My dear parents -- age 70 and 73 -- who are both still pretty active and healthy have been dropping hints that they want to go back to New York. I think this is kind of endearing for some odd reason. (They visited last year as part of a tour and liked it, but didn't get to do all they wanted. They said there were too many "old" people on their trip who couldn't get around.) I've been a few times and in the YOLO spirit have offered to go with them in late September and be their tour guide. They want to go on walking tours of Central Park, see some of the neighborhoods, try to go to a taping of the Stephen Colbert show (yeah, impossible, but I'd move the earth if I could make it happen for them), and I'm not sure what else. I'll just squire them around with their reduced fare subway passes.
In the past when I've visited with my husband, we've always stayed near Union Square (Strand Bookstore, ya'll!). I've decided to forego staying in Manhattan and have narrowed our lodging choices down to a few flats in Brooklyn, close to express train lines and parks. It's more spacious, much cheaper, and we can cook some meals at night. I like the neighborhood feel. Most days we'll train hop to see what we want in Manhattan, then come back out to Brooklyn.
Other than the obvious things to do in Brooklyn (Botanical Garden and Prospect Park) do people have any other semi-Mustachian suggestions? (Collectively, we enjoy cooking, bookstores, parks, botanic gardens, libraries, good eats, people watching, history...)
I want it to be a memorable trip. They're taking our family on a trip to Alaska this summer (all expenses paid) to celebrate their 50th anniversary and I want to make this nice for them and give them a few thrills (which don't have to cost a lot of money).