New York minute #3

Monday was our last day in New York and we began the day by packing our bags and checking out of our very cool Hotel On Rivington. We headed over to Battery Park and boarded a packed ferry to the Statue of Liberty (our first visit ever despite numerous visits to NYC). Then we walked alongside the Hudson River to Tribeca for an early lunch at Bar Artisanal. There we ate the very best cheeseburgers, fries and craft beers in beautiful surroundings. Bar Artisanal is truly a great place to eat and Tribeca itself has numerous good restaurants and cafes. We'll explore more when we next visit New York. Afterwards, we walked off our lunch by strolling through Central Park in the glorious sunshine. But dodging the hundreds of determined joggers was hard work! We escaped onto 5th Avenue and did a last bout of shopping in Barneys department store before heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags and a cab to the airport.

Returning to London on Tuesday morning was bittersweet: we were sad that our vacation was over and were very tired from the overnight flight, but we were excited about seeing our baby daughter again. When we arrived at our house, we napped for a couple of hours. M's wonderful mother had already cleaned the house and done all the laundry. After our quick sleep, we picked Little Planet up early from daycare. As soon as she saw us she shouted, "Daddy!" then "Mummy!" and jumped into M's arms. It was lovely!

And now it's back to reality again and work, work, work, play, work, work, work, play. Still, we have the weekend to look forward to and we plan on doing nothing but chill out at home with our daughter.