I moved to New York in 1979, so it’s fair to say I’ve seen a lot of this town. And even though I call New Jersey home now, the Manhattan skyline still takes my breath away. There’s always something new here and I love that.

When my three boys were kids, I got to experience New York City all over again. That happens when you become a parent—everything feels fresh through your children’s eyes. And now that I get the chance to play “mom” to a couple of foreign exchange students, I get to play tourist too. It’s awesome.

Recently, I took my eldest son, Duke, and our “Euro Boys”, Allesandro from Italy and Amadeo from Germany, on a good old fashioned sight-seeing trip in the city. We hit Times Square, the top of the Empire State Building and even Macy’s in Herald Square. We ate sandwiches at Dean & Deluca and popped into J. Crew (“like we always do when we’re with Duke”, says Alessandro).

It was a fun, crazy day. (Being a tourist is tiring!) I saved our Empire State Building tickets and we got this group photo too—it’s a backdrop of the building at sunset even though we’re actually in it. Too funny.

Alessandro’s favorite part of the day? “I really liked just being in the city especially in Times Square looking at all of those bright screens on the buildings. To me it felt like being in a movie.”

And if Amadeo could bring one thing back home? “If I could take back one thing with me to Germany, it would be the buzz of the city that never sleeps.”

Up next: I want to take the ubiquitous Circle Line Bus Tour and Gray Line New York Site Seeing Tour! And walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. (Shh, don’t tell anyone I haven’t done either yet.)

xo,

Bobbi