The Great 4th of July Festival 2010

Remember when we blogged about going to Coney Island to watch the Nathan's 4th of July Hot Dog eating competition last year? Well, it's the 4th of July weekend again (boy, the year just flew by, didn't it?) but we decided against going to Coney Island this year. It was just way too hot to be standing among thousands of people in the heat, just waiting to watch some hot dog eating competition. So, we decided to head out to the city instead.

We wanted to go check out a street fair and found out that there were quite a few going on all over the city. At last, we decided to check out the Great 4th of July Festival since it was located pretty close to the WTC PATH station (that's our usual PATH train station). They blocked off part of Water St, the blocks between Fulton and Broad St. By the time we arrived, the street festival was already winding down. That was a good thing actually, cos there wasn't as many people and we didn't have to push thru crowds just to walk around.

Just like any good street fair, you could find almost anything for sale there. It was a shoppers paradise for us ladies. There were stall after stall of really cheap summer dresses, hats, sunglasses, various types of bags....even pashmina scarfs! 5 pashmina scarfs for only $20! That's really cheap! All the clothes and accessories stalls reminds me somewhat of the markets in Bali or Phuket :P

You could also find all kinds of music on sale. Carribean music, hip hop, oldies...it was just an eclectic mix of everything! Pretty cool though. Apart from music, there were also all types of artwork and handicraft for sale. We saw this really big and cool oil painting of the NYC skyline for sale in one of the stalls. We thought that it would look really cool hanging behind our sofa back at our apartment. When we asked the guy how much it cost and he said $270! Wow! I guess those stuff don't come cheap. Even if it includes framing, it's still a little bit too expensive for us :P

The highlight of all the street fairs that we go to is of course....the FOOD! All the carnival/street fair food stalls were out in full force. Cheese steaks, Italian sausages, funnel cakes, deep fried oreos, corn dogs...the list just goes on and on. They even had some cheap ethnic food on sale..like $1 Pad Thais and $3 for a big pack of banana fritters. We could smell those yummy roasted sweet corn a block away! They were that good! You could get all kinds of toppings for it, from regular butter, honey butter, salt, Parmesan cheese to pepper flakes and lemon juice!

After walking under the scorching sun for nearly an hour, we stopped by this Smoothie stall to cool ourselves down. There are all kinds of fruit smoothies to choose from. They had the regular strawberry, kiwi, watermelon, banana smoothies to exotic flavors like mango, passion fruit and lychee! Oh, they even have bubble tea! We shared a jumbo size mango smoothie ($6) and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! No additional sugar was added, just pure mango! I think that guy used close to 2 large mangoes for our drink! It was really thick and good =) From the Great 4th of July Festival on Water St, we walked further down to the South Street Seaport area to check out the Puma City NY World Cup event. Will blog more about it in the next post!

Tribeca Film Festival Family St. Fair (Final Part)

After we were done walking around the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival area, we headed over to Greenwich St. From the looks of it, I guess this is where all the action is. Apart from food carts/trucks, there was also a Green Market along this street. The highlight was of course all the booths (sponsored by various corporations and agencies) that offered free stuff and activities.

The Time Warner cable booth was a big hit with the kids! They could get their faces painted (either by hand or spray paint) and their hair dyed for free. All the artists were so skillful and talented, it was so much fun to just watch them work. Oh, Road Runner was hanging around the booth too. I didn't take a picture with him cos the line was just too long. Beep Beep! :D

Here is another cool booth. You could charge your phones for free at the At&T booth. However, that's not the highlight of the booth. You see the green screen at the back? Well, you can stand in front of the screen and they will take a picture of you. Then, they will superimpose famous NYC sights behind you and you get to take the photo home for free! Cool, right?

This must be one of the most popular guys at the fair. Every kid wanted to buy a balloon from him. Seriously, almost every kid had a balloon. I wonder how much he made that day?

There were a few Broadway and off Broadway musicals that were represented that day. This is the Wicked booth. You could help yourselves to the props behind that table and they will take a souvenir photograph for you. Yes, of course it's free. That's whats so fun about this fair....almost everything offered at the booths is free! Tons of freebies for everyone :D

Ahhh, I love this booth. The Polaroid Red Carpet booth. You could just step up and they will take your 'red carpet' picture for you, using their Polaroid camera. The picture was really tiny but it was a cool souvenir. Wanna see our 'red carpet' photo?

