Mom & Dad in New York

Aditya drops off the cat

Done before Mom and Dad arrive.

Mom & Dad land

Nothing planned. Get home and settled.

Ganesh Temple and Queens Botanical Garden

It's Ganesh Chaturthi festival week at the temple, running through Sep 20. Have darshan and eat at the temple canteen (dosa, idli, vada), then walk about 15 minutes to Queens Botanical Garden. The 7 runs straight to Flushing, the last stop.

Feels like Flushing is a full Chinatown and Koreatown at once: Chinese and Korean signage everywhere, packed sidewalks, bakeries and fruit stalls, almost no tourists. The temple is a quiet South Indian mandir dropped into the middle of it, and the garden behind it is calm and green.

• 7 from Queensboro Plaza to Flushing–Main St
• Temple: 45-57 Bowne St
• Garden: 43-50 Main St, open 8–6
• Temple: Free

Dinner with Ayush & Nidhi Set

Aditya is home by 4–5 today, so this is an easy night for it.

9/11 Memorial and the Hudson riverfront

Take the E to its last stop, World Trade Center, for the 9/11 Memorial pools. Then walk west to the Hudson and south through Battery Park City's riverside gardens to The Battery, where the Statue of Liberty sits out in the harbor.

Feels like The tallest, newest, glassiest part of the city, and very quiet around the memorial pools. Two blocks away the streets turn narrow and crooked, because they were laid out in the 1600s.

• E from Queens Plaza to World Trade Center
• 9/11 Memorial and The Battery
• Free

Brooklyn Bridge, then a movie on the lawn

Around 5, Mom and Dad walk to the bridge entrance by City Hall and cross into DUMBO, about 40 minutes at an easy pace. Aditya takes the F from home. Everyone meets at Pier 1 with picnic food for How to Train Your Dragon at Movies With a View, with the Manhattan skyline behind the screen. The lawn opens at 6 and the film starts at sunset. Bring a blanket. Afterward, the F from York St goes straight home.

Feels like The bridge is crowded and windy and worth every minute. DUMBO below it is cobblestones and old warehouses turned into shops, with a crowd photographing the bridge from every angle.

• F from 21 St–Queensbridge to York St
• Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park
• Free
• Sunset 7:01

Or stay in Manhattan: Oculus Outdoors is showing The Addams Family at 7 PM (seating from 6, first come), right where Mom and Dad spent the day.

F45 class Optional

F45 Long Island City is about a 10-minute walk from home. Book in the F45 app and ask about intro classes for first-timers.

• 22-18 Jackson Ave

Omakaseed Vegan Booked

Vegan omakase at a 10-seat counter inside the Sanctuary Hotel. Plan on about an hour.

Feels like A tiny, dim counter for ten people, a few steps off the loudest sidewalk in New York.

• F from 21 St–Queensbridge to 47–50 Sts–Rockefeller Ctr
• 132 W 47th St

Pickleball at JJ Walker

Two outdoor courts in the West Village. They're free and first come, first served with no booking, so head down straight after lunch and expect to wait a turn on a Saturday. Lines are painted and there are portable nets, but bring paddles and balls.

Feels like A sunken ballfield ringed by townhouses in the middle of the West Village. Neighborhood regulars, kids on the next court, no tourists.

• 1 from 50 St to Houston St, then 5 min on foot
• 17 Clarkson St
• Free

Skipping it? Paley Park and its waterfall are 10 minutes from lunch, and Central Park starts six blocks further at 5th Ave & 59th St, with Bethesda Terrace and the Ramble beyond it.

Shopping: browse or buy Pick one

Saturday evening is when stores stay open latest. Details are in Shopping plans below.

• BrowseSoHo. A 15-minute walk east of the pickleball courts, or the RW to Prince St. Most shops are open until 8.
• BuyMacy's Herald Square is open until 10, and Nordstrom Rack at Union Square until 9. Both are on the NRW from 57 St–7 Av.

Hangawi lunch To book

Christina is with us all day, so the table is for five. Vegetarian Korean: lunch is weekends only (weekdays are dinner only) and starts at 1. Shoes come off at the door, and you sit on floor cushions at low tables with a well underneath for your legs. Slip-ons help.

Feels like Dim, hushed and wooden inside, like a tea house. Outside is Koreatown: one dense block of neon signs stacked four floors high.

• N from Queensboro Plaza to 34 St–Herald Sq
• 12 E 32nd St

Shopping: browse or buy Pick one

Both plans work today. Details are in Shopping plans below.

• BrowseWilliamsburg. NQR from Herald Sq to 14 St–Union Sq, then L to Bedford Av. Artists & Fleas is open until 7, and the waterfront is right there for sunset at 6:58.
• BuyMacy's Herald Square is two blocks from lunch and open until 9. Or take the R to Canal St for knockoff bags, then Century 21 (open until 8).

Grand Central, then the High Line to Little Island

Ride the 7 to Grand Central and look up at the Main Concourse ceiling. Walk west on 42nd St past the New York Public Library to Bryant Park, then take the 7 from 5 Av to its last stop, 34 St–Hudson Yards. From there, walk the High Line 1.45 miles south, with plantings and benches the whole way. Stop at Chelsea Market near the end, then walk out to Little Island on the Hudson. The E from 14 St–8 Av goes straight home.

