-guided tour the house. For two dollars more per ticket you could take an audio tour. We got there a little after the 10 AM opening and there were only a few other visitors that we saw. The kids enjoyed the hands-on kitchen displays in the basement and meeting Betsy Ross in the upholstery shop.

After the tour of the Betsy Ross House we walked past the Christ Church Burial Ground, where Benjamin Franklin is buried, and headed to the Independence Hall Visitor Center. We visited the gift shop and bought a liberty bell Christmas ornament to add to our collection. We reserved 3 PM tickets to tour Independence Hall and were able to pick them up so we had them. The visitor center has a phone charging station, rest rooms, and lots of tour desks if you want to book a tour. There are also displays and a movie theater as well as a small food stand.

After our quick stop at the visitor center we headed to the Liberty Bell. We stood on line for about a half hour to get in. They do a security check in which all belongings, including jackets, are run through a security conveyor. This was the cause of most of the line wait. We walked through the display and saw the liberty bell. The last time I visited the Liberty Bell I was in elementary school on a trip with my girl scout troop! It was nice to be able to visit the bell again and have the kids see this national symbol of freedom.

After visiting the Liberty Bell we walked to Reading Terminal Market to grab some lunch. After lunch we walked back toward Independence Hall. Since our tour wasn’t until 3 PM we toured through Carpenter Hall first and then headed over for our tour.

Entrance to Independence Hall is only by a ticketed guided tour. Tickets are free, but are timed entry and must be picked up at the visitor center. A limited number of tickets are available the day of and it is advised to be at the visitor center early to try to get them. Since we weren’t sure what time we’d get into Philadelphia and wanted to make sure we had tickets, we reserved our tickets online and paid the $1.50 each surcharge. Our tour guy Ray, was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot during our tour. While there we also toured Congress Hall, which has free admission.

By the time we finished the tour we were exhausted and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Franklin Fountain for a quick ice cream sundae treat before checking into our hotel. We then relaxed for a bit before heading out again for a late dinner at Cuba Libre.

Day 2:
We woke up early, took advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel and headed out by 9:30 AM. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until Sunday evening that the Philadelphia Museum of Art is closed on Mondays. The hotel had a free shuttle and our driver was nice enough to drive us out to the museum, even in morning rush hour. We decided that we were still wanted to run the famous “Rocky steps” and take some photos. (The kids had no idea what we were talking about, but watching Rocky together is now on our to-do list.)

We ran the steps and took lots of pics with the “Amour” sign and the Rocky statue.

We then did a quick walk around the outside of the Rodin Museum, viewing the statues and taking pictures on our walk to the Franklin Institute.

We heard about the Please Touch Museum, but thought our kids, ages 7 1/2 and almost ten, were a little old for it. Instead, we opted to visit the Franklin Institute. We purchased the $39.99/adult and $34.95/child tickets which included admission to The Science Behind Pixar special exhibit, the Lost Egypt special exhibit and admission to the Franklin Theater (with a choice of either an IMAX or 3D show). We planned on spending the day and thought we’d get the most out of our visit with these tickets. The only thing I did not like is that all of the special exhibits and movies are timed entry. While at the desk purchasing tickets, we had to choose the times of our entry for the Pixar and Lost Egypt exhibits as well as the 3D show. The museum employee was super helpful in assisting us plan our day. I just didn’t like being put on the spot and having to make decisions right there. We loved the museum and it was perfect for the kids’ ages. It is very interactive and the kids (and adults!) had a lot of fun exploring all the exhibits. We spent the entire day there, arriving a little before 10:30 AM and leaving at 6 PM. We saw all three levels of exhibits, including the special exhibits, the Walking with Dinosaurs 3D show and The Sky Tonight planetarium show. You get an admission bracelet and can leave and enter the museum throughout the day. We left to grab a quick lunch at a local pizza place around the corner from the museum and then came back to continue our visit.

After our long day at the museum, we walked to Chinatown to grab dinner before heading back to the hotel.

We had a quick, but very enjoyable trip to Philadelphia. We look forward to visiting again soon!

Eating In Philadelphia – Reading Terminal Market

Posted on March 30, 2016 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

We recently visited Philadelphia over Spring Break. Of course we saw the sights but as food lovers, we also ate our way through Philadelphia. As self-declared foodies, there is no way that we’d take a vacation without scoping out the food scene. We knew we had to have at least one cheese steak, because, c’mon, it’s Philly! We also made sure we made a visit to Reading Terminal Market.

