A weekend in NYC....

We took the kids to NYC for the weekend over Labor Day weekend.  It was a great drive into the city (anytime there's not traffic it's a great drive) and arrived at our hotel around 11:00.  We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Midtown East, the hotel was fabulous, it had HUGE rooms compared to other hotels we've stayed at in NYC.  Usually we are just staying in a glorified closet, this time it was a normal size hotel room.

We walked to central park and stopped at a little pond so the kids could drive remote control sail boats, they loved it.  My favorite thing about going to NYC is you never know where you'll end up or what you'll end up doing.

We walked (a very long walk) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I went to the museum once in high school and didn't remember much about it, it was fun to go back and see it as an adult.  We went through the Egypt wing and then headed to the European artists.  The kids both thought it was very cool to see the actual paintings of the artists that they studied at school.  We saw Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet's original artwork, it was really neat to see them in person.

After the museum we walked to the Shake Shack and had shakes and then hopped on the subway to go back to our hotel for a bit.  

After a little rest we got back onto the subway and headed to the World Trade Center Memorial, it's something I really wanted to take the kids to see.  I thought it was important for them to see and understand what has become so much a part of our history.  It was such a beautiful memorial and so very well done.  Reading all the names made you so aware of all the lives that were lost on that day.  The kids really seemed to understand and respect that we were at a memorial (unlike other tourists that unfortunately treated it like an exhibit at Disney).  I am very happy the kids were able to experience the memorial, we took them last summer to the Pentagon Memorial as well, even though they were not alive during the attacks (Juliana was born a month later), I want them to have empathy for those who lost their lives.

After an exhausting day we headed back to the hotel for the night.  The next morning the kids really wanted to head to Times Square, they always want to visit it every time we get into the city.  We stopped by the Todays Show first and caught the end of the broadcast (the kids were on tv for a second).  Then went to Times Square and walked around for awhile before heading home.

Another great weekend in New York City!  We can't wait to go back.