Tribeca Film Street Festival

Since the beginning of the week, I promised David that I would take him into the city on Saturday, and every day this week, David has been reminding Nataliya and myself... you know... in case we were to forget. We weren't sure if he was more excited of the fact he was going to the city with Daddy, or whether he was going to ride on the bus and on a train.

Having the benefit of a week to plan allowed me to figure out several options. However, the best choice seemed to be a dual festival, The Family Festival Street Fair and Tribeca/ESPN Sports Day, both sponsored by the Tribeca Film Festival. The festival was more fun for David than I even expected, as the festival was actually geared to children. The ESPN Sports area featured various video sports games (which David was curious about but had little interest) to larger events, like hitting a baseball, shooting goals with a hockey stick, bouncing around a bouncy football obstacle course, an X-Games Freestyle BMX Demo, and perhaps David's favorite, watching the NY Jets Flight Crew. (It might have been my favorite, but I'm not allowed to admit such a thing!)

David takes his turn at bat.

Making his way through the NJ Jets obstacle course.

Having fun in the Gazillion Bubble Garden

For a time, David was glued to the main stage which featured all sorts of musical acts, including performances from such Broadway shows as Grease and Legally Blonde. There were a few other things that caught David's attention and many freebies throughout, so it was definitely worth the trip into the city.

By the time we knew it, we'd been at the festival for over three hours and it was time for lunch. After a quick side trip to a bathroom by the security desk of a condominium (don't ask...) we headed to Washington Market Park to eat some lunch and play in the park.

After all that walking, I took David back to my office to relax for a bit before heading out to our next destination. (Too bad I'd only planned the day up to this point.)

David produces yet another masterpiece.

Making some last minute plans, we decided to meet up with cousins Marko and Daria in Central Park.

David wonders where the strawberries are hiding.

Cousin Marko presents David to the playground crowd.

After joining them for dinner, we headed on a crosstown bus, hopped on a B train, transferred to an A train to the Port Authority and then on a bus home. David was asleep by the time we got off the bus and I had to carry him home.

David enjoys the roller coaster-like ride of the MTA subway system.

All in all, it was a fun day, and offered a little quality one-on-one time for both children. For David, he had a great fun day in the city with daddy, and after 12 hours, I'd finally exhausted him! (It probably took a bit longer because he was riding on my shoulders for a lot of the day...)

Tomorrow morning, I know I'll be in a lot of pain from all this!

Introducing Some Culture Into David's Life

This Saturday was Daddy's turn to take David for a day on the town; well, Manhattan at least.

After being dropped off at the George Washington Bridge, we hopped on one of those shuttle buses to Manhattan. After a long trip on the A train, we found ourselves in the Wall Street area; a hectic bustling area during the week, but a virtual ghost town during the weekend. After a stop at Seth's office to give David a chance to keep up with the potty training, we headed down to Battery Park for the Seventh Annual Culturefest.

Culturefest features over 100 booths which present small slices of culture in New York City, from ballet to opera, museums to workshops, theatres to gardens, and parks to performing arts. Then, after working up an appetite, they had plenty of food stations on hand from NYC restaurants, featuring Indian food, Mexican food, French food and a dessert booth. (We ended up going to the booth that featured peanut butter sandwiches: (Peanut Butter & Co.) The funny thing is that I remember when this restaurant first appeared - almost ten years ago - and never thought I'd have any reason to patronize them. Because of David's particular diet, this turned out to be a life-saver.


We visited a number of booths, and David especially enjoyed making his own button in "The Studio Museum in Harlem," getting a rub-on tattoo in the "Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum" booth, watching the train in the "New York Botanical Garden" booth. There were many other booths which offered something for kids and David was moderately interested in these activities.


There were a two stages which featured various performances, and David wanted to stay through three of them, featuring Taiko Masala (Japanese drumming), Chris Byars Quartet (jazz) and The Smyrk (punk/grunge-rock).

After Culturefest (and a quick potty break,) David and Seth went onto the Staten Island Ferry for a quick boat ride to Staten Island and back. He liked the ride, but wasn't too crazy about staying outside with the strong breeze.


Once back, it was back on the train to Times Square. By this time, David wanted to ride on Seth's shoulders which wasn't particularly fun for an already tired Daddy. Walking to Eighth Avenue, the two made their way through the 8th Avenue Autumn Festival and back to the bus that would take them home.

David went to bed at his normal time, but Seth would be fast asleep first. How good it must feel to be young... sigh...