Puma City NY @ The Seaport

After walking around the Great 4th of July Festival on Water St for what seemed like forever, we decided that enough is enough. It was wayyyy too hot to be walking around under the blazing sun. It was so humid and hot, I actually felt physically sick. Kevin suggested that we should head over to the South Street Seaport area to hangout. With it being on the waterfront, the breeze might help us feel a little cooler. If all else fails, we could walk around the Pier 17 mall and enjoy the air con for a bit. Also, he remembered that Puma is having some sort of World Cup event all month long at the Seaport and said that we could check that out too. Air con at the mall? World Cup stuff? Sounds good to me..let's go!From the moment we walked into the South Street Seaport area, we saw red colored themed tents everywhere. I went up to the site map and found out that it was a pretty big event and that there were quite a number of things going. The whole event is sponsored by Puma and it's on daily from June 11 to July 11, in conjunction with the World Cup. Apart from being able to watch live World Cup matches on big screens, there are also other things that you could do.

I guess the one thing that really stood out was the Puma Football Pitch. They have tournaments and football clinics going on daily through out the whole month. In between those 'official' events, everybody is invited to just go in and kick the ball around. They have short matches where you can just team up with strangers, form teams and play a game. I think that is an absolutely brilliant idea, since football is a game that brings people from all over the world together.

There wasn't any tournament or clinics going on while we were there. However, there were kids in the Puma Football Pitch, playing a game. It was really fun to watch how this game just brings everybody together. Those kids didn't know each other before they stepped into the pitch but once they started playing, they all became friends. I could gage from their accents that they were probably tourist, hailing from different parts of the world, but because of this event, they had the chance to play football with total strangers, right in the heart of NYC. How cool is that? Good job Puma for coming up with this idea!

There were also small stalls all over that sold supporter jerseys/t shirts for the various World Cup teams and other World Cup souvenirs too. I tried looking for a vuvuzela but I couldn't find any. Hmmm, maybe you can only get it in Africa :P

If you are not looking for a particular team jersey, you could also go to one of the two Puma Retail Containers to pick up some Puma merchandise. I didn't go in to check the retail outlets out (I'm not really a big Puma fan, sorry...) but I saw many people coming out of those containers with bags and bags of merchandise. I guess they must have some sort of good deals in there.

Here is another cool thing you could do at Puma City NY. If you were to buy a jersey or t shirt at the event, you could bring it over to this booth and they will personalized it for you there and then! You could also add in Puma graphics to make it a one of a kind souvenirs. For those of you who doesn't really want to spend a lot of money for a souvenir, Puma has a free Photo Booth, where you can enter and get a souvenir photo for FREE! We were too lazy to line up just to get our photos taken, so we decided to pass up on that.

From Puma City, we headed over to the Mall at Pier 17 to hang out. It felt so good to escape the heat for a bit and we enjoyed ourselves just walking around in the nice air con mall. We knew that we could get a great view of the East River, Brooklyn Heights and the bridges from the top floor of the mall, so we headed outside to check it out. Look at all the comfortable deck chairs! Too bad they were all taken. If not, it would have been pretty relaxing to just sit there in the breeze and shade, just enjoying the view of the waterfront.

Check out the awesome view! No, not of my sun burnt face! :P I was referring to the view of the East River as well as the three bridges that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn. The one closest to me is the famous Brooklyn Bridge, followed by the Manhattan Bridge and the furthest one of all is the Williamsburg Bridge. You can also see the ever so popular Water Taxi Beach in the foreground. We initially wanted to head down there for a drink and maybe some snacks but it was just way too hot. The best time to go hangout at the Water Taxi Beach is after sunset. That's right...when the sun goes down, things begin to heat up at the Water Taxi Beach! From what I hear, it's an awesome place to party - with reasonably priced drinks and pub food.
Here is another photo of the 'BMW' bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg) and the East River. You can also see the Circle Line River Cruise ferry just under the Brooklyn Bridge. Jumping on the Circle Line Cruise is one of the best ways to see Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. You can buy the tickets and board the ferry right here on Pier 17. After all the walking and stuff, it was already time for dinner. We decided to hail a cab and head over to Little Italy to search for a yummy 'road side' restaurant. More about that in my 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!

The Medieval Festival at Fort Tyron Park

Last Sunday afternoon, Kevin and I took the A Train all the way uptown to 190th St to Fort Tyron Park. Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Washington Heights section of the NYC borough of Manhattan. It is situated on a 67 acre ridge, with an awesome view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River. It is is also site of The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to medieval art and culture. It was the perfect setting for the 2009 Medieval Festival that we were there to check out.

