We're off to New York for the weekend!

When your hubby flies off to New York for work, what would you do? My passport states Manhattan as place of birth but I am a Third Culture Kid and haven't been back to the Big Apple in 20 years. Basically, any excuse is valid to visit New York.

It was a suprise for the kids, they thought we were off to Lugano - once again - until ... oops... I got the wrong airport terminal, there are no flights to Switzerland on the departure board. "So kids, if you could choose any destination on the board, which city would you choose?" "New York" came the immediate reply from Expat daughter, followed by Expat son: "Yeah, I guess, but it's too far to fly for a long weekend."

Surprise. We are off to New York for the weekend. The kids could not believe it, even when they had finally settled in their plane seats, they still couldn't grasp the fact that we we're off to the U S of A.

While my hubby was enjoying THE view from his workplace, I spent the next 4 days pacing around the city with my kids viewing ALL the sites of New York.

We stepped out of the hotel at 6am (slightly jet-lagged) in search of a real American breakfast. Boy, that bacon is scrumptious! We then proceeded to walked our feet sore for the next 12 hours. Every single day!

We climbed the Emprire State building with 0 visibility, it could have been the Eiffel Tower for all we knew. We ran through the American Museum of Natural History with it's impressive dinosaur collection beause they close at 5:30 in the afternoon. We ate hamburgers at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square with the music blaring in the background. I made my children walk through Tiffany's and they cuddled soft toys at FAO Schwarz. We stood in line at Abercrombie & Fitch and scouted out two of the most humongous candy stores and an M&M store with three levels!!!

We whispered across the arch in Grand Central Terminal and checked out the NY Public Library. We made a deal that I would accompany my kids to Nike and Adidas if they would follow me to Victoria's Secret! We had breakfast in Little Italy and witnessed a funeral in Chinatown. The kids discovered contemporary artist at the MOMA and were obliged to walk though the recently inaugurated Anne Wintour Costume Center in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of course, we could not miss the Guggenheim museum at which point the kids refused to enter any more museums so we headed to Central Park where under a splendid blue sky the Japanese community of New York was celebrating Japan Day.

Sunday morning we entered St. Patrick's Cathedral which is being renovated from top to toe. After a short conversation with the Ritz Carlton concierge, we ended up celebrating Mother's Day at the Brooklyn Diner where we had the biggest, most delicious, most American brunch ever! Oh, I nearly forgot, we strolled through Soho hopping in and out of stores; Apple, Beats, Christian Dior, Lululemon, Uniqlo and Under Armour ending up at Starbucks so my techno starved kids could hook up with WIFI and snapchat their friends back on the old continent!

Three words to describe our trip: intense, emotional and impressive!