Scenes of NY and NJ

Coney Island from the Pier. Steve's apartment is at the same level here as the top of the cyclone. All the guests (except me, Steve, Naomi and Don'tae) had come here Saturday to ride the cyclone.

We walked around Times Square Monday. More impressive at night

Me and the groom

Entrance to Coney Island

Time's square again

Josh under the famous Nathan's sign where everyone (except me) had lunch

Naomi with Charlotte the Jack Russell at my brother's

Naomi, Shanna, and Maddy with a sleeping Daniel

Naomi and Dontae on the Boardwalk. I've run up and down this thing hundreds of times

In the synagogue

During the wedding. Poor lighting for pictures

Inside my brother's house

The synagogue was very old as was the Rabbi. He had a very good sense of humor and was very welcoming

After the wedding reception during the clean-up. Who's doing the clean-up? Mainly the bride! Shame on us!!!!Pictured is Josh, me, David(Maddy's step-son), Shanna, Maddy (Steve's sister)and Harold (the groom, Steve's brother)

Freak show. Coney Island is a classy place. Josh said the barker was especially trying to lure people in to see Jackie Tripod, the three legged lady. They passed

This place sells 'stuff'. We stayed in a Chinese neighborhood in a Chinese hotel which actually was nice. In the morning, we found a bun shop with really tasty, yeasty buns for 80 cents a piece. There were also dumpling shops with similar prices but didn't have room in my belly for those.

Monday morning Diane invited about twenty of us to her house for brunch. Not enough for her to plan the wedding, decorate, clean-up-she hosted us too.

My brother's bathroom larger than our bedroom. Naomi and Dontae enjoyed the jacuzzi with the color changing lights

The boardwalk was very crowded the day we went. In the background is the Parachute Jump. They would hoist you up and let you free fall with a parachute on. It hasn't been operational in 50 years. Steve's mom went on it as a teenager. I am surprised that a storm hasn't taken it down yet. The boardwalk was fixed up considerably since I used to run up and down it-safety was questionable on its western end. New flowers, new art work, a children's playground, clean bathrooms, a new ball stadium (The Cyclones).

Part of a game we got for the bride and groom-a custom made Monopoly game. The places have been replaced with places meaningful to the couple


So we are back from our 4 day adventure with 2 of the days devoted to driving. Naomi did not go into labor as I feared. She is now 37 weeks and has occasional contractions. I took a vacation from e-mail and running too, no time for either. I will try to make up these things today. Between Naomi, Steve, and I, we took lots of pictures. There was an official wedding photographer there too who I hope with her superior equipment, will have better pictures of the bride and groom.

The wedding was very emotional. They have faced so many medical challenges which are not over as treatment regimes still are in place. But despite fatigue from the treatment, they wanted to enjoy their wedding day and danced together. There was much joy!!

No fun driving through numerous construction sites on I-80. Naomi spent most of the driving time asleep in the back seat but I tried to have her walk every few hours to prevent blood clots. She kept her legs elevated. We stayed the first night at my brother's and Sui-Jean's house outside of Princeton NJ. Naomi and Dontae found some energy for basketball and a long walk around Bruce's neighborhood full of McMansions. She wants a house just like that! Well..not on the road she's currently taking but I try not to lecture her much on the consequences of life choices as she does not listen. Sui-Jean has a degree in botany and loves to garden. She had plenty of beds full of perennials and various vegetables. I brought back a few coreopsis back, hopefully some will survive. Their dog Charlotte kept us amused with her tricks: rolling over for food and jumping up-very good catcher. There are plenty of perches for her to guard her house against rabbits and butterflies, which sets her off into a doggie rage. The Jack Russell book says that they don't die of old age; their propensity to chase anything that moves eventually does them in as they don't correctly assess the size of their opponents.

In the morning, we went off to the village for some coffee while the lovebirds slept in. All evening we'd fielded various calls of disasters: no key for Julia to get into our house to rescue Spud-both her and Josh's keys were missing in action and the back-up key I had hidden didn't work. Also Steve had cut the power to our garage door so no sneaking in that way. My friend had a key but she was 30 miles away and really didn't feel like coming back to Ann Arbor that second. Meanwhile it was especially hot in AA and I imagined all my flowers dying of thirst as the promised rain didn't come (all seem to be still living). My friend ended up moving in to deal with Spud and the flowers. For the time being, she has no AC and we do so that was a lure. Also Josh was lost in NYC. Harold had dropped him off somewhere in Brooklyn so he could stay in with Maddy's friend. Do we know where he should go? Well we don't know where her friend lives now. Eventually Maddy found him wandering the streets so he was rescued. Somehow the kids inherited Steve's sense of direction (absolutely none!!!) and are continually getting lost. I've bought Josh all sorts of maps and he has a GPS but still I get these phone calls. Josh had flown into LaGuardia very late Friday night. He went for cheapness so his flight went to Atlanta (where it was delayed). There was about 9 hours between when he left for the airport and when he finally arrived at his neighborhood buddy's studio on the Upper East side-just slightly shorter than driving. His friend ( I used to take him on our cross state bike rides) and brother share this tiny studio with 3 large dogs and have no time for house cleaning. Since it is in a good neighborhood, it cost and arm and a leg. They had fun visiting the local bars. The next morning, Josh made his way to Brooklyn on the subway which was packed to the gills and stopped and went dark with no air conditioning. He was afraid of some terrorist attack as he couldn't understand the announcement over a crackly loudspeaker saying what the delay was. They all met in Coney Island. Shanna and her family came in from Boston staying at the same Chinese hotel as we did only for 2 nights instead of the one night. Josh had made no plans and ended up staying with Maddy and her friend who has a deluxe 3 story house in Brooklyn with a hot tub on the roof.
After breakfast on Sunday, we went into Brooklyn crossing the Verrazano Bridge, all of this was a new experience for Dontae who hasn't travelled much in his life aside from a class trip to DC.

To be continued...