We had a wonderful time in New York City. I received a great deal of help from people on this forum in the planning stages. Thanks everybody, and here's a synopsis of our trip. Traveling are my husband and myself, and our 12-year-old boy/girl twins.

Day 1: Flew Midwest Airlines from Kansas City to LaGuardia. This was our first time flying Midwest, and I have nothing but good to say about our experience with them. Both flights were on time, they didn't lose or damage our luggage, and the free chocolate chip cookes were excellent! We got a good rate, but I sure do hate paying to check bags!

We took a taxi to our hotel, the Blakely. It's on 55th, between 6th and 7th. Very good location for us. We walked to a lot of things, but the subway wasn't far away when we needed it. We did take taxis a few times, but we never did take the bus at all.

The hotel was wonderful. We had a one--bedroom suite, with two beds in the bedroom and a daybed (which was big enough for my son to comfortably sleep there) in the living room. We had a refrigerator (well, a minibar until I had them clean everything out of it) and a microwave. The bathroom was impressively large and very nice. Every wall of the bathroom was covered in large mirrors, which to be honest, when you are over 40, can be a bit disconcerting!

Another nice factor about our room was that it was not noisy at all. I never heard noise from other rooms and surprisingly little street noise either. Maybe we just lucked out on that, but I was grateful.

Day 1 -- to be continued...

Day 1 continued --

We were absolutely starving at this point (having had breakfast before 5:00 am), so we ate lunch at the nearby Five Guys hamburger place. It was very crowded but really good burgers!

We then just spent what was left of the afternoon walking around, getting acclimated. We walked north to Central Park and then ducked into the Apple Store and FAO Shwartz, etc. Also, we had our only celebrity sighting of the entire trip right away, on 5th Avenue, when we saw them filming Cindy Crawford doing some modeling thing or another. I have no idea what it was for, but she looked beautiful.

Husband and son left then to go to the Yankees game. They thoroughly enjoyed that experience, which included CC Sabathia flipping them a ball during pregame warmups!

Daughter and I wanted another New York experience, so we bought hot dogs off a cart and ate them as we walked. Ugh, ugh. Don't do this. I thought it was awful. Daughter loved hers.

We then went to Billy Elliot. It was so wonderful. We loved it. I think the singing and dancing are amazing.

Day Two coming up (I'll try not to make them all this long...)

Day Two - Every day we had breakfast at the hotel. Yogurt, fresh fruit, muffins. Not very exciting, but free with the room.

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was next: a bike ride through Central Park. We went as part of a 2-hour tour, and it was great. This was on a Saturday morning, so there were no cars, and the people-watching was amazing. It was beautiful weather, so many, many people were out.

After lunch, we went to the Sony Wonder Tech Lab. This was my son's choice. It was okay for an hour or so, but not particularly memorable. At least it was free.

We ate at Angelo's Pizza near the David Letterman theater. We all liked it. Of course we are fans of thin-crust pizza anyway.

We walked down through Times Square again to get to Madame Tussad's Wax Museum (my daughter's request). This was fun, but really way too expensive.

Day Three on the way ----

Day Three --

We spent the morning at Top of the Rock. There were no lines to get in, and there were no crowds at the top. Someone on this forum told me to not bother getting advance tickets, and they were correct! We hadn't, and it was no problem.

After lunch, we took the subway out of Queens to go to the New York Hall of Science. This was interesting, because it took us out of the normal tourist activities, and into an area certainly different from midtown Manhattan. My son really wanted to go here, because he loves this sort of hands-on science stuff. It was pretty crowded, but we enjoyed it. Once again, not somewhere I'd go without the kids, but all part of the experience this time.

Supper -- Ellen's Stardust Diner -- decent food but overpriced. We did enjoy the singing wait staff. More shopping for t-shirts, etc after eating.

Day four coming up...

Well, in Day Three, obviously I meant that we took the subway out TO Queens to the museum. I must be getting tired...

Glad you had such a good time. It's so nice that your children were involved with the itinerary.