The Medieval Festival at Fort Tyron is an annual event, with this being the 25th year running. Produced by the Washington Heights & Inwood Development Corporation and supported by The City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation, it is one of the largest and most popular event held in all NYC parks. They expect a total of 40,000 visitors this year and guess what? Admission is free!

So, what is the festival all about? Well, the purpose of the festival is an attempt to bring to life the customs and spirit of the Middle Ages. Fort Tryon Park is transformed into a Medieval market town decorated with bright banners and processional flags. Performers, guests and festival goers dress in medieval costumes. Visitors are greeted by authentic medieval music, dance, magic, minstrels, as well as jugglers and jesters.

The moment we stepped out from the subway station, we were greeted by girls dressed in Medieval costumes, dancing to Medieval music. How cool is that? Something tells me it's gonna be one cool festival.

Since admissions to the festival is free, the organizers have set up two wishing wells at the entrance. You can help out with the production cost by donating a couple of dollars to the wishing well. The suggested donation is $2, which I feel is reasonable - given the size and how elaborate the event was.

You can also help yourselves to a free festival program booklet at the entrance. It's loaded with all the information you would need to enjoy the festival - a map of the whole festival grounds, times and locations of events and performances as well as write ups about the events.

Our first stop was The South Lawn Village. Here at the South Lawn Village Square, you can check out and buy all sorts of Medieval weaponry as well as watch various types of combat demonstrations.

There are also all kinds of stalls selling Medieval craft, clothes, jewelry...just about anything you can think of. Heck, you can even get your own pet dragon here! :P

On the other side of South Lawn Village is where you can learn all about Medieval crafts and watch life demos. There were all kinds of demos, from weaving to spooling yarn! Pretty interesting actually.

From the South Lawn Village, we made our way Centercheap Market. This is where all the Artisans gather to sell their wares. Here is one lady making and selling clay mugs.

Here is another crowd favorite. The blacksmith, his wife and a few apprentice were out in full force, making swords, knives and other cool stuff. Business was brisk too...I sometimes wonder what all those people do with the swords and other weaponry they buy from festivals like this? Take it out when their friends come over to play Dungeons and Dragons? :P

You can also see many street performers all over Centercheap Market, be it juggling, playing music or just telling stories from the past.

We managed to catch the Majesta Chanters, performing the Gregorian Chant. Interesting but I guess we sorta lost interest after a while..haha!

We continued walking and ended up at Sir Stan Wichels Tournament Field of Honor. Guess what we saw there? Yup, a princess riding a unicorn!! See, I told you guys that unicorns are real...but noooo, nobody believed me! Who's the loony one now??? :P

We then entered the Tournament Field to grab a seat and waited for the Children's Costume Parade to begin.

Here they are. Look at all the cutie pies marching around the field. Aren't they just adorable? Not much of a parade, they just walked around the field and ended by giving everybody a bow :P However, they were just soooo cute, so who cares if they just walked around the field. They did a good job! :D

After the parade, it was the event everybody was waiting for all day. King Rene's Joust Tournament!! A thrilling joust between four knights on horseback. Very exciting!

Now it's time for some food. Just opposite the Tournament Field is the Triangle Pub. Here you can get all kinds of food like fried dough and turkey legs. Look at all those yummy turkey legs on the grill! You can buy beer in giant Medieval steins or wine in goblets too. We didn't manage to buy anything, cos the line was just too long. Just how long is long? Well, there were at least about 60-80 people in every line. I overheard a lady complaining that she has been in line for almost an hour and it's not even her turn yet!! I think I'll give those turkey legs a pass. I know that the smell of the turkey legs grilling on an open fire was just so good, but no way will I wait in line for an hour just to get some.

Ahhh the famous Cloisters. The Cloisters incorporates several Medieval buildings that were purchased in Europe, brought to the United States, and reassembled, often stone by stone. You could go up there and check out the museum but we didn't really have enough time to fully enjoy it. We will have to return another day, just for The Cloisters.

There was also two childrens section - The Kids Zone and The Little Theatre. In The Kids Zone, there were all kinds of arts and craft like puppet making and costumes. There were storytelling and magic shows by Merlin the Magician in The Little Theatre. Kids also had a chance to meet Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham at The Little Theatre.

Another cool thing about the festival was that there were just musicians and performers everywhere you go. You see them sitting on rocks by the cliff, by the walkways or even on bales of hay :P After spending almost the whole afternoon at the festival, it was time to go home. It was my first Medieval Festival and I really enjoyed it. Everybody was so into it (a lot of visitors were also in costumes), for a brief moment, it felt like I just walked back into time. I will most definitely return next year for the 2010 Medieval Festival (this time, maybe in costume :P)!!