Reading Terminal Market, located between 12th & Arch Streets, is one of the oldest and largest public markets in the country. The market is several blocks away from the historic district, but definitely walkable, which we did. Unfortunately, we visited on a Sunday when the Pennsylvania Dutch merchants are not open. So, no donut from Beiler’s, hot pretzels or Dutch pancakes for us. However, we ate our fill from other stands. Every stand that we ate at accepted credit cards, most with no minimums. We visited the market around 12:30 PM on a Sunday and it was super packed. My husband ended up taking our son and finding a table for us while I waited on line at our first stop, Dinic’s with my daughter. There is a decent sized seating area down the middle and back area of the market, but empty seats are hard to come by. I recommend grabbing a map of the market at the desk when you first enter, which we failed to do until our way out! Please note, the four of us shared all of the food below.

Dinic’s: Roast Pork Sandwich with Provolone and Broccoli Rabe– The line for Dinic’s was crazy long but moves really quick. For those lucky enough to find an empty seat, there is counter seating. While you can choose from roast beef, roast pork or Italian sausage sandwiches, we ordered a roast pork sandwich with provolone cheese and broccoli rabe. From what I’ve read, this is THE sandwich to have as noted by television food celebrity Adam Richman, who named it best sandwich in the country in 2012, and was also recommended by our hotel shuttle driver (but we had already eaten it prior to his recommendation!). The sandwich and a large soda cost us $13.00.

Valley Shepherd Creamery: Fresh Mozzarella – The kids and I stayed at the table while my husband took a turn to find something good to eat. He came back a few minutes later with this tub of fresh mozzarella from the Valley Shepherd Creamery. According to my husband, you can watch them making the homemade mozzarella that they sell. The cheese sells for $9.99 a pound and he bought a little less than a half pound. This was a perfectly salted and creamy piece of mozzarella. It would have been even better with some bread or fresh slices of tomato and basil……next time!

Beck’s Cajun Cafe: Fried Mac and Cheese – This food stand serves all your New Orleans food cravings including jambalaya, po’boys, red beans and rice and muffalettas. I opted for just a side of their fried mac & cheese, which I had read was good. It included two fried balls of yumminess with a hot pepper like dipping sauce for $4.50.

Wursthaus Schmitz – The Lyoner: This stand was located at the end of the seating area where we were sitting and eating. We stopped on our way out and decided we had to share a sandwich. We went with The Lyoner, which is a fried bologna sandwich with muenster cheese, pickle, onion and horseradish sauce. As you can tell from the pic above, these were thick slices of bologna. This was a tasty sandwich for $8.

Famous 4th St. Cookie Company: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie and Black and White Cookie – We were getting pretty full from all the food that we ate but we had to have a little something sweet. On the way out we picked up a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie and a Black and White Cookie. The line here was also pretty long, but moved quickly. The cookies were both really good. However, we were disappointed that the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie was a regular chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter chips. They sell the cookies for $12.99 a pound and the two cookies cost us $5.85.

What is your favorite food at Reading Terminal Market?

Every Kid In a Park

Posted on November 24, 2015 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

Do you have a child in the 4th grade? If so, then you might have heard of the White House youth initiative Every Kid In a Park. If you haven’t, then it’s definitely worth reading on! The goal of this initiative is to allow every 4th grader in the country the opportunity to “experience their federal public lands and waters in person throughout the 2015-2016 school year.” Our daughter brought home a paper pass from her teacher a couple of weeks ago. This pass admits the student and three adults (age 16 and over) into all federal sites including national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, waters and more for FREE! This pass expires on August 31, 2016. We are super excited that our daughter is in the 4th grade and that we are able to participate in this initiative. You can follow along on our adventures in our upcoming “Every Kid In a Park” series as we document our visits using this pass!

If you have a pass, what are you waiting for? Start planning your trips!

If you have a child in the 4th grade and they have not received a pass from their teacher, or you homeschool your children, then you can print your free pass.

Road Food Down South

Posted on September 23, 2015 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

Enjoy this guest post by my husband!

