Scenes from Fall

Go Bills!  Go Buckeyes!

 

End of Modified

James recovered from covid just in time to go to his last modified soccer game of the season, and the end of season dinner.  (Modified is what they call the middle school sports teams here.)  It was kind of an annoying season because they had a new coach who was very focused on winning, and so he didn't rotate kids in as frequently as the previous coach did. (The parents did not particularly like this approach, whether their kids were getting playing time or not!)  So James didn't get much playing time this season, which made it less fun. But this last game he got to play for the whole first half, so that was nice (and he did not seem to have any lingering effects from just being sick!)  

Immigrant NYC

For our Sunday in NY, we did a tour of Immigrant New York (https://www.bigonion.com/tour/immigrant-new-york/) with the Big Onion tour company (which hires graduate students in history as their tour guides).  Our guide Adam was great and gave us a really interesting trip through NY history.  We ended up in the old Jewish East side, which is where Craig's relatives came when they first immigrated here. After the tour we went to the museum there, which included both a synagogue and hot dog pop art. :)  For a snack in between, we went to a hole-in-the-wall dumpling shop in Chinatown that our guide recommended -- and it was delicious!

For dinner that night we continued the theme and went to a Ukranian restaurant (Veselka). (Tanya's mom is Ukranian).  It was located in "Little Ukraine", but besides the Ukranian Church, and two Ukrainan restaurants, I'm not sure you would have recognized it as a specific neighborhood. :)

 

NYC Saturday

On Saturday morning, Craig and I took the Staten Island Ferry (it was a gorgeous day for the ride), and then we met up with Tanya and went to our birthday lunch at Carbone.  (Carbone is a fancy Italian place -- we had to get on the website exactly 30 days in advance to get the reservation!)  It was fun and delicious!  Then we walked around some more and then went out to Harlem for a mini-reunion with some of our high school friends (Nara, Ruth, and Kristin).  Nara's husband also made a feast for us, and it was a great evening of catching up.  

 

NYC

Submarine style room!

I am in New York City for a trip to celebrate our 50th birthdays with my high school friends Craig and Tanya. I arrived yesterday (Tanya gets in today) and we had a beautiful day with great weather!  I met up with Craig in Brooklyn where he is staying with other friends, and we walked around there for a bit, and then went into Manhattan.  We went to Little Island, the artificial islands that they have created -- it's really cool and has some nice views!  Then we walked on the High Line, the elevated park that they made on the old railroad tracks.  It was also beautiful, with lots of flowers and native grasses.  

We also went by Washington Square Park where the chess players are -- too bad James wasn't there!  I was not actually playing chess, just for the record. :)

We then made a quick stop at the AKC Dog Museum (really just the gift shop, as we didn't want to pay the admission fee just to go in for half an hour and see paintings of dogs), and then a quick photo stop at the library -- I even had my library card with me! (Anyone who lives in the state of New York can get a NY Public Library card.)

Library Lion

We met up with Craig's friends for dinner back in Brooklyn (yes, we spent a lot of time on the subway yesterday) at Emily BK, which is a pizza place that supposedly has one of the best burgers in NY. It was indeed very tasty!  Then back up to Times Square where our hotel is located. All in all a great day!

Library Way sidewalk

The High Line

View from Little Island

Little Island

Subway art

Just arranging the pieces

Craig at his favorite pasta shop

Quite a variety of cream cheeses!

 

Library card visit