Beautiful summer morning- the air was still cool and dry when we left the house. Since there was no uptown train at Delancey street, we hopped into a cab to the Central Park. Our first stop, an African drum and dance workshop at Tavern on the Green. It was just fantastic 'little' event, since main participants were little people. They practiced playing djembe drums and doing african dance moves in relaxed and intimate atmosphere. This was just a great place to hang out, because there were nice food trucks right behind. There, I found mommy's dream food.

Pera Turkish Tacos at Tavern on the Green
Among the few 'gourmet' food trucks there, this seemed the most interesting. Turkish tacos? They even offered alcoholic beverages! We had eggplant kofte & squash taco. Taiyo sat down at a table, and immediately began to devour the taco. It was the perfect size for him to hold, and when I realized that he wasn't let go of the taco, I went back to the truck and told the guy "I have to get another one, because he's eating the whole thing." This was magical food. It was delicious, healthy, not messy plus we were outside. Then we enjoyed more music wondering around the park. He really liked the lady with the violin.
On the east side we came upon this great band with fabulous name: The Dirty Urchins. Being an urchin himself, Taiyo very much enjoyed the music. Line was too long at the zoo and we gave up on the idea of seeing the penguins. We passed by the amusement park at Wollman Rink, but didn't investigate because they charged fee just to enter the park. Taiyo was too tired anyway. He was fast asleep by the time we left the park.

Evening outing on the bike: we headed to the west side and decided to stop in at Merchant River House. I was pretty sure this can be moderately kid-friendly because of the location. Surely, they offered a high chair immediately, although Taiyo refused to sit in it, and gave him a packet of crayons. We did like our table right across from the kitchen window. Most of the plates coming out looked nice and fresh. Our waitress wasn't very firendly, but this place seemed quite adequately staffed, things were pretty smooth. Our dinner: Merchant River House Pizza, and warm spinach and artichoke dip. The cheezy and rick dip was a big hit for Taiyo. He fussed having to have to wait a bit since dip was piping hot. He didn't care to touch pizza, which was a sad item. It was edible, but totally overbaked and crunchy. Taiyo was shouting jibblish in between, but staff were busy enough he went pretty much noticed. Then he began to run around a little, but his behavior was well tolerated and the manager trafficed the waiters off the little urchin runing by their feet. Overall it was fairy positive visit. I would just not order pizza next time. The rest of the evening, Taiyo seriously ran around like a bouncy ball here and there across Battery Park City for two hours. Finally I put him back into the bike and we biked through Battery Park to admire fireflies. Then he was fast asleep again.