New York, New York

During my lifetime I have lived in two New Yorks. The first was the town of Somers, New York, where I lived from the age of 9 until I graduated from college. It's the town where my brother now lives in the house where we all grew up. The other New York -- the one visited only on class trips or the very occasional tour with kids from AFS (I think that happened only once) -- is the place where I lived for about seven years in the 1980s. Five of those years were great, the last two -- not so much fun. I visit that first New York very frequently, but the second New York I hadn't revisited for 20 years despite the fact that my sister-in-law lives there. THAT if nothing else should tell you how deep the grudge I had against New York ran.

However, my mother-in-law is summering in that city so I -- being the PERFECT daughter-in-law -- decided to meet with New York again, and have a little mediation session. I would say maybe I had judged it so harshly for way too long and it would say it was sorry for forcing me to run screaming from the mean streets to the unlikely and frankly not much more fun New Milford, Connecticut.

I'm happy to report that the mediation could not have gone better and I actually (gulp!) had a great time in the city. Here are the pictures to prove it.

Hello NY -- this is the view from New Jersey. Lizzie was beyond excited when she saw all the tall buildings and told us she couldn't wait to go into a skyscraper and then was very disappointed that Grandma didn't live in one:

This is the way we got into NYC and I must report that as much as I did like being back in the city, I still feel the exact same way about that long, smelly, shiny tunnel. But since I wasn't driving I survived:

Hannah and Lizzie at the gate of Grandma's little courtyard apartment in Greenwich Village:

Trevor, Grandma Connie's 13-year-old Golden Retriever who is quite the city dog despite being raised at the Jersey Shore. Trevor loves walking to Washington Square Park and all over the neighborhood, proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks:

Uncle Dude and Grandma outside her courtyard mews. There are several apartments surrounding a little courtyard garden with trees and herbs growing. It's really nice, as is her street which is incredibly quiet for being only a couple blocks off 6th Ave.

Hannah and Liz at the fountain at Washington Square Park. I used to spend time here when I was in the Village and let me tell you they really cleaned up this park! However, there are still way too many people here for me to consider it an ACTUAL park, but Hannah and Liz liked the three different jazz bands that were playing and the people playing chess:

If you didn't know that Rob and Uncle Dude were brothers, you would from this picture (please excuse their white socks -- they are not city boys):

Hannah getting her NYC look on:

This is the courtyard outside of the apartment. It's not the best picture of Aunt Linda or Hannah, but it was such a great picture of the patio furniture that I had to include it. Grandma's yet-to-be-used gas grill is right behind Hannah. The Rasmussens are more charcoal people, so they don't know how prefer to use a gas grill:

Here's Lizzie inside Grandma's apartment. This is the living room (it's got a large bedroom with a fireplace, too). She looks quite relaxed here (we were all pooped out from walking around) but when we first got there my little nature lover noted the bars on the windows and the low ceilings and the 6 people in a very small space and remarked that she felt like she was in a cage:

For me, though, this pictures shows a happy coincidence that occurred. We were walking to our lunch place and things started to look VERY VERY familiar to me. We passed a couple of vest pocket parks and buildings that just seemed really familiar. When we got to the restaurant, I looked down the street and saw this. This is an apartment where I spent many, many happy times in NYC. It's on Carmine Street and the restaurant that is there now (a pizza place where ironically Grandma Connie said she got the best pizza she's had in the city) used to be Mexico Next to Texaco (the Texaco station is gone and there is a new building there) and I lived right above it. The window with the air conditioner and the one to the left of it were my windows. Seeing it again after 20 years brought all sorts of great memories flooding back for me. It wasn't EXACTLY the same as NYC offering an apology, but it was close enough:

 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!! This trip to New York, also included a trip to the OTHER New York where we hung out with my brother's family and celebrated my nephew's 9th birthday.

Here Hannah is conferring with Riley, one of Tommy's good friends:

Aunt Tina brought a slip n' slide for the party and Lizzie tried NOT to slip or slide:

Hannah, on the other hand, got right into it:

So then, of course Lizzie did, too:

Aunt Tina donated the slip n slide, but she did not use it. Here she is with my niece Brenna:

I personally filled 4,246 water balloons, so that they could be used in a giant water balloon fight that lasted about 32 seconds. Here Lizzie just misses the mark tossing one at Charlie, one of Tommy's friends:

 Here's the whole gang the next morning, Tommy's actual 9th birthday. Hannah and Lizzie did NOT want to leave, but luckily we'll be seeing everyone in the Poconos in a few weeks:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMMY!!!

Here are some slightly artsy fartsy photos of New York:

This bench is in Grandma's courtyard

This is one of my favorite pictures of Hannah. I'm not sure if the flare on her right is caused by the sun (it wasn't in the other photos) or if PaPa came to NYC with us:

This is the top of the library in Katonah that I snapped in the early morning sun after I dropped Rob off at the train station to go back down to the city to visit Ellis Island with his family (the girls and I were staying in Somers for the birthday BBQ):