We visited NYC as a family when the kids were much younger – in 2014!

I can’t believe how much we travelled that year bcs it was the year Rob had a heart attack – but we still managed to do Gabe’s 16 trip to Munich and Venice, the whole family at Lake Powell/Las Vegas and then NYC!

We clearly had more energy then. Lol.

And were not as worried about retirement nearing and how to fund that. Lol.

But since we weren’t going to see Gabe and Shannon for the holidays, and since they are in NYC, we thought it would be fun to go for a whirlwind trip. Zandra and Ilyah had to head back to San Fran early, so we were short them:(

And before I post all the pictures of smiling faces, can I just be real: Travelling is 50/50. Travelling with kids is 50/50. Travelling with young adult kids – is 50/50. I’m almost tempted to say it’s less than 50/50 (kidding. not kidding). Everyone wants to do different things, has different expectations, wants to do things their own way, gets on each others nerves etc. There are varying levels of gratitude, patience, consideration, energy levels, moodiness and enthusiasm. So it is a big big mix.

But in hindsight, it is always good.

Always good to create the memories.

Always good to see how the kids are doing their own things, their own way, have their own priorities.

And always good to appreciate how much cheaper life is when it is just Rob and me just travelling. (so not kidding).

We were up super early – and hit the road at 4:45. Rob was a trooper and we arrived in Brooklyn (where Gabe and Shannon live) at 1pm!

We explored their neighbourhood before heading across the Brooklyn bridge to walk around a bit and then met up with my old university friend Anita.

Anita and I went to SUNY Plattsburgh together and did the SLP Prep year – which we realized was 25 years ago!!! We last saw each other when I got married to Rob (so almost 15 years ago!). We got to meet her kids who were charming – and she got to see mine again (met them briefly when we got married – when they were charming lol) and had a nice dinner in Little Italy. It was so so so great to see her – there is a special bond with some of your uni girlfriends, right!!??

We were zonked so went back to our Airbnb in Brooklyn – which was much better than the last one Rob and stayed in!

The next morning we headed out (very early for some – but it was 9am) and headed into Manhattan.

It started to pour.

We got super wet.

We only had 2 umbrellas.

As we were heading into Central Park to “site see” Rob and I decided that was not going to happen in the pouring rain so went to find umbrellas. After we were all umbrella-d up, we were soaked so we went for a nice lunch.

We went to a cute diner, that had nice heaters to dry out stuff:)

After lunch, the rain stopped and we were finally able to explore: Central Park, time square, Rockefeller, central station.

A few peeps wanted to head home and rest and a few of us kept walking…I think we got up to 30K steps?!

We ended up picking up some yummy Chinese food that Gabe knew about (a cheap eats place ) and took it back to our AirBnB. So good…

The next day we headed out again to walk the High Line and then wandered our way back to China town where we had another great cheap eats meal of dumpling and peanut butter noodles. It was a super warm day – considering it was January 4th!

After lunch, we hopped in the car and made the long trip back. Rob was a trooper again – there was a bit of rain which made it a little harder at night – but we pulled in around 11.

A whirlwind trip – but so fun:)

Meanwhile – Reggie was with a new dog sitter and he seemed to really like it. She sent us pictures over the couple of days!