NEW YORK TRIP

Yeah, it was great and the weather, although very cold, was sunny and nice, roads clear and dry. It was great to stay with my brother and his great family. Judy was a dear to take care of me and the kids were happy to have me around for awhile. Jesse, Val and Natasha are all 16 this year so they are a lot of fun to be around. Chris was also home for one evening but I didn't get his picture. We had a nice visit after everyone else had gone to bed catching up on his life and his family.

Friday was spent seeing the neighborhood, baking a cake with Natasha, sharing Trent's wedding pictures, looking at Val's Eagle project binder and then going to the theater to see Sherlock Holmes. It was a wonderful day.

We arose early to leave the house by 8:00am on our way to New York so the kids could attend a church function at the stake center. My brother lives in East Rockaway about 40 minutes away. While they were at their activities, David, Judy and I attended a session at the temple. That was so awesome. The temple is located just off Broadway right across the street from the Lincoln Center. Just as you walk through the doors, it was so quiet and peaceful and absolutely beautiful. We took an elevator upstairs to the 5 floor for the endowment session. It was amazing. You can see the stained glass windows in the front of the picture. No words to describe the beauty inside. (The dressing room area was pretty limited.)

After the session, we grabbed some lunch next door and the Europan Cafe and then did some walking. After several blocks, we continued on as David hosted a car tour of New York City. It was fabulous. We drove through Central Park, then along 5th Avenue to see the beautiful multi-million dollar condos including where John Lennon lived, Tiffany's, Sax Fifth Avenue, DeBears, Cucci, Forbes, the Trump Towers, the Julliard School of Music, the old Church mission home (now sold), several famous cathedrals and museums, the Empire State Building and the New York City library. I had to keep pinching myself to remember I was actually in the heart of New York City.

Then we drove to 10th Street and Washington Square. Drive through Greenwich Village and several more blocks to David's old office neighborhood. We spent a little time at South Street Seaport where you see the famous Brooklyn Bridge in the background, then over to Ground Zero where they are currently rebuilding the twin towers. Across the bay you could see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.
It was a beautiful day.






















Just in time to pick up the kids from the Youth Conference with a little time to head over to the Museum of Natural History. Since we had limited time, we headed straight for the Central American exhibit and saw lots of artifacts from the Mayan, Inca and Aztec civilizations. Really cool, right in New York City. Then we grabbed a bite to eat at Ray's Pizza. We all had spaghetti, hee hee.

Then off to a Broadway show. The theater was located just one block from Times Square so we ran down just to take a look. Wow, I couldn't believe I was standing right there!

David treated us all to the play Memphis. It was so great! I've never seen such fantastic dancing, well, rarely. I have to admit, the dance team on the cruise ship was super, too. The story line was about how Rock and Roll got its start on account of the Blacks. The Blacks had so much soul and rhythm and dance but the White folks didn't want to admit anything good could come from the Blacks and didn't want anything to do with them. Well, we all know how that story turns out.

Attended church which is just a small branch. Just recently, they reorganized a few larger wards into several small branches so they would be more accessible to the Saints. It was weird to be singing the opening song and you could hear just as many singing in Spanish as you could in English. I just stayed for Sacrament so I could get back to the airport and home by midnight.

I bought myself a luxury item before leaving home, the IPod Touch. Jennifer helped me download lots of information, two movies, music, Ensign and conference articles and some games. So even though it was an eight-hour flight, I was totally happy with my new toy. While I was at David's, Chris downloaded even more sites, scriptures, Associated Press for news, weather, Pandora music radio, Museum search engine, dictionary, Thesaurus and even more games. I sure didn't think I would ever own such a gadget!