Roger Collier

T he red digits on the clock radio tell me it's 3: 10 a.m., time to rise and get ready. I've been up a while anyway. Sleep always eludes me when I have an early flight. I turn off the alarm before the buzzer sounds, allowing my wife to rest a few more minutes.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I think about our plans for the day, when another thought enters my mind: "This is ironic." Here we are, setting off on our first vacation without the kids, meaning we get to sleep in for the first time in seven years, and the trip begins before dawn.

We are visiting New York City for two nights to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. Our agenda: sightseeing, Broadway show, shopping, fancy restaurant, museum and whatever else we can squeeze in. This trip, though short, will be a nice change from our regular family vacations.

Our daughter is seven years old and our son is five. Vacations with children that age, as any parent would surely attest, are all about the kids. They aren't yet intellectually curious enough to visit interesting places where they might (the horror!) learn something. Nor do they possess the strength or stamina yet for more physically demanding adventures.

Perhaps older children enjoy, or can at least tolerate, doing things their parents also enjoy, like observing ancient architecture or visiting art galleries or hiking mountain trails or attending live shows that don't feature singing animals. I sure hope so.

Until then, however, our family vacations will be full of splash pads and kiddie roller coasters and 3D SpongeBob movies and hour-long waits for autographs of college students in Cinderella costumes. Don't get me wrong; I take great pleasure in seeing my children enjoy themselves. The problem is that young children enjoy such childish activities. Go figure.

We are out the door by 4 a.m., en route to the airport in Buffalo, a 45-minute drive from my in-laws' home in southern Ontario, where we spent the night. I feel no guilt about leaving the kids, who are still sleeping, with their grandparents for a couple of days. They love it there. And with no parents to restrict their junk food intake or monitor their bedtimes, this will be a vacation for them, too.

The flight departs as scheduled and we touch down in New York a little after 9 a.m. After taking a train to our hotel and dropping our bags, we head out to explore the city. The first place we visit is Times Square, only a few blocks away. The sidewalks are rivers of heads and shoulders. If the kids were here, we would have to tether them to our waists with rope or the flow of pedestrians would sweep them away.

Over the next several hours, we walk and walk until our feet ache. We see much of downtown and some of Central Park. We even witness some criminal activity. A thief fleeing the Louis Vuitton store, multi-thousand-dollar bag in hand and security guards in tow, bumps into my wife on the sidewalk. Not exactly the stuff of Law & Order, but a little excitement nonetheless.

In the evening, we have dinner at Gramercy Tavern, a restaurant that receives much praise from online foodies. Again, I am reminded of the difference between an adult vacation and a family vacation. The waiter does not bring colouring paper and crayons. There are no pictures of food on the menus, only words. Also, our table contains no diners with Chronic Juice-Spilling Syndrome.

We look over the entrees, which are obviously superior to those offered in family restaurants because they contain dishes I've never heard of before. Cippollini purée anyone? How about a little polenta to go with your pickled ramps?

We later realize just how far outside of paper-tablecloth territory we've ventured, when we get the bill, which falls somewhere between mortgage payment and Greece's national debt.

The rest of our trip is spent doing things our kids would find boring, like exploring the Museum of Modern Art, or watching things our kids would have difficulty sitting through, like a musical about tense race relations in Memphis during the 1950s.

It is good for parents to do this sometimes, to get away from their children, to spend time doing grown-up things together, to remember they are not only moms and dads but also husbands and wives. An occasional vacation without the entire family can actually strengthen a family. Now if I could only convince my wife that a weeklong golfing trip with my buddies would make me a better husband.