Dinner and a Jazz game with Alex

Alex had given Dave a Cheesecake Factory giftcard for Father's day.  Since it was for a significant amount, we took him with us to use it.  Then we walked around City Creek before heading over to the Jazz game.

 

 

The Macy's windows in Salt Lake had the same theme as the windows in New York - Peanuts gang- , but these were made of candy.  Very impressive

Our last day on Long Island

Stephanie had to work on our last day.  Dave and I went on a morning run over to a park near their home.

 

It was a huge park filled with memorials.  This was a World War II memorial.

 

They also had a 9/11 Memorial because over 360 people from Nassau County lost their lives in the World Trade Center that day. 

 

They had two pieces of steel beams from the buildings.

 

A lot of the people who died worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.  There were also a lot of firefighters and police from this county who died.

Who would have thought the day after Thanksgiving would be warm enough to be running in shorts and a t-shirt.  The weather on this trip was delightful.

Long Islander's are big into Diners.  We all met Steph on her lunch hour at this one.

 

 

I had one of the best Reuben sandwiches ever. 

 

Steph went back to work and Jared and Shad took Dave and I to the airport.  We absolutely loved spending Thanksgiving with the family.  Thanks, guys.  We love you all so much.

Checking off another thing on my bucket list.

When I was a little girl our family always watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We usually went over to my Grandpa and Grandma Niederhauser's house because they had a color TV and we didn't. I always thought it would be the coolest thing to see it live.

 

Finally, at age 55, I can check that off my bucket list.  We got up and took the subway uptown.  Because of all of the terrorist threats there were armed policemen on the subways.  I also saw a woman carrying a pie, which reminded me it was Thanksgiving and nothing rattles New Yorkers.

 

We were among 3 and a half million people that were estimated to be lining the parade route.  Before it started we were at Columbus Circle.  I ready read online somewhere that it was a good viewing spot.  Not.  The photo of the yellow Macy's stars shows how far away we were.

 

So we hoofed it uptown to Central Park West and 65th street.  It was so much better there.

 

 

Mariah Carey was on this float.  But she wasn't singing.

We stayed for the entire thing.  Santa was happy to be at the end.

On our walk uptown to get a better spot for the parade we walked by Lincoln center and Julliard.

 

After the parade ended, we walked across the street to Central Park.  The weather all day was beautiful, in the low 60's.  It was fabulous.

We were hungry but didn't want to eat lunch since we were headed back to Steph and Jared's for Thanksgiving dinner.  So we got a waffle just outside the park.

We hoofed it to a subway station and along the way passed this beauty.

Steph picked us up back in Long Island.

It was wonderful to have Thanksgiving dinner with this crew.  Jared cooked the turkey on his smoker and it was so good.  Steph made delicious rolls, sweet potatoes and other yummy stuff.

We had to continue our after-dinner tradition of gingerbread house decorating.  Shad was a pro his very first time.

 

In the evening, we watched movies and just relaxed.


Shad asked me to play "basketball" with him one last time before he had to go to bed.  He likes me to play the song from the Black Eyed Peas, "I've Got a Feeling" that is on my phone, while he shoots baskets after I pass him the ball.  He cracks me up.

And yes, he has a hard time putting the ball down, even to brush his teeth.  He wanted me to come in the bathroom and get one last picture of him with his ball.  Haha.

More New York times

The next day we hung out with Steph and Shad.  We went to some stores to get food, etc for Thanksgiving.  It was a nice relaxing day with them. We did some Christmas shopping and then ate lunch at an upscale Mexican place.  At the end of the meal, the server brought us out tiny little cups of complimentary hot chocolate.  We all agreed it was the best we have ever had.

 

Wednesday afternoon Steph dropped us off at the railroad station and we went back to the city.  We had a hotel room there for that night because we were planning to see the parade the next morning.  Steph and Jared didn't want to do the parade this year.

We took a "Sweat Shop" tour at the Tenement Museum.  It was really interesting to learn more about New York City in the early 1900s. We got to tour inside a tenement building and see what it would have been like to live and work in one.

Then we took the subway to Midtown.

We were planning on eating dinner at Eataly, one of our faves.  While we were waiting we had some gelato.

Time was running out and we had Broadway tickets to see "Fiddler on the Roof" at 8 pm.  So we walked over to Koreatown, hoping we would be able to get something to eat a little quicker.  By the time we got our food, we had to take it with us and practically run from 32nd street to 52nd street.

The security there was really tight.  We thought for sure they would make us throw away our uneaten dinner.  But they didn't.  So we secretly scarfed it down in our seats, right before the play started.  It was Classic Broadway at its finest. 

Afterwards we enjoyed a little more of Midtown, while trying to avoid the crowds.  We circumvented Times Square and found a Metro stop.

Our hotel was a Marriott in Chinatown, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

A trip to the city with our "Shadder box"

On Monday Stephanie and Jared had to work at the hospital, so Dave and I took Shad to the City with us.  We took the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station in Manhatten.

 

 

We ate lunch at Chelsea Market.

Then we walked along the Highline.

But it was pretty windy up there, especially for poor Shad.  So we didn't stay long.

We got back to street level and walked to Greenwich Village.  We had ice cream made from Goat's milk. 

Although we had been to the 9/11 Memorial site several times, we had never been in the museum.  So we did that.  It was very touching.

We had never been on the Staten Island Ferry, and since it is free, we thought we would give it a try.  Shad loved it and so did we.  You can't beat watching the sun set behind the Statue of Liberty. 

It was getting late, but we wanted to see the Macy's Christmas windows.  It was a Peanuts theme

We boarded the Long Island Railroad train and  put Shad in his PJs. He watched Backyardigans on my ipad during the 50 min ride back to their place.  I have to say, he was a complete angel the entire day.  We hauled him everywhere and he honestly never complained or whined once.  Love this kid!

Long Island in November

We flew out to Long Island on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

 

Steph and Shad picked us up at JFK.  I love the rock bridges along the roadways there.

 

I had this great smile when I turned around to see this guy in the back seat.

Shad is very generous and let us stay in his bedroom during our visit.  He has every kind of ball imaginable in there.  So, naturally, we threw and caught a lot of them.

This was the beautiful sunset our first night at Steph and Jared's.

Shad called out, "Grandma, you should come in the bathroom and get a picture of me brushing my teeth" :)