We recently made the long trip to Orlando from New York. By car. And back again. Most of the miles of each leg were done in one shot. Although we would have liked to make all kinds of fun detours to find the best off-the-beaten-path home-grown local cooking, time was our primary concern. So concessions had to be made. Our goal was to eat the best of what the South had to offer in franchises. Here is our collection of road food wins:

Krispy Kreme– Krispy Kreme used to have a lot more locations in the NY Metro area but now there’s just the one in Penn Plaza. We stopped at Rocky Mount, North Carolina and asked to buy 4 hot glazed and 4 others. It turns out to be cheaper to buy a dozen. Oh well, I guess we can eat them all. We devoured the hot ones and shared the rest of the dozen all day.

Waffle House -You need certain low expectations before heading into a Waffle House. The chain isn’t widely known as a 4-star establishment. The one we visited in Savannah, Georgia was clean, friendly, and served some mean waffles and hash browns with “the works” at 2pm. How bad could that be?

Chick-fil-A– I like this place because of the relatively simple menu. Other chains (I’m looking at you, Taco Bell) just can’t leave well enough alone. We bought four classic sandwiches: fried chicken fillet and pickles on a buttered bun. So simple and delicious. And we were so hungry they all got devoured before a picture could be taken!

Bojangles Famous Chicken and Biscuits -Bojangles seems to be the chicken spot that KFC might have been and should hope to be. There’s a lot of overlap, for sure. Fried chicken buckets and biscuit sandwiches and requisite sides are noticeably better quality and more flavorful. This regional restaurant hasn’t changed their menu much over the years. And, of course, they serve sweet tea in giant cups. Nancy and I both had Cajun Filet Chicken Sandwiches. Our daughter had the chicken tender kids meal that came with a biscuit and some fries and our son had a Cheddar Bo Biscuit.

So there you have it. We made the best of the situation and overindulged in the best available ways. Would we make the same trip again. Probably not. We checked off the road trip adventure box and next time we’ll do something else. Hopefully, more relaxing……fingers crossed!

Disney Snack Round-Up

Posted on September 3, 2015 by nyfoodiefamily@gmail.com

As you know we recently returned from a week long trip to Disney World, which you can read about here. While we enjoyed the rides and meeting the characters, my husband and I were probably most excited about the food! We purchased the basic Disney Dining Plan which includes one quick service meal, one sit-down restaurant meal and one snack per person, per day. What counts as a “snack” credit differs by park and includes everything from bottled water, a bag of chips or all of the items featured below. When looking at each kiosk’s menu, the items that can be used with a snack credit have a Disney Dining purple and white square symbol next to it. Below is our Disney Snack Round-Up of the snacks and desserts that we ate on our trip! Please note that the four of us SHARED all of these treats. This sometimes meant just a bite or two of something. I did not gorge on all of these snacks by myself (though sometimes, I really wanted to)!

Note: *It is no secret that counter service restaurants and kiosks will provide you with a cup of ice water at no charge. It was super hot while we were in Disney and we took full advantage of this! However, the water at Magic Kingdom had a funny taste to us and we did not like it at all! I recommend bringing water with you to this particular park. All of the other parks had water that tasted fine!

ANIMAL KINGDOM:

We got this Chocolate Chip Cookie Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich from Dino Bites at Dinoland in Animal Kingdom. This cookie sandwich is gigantic! A huge scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two large, soft chocolate chip cookies = deliciousness!

EPCOT:

Now, we have not tried the famous Cronut from Dominique Ansel in NYC. However, we picked up this Croissant Doughnut at the Refreshment Port near Canada in Epcot. It’s covered with cinnamon sugar and was delicious! Sweet on the outside and soft, pastry-like layers on the inside.

We had these Churros con Cajeta as the dessert selection for one of our quick service lunches at La Cantina de San Angel in the Mexico section of World Showcase at Epcot. However, these can be purchased using a snack credit. They were sprinkled with cinnamon and come with a caramel dipping sauce. They are served hot, but by the time we got around to eating them they were warm and had lost their crispiness.

This Watermelon Paleta was our second quick service dessert selection from La Cantina de San Angel. This also can be purchased using a snack credit. These Mexican ice pops comes in other flavors including Mango, Lime and Coconut. This was a nice refreshing treat on a hot day! It wasn’t super sweet and you can taste the watermelon.

We got this Berry Cream Puff at the Kringla Bakeri og Café in Norway at the World Showcase. This was a giant cream puff with fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries and a strawberry). The cream was not too sweet and we really enjoyed this.

