The 2008 Memorial Day weekend is almost here (May 23-26) and the AAA is projecting that more Americans will stay at home during this Memorial Day holiday, due to high fuel prices. That argument is not entirely without merit, so here’s a few ways you can enjoy the Memorial Day events in and around New York without having to fill up on the gas and book into an expensive hotel or getaway resort. In short, a traditional Memorial Day weekend in New York on the cheap.

Fleet Week: The Annual NYC Fleet Week (May 21-28) includes a plethora of events including public ship visitations, helicopter raid demonstrations (you know, where they throw these lines out of the copters and swoop down), a Times Square concert, Navy band performance, an F-18 Navy flight simulator display, and lots of Memorial Day parades all over New York. Here’s a full list of all events held for Fleet Week, with date, time and location.

Queens Memorial Day Parade: If you’re fond of parades, the biggest Memorial Day Parade in the U.S. is held at Little Neck and Douglaston, Queens. The parade starts at 2 pm at the corner of Jason Avenue and Northern Boulevard in Great Neck, moving west on Northern Boulevard to 244 Street into St. Anastasia Schoolyard. The theme for the 2008 parade is ‘Fort Totten From War To Peace’. Photo courtesy & copyrights Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade Org., Inc.

MET Special Events: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has two specials for Memorial Day. First is the family festival at the Cloisters – Two days (May 24-25) of programs for the entire family, with tours and gallery workshops in English and Spanish. More details here. Secondly, the MET is open on Memorial Day as part of its ‘Holiday Mondays’ program sponsored by Bloomberg. Here’s the list of exhibitions open on Monday.

Lower East Side Festival of the Arts: This is the 13th year of the LES festival, and this year the organizers have put together over 70 groups with 250+ performers, with street fairs, theater, dance, music, poetry, art and multimedia presentations, food vendors, cooking competitions and lots more. More details here.

If you’re interested in street fairs, you might want to make note of the Times Square Fair on May 25th, at Seventh Avenue 47th to 57th streets, from 11 am to 6 pm. Call 212-809-4900 for more information. There’s also the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit from noon to 6 pm during the Memorial Day weekend, which attracts over 200 artists and more than 200,000 art lovers every year.

Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration: The Memorial Day weekend celebrations to honor the cultural significance of the Brooklyn Bridge in its 125th year include a Brooklyn Philharmonic concert followed by a Grucci Fireworks extravaganza, open air film screenings at the foot of the bridge, walking tours, and dance and music festivals. Photo by runnyc262 via Flickr.

All performances are free. Here’s the full list of events starting May 22nd. The bridge will be lit up with festive lighting until Memorial Day from 9 pm to 11 pm, so you might want to hang around from evening until at least 9 pm, just to see the lights come on.

There’s a lot of stuff going on all over New York, from Staten Island to Manhattan, and you have an extended weekend at your disposal. Why not make use of it to get to know the culture and the art and artists of New York, not to mention the additional significance of Memorial Day, in light of the Iraq war and the enormous sacrifices made by the men and women in the Armed Forces to help keep America safe.

I just found out about a new card game to improve family communication on long vacation drives and a kid’s seat harness for airline flights to improve safety.

Family Talk-Improved

This weekend our family is driving three hours to visit friends in Clear Lake, CA. We always let our kids watch a movie in the car but that only keeps their interest for part of the drive. They have moved beyond “I Spy” and I have forbidden them from their all-time favorite game, “slug bug” as they think it is fun to slug harder with each turn. No, I didn’t teach them that game, a 28 year old cousin did…(thanks, cuz.) As I contemplated the journey, I was pleased to get a few ideas for improving the car ride from a new company, Around The Table.

Around The Table has created three card decks for promoting family communication. I plan on taking Family Talk. I like the concept because the game looks fun, I think it will create interesting conversation and it is portable. Each card has a question you ask your kids to get beyond the “how was school? it was fine.” daily routine. The question that captured my interest was “what is your favorite stuffed animal.” My ten year old daughter loves her stuffed animals, she brings about a thousand with her all the time and I would like to understand this, well, obsession. For my 8 year old son, I want to ask him, “What would he change about school?” I won’t let him say cancel all classes. Both ideas are from the pack.

Each deck of 100 cards is attached to a carabineer clip you can clip to a backpack or purse. The manufacturer promises, “Anticipating a long wait at the airport? Whip out these questions and the time will fly. Stuck in traffic with the kids? Family Talk, will encourage the kids to ask anything but “are we there yet?”

And I am all about that. For more information about the other games, go here.

Hate schlepping that car seat onto the plane? Read More »

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

When I was asked to write about ideas for a three-day weekend, I panicked since we are a notoriously last-minute kind of family; planning ahead means calling the hotel from the parking lot to see if they have any vacancies.

So I decided to check the paper to see what everyone else was doing, and judging by the endless ads and inserts it was obvious how 99% of America would be spending their holiday – shopping. This was a great idea that involved minimum forethought, and another excellent way to help our economy! My husband wouldn’t be too thrilled, but neither was I when he made me camp in the rain that time, either. Besides, I get just as much joy from bringing home a new purse as I would from lugging back a piece of driftwood.

We’ll start off our weekend by heading out to the mother of all shopping malls, the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Supposedly they have something like five million stores in there – I’ve heard that the owners don’t even know how many and when they’re done counting their bags of money at night they just go right back and build another store in the morning.

But first we’d have to eat, so we’ll stop at Coco Noche in Manhattan Beach, a wine and chocolate restaurant that serves excellent tapas dishes. We’d order the Korean beef served with lettuce leaves and their chicken sandwiches. My husband would still be fuming over the whole shopping thing, and would just down a couple of beers. Afterwards we would sample some chocolate – they have exotic ones like chili pepper and cinnamon.

When we got to the mall we’d first have to appease our two tween girls so our first stop would be Hot Topic. I would limit them to 30 minutes because to be perfectly honest that place scares the hell out of me – I’m always afraid I’ll come out of there and realize I’d gotten my tongue pierced and a skull tattooed on my stomach.

Next I would go to Bloomingdales and not come out for three hours.

After hours of spending my husband’s hard-earned cash we’d need to eat again and luckily food was nearby. I truly believe that next to stretch jeans, man’s greatest invention has got to be the Mall Food Court, where a family of four can eat tacos, baguettes and pizza all at the same meal. Next we’d head to our hotel, which I had just reserved three minutes earlier.

The next morning I’d be feeling sorry for my husband, so we’d head across the street to one of our favorite places in the city, Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario. You wouldn’t expect to find a sculpture garden created by a world-class artist wedged between a Chili’s and FedEx office, but there it is. We’d wander around the cactuses and rocks and listen to the amazing silence in the middle of the city. I’d try to enjoy it and not think too much about that fajita pan I put on hold at Crate and Barrel.

On our way home we’d stop by Huntington Beach and sit out on the sand for awhile to count our receipts enjoy the sound of the waves. We’d all agree that it had been a great weekend – and while we were coming home poorer, we could all rest in easy in the thought that we looked stunning in our new clothes.

What are some ways you spend a three-day weekend? Are you a plan-ahead or a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of person?