Looking for ideas for a day-trip to NYC

Wow so many typos. Please excuse my poor grammar.

Manhattan is so big, you should probably choose an area to concentrate upon. The Village, Little Italy and Chinatown are relatively close and can be done together. These neighborhoods are filled with so many small and interesting shops that it can be fun to just wander with no pre-planned agenda. Further uptown you can take in museums and more traditional shopping. If you are going to be there after Thanksgiving you might take in Rockefeller Center and the tree - although this can get pretty crowed on weekends.

Try cloudtravel's http://radio.weblogs.com/0117154/stories/2003/03/30/newYorkCityOverview.html or the http://radio.weblogs.com/0117154/stories/2003/04/04/aGrandDayOutInNewYork.html (which actually would probably take you a couple days unless you know your way around pretty well.) http://www.bigapplegreeter.org/ may be a good resource, too: they match up visitors with locals who are knowledgeable about a particular aspect of the city and are happy to share. (Never done it myself, but it sounds neat.) I can also recommend Jane Egginton's http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0762712295. If you give us a sense of the sorts of things that you and your mom and aunt may find interesting, we may be able to give you some more concrete recommendations. What do you like? Restauraunts? (Fancy? Hole-in-the-wall? Ethnic? Trendy?) Museums? (Art? History?) People-watching? Quiet neighborhoods? Shopping (funky? trendy? high-end? Second-hand?) Music? (live, clubs, jazz, classical, the stuff the kids like?) You get the drift. You also may want to park outside the city and take the train in -- that way you won't have to sweat the parking hassle and expense. Where in PA are you coming from?

if you want food/culture/shopping, i'd stay downtown (below 14th street) and just spend the day walking around, wandering, and letting serendipity take its course. i'm a wandering person myself, and would just walk around a few different neighborhoods in one day. start in, say, the east village (kim's music and video, toy tokyo, alphabets, random weird schlocky and touristy shops all down st. mark's). then wander down and cross over houston onto the lower east side (economy candy, teany, american apparel, katz's deli, lenin on top of that apartment building on houston st.). then hop over to soho (apple store, rocks in your head (great record store), kid robot, prada, rice to riches, crumpler, kate's paperie, shiny expensive things all around). then take a detour over to washington square park and the nyu area. from there you can head up to union square (farmer's market, the strand, forbidden planet), or over to the west village, which is gorgeous, picturesque, and just has a wonderful vibe to it. can't remember any shops off the top of my head, though. but it is the home of excellent food + drink places, such as joe's pizza, magnolia bakery, vegetarian's paradise 2, westville, blue ribbon bakery, vol de nuit. most of the things i've mentioned are easily googleable, as well. i don't know -- i like walking and i like wandering, and i don't mind getting lost or walking in circles.

MOMA's reopening this weekend, so you could stop by there (but it's 20 bucks now to get in)

If it's not your first trip, I'd highly recommend Brooklyn: Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Prospect Park, the Botantical Garden (indoors in winter), Brooklyn Museum, Coney Island, Brighton Beach.