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" :)

The Saturday Before Thanksgiving

The Groses used to celebrate their Thanksgiving get together on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  But this year they changed it to the Saturday before.

For the talent show, Lily, Jack and James wrote their names in Chinese and then sang a song in Chinese.

Olivia loves her great grandpa.

Dave and Scott sang, "Little Mary Ann", a song their dad used to sing to their mom.

Briggy likes riding on the walker.

Pray for Paris

With the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, my thoughts turned to our experiences in the City of Light.

 

Our first visit was in 1996.  That trip was just Dave and me.

We went again in 1999.

We were with Scott, Carrie, Leah, Dad, Mom and Spencer on that trip.

Then in 2001 we took Holly and Ashley.

Then we took Stephanie in 2005.

We have so many wonderful memories of this city.  We pray for peace, not only for Paris, but for the world.