After spending two to three years selling Girl Scout cookies to amass money for a sight-seeing and shopping trip to New York City (mom and dad buy the most boxes of cookies along with grandparents, aunts and uncles) my Girl Scout and I travel with her troop to the Big Apple.

On the schedule was a trip to the American Girl Place, AGP to the AGP insiders. So what exactly was that like. Our fearless leader got us lined up for lunch while one of our party members checked her daughter’s doll into the AGP Hospital for an eye fix. Since a few had forgotten their dolls and many of us didn’t own dolls, we were able to borrow from a selection of American Girl dolls that greeted us when we entered the store.

My tomboy, suffering through an American Girl visit for the sake of her friends, let me choose a Bitty Baby doll. Something that would prove the stuff of nightmares I’m sure. We took turns angling her head to creepily stare at our fellow diners. Now I know why dolls creep out one of the paranormal investigators on SciFi’s the Ghost Hunters.

I of course regretted my selection and wished I had looked for the Kaya doll that matched the miniature doll I had just purchased. Kaya, a Nez Perce girl from 1764 was the only doll that struck my fancy and I purchased a book of stories and a play set to compliment her. My other daughters would enjoy the doll with me I thought to myself as my oldest couldn’t leave the store fast enough.

Lunch was great and dessert was cute. I can’t say that dessert was great because it was a bit too sweet…but cute. A flower pot with mousse, a sweet flower sugar cookie and a sweet heart shaped cake. Luckily the coffee smelled great and tasted good but it didn’t take a bite out of the sweet dessert.

Upon finishing our lunch and exiting, leaving the host dolls behind, the troop leisurely strolled out of American Girl Place, eyeing the dolls, hoping to return on the way back to the vehicles in the evening. To my surprise I think my girl spotted something she thought she wanted. A little white dog named Coconut.

As luck would have it, we got to return to the American Girl Place after our trip to the Statue of Liberty so that the girls making bigger purchases could pick up the dolls on their wish list. My daughter and I picked up Coconut the doggy with the little Statue of Liberty head gear…oh and she had to have Coconut’s bag. We treated her one sister to a Coconut doggie too and her other sister to Licorice the cat that looked just like our cat Sasha. About $175 later we were through with AGP.

The Girl Scout leader was probably right that I had more fun in there than my daughter for the day. However, one thing I was sure of, we enjoyed a bit of girl fun together. Although American Girl Place is not my daughters "thing", she had fun and enjoyed time with her friends and her mom.

I recommend the American Girl Place to anyone looking for a fun time, a nice lunch and a bit of shopping with the one you love.