We also got this Kringla Sweet Pretzel with Chocolate at the Kringla Bakeri og Café. I have to say that this pretzel looks better than it tastes. This pretzel is not a traditional tasting pretzel (like the Mickey pretzel), but is more pastry-like. It’s a sweet raisin pretzel topped with icing and a chocolate drizzle. I found this pretzel to be a bit dry and wasn’t the biggest fan.

We stopped at L’Artisan des Glaces in France at the World Showcase and the kids ended up choosing this Mixed Berries Sorbet Waffle Cone to share. This French ice cream shop sells 16 different flavors of ice cream/sorbet so there’s sure to be a flavor to please everyone!

My husband and I shared this Peaches & Cream Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich from L’Artisan des Glaces. The macarons were larger than the typical size, but not huge and I found them to be a bit on the sweet side. Not my favorite dessert, but it was cool and refreshing on a hot day!

We ate a quick dinner at the Electric Umbrella in Future World at Epcot and were able to choose two desserts as part of our quick service meals. The first one we chose was this Strawberry Cheesecake. There’s a thin graham cracker crust layer on the bottom. This was a creamy cheesecake and the kids loved the strawberry gel swirls.

There were pretty slim pickings, dessert-wise to choose from at the Electric Umbrella. The second dessert we chose was this Chocolate Cupcake topped with vanilla icing and sprinkles. The icing was a bit on the sweet side but the cupcake itself was moist and chocolate-y.

*Not pictured: We stopped by Karamell-Kuche in Germany at the World Showcase in Epcot. There we bought a large bag of Caramel Popcorn as well as a Caramel and Peanut Covered Apple that we brought home with us. The person helping us had cut the apple into four pieces for us. When we got home, we realized that we shouldn’t have had her cut it, as the apple turned brown. It still tasted really good though! The popcorn was really tasty and addicting as well!

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:

I had read about and was really looking forward to having a seasonal milkshake at Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner. When I found out the seasonal milkshake flavor was blue raspberry, I opted to pass. A blue raspberry milkshake did not sound at all appetizing to me!

We had a late lunch at Pizza Planet and chose these two cupcakes as our dessert choices with our quick service meals. The Olaf Cupcake was a carrot cake cupcake. It had cream cheese icing and little white candy sugar crystals. The Cappuccino Cupcake was a chocolate cupcake with a mocha chocolate icing. We loved the toffee bits that decorated the outside of this cupcake. These were both really good!

This Funnel Cake with Soft Serve Vanilla Ice Cream, Strawberry Topping and Chocolate Sauce was our “best-bang-for-your-snack-credit” find! We found this gem at the Oasis Canteen located near the entrance to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular. Yes, this can be all yours for ONE snack credit! Out-of-pocket this costs over $8! Ice cream on funnel cake….the hot with the cold…. I cannot believe we had never seen or heard about this until now! This was so good!

MAGIC KINGDOM:

By far, one of our favorite Disney snacks is the Dole Whip Float. This tasty treat is found at Aloha Isle in Adventureland. Pineapple soft serve is swirled into cold pineapple juice for a cold, tasty and refreshing treat! Dole Whip Floats can also be found at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. The Pineapple Whip soft serve is also available at Tamu Tamu Refreshments in Animal Kingdom and can be ordered with Coconut or Dark Rum over it (but not available as a snack credit!).

We got this Cinnamon Roll at Gaston’s Tavern, but it’s also available at the Main Street Bakery. I had read about this snack before traveling to Disney and was excited to try it. I found it to be a bit dry though and wasn’t very impressed. My husband reminded me too late that the secret is to ask for extra icing!

We got our Mickey Pretzel at the Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland, but they are available throughout the park. A Sweet Cream Cheese pretzel is also available. This is your classic soft pretzel, an amusement park staple!

POP CENTURY RESORT:

We only had one quick service dinner at the Pop Century Resort where we stayed. This was a late after 9 PM meal after a very long day at Hollywood Studios. We weren’t impressed with the dessert selection but after seeing a picture of this Tie Dye Cheesecake on a poster every time we went in the elevator, we decided we had to try it. This was a single serving, small, round container with a very thin cake layer bottom and a cheesecake top. It tasted like regular cheesecake and wasn’t bad. We’ve had better and worse, as far as cheesecake goes.

What are your favorite Disney snacks?