Isn't that just awesome?!? Sorry that it's a tiny bit grainy. I scanned it with my scanner and tried to blow it up, hence making it grainy. Grainy or not, I still loveee this pic.

The kids (especially the little boys) loved this fire truck. It was part of the FDNY booth. All the kids were given a bright red plastic FDNY hat and they could go on the fire truck to explore. Boy, there were kids everywhere! Inside the truck, on top of the truck, behind the truck...it reminded me somewhat of ants, tiny little red ants running all over the truck :P

This is a pretty fun booth too. There were all kinds of supplies available for anybody who wanted to sit down and make some art and crafts. Paper bags, glue, color pencils, paint, yarn...you name it, they got it! The kids here were more under control and better behaved (unlike the fire truck kids :P). I think that it's really good that the kids were given an opportunity to get creative and express themselves.

We were happily walking along Greenwich St. when we saw this super long line. It's so long I couldn't get the whole line in frame. This was only half of the line! We were like "Wow, there must be something good in that booth at the end of this line". So, we walked up to the front to check it out.

The booth is sponsored by Fandango and they had this little 'wheel of fortune' thing. Everyone gets one spin and everybody wins something, be it just a Fandango sticker, a Fandango t shirt, DVDs or movie tickets! Sure, it's cool that everybody wins something but seriously, I wouldn't line up for over an hour just to spin that wheel and knowing my luck, I would just win a sticker :P So yeah, we moved on.

Ahhhh this was one of our favorite booths that day. Bloomberg was giving out free popcorn! I guess we were lucky cos there wasn't really a line when are got there. I guess maybe it was already almost the end of the day and the crowds have gone home. Who knows.

Mmmmm, looks yummy, doesn't it? We had a choice of Cheddar Cheese or Chocolate popcorn. We asked for one each, so we could try both. Yuummmyy yummmy! Oh and you can see Kevin holding our free Polaroid souvenir, Yeah, it's THAT small.

The popcorn wasn't the highlight of Bloomberg's booth. This is! We were given an opportunity to take a 3D photograph. How awesome is that??? Yes, the line for that was pretty long but we decided to get in line anyways. How often do you get a chance to take a 3D photo?

We stood in line for almost 45 minutes and at last we made it into the 'studio'. They had a make shift 'set' with all kinds of props that we could use. Since it's the Tribeca Film Festival, they tried to make it look as though we were on a movie set, filming on location. Very very cool.

Since it wasn't just a straight forward snap and print job, we had to wait quite a while to get our 3D photo. Look at all the people waiting for their photos.

Yay! Our turn! Here is a photo of the technician working on our photo. I am not sure how it works but he somehow converts our colored photo to some black and white photo and if we look at it with 3D glasses, Kevin and I will pop out from the photo! Too bad I cannot show you the photo here. It's like super coooool....definitely worth waiting in line for. By the time we got our 3D photo, it was already past 6 and the fair was winding down. Overall, we had an awesome time and yes, I agree with all those who say that this is the ultimate NYC street fair! I'm glad we went to check it out and we will definitely return next year!!!

Tribeca Film Festival Family St. Fair (Part II)

From Washington Market Park, we walked over to Duane St to check out the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival section of the fair. The guys from the American Express Guest Information booth told us that we should totally check out the Dave Voelker BMX Stunt Show that will be starting soon, so we hurried over there to check it out.

The Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival section must be one of the more popular sections at the fair. All of the major NY/NJ pro sports teams had booths with all kinds of games, sports clinics, celebrity appearances as well as meet the fans sessions. Among some of the big names represented were the NY Giants, NY Jets, NY Knicks, NY Rangers, NY Red Bulls, Brooklyn Cyclones and of course, the boys from our neighborhood, the Newark Bears :P

When we arrived, we realized that we were a little bit early and the BMX show has yet to begin. In fact, they were just starting to set up. So, we decided to walk around to check out the booths first. This is a cute little play section sponsored by ESPN. There were all kinds of bouncy balls in all sizes as well as hula hoops for the kids to play with. Oh how I wished I was still a kid. Looks like they were all having such a great time, just bouncing around!

The folks from the NY Knicks booth were having some sort of hoops shooting competition for kids and the winners walked away with some cool NY Knicks merchandise. Nice! Apart from having competitions, they also had quite a few hands on basketball clinics by basketball pros through out the day.

