Quiet Morning Strolls and Arrival Weekend: NYC Trip

I scrambled around on a Friday with Tony in town to get a bunch of homework done and ready to send off with a trustworthy individual. Later on I had to redo some of it, but what can you do?

Ultimately that Friday Corrie and I were headed for a red-eye into Kennedy, arriving just before daybreak on Saturday. We had a few, er, refreshments, but only I got some sleep on the plane. Zoned and blitzed and all bunched up from the airplane ride, we strapped our bags on and walked straight from the airplane out of the terminal and into the Air Train--the inter-terminal train that connects to parking lots and subway stops.

It took all of four seconds to be back in New York Mode, walking quickly and aggressively, literally moments off the plane. "...Tourists..." we grunted under our breath as we powered through the bleary eyed throng.

We took the Air Train to the E train stop, watched the sun come up along the way, and then entered the personal hell of all New Yorkers: the wildly stuffy and humid underground subway station, feeling as hot the surface of the sun, sweat beading everywhere on your pack-mule-loaded body, and the train never comes.

Obviously "never" is inaccurate, but when you're there it's a far more tangible concept.

We were heading that morning to the Union Square Green Market, my old stomping ground, to stash our bags in the truck's cab of the the dairy for who I used to work while we we waited for Marc and Linda and baby Marco to come down and meet us. We would be spending Saturday night in Dobbs Ferry with them. Sunday we were spending with Corrie's cousin Joshua, his wife Elizabeth, and their baby girl Emlyn.

We got off the E train at West 4th, the main Greenwich Village stop, and decided to walk the maybe mile distance to Union Square, between 14th and 17th, but east of 5th Ave. That walk, though, passes right by Washington Square park, and I snapped the next picture of the Washington Arch before 7 am, trhe new Freedom Tower visible off in the distance:

After stowing our stuff, Corrie found a shady bench to try and catch some sitting-up-style-zzz's, and I, having giving up on catching some sleep before nighttime, went for a walk.

I found a cheese shop that seemed to have just opened for the day, and I went in looking for some guanciale for Norm (I found it and purchased it a week later before flying out). There was just a lone dude working inside, and through small talk we learned that we were both from Sacramento, that we both up and left for New York City, and that we both lived on Halsey St in Bed-Stuy, us at 619 and he at 710. Nothing like a random dude from your hometown living on your street to help you realize how small the world can become.

Soon we met up with Marc and Linda and Marco, and we had a great time. Lunch in the City, drive up, nice dinner out, chatting like old times, playing with the baby like new times, and it felt like we'd been gone only a few days. We realized how much we missed the friendship we had with them.

The same experience was had with Josh and Elizabeth and Emlyn, but that's more family than close friendship. The experience and camaraderie was different, but fulfilling and full of love.

The hand-off, as it were, of us from the Piazzas to the Morris', was over breakfast in a town between Dobbs Ferry and Beacon, a mid point named Cold Spring, at a diner where we could mob the place up with babies and mugs of coffee. On a walk along the main street of that town after brunch, I snapped a picture specifically for our San Luis Obispo people:

Also that morning, I walked by something I felt I needed to take a picture of:

It's like the planter broke away but the roots were intact.

Monday morning we hopped the train to town, dropped our luggage off at the hotel before we could check in, and felt home. 'Spose that's the next post...