We love New York (but not the traffic)

For Easter weekend,  we packed up the kids and drove to New York, just because.  None of us had ever been there before, and we had a long weekend available, so we decided on Wednesday to leave Thursday for the weekend.  We stayed at a wonderful hotel near Newark, NJ, (Hampton Inn Carlstadt) which we'd recommend, and David and Teresa and family met us there with their kids. 

One of Benjamin's highlights of our trip was the opportunity to be at the Apple Store near Central Park on the launch day for the new iPad.  There were hundreds of people in the line up to go in, and all the major US television stations had their crews on site covering the event.  While he was fulfilling his technological dreams, Natania visited F. A. O. Schwartz, a huge toy store right near by. 

Together we visited the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, and Chinatown.  We went our separate ways the next day, and we visited Time Square, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

We did lots of walking and were well exhausted by the end of the days.  Sleeping five in a hotel room means we were all up at 7am with Natania, despite going to bed rather late.  However, sleep wasn't high on our list of priorities for the weekend, so we all took it in stride.  Several of our meals came from street vendors.  We were amazed at the city that never sleeps, getting caught in a traffic jam at 10 o'clock at night, and being in five 'layers' of traffic under the George Washington Bridge. It was a memorable time just being together.