Excellent report. I have been to NYC 3 times with the kids and it is simply a wonderful place to take them.
We always particularly love spending soem time in Central Park. So much space and great for kicking a ball around. The kids also of course love Toys R Us in Times Square.

Continuing with Day Four --

Once again, the weather was cooperating beautifully, so we headed for Brooklyn on the subway to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Somehow, probably through this forum, I got the "idiot's guide" directions to finding your way from the subway to the walkway of the Brooklyn Bridge. We used the York street station and followed the directions, and they were perfect.

What a great experience to walk the bridge! Do it, people, don't miss it! After a quick lunch downtown, we went into the Police Museum. This was actually pretty darn cool, especially the 9/11 exhibit, and the whole museum took about 60-90 minutes. My son loved it, but my daughter was bored.

Next was the Staten Island Ferry. Do this for great views of the Statue of Liberty, and just because it is fun. Sit on the right-hand side of the boat when going to Staten Island, and you will get great pictures. We opted not to spend a day doing the whole SOL/Ellis Island thing, so this was as close as we got.

Supper -- Burger Joint in Le Parker Meridian. My family was totally impressed that I could lead them right to it, using directions from this forum or a guidebook or somewhere. I actually looked like I knew where I was going (which I often don't even when something actually is clearly marked).

Then we took a taxi to Soho to see the Rock and Roll Annex. This museum was very, very cool. All four of us really liked this place. I just wish it had been bigger! You get a personal audio player that syncs up automatically to play a song by the artist you are reading about or whose memorabilia you are looking at. (Ok, grammatically, that was poor, but hopefully you get the idea.) Anyway, now we really want to go to the big Rock and Roll Museum in Cleveland!! (This one is affiliated with it.)

Day Five coming up (no worries, this will end soon.) --

Day Five --

Morning -- Metropolitan Museum of Art. This was something I basically put my foot down and said we are all going to it. Once they got there, all enjoyed it pretty well. We spent a bit of time in the American Wing (disappointed that the paintings are still in "visible storage"), went through the Temple of Dendur and the Egyptian section, and then did some Impressionists and older European paintings.

We had lunch in the "cafeteria" at the Met. Avoid it if you can. Overpriced and not very good. Also, there were no cold bottled beverages and no ice working for the fountain drinks. So you were going to have room-temperature drinks no matter what that day. Probably just a one-day glitch, but annoying.

However, I loved the Met and hope to return someday. Arrive early in the day; it was getting very crowded by 1:00 when we left.

Husband and son then took the subway back up to the Bronx to go on a tour of Yankee Stadium. They thought this was great. Daughter and I spent the afternoon walking around and shopping. We walked up and down 5th Avenue and ducked into St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is amazing.

Supper: Mickey Mantle's sports bar on Central Park South. Bit of a tourist trap, I guess, but the food was decent.

Then we walked one last time to Times Square to see the Lion King. All of us enjoyed this -- very high recommendation.

The next morning, we just flew home. Overall, this was a great vacation. Thanks to all of you for your recommendations along the way. NYC is wonderful, and I hope to return sometime.

Sounds like a great trip. When I was there with my Ds earlier this month, the younger one kept wanting to get a hot dog from a cart. I feel kind of bad that we never did, but I'm still recovering from the hot dog I had from a car in Rome in 2006.

We also saw Billy Elliot and Lion King. D's drill team is going to NY next spring and I know that all those dancers would love Billy Elliot, but I can understand that the public school doesn't want to wade into the whole language thing.

Correction: I had a hot dog from a cart. Not a car. But one from a car could not have been worse.

Awesome trip report, kansasmom! What fun you all had...your kids will have lifetime memories of this trip.

I live in Kansas City (well, just outside it) and have flown to NYC three times, all on Midwest Airlines...it's terrific!

Wonderful report. You really covered a lot without overdoing it. I'm glad it was such a positive experience for your family. Come back soon! I haven't seen the Rock and Roll Annex yet, but you've whetted my appetite!

What a great report! So glad you had a good time - isn't it great when your kids see how other people live? Glad the science museum worked for you - next time, The Liberty Science Center in NJ!