The King and I decided that since my parents were stealing our children the last weekend before school starts again, we'd head off on a short adventure ourselves. What better place for a long weekend adventure than the city that never sleeps?

Waiting area of the Amtrak station, Harrisburg

The walk down to the train platform.  Same as it was in 1887.

We're lucky in that Amtrak offers train service between our little part of Pennsyltucky and the big apple, so we took the train. It's about 2 hours faster that way and considerably less worry some than trying to drive into the mad house that is NYC.

We left Friday morning and arrived just after lunch, checked in at our hotel, The Muse, one of the Klimpton properties, just off Times Square. The room was beautifully appointed and spacious for the city. The staff was pleasant and there was a wine reception each evening. What's to complain about there?

The rest of Friday we spent exploring the area and we slipped into Saks on 5th avenue so I could drool over the shoes. Needless to say I didn't feel the need to drop a paycheck into a pair of shoes, regardless of the red on the soles. We hit a few of the other big name flagship stores and ducked into the Lego store as well. They had a huge dragon made from a gazillion Legos that the king was mesmerized by. By Friday evening we both were starving and excited for dinner. We decided on a place called Nizza. They have a GF menu and are soy free. Their food was out of this world and I'll be posting my attempts with socca later this week. For those of you not aware of what socca is, is a type of flatbread made from garbanzo bean flour. It's yummy, filling and goes well with wine.

Dragon made of Legos!

Saturday dawned and we were off by late morning to head over to Hells Kitchen for the flea market. We had brunch at a quaint club spot and ooh'd over the waiters heeled platform boots. Yep, those babies had bigger heels than I wear. I was impressed. Right outside the club, the flea market began and while it wasn't as big as I hoped it made up for in kitsch and things you just don't see at home. I'd never really thought to shop for Versace at a flea market, yet they had it there.

The rest of the day we wandered about the city, window shopping and actual shopping at a few of the shops we don't have at home. One of the biggest trends I saw that I wasn't seeing at home is the amount of hardware on shoes and clothing. Everything has spikes on it. It didn't matter if it was a jacket, shirt, jeans or shoes, all of it had these silly spikes on it. All I can imagine is the number of ER visits this will cause with fashion induced injuries.

Cute mouse shoes, but imagine the damage they will do to your ankles.

Saturday night was a visit to a supper club called Swing 46. While they didn't have a specialized GF menu the staff made sure I had a safe, fabulous meal and incredible service. The band was great and the dancing was more than fun.

The King and I headed out for Dinner and Dancing

Crescent City Maulers at Swing 46.

I'm sitting in Penn Station as I write this, not quite ready to go home. It's been a fun adventure, a growth experience for those of us who hates cities, people, small spaces, smells... You get the idea here. Point being is that we both has fun and will do this again in some shape or form.

Anyone else sneak in a last minute getaway before getting back into the mom routine of school and lunches and driving and...?