Just came back from a week in NYC with the family. Here are some random thoughts:

• I did quite a bit of research on restaurants and food. I wanted to find good bagels, pizza, pancakes, diners, among other things. At some point in this research, I started to feel that the pizza wouldn’t be way better then good pizza in Hawai’i (e.g., Boston’s North End). We didn’t get to try as many pizza places as I would have liked, but this expectation proved true. (We went to Bleeker Street and L’industrie in the West Village, and also Unregular Pizza near Union Square.) I also didn’t think the pastrami sandwiches at Katz’s would be better than then one at Langer’s in L.A. That also proved to be true, but Katz’s pastrami–and 2nd Ave. Deli’s– were still satisfying, (although I had some complaints about the former).
• We mostly got around by subway and walking. I find this hard to believe, but according to my daughter’s iphone we walked about 9 miles on the first day. Yes, we walked a lot, but I didn’t think it was that much. I’d say we walked about an average of 5 miles a day, and that might be a conservative estimate. I must say that being able to get around the city independently–by subway and walking–was really gratifying. (Watching YouTube videos, learning the map of Manhattan, and using good maps really helped.)
• For me, the most enjoyable part of the trip was going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art–specifically the five Vermeer paintings–and MoMa. It was really exhilarating being at both places. In contrast, the Guggenheim was a disappointment–but that was mainly because only the side rooms were available. The main “path” was closed–and we didn’t realize that until we got there. By the way, twenty years ago, we tried going, but got there right when they closed. (I had misread the times. It’s just not meant to be, I guess.)
• Somewhat surprisingly, the American Museum of Natural History was one of the worst activities on the trip. But to be fair, I was worn out by the time we visited.
• There’s too many things to do and see in a week–and trying to do everything can be overwhelming. I realized that we weren’t going to miss a lot, and I psychologically prepared myself for this. Doing this helped me mitigated any feelings of disappointment, and while the pace wasn’t as frenetic and harried as it could have been, it wasn’t as leisurely as I normally prefer.
• In terms of sections/neighborhoods of NYC, the kids like Times Square the best. (We went once during the day and once at night.) They both said they would have liked to have stayed at a hotel nearby. My favorite section continues to be Greenwich Village, maybe the West Village a little more than the East Village. I also liked Nolita/Little Italy/SoHo.