New York with the Fam

Evelyn and I drove just past Harrisburg, PA last night and stayed overnight before driving the rest of the way into the city today. I had never taken the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, nor driven in Manhattan before. But Geoff gave me perfect step-by-step, turn-by-turn directions, and, actually it was a breeze. The traffic on 40th Street across to Third Avenue was stop-and-go most of the way, but we weren't in a hurry, and it gave us time to soak up the city atmosphere and make sure we were in the right spot.

I  snapped this picture out my windshield stopped at Broadway and 40th Street.

We got checked into our hotel in Long Island City in time to change clothes and walk the few blocks down to Geoff and Lisa's apartment. Matt and the kids were already there, and after awhile, we walked to the subway to meet Lisa and Jen in the city (Lisa was at work, and Jen met with Orchard Group yesterday and today.) We took the subway to Central Park where Lisa managed a family photo shoot. That had been Evelyn's request--a picture of all of us since we were all going to be together. Two of Lisa and Geoff's good friends met us at the park and actually snapped the pictures of all 8 of us, using Lisa's camera. And Lisa took pictures of the smaller groups herself. We took pictures in at least three different locations, and we're looking forward to Lisa's Photoshop work to turn them into masterpieces!

 

Then we subwayed to the location for our celebration dinner. The occasion was our 40th wedding anniversary. The kids had picked out a wonderful restaurant, The Harrison, where we enjoyed a long, relaxing, wonderful dinner. Lots of laughter, great food, a very fine time. And our dessert came with a special greeting from the chef.

We walked the Highline after that and returned to Geoff and Lisa's apartment full of memories of a wonderful family celebration.

Remembering 40 Years Ago

It's our 40th wedding anniversary, and we're basking in all the good wishes after I posted two of our wedding pictures on Facebook.
It's a low-key weekend. Tonight we're celebrating by going to Evelyn's 50th high school class reunion! She insisted we don't need to do it, but there's no reason not to go. Hey we do get dinner out of the deal, and Evelyn says this will probably be the last time she tries to see these friends from so long ago.
Some time ago I got a Groupon for the 360 Restaurant, the latest brand for the revolving restaurant atop the Radisson in Covington, Kentucky. It struck a chord with me, because that's the hotel where we spent our wedding night, and we ate dinner (sort of) at that restaurant after the wedding. (We had an evening wedding with a cake and punch reception. We were both exhausted after the long day, and, really, I don't think we ate much of the meal.)
The night holds several memories; the ones I'll report include the fact that our room, high above I-75 had a perfect view of a flashing liquor store sign in Covington; and I had a nightmare in the middle of the night and woke up hollering out loud in abject fear. The next morning Evelyn was sick to her stomach--a result of the new birth control pills. I distinctly remember her ordering toast and tea at a Jerry's restaurant in Kentucky as we made our way to Cumberland Falls State Park. Another highlight of the morning: a phone call to our hotel room from either Evelyn's mother or her brother (I forget which). They needed a key to her apartment so they could stash all our wedding gifts inside. Evelyn thought one of the bridesmaids had the key so they could run the errand the night before, but, alas, it was nowhere to be found. So we had a rendezvous with Evelyn's brother in the morning before we left town. (We tried to look and act normal when we met him.)
Friends . . . this is the real life stuff they just don't include in the romance novels!
Anyway, back to last night. To tell you the truth, we were underwhelmed by the restaurant. Same nice views as always, of course, and we enjoyed the panoramas.
But the food was just OK, and the service lacked a certain panache. Maybe we're just spoiled by all the attention we received on the cruise ship, but I don't think so. The dinner was OK at a discounted Groupon price, but this place isn't on our list for a return visit--even on a future anniversary.
It will be good to get some tasks around here done today and tomorrow, in between going to the shindig tonight and church tomorrow.
And I promise to post some more vacation pictures soon.

How Old People Celebrate Their Anniversary

I'm not sure what Evelyn and I were doing 39 years ago today. Thirty-nine years ago on June 22 we were married; it was a Friday night that year too, and we went to the exotic destination of Gatlinburg for our honeymoon, via Cumberland Falls State Park and Knoxville. By July 6, I'm guessing we had jumped into what would become a challenging year of too many part-time occupations that added up to more than full-time busyness: I had three jobs; that fall Evelyn was going to school and teaching school; we led a Bible study and attended a Bible study every week. It was crazy. Our lives felt as frenetic as that jumping animation I've posted above for today's entry.
I chose the Spiderman graphic because we're going to go see the new Spiderman movie tonight, for a belated anniversary celebration. Evelyn heard a good review of the movie. I just read a negative review of it in Wall Street Journal. But, in an uncharacteristically organized move for me, we already purchased tickets on Fandango, so we're committed. I'm sure it will be diverting.
We went to Ferrari's Little Italy a couple weeks ago, and Evelyn loved it so much she said she wanted to go there again when we celebrated our anniversary. So we're headed there at 6:30, which ought to give us plenty of time to eat and make the 8:20 movie at Newport on the Levee. It's a long movie, though, so I'm stealing a few minutes at work today for this post, because I expect to be too tired to write something coherent by the time we get home this evening. I'll post OUR review tomorrow.
By the way, speaking of movie reviews, I mentioned a couple of days ago that we watched The Vow on DVD. We enjoyed it, but I'm glad I didn't spend $20 to watch it. I hope I don't regret the ticket price to see Spiderman.  :-)