New York: Pastrami and Playgrounds

You see a completely different side of New York when you're travelling with young children.

Camping on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River at Liberty Island, we had great access via train and ferry over to Manhattan for two and a half days exploring the Big Apple.

There are toy shops here that will BLOW YOUR MINDS peoples.

Talk about fun! We spent hours in the Toys R Us at Times Square and FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue.

FAO even had a massive floor piano like in "Big".

And there were lego sets for sale beyond anything I'd ever imagined. Like the entire Ewok Village on Endor! Awesome!

Yep, still LOVE my lego!

Between the toy stores, the Apple Store and M&M's World, we wiled away several hours!

Central Park was also a massive part of our visit with so many playgrounds to explore, Belvedere Castle (used by Gargamel as an evil lair in "Smurfs") and of course the Central Park Zoo.

The most impressive feature of the Zoo was its incredible collection of tropical animals, birds and reptiles.

The kids also loved the children's section where they were able to feed animals like alpacas and sheep and goats.

The first full day we had in the city had been so unseasonally hot that we spent a few hours in a water playground in Central Park with the kids running around in soggy clothes.

The next day, we got caught in an intense rain storm that hit as we were walking past the boat lake, so we were all running around in soggy clothes after that!

The Staten Island Ferry round-trip gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline while allowing the kids to rest their little legs.

We also did a customary walk past Wall Street. (The last time we were here five years ago Lehmann Brothers was collapsing and there was action aplenty). This time, things were pretty quiet.

We felt a little on edge, with it being September 11.

We had arrived by train at the World Trade Center stop and had emerged into the sunlight to a sea of servicemen and women.

The throng of people paying their respects at the Memorial Preview was as numerous as you would expect, but everyone was polite and patient.

The Preview's timeline of events from 2001 was particularly resonant on its anniversary.

The other focus of our visit was Pastrami.

We visited Katz Delicatessen on the Lower East Side for an unbelievably juicy sandwich of melt-in-your-mouth Pastrami on Rye.

Katz was the location of that famous scene in "When Harry Met Sally" - you know the one.

I think maybe she was having pastrami on rye.

We had more pastrami on rye at the Brooklyn Diner on 57th Street.

Let's just say we are big-time pastrami fans now.

Well, New York has delivered big-time fun, but there's only so much walking two pairs of little legs can handle.

We'll all probably need a week to recover!

Click HERE if you want to see more pics.