Feels like The busiest, most photographed stretch of Manhattan, then a complete switch: the High Line is an old freight railway turned into a narrow garden running between buildings, one storey above the traffic.

• 7 from Queensboro Plaza to Grand Central
• The Library and Bryant Park
• High Line: north end at W 34th St
• Chelsea Market · Little Island
• Free

Dinner with Henna Mohan Pencilled in

A suggested night; confirm it works for Henna.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park

Start at the Botanic Garden. Its Eastern Parkway entrance is closed for now, so use the Washington Ave gate. Afterward, cross into Prospect Park and walk the Long Meadow, a lawn nearly a mile long, down to 15 St–Prospect Park, where the F goes straight home. Allow about 40 minutes for the park walk.

Feels like Brownstone Brooklyn: low buildings, big trees, strollers and dog walkers. Prospect Park is Central Park's quieter, more local cousin, by the same designers.

• 7 to Times Sq, then 23 to Eastern Pkwy–Brooklyn Museum
• Garden: 990 Washington Ave, open 10–7
• Home: F from 15 St–Prospect Park
• Prospect Park: Free

Walk to the water

Aditya carries the pager tonight and could get called in, so stay close to home. Walk down to Gantry Plaza State Park for the Pepsi-Cola sign and the Midtown skyline across the East River, then keep going south through Hunters Point South Park and eat dinner on Vernon Blvd.

Feels like New glass towers on one side, open water on the other. This is the view everyone photographs Manhattan from, and it's a 25-minute walk from the apartment.

• About 25 min on foot, or 7 to Vernon Blvd–Jackson Av
• Gantry Plaza State Park
• Free
• Sunset 6:54

Dad's call

An hour, 6 PM on the West Coast. It lands well after dinner, so the waterfront walk is untouched — just be back home by nine.

Central Park's wild north end

Go in the morning, since Dad has a call at 2. Start in the Conservatory Garden, three formal gardens just inside 5th Ave at 105th St. Then walk west past Harlem Meer into the North Woods and follow the Loch, a stream with three small waterfalls running through a wooded ravine. Stay in Manhattan afterward, since the play is at 7.

Feels like Actual forest: dirt paths, running water, birds, and hardly any tourists. The Conservatory Garden is the formal opposite, all hedges and fountains, and it's where people get married.

• NW to Lexington Av/59 St, then 6 to 103 St
• Conservatory Garden · The Loch
• Free

Dad's call

An hour, 11 AM on the West Coast. A bench in the Conservatory Garden is quiet enough for it, or duck into a café on Lexington. It ends at 3, which leaves plenty of time to get downtown for the play.

The Play That Goes Wrong Booked

Four tickets, general admission seating, so get there by about 6:30 to sit together. Aditya is only home around 6, so it's easier to go straight from the hospital and meet everyone at the theater.

Feels like Off-Broadway rather than a big Broadway house: five small theaters under one roof, a block west of the Times Square crush. The show is a slapstick farce where the set falls apart on purpose.

• New World Stages, 340 W 50th St
• E from Queens Plaza to 50 St, or NW to 49 St

Roosevelt Island

One stop on the F. Walk the river path south, past the ruins of the old Smallpox Hospital, to Four Freedoms Park at the island's tip (open 9 to 7). To see the skyline from above, ride the tram over to Manhattan and back.

Feels like A two-mile island in the middle of the East River with almost no traffic: quiet, low-key, a bit suburban, with Manhattan standing right across the water.

• F from 21 St–Queensbridge to Roosevelt Island
• Four Freedoms Park · Tram
• Four Freedoms Park: Free

Magic show in Park Slope Booked

The show starts at 6:30, and Park Slope is 45 to 55 minutes from home. The F runs straight from Roosevelt Island to 15 St–Prospect Park, so Mom and Dad can go directly from the island: leave by about 5:30. Aditya is only home around 6 on inpatient days, so he should leave the hospital by about 5:15 and meet everyone there.

Feels like Park Slope's 5th Ave: a long low strip of bars and restaurants under three-storey buildings, all locals. The show is in the back room of Young Ethel's, a neighborhood cocktail bar with a small stage.

• 506 5th Ave, Brooklyn
• F to 15 St–Prospect Park, then 10 min downhill

Astoria Park and Socrates Sculpture Park

An easy last day close to home. Walk about 15 minutes from the station to Astoria Park, with big lawns and a river path between the RFK and Hell Gate bridges. Then walk south on Vernon Blvd, about 30 minutes, to Socrates Sculpture Park, open-air art on the East River. Home is about 30 minutes on foot from there.

Feels like Greek and Egyptian Astoria: bakeries, hookah cafés, two-storey houses, families out on the grass. Nobody here is a tourist.

• NW from Queensboro Plaza to Astoria Blvd
• Astoria Park · Socrates Sculpture Park, 9 AM to sunset
• Free

Rainy? MoMA PS1 is free and about 10 minutes from home, open noon to 6.

Farewell dinner in the West Village

Stop at the Whitney first if you like. It's free every Friday from 5 to 10 PM (book free tickets online), and it sits at the south end of the High Line, a short walk from West Village restaurants.

Feels like Low brick townhouses and crooked tree-lined streets, the prettiest part of Manhattan to wander after dark.

• E from Queens Plaza to 14 St–8 Av
• Whitney: 99 Gansevoort St
• Whitney on Fridays: Free