Bella Visits Lola and Granddad

We had the most wonderful three + weeks with our beautiful granddaughter,  Bella and wanted to capture the memories for us and for her.

Bella seemed to enjoy everything we did together and thanked us all the time . She said she knew we were spoiling her and was lucky we were rich.

We explained we were far from rich but she then said "But you are over-comfortable, right ?"

A new financial term : "over-comfortable" 

On her first Saturday with us, Bella got to sit on the stage and watch Peter and the Dream Catcher at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton VA. She stared down the evil pirate who menacingly told her kids would be needed for his boat.  She did not like the fact he took a swig from her soda and did not drink it after that , perhaps fearing pirate germs.

The very next day, Neil and his daughter Sophie came to visit. It was so nice of Neal to take the two hour drive down to C'Ville , especially since it was Father 's Day. We had lunch, followed by Sweet Frog and then went peach picking at Carter's Mountain.

We made quite a few trips to Sweet Frog. Bella made the most colorful combinations of frozen yogurt.

The following weekend we drove to Busch Gardens and visited both the Waterpark and the Amusement Park.Nicest of all, Bella got to see her best friend Sienna.

The week before, Bella attended a  camp at ACAC and got to go swimming for at least two hours a day . Somehow, I neglected to take photos at the camp which she enjoyed tremendously.  She made a good friend, Julia and that led to three play dates.

What could be better than one best friend than two great friends!  It just so happened that Rosie, her friend on our block, was going to the Amusement Park the next day and she joined Bella and Sienna. They had a ball.

Here they are again deciding what to do next : really scary roller coaster or not.

Bella's friend Lucy went with us everywhere . Here she is resting after a day long outing at the park. She actually had much more energy left than did Lola and Granddad.

Bella and Sienna discovered Bubba's General Store and Ice Cream Parlor on Saturday night.

Bella got to visit Lindenhurst the next weekend. It is our ancestral home on the Island of Long.  She enjoyed playing with Theo who sought out her attention .

He had tough competition next to this little cutie, Annabella. So adorable.

The best part , of course, was meeting all her cousins. For some reason, she referred to cousins Kevin  Kyle as Billie  & Bob . Not quite sure why but she always laughed when she did.  Here we are at Ihop's on Saturday morning.

On a Sunday afternoon, we visited with Marty & Maureen , Uncle Eddie and Megan. Bella got to swim to her heart's content.   We stayed util 5 pm and then left to attend the twin's birthday party which was just starting.

She loved seeing cousins Alex, Ben and Brandon.  It was the twins birthday. She had presents for all her family members who in turn could not get over how thoughtful they were. For example, Brandon told he just started playing chess and she gave a chess set as his present.

I am not sure Bella played with Brian's Great Dane . It was the size of a small horse and still growing. But I know she was thrilled to see it.

Cousin Marie and Aunt Helen, who Bella calls Grams, were particularly delighted to see Bella

Bella also got to see Emma Kate with her parents Kaitlin and Mike. We attended Rocco's christening Saturday afternoon.

In between an Ihop breakfast and the christening, we went to see Despicable Me 3

My favorite picture. How can you not be crazy about this beautiful girl.

Bella and Lola in front of the lovely flowers.

One of the fun rides at Hersey Park

One of the most fun things Bella did was to see the seals perform at the Hershey Aquarium.

One of the four performers . MC said if you clapped harder they would perform better as they loved applause.  (oh, please)  Everyone  clapped and cheered  enthusiastically (oh please)

I almost wrote that the seals were the best thing about the visit when I remembered Chocolate World where we saw how candy was made and even made our own candy bar.

The candy makers.

The last stage of the process: designing your own label.

Lola already made a candy bar but did she then buy this gigantic bar too?

Come to think of it, there was an incredible amount of ice cream and frozen yogurt consumed on this trip.

A lot of ice-cream.

Could there ever be too much ice-cream?

On the day before she left, we all went to the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport.

Bella is holding up the era of flight. Before that she got to go on two space rides. Who knew a museum could be so much fun.

End of the day at the museum and time to go back.

Previous Trips- 2003 : China & the Great Wall

I paid these mercenaries to accompany and protect me in case any Mongols remained  in the area .

Along the way, there were lovely bridges and small shrines making  the path so pretty.

Natural formations were equally lovely.

Isn't nature magnificent?

The wall stretches as far as the eye can see. The total length is 5,500 miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_of_China

Japanese tourists were everywhere and usually fashionably dressed.

There are quite a few entrances, or gates,  to the Great Wall. Badaling is the closest to Beijing. This time I went to Mutianyu  accompanied by my embassy friend and his young son.

