Hard to believe but this past Monday I turned 50! Yep, 50 years old! A half century… and I feel very fortunate because I still feel like I’m in my early 30s.

We’re not a big party type of family, so we decided to celebrate at my second favorite place ever: New York City!

Off we went for a fun little jaunt to the best city in the world. Full of lights, sights and interesting stuff, it’s my kid’s favorite place to go and explore. They’ve been to NYC a dozen times and never tire of the hustle and bustle, so everyone was pretty excited to go back for a night.

Driving in was no big deal and only took a little over 3 hours. Guess it pays to drive on a Monday late morning because traffic was not bad at all. It was easy going for the whole drive and looking forward to the evening made it even better!

Once we checked into our favorite hotel, The Pearl, said hello to our favorite bellmen, Francisco and James, we headed out to do a little walk around the neighborhood and check out a few of our favorite stopping points before checking in. It’s kind of funny. Watching my kids walk around the streets, knowing where everything is, it’s a great feeling knowing that they can navigate a city with no problem. They handle the traffic, vendors, entertainers and all that with no issue whatsoever. Not even nervous and know exactly how to get from points A to B. They walk confidently and are always aware of their surroundings, keeping a watchful eye on each other as well as all the goings on around them. My father, born and raised in NYC, would have been so proud to watch them experience his favorite place to be.

Once we were back at the hotel, it was time for a quick change and then to walk to dinner at one of my all-time favorites, The Russian Tea Room. I’m the only one in my family that has been there, so I was looking forward to seeing how the rest of the family liked it. It’s all Russian food, from borscht and pelmini to chicken Kiev and verenika. Luckily, my kids have grown up on many of these dishes, so they were not weirded out by anything on the menu and knew what everything was. And what was even greater was that all that they ordered, they loved (although I’m told that my cabbage soup and borscht are their favorites!). Hubby loved it as well and even ordered himself a Russian mule!

Whenever I saw this cup I nearly fell out of my chair! I can remember my dad drinking his vodka from a similar cup we had at home. He’d always stir the ice cubes with is pinkie finger (hence my issue with ice) and that cup was always colder than cold. In his later years, he’d drink iced milk from this cup. I had to tell the manager all about it when he came up to see how we were doing during our meal. He got a huge kick out of that story.

The whole dinner, I had this huge shit-eating grin on my face as I looked around at all the beautiful decor and rich colors and hues. It was simply marvelous!

Towards the end of the dinner, as we were getting ready to head out to the jazz club, the manager surprised me with my very own mule mug, with the RTR logo etched onto it! So very thoughtful and appreciated. I cannot wait to go back.

The evening ended with a wonderful jazz show at Dizzy’s club, over in Lincoln Center. Typically, we go to Birdland, but since we were up for trying something new, this was a great spot. During the show, the kids enjoyed a lovely and delicious cheese board as well as sorbet, while hubby sipped his “gimlet” and I my “pineapple fizz.” Playing onstage was none other than jazz great drummer Louis Hayes, who, at 87 years old, was spry and in control of incredible solos and gorgeous arrangements. Was quite an honor to be in his presence, one of the last greats of the old days of jazz. And on top of it all, his cousin was none other than Prince! Pretty awesome.

All in all, I’m sad it’s actually over! It was just so so much fun and I had such a great time with my little family in the city. We’re already planning another trip back… can’t come soon enough!