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Roosevelt Island: A Simple, Amazing Excursion for Families

July 5, 2012 by City Dads Group

Editor’s Note: Below is guest blog post from active NYC Dads Group member, Watson K., about our recent excursion to Roosevelt Island – L.S.
A few weeks ago, my son, daughter, and I joined up with a few other NYC Dads Group members and went to the Roosevelt Island excursion sponsored by Urban Sitter.  We had a wonderful time!
The tram ride, one of those amazing New York City experiences I’ve always wanted to do, was fun and easy enough, even with a double stroller!  The ride is smooth, takes about seven minutes, includes jaw-dropping views, and is just the cost of a subway ride (or swipe of your MetroCard).  After the brief ride, it was a moderate walk to the playground area, which was pretty NYC standard, but with lots of room to run around.  One side of the playground had a tot-lot geared towards the cruisers & new walkers, separated by basketball courts, with a larger sized playscape for the older kids on the other end.  All with prime water views of the river!
As usual, it was the company that made the event:  Nice dads with kids of various ages, talking together, eating and sharing snacks, and watching the grey skies for any rain (safe!), and getting a little “time off” thanks to three very friendly UrbanSitter staff. UrbanSitter (sponsored this meetup event) recently launched in New York City and is such a simple and unique concept, it’s no surprise, that so many parents are utilizing their resource in cities across the country.  Think of the UrbanSitter concept like using Open Table for a dinner reservation.   Basically, you logon, decide which day/time you would like to hire a sitter, review several sitters (by price, experience, reviews, which ones accept credit cards, etc.) in your neighborhood, and easily book them online.  It made for a nice morning to be able to have conversations with several of the dads while our children were being carefully tended to by UrbanSitter.
urbansitter spotting child on playground at Roosevelt Island
UrbanSitter babysitter carefully spotting one of our kids on climbing structure
When I asked UrbanSitter about their services I was impressed by their versatility:  Initially, I suggested that I probably wouldn’t use their services much since I live on Staten Island, and they said that they have connections in any location so it was not a problem.  Additionally, I go to the occasional commercial audition, and asked if I could arrange short-term care in random locations (i.e., for an hour-long meeting at Broadway and Houston) and they assured me they could.  Pretty cool!
Roosevelt Island is a bit of a hike for us (we live in Staten Island), but if you’ve never done it or live closer to the Tram at 59th Street and 2nd Avenue, it’s a fun experience to do as a family.  Some of the other dads said that they take the Tram more often to Roosevelt Island – “a small and quiet local oasis outside of Manhattan.”  Now that I have more of a handle on how to manage two small children, and now that the weather is more pleasant, I plan to be out and about more frequently in the city.  See you around!
Disclosure: The event was sponsored by UrbanSitter.  As always, the comments and opinions are our own.

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Filed Under: NYC, play, travel Tagged With: Roosevelt Island, sponsored event / post, UrbanSitter

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