A large crowd was gathering at the NY Knicks booth and we were wondered what was going on. So, we made our way over there to check out the scene. Looks like the Knicks City Dancers were giving out autographs and having a meet and greet session with their fans. Geeezzz...all this commotion just to get autographs from a bunch of cheerleaders??? I wonder what will happen when the real basketball pros come out. I bet it will be a mad house!

They also had quite a number of this big bouncy things all over the ESPN sports section. This particular one is sponsored by the NY Jets. It was quite fun to see the kids running and bouncing through the 'big guys', trying to make it to the end zone and go for that touchdown. :D

The NY Rangers also had quite a lot going on at their booth. They too had those big bouncy things and little kids would try and score a goal by hitting an over sized puck into the goal. The bigger kids had a chance to try their hand at box hockey. The first guy to hit the puck into the goal wins. The NY Rangers also set up a street hockey rink where there were clinics as well as competitions through out the day. While we were there, they were just getting ready and suiting up the kids ( I think they should be about 3-4 years old) for a game. We didn't stay for the game though, should have. They were so cute. The goal keeper was so padded up, I didn't think that he could even walk!

Ahhh the NY Red Bulls booth. It's actually quite sad and pathetic to see the lack of interest for the game among Americans. All the other major league booths were filled with people but nobody really cared for the only MLS team that was represented that day. In fact, they didn't even get a spot in the main sports section. They were out over by themselves, outside of the sports section. Hopefully America does well in the upcoming World Cup (actually, maybe not too well. they are in the same grouping as England and I'm an England fan!). Maybe Americans will start to take notice and give soccer a chance if Team USA shines at the World Cup. Who knows. Anyways, from the Tribeca ESPN Sports Film Festival section, we headed off towards Greenwich St (which is the main section of the whole festival). Will blog more about that next!

Tribeca Film Festival Family St. Fair (Part I)

This is a very backdated post. I guess I have been too busy (and somewhat lazy) to go through all the photos that we took and blog about this event. Oh well, like they all say, it's better late than never! The Family Festival Street Fair is one of the highlights of the month long annual Tribeca Film Festival. Many people label it as 'NYCs ultimate street fair and family festival'. So naturally, I was pretty excited about it. Having missed the fair last year, I told myself that I HAVE to check it out this year. Kevin on the other hand wasn't all that keen (he probably didn't know how awesome it will be!) and by the time we actually arrived in Tribeca, it was already almost 2:30pm. So, we had only about 3 and a half hours left to walk around before they wrap up.

Upon arrival, we realized that we forgot to bring along the street map that I had pre printed off the Internet earlier. Since the whole festival spreads over the entire Tribeca neighborhood, with various events happening simultaneously at various locations, I was pretty bummed that we forgot the map. Thankfully, the first booth that we saw when we arrived was the American Express (they were the main sponsor of the festival) Guest Information booth. Not only did we get a map, but the super friendly and informative people at the booth pointed out the highlights of the festival and suggested various things that we could do. Very very cool.

Our first stop was the BMCC & The Park section of the fair. This is where you can catch all kinds of theater, dance, music and martial arts performances. Also, there are all kinds of classes and workshops going on throughout the day. The first thing that we saw when we walked in was the Imagination Playground. It's pretty cool actually. There were over sized building blocks and puzzle pieces scattered all over the enclosed basketball area. Kids were allowed to be creative and build anything they want. Also, since it was in an enclosed area, it was really safe for the kids. Parents can just kick back and not worry about the safety of their kids.

We then headed over to the Tribeca Red Carpet area but nothing much was going on there. I think there were a few wax figures of celebrities from Madame Tussauds and you were allowed to go take a picture with them. We didn't really bother cos the line was just too long. So, we headed to one of the stages and managed to catch a few dance routines by the Knicks City Dancers! For those of you who don't follow the NBA, they are the cheerleaders for the NY Knicks. Kevin thinks that they are probably the second or third liners, cos they were not really that great. We later confirmed that when we saw the first liners signing autographs at the NY Knicks booth over that the ESPN Zone.

From there, we popped over to Washington Market Park to see what's happening over there. Nothing much for us adults, it's mostly activities for kids. While we were there, we managed to catch the tail end of a magic show cum storytelling session at the Park Gazebo. The guy was pretty good and the kids loved him. There were also puppet shows and other performances for kids at the Park Gazebo through out the day.

The whole park was nicely decorated with over sized butterflies and dragonflies. I thought that it was pretty cool. Apart from performances at the Park Gazebo, there were also ample picnic tables under the large shady trees for people to just relax and enjoy the outdoors. There were many families having their picnic lunches all around the park. I'm guessing this festival is an all day affair for most people.

