We spent March break in NYC — my husband and two teenaged girls. I hadn’t been in twenty years and was blown away by how much it had changed. New York is now my favourite city. People were incredibly generous and kind, the streets are immaculate and everything is just so much more than what we are used to here in Canada. The best part was that we all loved it. Family-friendly shows like Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway (a Stratford, Ontario production exported to NYC), Amateur Night at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre (lots of whooping and hollering and seat dancing) preceded by dinner at the Red Rooster, up the Empire State Building followed by a beeline up Fifth Avenue to the Park Plaza and Central Park, museum row (the Whitney was a bit esoteric for us), ferry to Staten Island, Brooklyn Bridge, South Street Seaport area, etc. etc. My favourite day started at the top of the High Line — the most inventive and inspiring public space I’ve ever encountered — and ended in Tribeca — a lovely long ramble that took us from the heights of Chelsea, to lunch in the Village, shopping in Soho and then to the home of the film festival. My 14-year-old shutterbug got her best shots of the trip that day. Also memorable was the 911 memorial and dumplings in Chinatown. We stayed at the Eastgate Tower Hotel suites — part of the Affinia chain — an ideal arrangement for a family, well-priced at $250/night and in a good, central location (E 39th and 2nd — close to the UN and a 5-minute stroll to Central Station). For steak lovers, Keens is great and an experience too as the oldest restaurant in the city, founded around 1860 I think with pipes covering the low-slung ceilings that were once numbered for the smoking club members, and the original playbill that Lincoln was reading when he was assasinated (reputably his very own blood marking it — appetizing no but appropriate for the vibe of the place).