I ♥ NY

The lack of posting has been due to preparations for and traveling to our family vacation spot this year: NYC to visit my sister Emily. She claims that we are wearing her out on our daily excursions, but has managed to update her blog twice with our visit.

We arrived late on Wednesday afternoon, and walked from her apartment to a great little Italian place, then walked to a gelateria to watch the sunset by the Hudson. On Thursday both Emily and Anthony had to work, so I took the kids out. They got quite an education immediately on the subway: first Colin pounced on what looked like a pile of clothes to look out the window but it was actually a sleeping homeless person folded over. She scowled at us but immediately folded back over and resumed sleep. Also, we had the schizophrenic man giving us an important rambling message, and a blind man slowly making his way through our train while serenading us and holding out his cup. Between these adventures, we visited the Empire State Building and spent about 3 hours at Central Park, which has some amazing playscapes and even large boulders to climb.

Friday Emily joined us and we did the Museum of Natural History, then we met Anthony to visit Highline Park. This was a really cool space, a park built on an abandoned elevated train track, using mostly native flowers -- the kind that were already growing there before anyone started tending it. It was a beautiful place to be, with so many locals lounging and strolling. We had a really great gelato cone each as we strolled, enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze.

Today we had a lazy brunch, then went to the amazing Times Square ToysRUs. It has an indoor ferris wheel, life size animatronic T. Rex, life size Barbie Fun House, and a large Lego and Star Wars selection. Then we went to see "Mary Poppins." The kids were enthralled with their first Broadway show. The show has been updated with some new songs and old ones, and the story reworked a little - much improved from the overly long movie - we all loved it. Dinner tonight was Japanese-Brasilian fusion at SushiSamba.

I can't believe tomorrow is our last full day. Stay tuned...