In pursuit of visiting every Major League Baseball park, we spent a weekend in New York City as our beloved Chicago Cubs played the New York Yankees. At the peak of sweaty summer heat, we caught more than just the game while in the city that never sleeps.

It’s a pizza party
We flew outta town on a flight Friday night. A taxi quickly picked us up from La Guardia airport and dropped us off at our hotel in Midtown Manhattan. No surprise, but there was still a crazy amount of traffic on the roads late into the night. We took the late-night liveliness as a sign to walk down 7th Avenue to Rays Original Pizza and ate a few slices. Leigh laughed at the novelty of eating pizza slices the size of his head and the fact that the shop is open until 3am. This perfectly fit the bill for our first night. What we didn’t know was Leigh would soon become a Rays Pizza addict, visiting a total of three times during our weekend trip! When the kid knows he likes something, he can’t get enough of it.

Before jumping on the subway to Yankee Stadium, we enjoyed breakfast from Liberty Bagel. With a line out the door and down the street, you knew these bagels were going to be good. They have super fun rainbow and patriotic bagels, plus more than two dozen flavors of cream cheese schmear piled higher than humanly possible in the deli case, teasing your tastebuds as you decide which combo you want. I went with a plain bagel and baby dill + herb schmear – adult choices. Leigh went wild with a rainbow bagel and Oreo schmear. I’m not sure if that counts as breakfast, but we were on vacation, so I wasn’t going to shame his schmear.

The house that Ruth built: Yankee Stadium
After a quick walk through Central Park, we found our way to the subway uptown. Since we’re familiar with riding the L in Chicago, we don’t shy away from taking public transit in new cities. Admittedly, we’re probably overly confident in our abilities to navigate a rapid transit system. Alas, after a rather quick ride to the Bronx, we were standing outside Yankee Stadium surrounded by baseball fans.

Let me tell you: no matter where we go, wearing a Cubs hat is like a friendly confines sign to passersby who yell, “Go Cubs!” and offer a thumbs up or high five. Cubs fans are everywhere. We found our seats in the outfield surrounded by a sea of Cubs fans with a few Yankees fans sprinkled among them. There was a happy young man who kept chanting to our favorite left fielder, “I love you, Ian!” Our seats were cushioned but toasty hot in the sun. Luckily, we had access to the Pepsi Lounge where we could spend $60 on three drinks in air conditioning – worth it! Out in the heat, our seats were right next to the visitors’ bullpen where our team warmed up the pitchers. Our All-Star pitcher Boyd held off the Yankees for eight innings with no runs. In the end, our relief pitchers allowed a few runs, but the Cubs beat the Yankees 5-2. And they went on to win the series 2-1.

Highly recommend getting a Lobel’s steak sandwich or steak fries at Yankee Stadium. The butcher puts on a show while you wait in line. The thinly sliced steak was so tasty topped with their white queso sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And you can’t miss a helmet full of soft serve at a ballgame. Yankee Stadium offers Mister Softee ice cream with a silky smooth texture, reminiscent of frozen custard. Leigh’s advice: eat it fast on a hot day!

Sights to see
We found the MLB NYC Flagship Store on 6th Avenue, just a short 5 minutes from our hotel. This place was heaven for Eric and Leigh. Two stories with every jersey, hat and t-shirt for every team, in every style. When our flight was delayed an extra night, it was this shop where we bought a couple of extra shirts to wear home.

We also stopped at the LEGO Flagship Store on 5th Avenue to get Leigh’s special passport stamped. He picked up the taxi set and built it in the hotel room that night. LEGO sets always make for fun souvenirs.

As a book nerd, I was pleased to discover that the famous Strand bookstore has a small kiosk on the southeast corner of Central Park. Since this renowned bookshop is a distance further downtown, it was convenient to find it so close to our hotel. I picked up a couple of books, a pigeon magnet, an oversized pencil and a rat eating a slice of pizza hair clip. Classic. Much to our disappointment, we never did see a rat eating a piece of pizza – there’s always next time!

Other hotspots we visited included Times Square (both day and night), Rockefeller Plaza, Wall Street and the World Trade Center Memorial. Walking around the city and people watching is always fun.

