A New York weekend

Philadelphia is a nice city. Decent cost of living, 2 hours from NY, 3 hours from DC, 2 hours from the shore, driving distance to the mountains, Niagara Falls. We've been to all these places, but NY was always hectic and not very enjoyable. Always in a rush, always either very cold or very hot. We were always overwhelmed, but never truly enjoyed it. We kept on saying we'll stay overnight once to be able to take our time visiting, but we never got to it. Until recently.

Marius had training seminars for a week in NY and he really wanted us to be with him for a while. We decided to join him for 2 nights! Saturday morning we all hoped in the bus and, NY here we come!! We checked in fast at a cute hotel in the theater district and we started walking around.

 I won't lie, the picture is not representative of what was happening. Catalina was in a foul mood. She did not want pictures, she wanted to stay in the hotel to watch movies on my phone. We promised her a trip to the American girl store, so we got some smiles...

Lots of smiles came in the store.

To be fair, the girl did not ask for much, but mommy and daddy were in love with everything in the store. So, our cute little kiddie got plenty of unjustifiable expensive doll stuff. But so, so cute!!
Next stop: fancy, yummy food. Catalina was once again ready to go back to the hotel. Just until we told her we can go to see Kevin's park (a.k.a as Central Park)

 Catalina wanted to climb all the rocks in the park. She worked hard and got up there on her own. My kid, taking over NYC!!

It was a long day we all went back to the hotel for a nice warm shower, some TV watching and some playing with the American Girl stuff we bought. After some resting we got outside again...seconds from Times Square there was no way were going to sleep early! Catalina was impressed with the lights and the screens, mommy and daddy were impressed with how free she was scratching all sorts of her body parts :))

 Pictures with some characters in the square, visits to the Hershey store and to the M&M store to stock ourselves with delicious calories. And then it was really time to head back to the hotel for a good night sleep. We wanted to make sure we are rested for the next day!

 Next day:
After fast (and once again expensive) breakfast we hoped on the subway and went to see the Liberty tower. Impressive architecturally and historically, we were speechless. Not Catalina. She wanted to know everything that happened THAT September 11.

 The views were impressive, like we knew they will be.

 Everything is done in good taste, high technology to offer the best experience possible. If only it was also possible to erase how and why the tower got to be here today...

 Catalina REALLY wanted to visit the 9/11 museum. So we waited in a long line and got inside, among scary history. Catalina asked a lot of questions about all the people who died in the airplanes, in the buildings. She wanted to know how many escaped, but somehow I only know how many had died.

She was impressed, curious, but not scared. I was so proud of all the questions she asked, of how she processed everything. I was very honest and I did not downplay the tragedy of those days. I did tell her however how the very big majority of people are very good and helped a lot, it's just that sometimes a handful of dark minds can bring a lot of suffering and destruction. But love and unity can conquer fear and hate.

With our minds a little shattered we decided there is no more time to visit the Statue of Liberty. We had tickets for a Broadway show, we were tired and hungry so we decided very wisely to head back to our hotel. Pizza lunch and a short nap and we were ready to have fun!

The show was magical! The costumes breathtaking. The actors were funny, the sound clear so everyone can understand. It was the best way to finish our NY weekend. It did put us in a NY state of mind. We'll come back, that is for sure. So many more things to see and do! Maybe when the littlest girl won't be so little anymore. Maybe before. One thing is for sure: we know now that this city can be fun and enjoyable, that if you give yourself time and patience you can feel the taste of greatness, of history and art, of everything blended in a beautiful whole.