Girl's Gone Child: Notes from NYC: Part One, The Apartment

The following post is in partnership with HomeAway.com. Thank you for the NYC digs, HomeAway!
Honey, I'm home!

When I first spoke to the ladies over at HomeAway.com, the plan was to rent a house in Mystic, CT. (This was the house we had our eye on. Beautiful, right? For 2-3 families to share? I mean... ) Then, after looking for hotels that could accommodate 6 people in NYC (we would have to get two rooms which.... Hi, $800-1k a night hajkhdakjhsd) we realized that renting a house in NYC and doing a motel in Mystic was the way to go. Eating out with kids, especially in cities, is my LEAST favorite part of traveling. For six people to eat out, it can cost between $60-$100 a meal. Bo and Archer eat adult-sized portions these days so kid menus only work for two of our four kids at the moment. And besides the cost, eating out with small children is the opposite of relaxing. I always end up spending the entire meal giving the twins tattoos with markers and/or trying to lure them off a booth with "I spy" which only sometimes works.

Needless to say, eating in is ALWAYS preferable. Which is why renting a home/apartment as opposed to a hotel, when possible, is the way to go. For us, anyway. ED: We rented an apartment with my parents and sister in Montreal last summer and the summer before that, when we celebrated my brother's PHD graduation in Provincetown, Cape Cod at a beach house we rented for a week. We cooked our own meals and drank our own coffee and rocked on our own porches before adventuring out into the afternoon...

In the end, we decided to rent a motel room in Mystic for one night and stretch our NYC trip to three nights instead of two.

We searched the HomeAway website over the course of several days before settling on several residences that fit our criteria -- space/location/proximity to a subway line (my kids LOVE the subway) and settled upon a beautiful two-story garden apartment on W. 84th street, half a block from Central Park West. It was a dream -- roomy enough to sleep 8 comfortably, and the price, relative to the size/space/location was extremely fair.

The apartment was immaculate and yet completely child-friendly and comfortable.

There were even two bathrooms which, I mean... in NYC? Come on...

Bedroom #1: Ours

Hal and I picked the bedroom without the toddler bed, which seemed like the master. It was fresh and clean and beautiful. Very home-y and good vibes for days...

Bedroom #2: Big Kids

The bigs got the room with the view (and the extra toddler bed: not pictured) and, actually, all four ended up sleeping here our first night. (Bo had the toddler bed and the other three shared the big bed.) The second and third night, Bo and Revi agreed to sleep downstairs.(I actually fell asleep with them down there both nights. I am narcoleptic when it comes to lying down with my kids before bed. I fall asleep before they do and then I end up crawling out of bed, discombobulated an hour later.)

Anyway!

Here is where the twins slept...

It is also where all four kids pretended they had their own apartment NO ADULTS ALLOWED.

***

the staircase downstairs

As far as the rest of the apartment went, the kitchen was stocked. There were games for the kids. Cribs, strollers and various childproof-y items for those with small babes, umbrellas just in case AS WELL as a washer and dryer. (We were desperate for one.) Basically, everything one could possible need/use/ask for. There was also a YARD which was THE MOST EPIC part of all... I mean, we were in Manhattan. With a YARD. A BEAUTIFUL yard.

Also, this chair which was a huge smash sensation:

The highlight of our NYC stay was this apartment. We hosted friends and family in the evenings to hang with us in the audience of the kids' theatrical productions. (Archer, Bo and Fable put on a Broadway Review. Fable even made playbills.) We ate chocolate and sipped wine and chilled on the patio and laughed and cried and marveled at the beautiful NYC nights...

And then, when everyone left we passed out in THE MOST comfortable beds. Zzzzzzzz-licious. Thanks again, HomeAway. And thank you Debra Jo for your kindness and hospitality and delicious lemon poppyseed muffins that I will dream about for the next several months.