Life's too short not to eat well.

This is hanging in Mario Batali's NYC Food Emporium, Eataly.

I just returned from a much needed sojourn to New York City with my family to celebrate my daughter’s 21st birthday and my (eeek) 52nd.

The view from our hotel, The Bowery.

New York is one of the the most vibrant cities in the world. There is so much to do…and eat!

We ate and ate and ate. Walked a bit of it off strolling through the Alexander McQueen Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Strolling isn’t exactly the right word…we were sandwiched between hundreds of guests and maybe worked off two spoonfuls of soup, but at least we were using lots of brain muscles.)

Mario Batali’s Eataly was packed with patrons. The wait for every restaurant was 45 minutes to one hour. But we waited! There was much to see, so we didn’t mind a bit.

I love how up close and personal you are with the food preparation.

Wow.....a cheese for every day of the year.

I wish our hotel room had a kitchen! It would have been fun to shop at Eataly for a dinner party.

I actually could have just had one of these tomatoes for lunch with a piece of bread and a bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

And a slice of watermelon for dessert.

Apparently, this is where Mario Batali sits when he comes into Eataly. Which is a lot, I was told. I wish he would come into Sweet Butter!

It is true, life’s too short not to eat well…and love well, too. I love you Emily! Happy Birthday!