Aren't the flowers just lovely? Yes, it's springtime and tulips are blooming everywhere! I cannot help but take loads of pictures with all the beautiful flowers (I took like tons of pictures but decided spare all you guys and only post up one :P). From Washington Market Park, we decided to head over to the Tribeca Sports Film Festival section. This is where you can meet sports personalities from various NY/NJ pro sport teams as well as try your hand at sport themed games at the booths. You could also catch BMX stunt shows and other performances there. Stay tuned for my next post about the ESPN Tribeca Sports Film Festival section of the fair!

NJ State Fair @ The Meadowlands

The Annual NJ State Fair @ Meadowlands is here again! It's the largest state fair in the whole of NJ, with over 150 rides and attractions! Kevin and I have been wanting to go since it started on June 25th but we never got around to it. At last, we managed to go last Friday (since the last day was July 12th) night. It's located at the Giant's Stadium Fairgrounds, about 15 - 20 minutes away from our apartment :D We arrived at around 8pm and parking was fairly easy. I guess it's because of the big car park or maybe it's still considered little bit early. Parking is $3 for the entire night.

We got our tickets at $9 ($7 for weekdays) a person at the door and was given the option to buy an unlimited ride stamp for an additional $19.90. We passed on that, I don't think we will be riding enough rides at the fair to make it worthwhile. I guess it's a good deal if you have kids with you.

Our first stop was to go take a ride on the Skyride. It's actually a ski lift that goes from one end of the fair to the other. We figured it's the best way to check out the fair, to see what we want to do and stuff. The view was amazing from up there, check out this little video clip that I took when we were on the Skyride.

After the Skyride, we just walked around to check out the many attractions at the fair. There were all kinds of weird attractions...things that you would expect to see at a travelling fair. For $1, you get to see the worlds tallest girl, woman with the face of a mule, the worlds smallest monkey or the baby with two heads! Of course we didn't waste our money to see all this nonsense :P We just needed to waste some time walking around before we head to watch something that we were looking forward to for the longest time.

Yup, that's right. It's time for the long awaited Pig Races!! Hahaha! I've never seen pig racing before and I was pretty excited to check it out. We made a point to get to the arena early, so that we will get front row seats. There were three heats, here is a video of the second heat. Aren't they just so cute? They look pretty fast here but you should see the third heats. It featured the Asian Pot Bellied Pigs. Boy were they fat! I mean, they were so hugeee..it wasn't even funny. They were just merrily strolling along the track, I think it took them about 3-4 minutes just to complete the race. It was funny!

After the pig races, we walked over to the petting zoo to look at the animals. There were quite a lot of animals there. They had llamas, goats, sheep, donkeys, kangaroos, rabbits, parrots...even monkeys and a big camel (of course you are not allowed to pet the monkeys and camel :P)!

Check out what's next to the petting zoo. Noooo, you are not allowed to pet those! Hahaha! They are actually part of the famous tiger show act. It's free and there are 4 performances per night. We didn't managed to catch the acts cos there were other shows that we wanted to see going on at the same time as the tiger show. However, it was cool that we got a chance to get up to close to real tigers...we were just a few feet away from them!

There were also elephant rides (the elephant is 41 years old!), camel rides and pony rides.

After all that walking around, it was time to get a snack! There are over a hundred food stalls at the fair, selling all kinds of yummy carnival food. From turkey legs to corn dogs to funnel cakes! We shared a funnel cake (of course!) and Kevin also had a large pretzel too! The funnel cake was hugeeeee and really good. It better be good, we paid a good $6 for it! Just imagine, $6 for some dough and sugar...tsk tsk tsk :P

Another good thing about this fair is that there are constantly live shows to watch. Apart from the pig races, we also managed to catch a mini concert by a local band as well as a magic show by the people from Festival of Magic. There were also other things going on like a show by hypnotist Steve Bayner, the Marcan tiger show and a bicycle tricks show.

Apart from live shows, there were also all kinds of rides and carnival games. I just love the whole atmosphere at the fair.

We ended the night by going for a midnight (well, more like nearing 1am) ride on the Giant Wheel. The view from the wheel was just amazing! We could see the whole Manhattan skyline, all lit up as well as a few bridges and of course, a birds eye view of the fair itself. With the nice cool breeze blowing in our faces and the beautiful view, it was definitely the best way to end our evening at the fair :D