NYC so far

Right now I am sitting in bed in a very modern New York City hotel. Lionel's pick of course. Our hotel is right across the street from the New York City library, so we are right in Manhattan, within walking distance from times square, the Rockefeller center, Bryant park, and many, many shops.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, around 3:00pm, and will be going back home on Monday night. The official reason for our trip is another Michael Buble concert, but the unofficial reason is that sometimes is nice to get away, enjoy some quiet time, and get out of your routine.

As soon as we arrived we took a Taxi to our hotel, checked in, quickly unpacked, and went out to take a walk. First stop, Rockefeller center. The ice skating rink was there, but unfortunately the tree was not lit yet. We then moved on to Times Square. With so many TV screens the place was lit Ok, and it was also crazy packed, literally rivers of people everywhere. It was also cooler than we thought, so we had to make couple quick and cheap purchases from street vendors: a scarf and a pair of gloves, all for $10.

On our way back we stopped by Zara, a store that Gabi and I really like. We had it in Mexico and its everywhere in Europe, but in the US they only have it in big cities. Unfortunately I did not find anything that I wanted to buy ... at least for that price. I also wanted to go to H&M, also pretty much one block from our hotel. Lionel was too tired, so I told him to go ahead to the hotel, and I stayed lingering at the store. That is one store we do have in Cincinnati, so you might think it's dumb to come all the way to NY to shop there. The thing is, even though we do have it at home, I never really have time to go there. I did find a few things I liked, and eventually made it back to the hotel.

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant called "Rosa Mexicano". Just hearing the name really made me want to go there. As expected, our meal was great. I suggested that Lionel ordered the "Mixiote", which I have rarely - if never - seen in a menu in the US. Thinking of the Mixiote also brought some really old memories back. So I was telling him how, when my Dad worked in the mountain, he always got invited to the local celebrations of the surrounding towns, which is where his co-workers came from. Invariably they had excellent food, whether it was "Mole", "Tamales", or "Mixiotes". We always liked the food part, but I vividly remember complaining about having to go because also invariably that conflicted with some school festival, or another event Gabi and I really wanted to go.

As I was telling Lionel about my old memories, I also remembered the one time we got invited to some town party that was supposed to take place at their "auditorium". I don't really remember if that invite came from my Dad or my Mom's side, but I do remember that, as usual, Gabi refused to bring a sweater with her. Turns out, the auditorium was under construction so it really only was 4 walls. It did NOT have a roof! Needless to say, Gabi froze her butt off. Ahhh ... those were the days.

But back to New York.... as I am sitting here, Lionel is out and about, running in Central Park. I think he is crazy to go out in this cold weather, but he loves being out there at this time. In his own words, there is nobody on the streets, so it's peaceful and it feels like you have the city all for yourself. I guess I can't really argue with that.