Traffic

We use our Tom-Tom to navigate through unfamiliar cities. It always gives an estimated time of arrival. This time is useless in NYC. Noone measures things in miles around here-distance is measured in minutes or hours. The Tom-Tom converts miles into minutes assuming one is driving in the middle of Michigan. I once asked my brother-in-law how far it was between his apartment and his parents' because I wanted to run between them. I assumed it must be 10 miles or more as it took 30 min minimum to drive so I was very shocked that it took only 30 minutes to run it. I've spent a good portion of the last 3 days in traffic-I don't know how people put up with it. Steve always wants to go to the same Italian restaurant in Bensonhurst, which we did and I stocked up on Italian baked goods eating my sfogliatelle on the way to Boston. Naomi's idea of Paradise is this all chocolate restaurant around Union Square (Max Brenner's?)serving very expensive but tasty chocolate creations. She loves the chocolate pizza. Lots of traffic back and forth and Diane lives in the farthest corner of Brooklyn from Manhattan. Manhattan looks magical at night. Naomi just loves it here.
Today was the 42 mile 5 borough bike ride. It would have been fun to ride especially if it hadn't been raining, but I cursed its existence and its 30,000 riders today. I needed to be in midtown early this morning. No problem usually on a Sunday but we spent close to an hour circling to nowhere getting conflicting info how to cross over to 8th Avenue for my pick-up. Finally I just ran there with my luggage in tow to catch my MegaBus just in time playing Frogger with the non-stop stream of bicyclists I had to cross through. The Megabus trip was only $16. If I didn't plan it at the last minute, it would only cost $3. It arrived in Boston early.

So now I'm with Shanna, Ramy and my precious grandson Oliver for the next 8 days. Steve and Naomi are on the road back to Michigan. The extra hour idling in traffic in Manhattan didn't help Steve's mood.