The people in the background give a indication of how wide the wall is. I heard you could fit two average size sedans side by side

The snow began to fall  as we climbed up making the path and, especially the steps, slippery and dangerous.  My embassy friend had on hiking boots but I had on sneakers. He called down to this lady who was selling soda and snacks at the bottom of the steps. She came up to us. He told me to hold on to her waist and to give her a small tip at the end.   I was embarrassed but, what the heck, I was safe.

On the road to Southern Virginian

The Trip To Southern Viginia

We had so much fun driving from Charlottesville to Roanoke and stopping at places along the way such as Bedford, Lexington, Poplar Forest and Roanoke.   We laughed at a place called the Pink Cadillac Diner and became most somber at the D- Day Memorial.

Bedford, Va.  suffered the highest per capita number of deaths during the  Normandy Invasion of any city in the U.S. To honor the sacrifice of its sons, it built the National  D-Day Memorial.

It not only honors its own sons  but lists the names of the 4,413 US and Allied soldiers who died in the invasion.

https://www.dday.org

We visited a number of antique stores in the area, some were even called "salvage" stores.

Her are some of the items on sale.

I guess not all customers were honest . Thus the need for high tech security.

Everyone knows  Jefferson's home, Monticello .  But how many know about his home in Poplar Forest?  He said Monticello was for entertaining but Poplar Forest was for relaxing.

Learn more about Poplar Forest:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poplar_Forest

Everything Jefferson built was classy.  Here is a lovely  brick structure  . It is an outhouse

This is the Roanoke City Market. Now a collection of small stores and shops.

This was the center of the city as far as we could tell.   Many of the buildings were red brick. None were taller than the building on the right.

The lovely red brick, once again.

We showed up hungry one Sunday at the Roanoker hoping the line would not be too long.   We were seated in less than ten minutes. The Roanoker had a huge area, rooms off rooms, to accommodate people.  It also had a "booths only" lay out.  No problem.  I prefer a booth to a table.






Gosh, here again we find the customers are less than honest. What kind of an area had we come to?

 Just kidding.  In point of fact, we had visited an area that had old time charm and friendly, well meaning people.

Virginia: The Natural Bridge

Last week, we drove to the Natural Bridge and to the towns along the way. We had set our sites on the Natural Bridge, mile marker 70 .

The Blue Ridge Parkway runs 469 miles and goes from Rockfish Gap, Virginia to Cherokee, North Carolina.

The views from the road were magnificent.

Stopping at one of the many overlooks was a treat . We took in the view and savored the experience. Traveling with our dear friends, Sara and Doug Sheldon,  made the trip more special.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Parkway

We expected to see quaint houses and we did !

We also came across quaint shops along the way.

You never know what you would find.

We stayed overnight at the Natural Bridge Hotel - a grand old establishment in its day but still attractive.

My mother saw the Bridge in the 70's when she toured Southern Virginia by bus with two of her friends from the bank. She loved the trip and talked about it a lot. Her favorite place was the Natural Bridge.

The Natural Bridge

"Once owned by Thomas Jefferson and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 215-foot tall Natural Bridge is a limestone gorge carved out by Cedar Creek. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Bridge_(Virginia)

We bought tickets as we entered the building and climbed down endless steps where we surrendered them to a bored ticket taker.   (Is there such a thing as an excited ticket taker?)

Medi was ready to climb up to the bridge itself.

I was more inclined to contemplate the bridge.

From under the bridge looking out.

Back In Time : Brooklyn N.Y.

Accompanied by my lovely wife Medi, my two sisters and I took a trip back in time to our childhood neighborhoods. We drove first to East 22nd street where we all grew up  and then traveled to Ave U where Barbara and I lived after Jean and Helen got married.

I remembered E. 22nd street vividly even though I left there at seven years old.  I never had as many friends as I did on that block nor interacted with neighbors who truly cared about the kids on the block.

We resided at 1894 E. 22nd street.  Our block was between Avenues S & T.  Being New Yorkers,  we had no time for fancy names like Main St, Cherry Lane  or Bristol Drive.  We named our streets in bare boned fashion.

Most us us were Catholic but I played with one Jewish kid - Ivan Smuckler.  He was alright . I had one Protestant friend  - Tim Johnson. He always called his mother "Dot".  I thought that was strange but then again I thought Tim was strange.

We did not tarry at E. 22nd because there was a lot to see and do at Ave.U

We moved to Avenue U when my parents had  to find another place. My mother always kept bad news from me. She never wanted to upset me. She hated moving to this apartment which was two or three steps beneath the house she left. My sister Helen told me she only saw my mother cry twice in her life: when she moved to Ave U and when her father passed away. The apartment did get better after a good paint job and lots of wall paper.

