Modern Art, Old-Fashioned Diner

On our final full day in NYC, I headed out in the morning to get fresh doughnuts and bagels. This time, my purchases from Dough included passionfruit glazed, dulce de leche with toasted almonds, and Nutella. The latter was a disappointment, with no hazelnut flavour and a bizarre cinnamon-sugar sprinkling.

We called up a taxi through Java, a service we've used a few times. They were late, and we called to cancel, only to be told the driver was "10 seconds" away. In reality, he was more like 3 minutes away, but we got in, car seat and all, and made the trek into Manhattan. Our driver took 6th Avenue up through Manhattan (Google Maps suggested FDR Drive) but we were caught in heavy traffic. Gabe really didn't like being stuck in a stop-and-go taxi and begged to be let out. Finally, we made it to our destination: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 53rd St and 6th Ave.

The lineup was long, and we needed to get tickets before we could drop off the carseat at the coat check. Fortunately, it moved fairly quickly. $50 later (a steep $25 per adult, but free for under-16 children), we were ready to explore the galleries. Our first stop was the outdoor Sculpture Garden. The large pieces were too tempting for Gabe, and he kept asking us whether he could touch them. Fortunately, he could burn off a bit of energy running around on the steps and ramps.

Our next stop was the 5th floor, which features painting and sculpture by Dalí, Matisse, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh, among others. It was hard to keep Gabe entertained here as well, as he was very interested in trying to touch all the sculptures, or the ropes and barriers surrounding each item. Mommy and Daddy were able to take in a few paintings before moving down to the 4th floor. Here, we saw some iconic Warhol pieces including the famous Campbell Soup Cans.

Finally, we stopped in at the Education Center on the 1st floor to check out the current Art Lab about movement. Gabe got to play with wooden gears, try out an iPad/iPhone setup for making stop-motion animation, and balance shapes to make a hanging mobile in the style of Calder. This was a good hands-on activity with plenty of different things to do, away from the bustle of the main museum.

For lunch, I really wanted to try a food cart that I had heard about, The Halal Guys, a gyro platter cart. I only needed to wait 10 minutes to get a chicken-gyro combo over rice, and a falafel sandwich. Both came with "white sauce" which tasted like runny Miracle Whip. While it's a step up from most gyro places, in that the meat was very flavourful and moist, the overall experience was a letdown. Try it if you're in the area, but not worth a special trip.

Poor Gabe was exhausted by this time (almost 14:00) so we hailed a city cab to take us back home. Our driver tried to beat the traffic by crossing to Long Island City over the Queensboro Bridge, scooting down McGuinness, then taking the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway back to Clinton Hill. Unfortunately, whether purposely or from ignorance, he took us one stop too far, and had to double back on Myrtle, turning the trip into a $40 metered ride. Gabe fell asleep for 10 minutes and was not happy to be woken up. Our attempts at napping him failed, and he was wide awake, singing songs at the top of his lungs from his crib. I took him to the park so that Flick could get a much-needed nap.

For our final evening, we hung out with our friend Rachel and her son (Gabe's new favourite playmate) Ian, and went back to Farmacy for dinner. We sat in the backroom, which has a lot of vintage things: old children's books, two old-fashioned rotary phones, wooden toys, board games, etc. The kids ate soup and mac and cheese, while the grownups had grilled cheese and hot dogs.