If any trip requires rapid sketching skills, it's one to New York City. I just returned from a visit that incorporated all of my favorite activities: time with family (my musician daughter lives there), inspiring museum visits, explorations of new places, restorative pauses for coffee in cafés with character, and days punctuated by spontaneous additions and in-the-moment planning. My sketchbook pages blend all of these elements. I've scanned and placed five of the scribbly pages here, in chronological order.

Top: Notes from the fine Brooklyn Museum

2~ 3 members of The Baby Soda Jazz Band (my daughter plays trombone in the band) playing in Washington Square Park on May 22.

3~ The view from our Brooklyn hotel room

4~ Notes from the stunning Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibit may be worth the cost of going to New York. Unforgettable.

5~ A medieval wooden book cover at the Metropolitan displays irresistable (to me) Lombardic versal letters. We walked across Central Park and met a friend for dinner after the museum visit. Menu items are listed.

Trip rating: *****