We lived on the second floor of what is now the Jennan Medical Building. For the entire time I lived there, the Kodak Photography store was on the first floor. My room faced Ave. U and I watched the world walk and drive by. I could see everyone on their way to and from work and could watch people buying donuts right at the donut shop directly across the street, guys having fistfights (rarely) outside the bar and grill next to it and and kids licking ice cream they just bought at the candy store next to the bar.

At the back of our building , there was a landing over the 2nd floor of the building.  It was a multipurpose area. After climbing out the kitchen window, I could read out there pretending I was on my veranda or drink a coke imagining I was sitting on the terrace. Its major use, however, was for clothes.
One of my brother in laws climbed up a telephone pole, at the back of the first floor store and strung a clothes line from the pole back to the building, just by the the kitchen window. We had a washer but not a dryer. When the wash was finished, my mother  would lean out the  window and hang the clothes. The clothes line was actually on a pulley so she could send clothes as far as the telephone pole and later pull them back.  When we stayed with my folks, Medi washed the clothes and operated the pulley clothes line.

Here we are standing on Avenue U, diagonally behind us are  a donut shop, bar , and candy store of my youth. Funny, the donut shop and the candy store remain but the bar went out of business. Directly behind us, spanning the street was the Ave. U train station serviced by the D train.  I mentioned, did I not, that New Yorkers avoided fancy names.

There are so many Chinese restaurants and stores on Avenue U now. Growing up, I only knew of two. One was the Chinese laundry next to the camera store in our building and the other was a Chinese restaurant five blocks away.  As you can see, the hand laundry is now a restaurant and it is next to the former camera store,  now a medical office.

The laundry owners had hung a large  sign in the window that read "Hand Laundry" .  Anytime I went in there, the kids, some younger than me, were working,  ironing,  folding shirts or  wrapping the folded shirts in brown paper.

The Chinese restaurant had an extensive American menu for those who found their food too exotic. The only time I remember my father eating in a non-American restaurant was his one trip to this restauran .  He ordered a hamburger. He boasted of never having a stomach ache in his life and attributed his good fortune to never eating foreign food, like spaghetti and meatballs or any kind of Chinese food.

Boy. I used to work at the Ave. U candy store selling newspapers, scooping ice cream and mixing soda , especially the New York delicacy - the egg cream . Who knew it would one day become a deli and grocery store , even selling hot food.

When I lived on Ave. U, you could only buy food in a grocery store. Now there are mini markets everywhere,  like the one in this picture. Note the guy crossing the street in Indian dress. In my day, he would have stood out like a guy wearing a space suit.

We all attended St Edmund's elementary school - grades one to eight. My sister Helen  even studied at the two year commercial high school there upon her elementary graduation.  The building was both a church and a school. The church itself was in the center with hallways of classrooms surrounding it on all sides.  The basement was huge and it was where we had our assemblies,  lunchroom and play area on rainy days. The high school girls even got to dance at their recess wearing their bobby socks.

The nuns of that day truly believed that sparing the rod would spoil the child . They did not hit the girls but felt it was the best way to communicate with boys who at times could be blockheads. Fortunately for me, I was a model child and avoided their attention.

Here we are at a place called Sheepshead Bay. It is almost as famous as Coney Island and even closer to home. Fishing boats docked there and took customers out fishing. They also caught fish to sell to the many seafood restaurants along the way.

There were other restaurants , some more like diners. One time, around lunch hour,  I was at the counter, checking the menu on the wall and checking my coins. I fell short by about fifty cents . My face must have shown my disappointment so the guy at the counter said "Hey kid, what did you want" and followed up by "How much do you have?"  When I told him, he gave me half an order. I think two meatballs instead of four.  Times were simpler then.

The only time I had seen the word "Baku" was planning my trip to Azerbaijan where Baku was the capital. Now it is the name of a very popular restaurant at Sheepshead Bay, one of many Russian and Eastern European eateries in the area.

The Bay is next to an area called Brighton Beach which is next to Coney Island. In 1975, Henry Kissinger made a deal with the Russians to allow as many Jews to leave as wanted to.  I think they all settled in Brighton Beach where they still reside and own all the apartment buildings, own all the businesses there and have made Yiddish and Russian the local languages. People now call the area "Little Minsk ".

For as long as I can remember, Lundy's stood for class and good food. Newspapers reported on celebrities eating there, some famous, some infamous- as in Mafia. Today it continues to serve good food but not to the celebrities who are few and far between.