New York visit

Well, here are highlights of our trip to visit Rachel, Davey, and Sophia in New York. Seeing them was the best part of the trip. It was fun to go do the things that they do all the time. Like the laundromat, the little grocery store down the street, the playground and church. It is very strange going to church on a train. The parking lot of the church has maybe 15 parking spaces. I think a lot of members take the subway. The chapel was small but it was full and there were a lot of people in SS and RS. Rachel taught her lesson in RS and did a great job. We did a lot of walking in NY. We even wore walking shoes to church and changed into Sunday Shoes in the coat room. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on Monday. It is a really long bridge. We had lunch from street vendors in Manhattan and then we took the train back to Brooklyn where we went to Costco. That place was crazy busy! It is 2 stories and they have escalators for your grocery carts. I guess it is unnavigable on Saturdays. It was very hot and humid the first 3 days we were there. It was only in the 90's, but the humidity was very high. It felt worse than our 115 days. I will take our 'dry' heat over 'moist' heat anytime. It did cool off though.















We also went to Times Square. That is another place that has a mass of humanity. I guess it is that way 24 hours a day. It was a fascinating place. We had fun in the M & M's World store there. That is a huge video board on the top. A lot of places had those. Very high tech. The police station was right in the middle of the street and it had a flashing sign on it too.

We saw 'Lady Liberty' twice. Once on a free ferry (one of 3 things we found free in NY) to Staton Island and then when we went to Liberty and Ellis Island. That was pretty awesome.












The security was pretty tight. It was very similar to the airport screening. Ellis Island was interesting as we learned about the immigration process in the early 1900's. There is an area that you can look up your ancestors to see if they came through Ellis Is. The church had a lot to do with that and we saw some sister missionaries there. Becci thinks that would be a fun place to serve. Rachel and I liked this Kissing Post sign.

We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday afternoon. We didn't realize it closed so early or we would have gotten there earlier. There is so much there. We saw the display of super hero costumes and other fashion designs that they inspired. Weird! Then we found the paintings. Becci was in seventh heaven. It was fun watching her see the paintings in person that she studied last year. Here are a couple of her favorites. The first one is by Edgar Degas and entitled 'Two Ballerinas' The dancer on the right imitates the shape of the watering can. You can click on the picture to see it larger. The other one is called 'Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies' by Claude Monet.

















Then we went and rested in Central Park. It is right next door. Rachel says that she would love to live around the corner from this park, but I would rather be right in the middle! It is very green and quiet and there were no masses, at least on Tuesday.


Here, Jim has the Wall Street Bull by the ear. Wish he could tell it what to do.


We were also able to go to the Manhattan Temple. We tried to get the 1st session at 11:00 but missed it by 5 min. So Rachel and I did Initiatory. (the next session was at 12:30) I think it was meant for us to be late, because they needed Jim in the Baptistry. They were short one priesthood holder in order to do baptisms. There was a man who would not have been able to do the work for his father and a family from LA doing family names if he had not been there. It was so quiet and peaceful inside. You would never realize what was happening outside. This was the 2nd thing that we found that was free. This photo was taken from the subway entrance. Becci rode the train with us part way and then took Sophia to meet Davey at his school. He had a 3 hour break. I was really proud of Becci. She got a little lost, but asked someone and was able to get to Davey.
Here are some other sites we saw.
World Trade Center Site

St. Patrick's Cathedral and Empire State Building

Another thing that was interesting about NY is the subway system. I swear you could travel all over NY and never see the light of day. It is amazing and I think we got pretty good at it. Davey lent us a map of the train system and by the end of the week we were doing pretty good. Jim had come home Thursday night and on Friday Becci and I decided to take a bus tour. That would have been a good idea if it had not been rush hour. We had gotten off at a couple stops and only got lost once. That is another thing that is free in NY; advice. The people of NY are very willing to help you find where you are going. We asked quiet often. Well, we had seen all we wanted to see and were only staying on the bus to get to where we had started. Traffic was so thick you could stick your finger out the window and touch another tour bus. There was a lot of honking going on and we were told that there is a $350 fine for honking, but the tour guide had never seen it enforced. We were doing about 15 min. between stop lights, when Becci and I spotted a subway entrance with the letter of train we needed to get back to Brooklyn. We got off and headed for it and made it home a lot faster I do believe. We rode the trains when there were just a few people on it (Sunday) and also during rush hour when it was standing room only. Quite the adventure. We were glad to be home out of the masses. But we miss Rachel & Sophia. Sophia was just beginning to warm up to us. We will have to start all over after Davey's graduation.