Nick Jantz

    • NYC with the Kids - July 2026

    travel

    Post written by AI. Photo captions are manual.

    Story

    July 2026 was the kids' first real New York trip. We stayed right by Times Square, which was fun and also meant we were always "close" to something while somehow still needing a subway ride to get anywhere. The city is just that spread out.

    We did Central Park, peeked at my office building (thrilling for the kids, tolerated by me), Coney Island, and Ellen's Stardust Diner - singing waitstaff somehow held their attention longer than expected. Caught the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, wandered Little Italy, played in a park in Battery Park City, found the mini Bean, and did Rockefeller Plaza. Dollar pizza and not-dollar pizza both made the rotation. Gelato at Il Laboratorio del Gelato, because I love ice cream, and Il Laboratorio is by far my favorite place. Required the kids to get multiple scoops and I got to try a bite of them all.

    Navigational subplot: we kept trying to pick the right entrance/exit at Times Square / 42nd St / Port Authority so we wouldn't have to backtrack underground. Hit or miss. We're usually great at public transit and never actually got lost - we just couldn't quite crack that particular maze.

    Baseball night was Dodgers at Mets with a ridiculous after-game fireworks show. The kids stayed up way too late every night. Rachel still somehow got a Peloton class in.

    Then the flights got cancelled. We took a train to Baltimore, hung out at a mall, and flew home from BWI.