Not so fancy eats with kids
Sometimes I forget we’re traveling with a 9-year-old who wants to wear a baseball cap with every outfit, which isn’t particularly fitting for a fancy cocktail hour or brunch at an NYC restaurant. Breakfast is always an easy meal to eat with a kiddo because who doesn’t love pancakes, waffles and bacon? We sort of fit in at Sarabeth’s for Sunday brunch, where a few families were also dining with children. I loved their delicious mushroom omelette served with a savory popover. But we had to get up from our table at Le Jardin, the rooftop bar at our hotel. We made our way up to the top floor for our reservation, but quickly made our way out the door after seeing only ostentatious adults dressed to the nines for a night out. And that’s okay. Eric and I will enjoy plenty of trips in the future when we can dine wherever we want. This just wasn’t one of them. Back to good ol’ Rays Pizza!

Visit to see Lady Liberty
We asked Leigh what he wanted to see in New York and he jumped at the chance to visit the Statue of Liberty. So we took the subway downtown to Battery Park and went for a ferry ride to see Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. Sunday was a popular day for this tourist activity, and the lines were long, but the walk around the National Park was nice and breezy. Leigh’s a big fan of an audio tour, so this free one was great for him to learn more about the statue and what it represents. I had a flashback to when Eric and I first visited this monument about 20 years ago. Both times, we didn’t make it up to the top of the statue, or even into the giant pedestal the statue sits on. It’s still an impressive sight to take in. Plus, you can enjoy great views of the city from the bay.

Surrounded by beauty
NYC is a city full of art and culture. Our hotel was on the same block as Carnegie Hall, so we picked up tickets to see the Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra perform. Leigh will start his fourth year playing violin, and he plans to try out a brass instrument for the band this fall. The more opportunities I can give him to experience impressive orchestra performances, the better. I also happen to find classical music really relaxing. Before the group performed Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, the conductor shared with the audience that the composer actually first debuted this music at Carnegie Hall in 1893. And here we were listening to it 132 years later. Amazing.

Times Square offered a different type of cultural experience for Leigh. His eyes were dazzled by the big screens, which appeared even brighter at night than during the day. The topless patriotic painted ladies also caught his eye but his attention quickly shifted to being terrified by someone dressed in an Elmo costume reaching out to give him a hug. Thanks to YouTube, Leigh already understood that these people expected you to pay to take photos with them. He walked by with his hands in his pockets. Smart kid.

I wasn’t going to miss the chance to see Van Gogh’s Starry Night at the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA never disappoints. From Salvador Dalí’s tiny painting of melting clocks (The Persistence of Memory, 1931) to Claude Monet’s giant mural of water lilies (Water Lilies, 1914-26), we wandered the museum for hours. Leigh and I even created our own watercolor paintings at a family art making workshop in conjunction with the exhibition Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers. It was an exhausting day, promptly followed by an afternoon nap at the hotel.

Bit of Parisian flare in Midtown
Speaking of the hotel, Le Meridian was located in a great spot, central to everywhere we wanted to be. A skinny little strip of 57th Street juts up 29 floors with a glimpse of Central Park, despite a new building being built that blocks most of the view. The rooms are small, but that’s what you expect in New York. Typically, you don’t spend too much time in a hotel room on a trip to the city. But our flight was canceled due to weather, so we ended up spending an extra night in our room, watching TV and eating takeout in bed. It rained heavily and fast that night, flooding the sidewalks, streets and subway. The videos that surfaced are scary!

Our flight was rescheduled for the following day. We jumped at the chance to grab another Liberty Bagel (Leigh still ordered the rainbow bagel with Oreo schmear – and I still let him do it) and enjoy it on a bench in Central Park where we slipped the friendly pigeons and squirrels a few crumbs. They looked hungry.

A quick taxi ride to the airport and before we knew it we were back in Chicago an hour ahead of our scheduled landing time, which in theory was great, but in reality meant we had to wait 45 minutes on a hot plane with no AC for a gate to open up at O’Hare. Ah, I love you, Chicago. You’re my kinda town.