Day One: New York City

I don't know what woke me up this morning at 5:52, after less than four hours sleep, but it wasn't my alarm, that's for damn sure. My shrieks of panic woke everyone else up very effectively, however. We were supposed to be pulling out of our driveway, headed for the airport at 6 a.m.

So much for brushing my teeth, let alone a shower.

Twenty frantic minutes later we were on the road, and a few hours after that, I got to hear my ten-year-old son announce to the entire passenger cabin from his window seat, "THERE'S SNOW DOWN THERE, EVERYWHERE!" That alone, was worth the hours shaved off my life expectancy by the stress of last night and this morning.

Everywhere down there must have been somewhere around Ohio, because it was another hour or so before we flew in past Lady Liberty to Newark, where there was no snow, anywhere. But then there was New York, everywhere.

It's been a while since we've done a big trip like this, but one thing we learned from our last cross-country trek is that it helps to consider the journey part of the main event. Rather than sprinting across airports to make precarious connections, we find it less stressful to slow down the pace, dial down expectations, and work within the limits of our children's tolerance for confinement.

We could have gotten to our final destination in a day if we had been willing to play hopscotch with airports all over the country, all day. We weren't. So we built a night in New York into our itinerary on our own dime. We took a non-stop flight and got here in time to have lunch at a diner, explore the American Museum of Natural History for the afternoon, and enjoy an early dinner and a full night's sleep before flying out in the morning, non-stop to Quebec. The museum is absolutely incredible. The boys soon forgot all about snow.

I can't wait for them to look out the airplane window tomorrow, and remember.