I love Japanese food. And I love ramen. I am always on a quest to find the best ramen in any major city that I visit, if they are available. Since New York is a multiculturally diverse city, I knew I would find some good ramen here. I had planned on going to Ippudo after finding out there was one a few blocks from our Midtown hotel, but it had been elusive. On the first night in NYC, I couldn’t find (I blame it on the heavy rains) and I ended up dining at Nippori, which was a

Some fortuitous circumstances had led me to the Grand Central Station and I welcomed it. I had been meaning to go visit anyway, at some point, to check out the market section and take pictures of the Main Concourse and the Booth Clock. This historic, world-famous landmark, featured in so many American films, is not only a major transportation hub, but is also a shopping, dining, and cultural destination. It has a variety of shops, restaurants and cafes, and a full calendar of

I left my husband and our son at the American Museum of Natural History. They wanted to stay longer to explore the Earth and Planetary Sciences Hall and to see the Space Show at the Hayden Planetarium Space Centre. As for me, it was time to see some art after looking at dinosaur bones. Since they were not interested in going to The MET (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), I went alone. I left the museum via the West 77th Street grand entrance and passed by the Grand Gallery wher

The program for Day 3 in New York City was to see the dinosaur bone exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. After figuring out the maze of the New York subway system, we hopped on the C Line which took us right at the museum door within four stops. The only snag was the wait time. When we entered the museum, the security guard told us that the line-up extended outside the entrance doors and along the corridor of the subway sta

This mom was on a mission to make her son happy. And this mom was determined to get that Springsteen autograph. When we arrived at the Walter Kerr Theater, I didn’t see the bodyguard from the previous day, but there was definitely some prime space left inside the cordoned area. I prodded my boys to take their positions right away. My husband started chatting with this lady who is an avid fan of Springsteen. And since he often gets lost in the intensity of a conversation he i

When we arrived at the New Amsterdam Theater, the venue of the Broadway show, Aladdin, I was a mess. My hair was in disarray, my face was wet from tears, my eyes red, and I was panting like a horse that just lost a race. The front-of-house staff saw us and assured us that we were just in time. They scanned our tickets, gave us our playbills, and ushered us inside. They said it would be another couple of minutes before they closed the doors. A couple of minutes! That was close

The plan for Day 2 in New York was to visit the Intrepid Museum, which was just a few blocks away from our hotel. My husband wanted to spend the whole morning there as he thought seeing the aircraft carrier itself plus a space shuttle, a submarine, a jet, and small airplanes and helicopters would really be a cool experience for our son. We had to stop at a bakery for fresh bread because he couldn’t eat from the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Fortunately, we found a good one on the

It had been a hectic first day in New York City with the morning ferry ride to the Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty and the afternoon tour of the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. But the excitement was just beginning. My husband was eager to execute his “surprise drop” for our little boy. On the walk back to our hotel from the museum, we stopped at the Walter Kerr Theatre, the venue of the Springsteen on Broadway show. My husband pretended he was just checking the posters.

After the ferry ride to see the Statue of Liberty, we caught the next “hop-on-hop-off” bus and got off after two stops to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. We thought it’s important for our little boy to see this place, to explain to him what happened here on September 9, 2011, and to make him understand its implications, not just for the people of the United States, but for the rest of the world. It was our first time to be here as well. On our last visit to New York City,

We arrived in New York City on the day before my boys were to watch the Bruce Springsteen concert. It was late by time we got to our hotel and there was nothing to do but check in and leave our car in the parkade. However, since our hotel was on the same street and only a few blocks away from the Walter Kerr Theatre, the concert venue, my husband decided to walk over with our son to “check things out” maybe catch a glimpse of The Boss if he happened to be going out of the the

“I love New York,” says the items on sale at the souvenir shops. And it’s true. A lot of people love New York, including my husband. And some people I know who have never been there list it as one of the top cities they’d like to visit in the United States. I have been to New York City a couple of times before this visit and though I like the city, I cannot honestly say that I love it. “How can you not,” asked my husband once. He knows that I am at home with big, bustling ci

We ended our cruise in New York City, but we had less than a day to spend there before we had to fly back home. Since there was not much time, we just booked a bus tour that took us on a loop around the city, from the seaport to the key neighborhoods – Two Bridges, Lower East Side, East Village, Gramercy Park, Kips Bay, Murray Hill, Sutton Place, Lenox Hill, Upper East Side, York Hill, Carnegie Hill, Harlem, Upper West Side, Manhattan, Lincoln Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown