Day 31 - Return to New York

July 7 - Kay spent the morning washing clothes, but just after noon we left the Hampton Inn in Braintree to start return trip, ultimately to Baton Rouge. First stop, New York City. I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment there, but the doctor's office manager called to cancel, saying that he couldn't do anything more for me than my doctor at MD Anderson could do, and that his surgical schedule required them to cancel non-critical appointments. The good news is that I didn't have to be in Manhattan for a 7 p.m. appointment and therefore we could enjoy a nice evening with our granddaughters.

After Kallie drove her short stint in Connecticut (we could only manage a parking garage for her during our short trip through Rhode Island) Kay took the wheel. She planned to turn it back to me before we reached the city, but bypassed the last service station and ended up driving all the way to Brooklyn (with Sac's expert help and my direction).

I took over for parking. We unloaded a few necessary items in front of the apartment before I started searching the neighborhood. My task was complicated by the fact that street cleaning was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. the next day for one side of the street. If I found a space on that side, I'd have to move the car again in the morning. I looked for a "Wednesday (street cleaning)" space so the car could stay put. Fortunately, I found a spot just two blocks from the apartment.

We ate dinner at a Spanish/Mexican restaurant just two blocks away. At my peril (and against suggestions) I chose Mexican over Spanish. My margarita was great, but the fajita meat was tough. I finished early, so Annabelle and I took a walk in front of the restaurant, which made the whole meal worthwhile.

On Tuesday morning we ate brunch at Tom's Restaurant, a Brooklyn neighborhood institute. Almost three miles away--too far for a walk, but Sac handled the trip easily. Tom's makes great breakfasts and provides personal service and little extras - orange sections and chocolate chip cookies. The place has been so respected in its community that rioters protected and bypassed it during the riots following Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968.

On to Pennsylvania and Citizens Bank Park!

A Wicked Day Sixteen

June 22 - The curtain rose on Wicked promptly on Sunday at 3 p.m. Holding Internet-bought tickets that cost twice the face value of the seats, we sat in the very last row of the Gerswhin Theatre, just one seat from the far left end. Still we had a great few of the stage as the theatre seemed to be more tall than deep. Erin was transfixed. I was a little groggy after a pre-show drink--half of a half-pitcher of sangria (almost three glasses). After I woke up I enjoyed Act Two quite a bit, particularly when the story started to dovetail with the Wizard of Oz story that I know so well. I reviewed Act I with Erin at intermission and found out that I understood it better than I gave myself credit for. The staging, sound and lighting were spectacular as were the performances by the two stars playing Glinda the Good and Elphaba, who we know as the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda's extreme perkiness (ala morning show diva Kelly Ripa) was annoying at times, but I guess that was part of her character.

Before the show we ate bagels for breakfast and a delicious lunch at a Brooklyn Thai restaurant--this seems to be one style of food that all of us enjoy. Kallie's flawless navigation brought us out of the subway less than a block from the theatre.

After the show we headed back to June's in Pennsylvania. The trip on New Jersey Transit went well, though it involved a lot of walking in Penn Station. We had to ask one question on the street to find our way into the downtown-bound train we needed to get back to Penn Station.

Back in Pennsylvania we found dinner five minutes before J.W. Dawson's in Langhorne, PA closed. The food was OK, though probably a little more expensive than we were looking for.

On Monday, we'll head back to Judy's in West Chester. I'll go to Delaware in the afternoon to meet with a couple of friends from college that I haven't seen in about 30 years. Kay and the girls will have an easy afternoon with still-unnamed "puppy".

Day Fifteen - Mermaids on Parade

June 21 - The girls got up at what for them was an ungodly hour so we could catch the 9:09 New Jersey Transit train from Hamilton, NJ to Penn Station in New York City. Sac was not as cooperative as she guided us to the neighborhood of the station, but not actually to it. Kallie rescued the trip, but not before we missed the 9:09 train. Fortunately, the 9:37 was close behind and took us to the station in NYC in a brisk hour and fifteen minutes. From there we found our way via the F train to Brooklyn and Jason and Beth's apartment in another 1-1/4 hours, arriving at about 12:10.

After a break for lunch we headed back to the subway for the ride to Coney Island, where the 26th annual Mermaid Day Parade was underway. A beach version of Mardi Gras without the beads, the parade and a beautiful Saturday afternoon attracted an amazing throng of people to Coney Island. We couldn't get close enough to the parade (a procession of antique cars at its beginning) to see it, so we snaked along with the mob heading toward the beach. This was a good decision--the beach was relatively open since almost everyone was at the parade. On the way we gazed in awe at the big countdown board at Nathan's World Famous Hot Dog Stand--just 12+ days until the next hot dog eating contest on July 4. Last year's champion, American Joey Chestnut ate an amazing 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, in the process dethroning Japanese champion and previous recordholder Kobayashi, who suffered from a brief "reversal of fortune" before finishing second.

After sitting on the sizzling sand for a few minutes, we moved closer to the water to watch Beth and Lilybeth go in the water. The cool sea breeze was a nice relief. The water was a little too cold for anyone but four-year-olds and their devoted mothers.

A little later Kay and I retreated in search of a beer. By this time the parade was over. The crowd around Ruby's Bar was crushing--we wormed our way into what turned out to be the food line, only we didn't want food. Kay found the beer line. Beers in hand we inched toward the back of the bar where we actually found a couple of seats in front of a TV tuned to the Eurocup game between Holland and Russia. The Russians won in the second overtime just as we turned around to leave.

Along the way I took pictures of a wide variety of underdressed mermaids and mermen (and men dressed as mermaids--I'm not sure if there were any maids dressed as mermen). The competition to create the costume using the minimum amount of clothes was fascinating. Sales of blue body paint had to be at an all-time high.

Kallie and Erin headed off to ride either the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel or the Cyclone roller coaster, the two adult rides remaining from what was the splendor of Coney Island. The lines were so long that they rode neither, but they did get Cyclone t-shirts.

The subway trip back to Jay's neighborhood seemed a lot shorter than the one from Pennsylvania to Coney Island, partly because I slept for some of it after absorbing a beer and an afternoon's worth of sun.

I agreed to go out for dinner, but only if the sidetrip to do so was very short. We ate at Enzo's on Prospect Park Ave, a relatively new Italian restaurant just a block from the subway station. The food was served family-style with a few non-damaging glitches--mainly the food showing up before the plates or utensils. Annabelle and I ducked out early for ice cream. She ate every bite of a cup of vanilla; I did the same to peaches and cream.

Back home I didn't last long before collapsing on a bed. It's Sunday morning now. In NYC tradition, we had bagels for breakfast. Later today we'll see Wicked on Broadway and head back to Pennsylvania to spend the night.