Graduations

Well, there are just a ton of things to cover. The last three weeks have been very busy for us. I changed jobs and will be working from  home now, but during the interim between jobs we went to New York for GKs graduation and did as much as we could pack into the few days there.

At the Burbank airport getting ready for our red-eye flight. We didn't want to waste any days, even if it meant being exhausted on the first day, everyone looked so happy to begin with.

On the subway going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

Before we got to the bridge GK and Susanna wanted to take us to the most famous pizza place in New York; Grimaldi's under the bridge. This place was unreal. There was a line-up in the middle of the day, and we were told that no matter what time you go there, you have to wait in line. It had #1 Zaggat ratings posted in the window going back for years. When we finally got in we found out why. The pizza is genuine Italian, not the stuff you get from Domino's or Pizza Hut.

Checking out the menu.

Van's pretty much happy to be anywhere.

The pizzas are cooked in a real coal-fired brick oven. This guy was opening the oven about every 60 seconds and shifting all the pizzas around. After I took a couple of pictures he turned to me and said, "no pictures" and meant it! Didn't matter, by that time I had all I needed.

This guy was making each pizza by hand using real tomatoes and SLICED mozzarella cheese. That's it in the bin in front of him. The guy just to his left was pounding out and spinning all the pizza doughs as the orders came through, then would throw them to him for finishing. 

Here's the finished pizza. You can see how different it looks, but you can't begin to imagine how much better it tasted.

I took this panorama shot of Lower Manhattan from the base of the bridge. That's the Manhattan bridge at the far right edge. I hope you can click on this and zoom in.

Standing under the east end of the bridge. I recommend reading "The Great Bridge", an account of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullogh. It's a fascinating true story and the engineering, effort, intrigue and sacrifice that went into the construction is well worth reading the tome-size book.

We walked across the bridge to Manhattan

We went to Little Italy and knocked around for a while. We were all pretty tired, but it was worth the trip.

 

The next day we met GK, Susanna and Van at Coney Island, which was fairly close to where we were staying. It's kind of sad because most of the attractions have been torn down (they're going to be putting in new, more modern ones soon) so the ones left are pretty old and worn out, but they are there because they are the more famous ones too. We got a real Nathan's hot dog, the origin of all hot dogs.

We rode the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel. You can kind of see that the inner cars are on a track that lets them roll in to the center as the wheel takes them up, then out to the edge when coming down.

I don't know, I just found something really humorous about this shot. Maybe it's that Susanna looks intrigued about a headless woman, or maybe it's the irony of a woman with a good head on her shoulders looking at the signs about a woman without one.

The famous deep fried anything booth. We got some deep fried Oreos, but frankly they sucked.

The Freak Show was open. We didn't have enough time to go in, or money for that matter. The barker was saying that the lady sword swallower, Heather Holiday, third ad from the left, was a 19-year old "practicing Mormon from Salt Lake City".

Van really did like riding the Carousel. We also went on the Colossus, the big wooden roller coaster. It didn't look so hot from the ground for people who live near Six Flags Magic Mountain, the worlds largest collection of thrill rides in the U.S., but it was a great ride. We couldn't have the cameras out, but we bought a picture they took of us loosing our composure going down the first drop. If I can find it I'll scan it and put in in another blog later. 

Taking a carriage ride around Central Park.

Oh yeah, Kyle and Kayla were there too. 

In the F.A.O. Schwartz toy store. The Harry Potter characters were made of Lego's

The toy soldier was all candy. Bubba started to attack it and we had to pull him off before security got there.

We always stop at Carnegie's Deli. They seat you family style, so you never know who you'll be sitting with. The last two times we had some real adventures with the people we sat with, or the waitress, but this time they brought an obviously wealthy older couple in and sat them down at our table. They looked at us without saying anything, then said something to the waiter and got up and walked out. We just cracked up. Their loss.

What's New York without a visit to Times Square at night. All the people in the bleachers are waiting for unsold Broadway tickets to become available.

 

We went to Prospect Park near GK and Susanna's place for dinner. We stopped at a genuine NY deli that we ate from once before. They have the  best and most unusual foods. 

I hope you can enlarge this. Prospect Park is really a piece of paradise in a super crowded city. I like some aspects of it better than Central Park. It's less crowded and more park-like to me.

Kayla took this shot of Van. I love the expression on his face.

At Rockerfeller Center.

And the main reason for going: GK got his Master's Degree in Publishing from NYU. We are so proud of his work here. (I forgot to turn on the red-eye mode, so Kayla and Kyle both look a little possesed).

Susanna's parents, Giles and Ann, and her sister Elizabeth and her husband Grady came too.

After the graduation Susannas Aunt and Uncle who live in Manhatten (see their Thanksgiving blog) took us all to Tandori, an Indian Restaraunt. I've never had Indian before and it was very unusual and very good. Kyle had a marinated goat meat, which sounds - unusual -, but was actually very good. It was very gracious of them to treat us all, especially since we've never met them before.

This is GK's Dean.

Right after we got back, Adam, Kyle and I went to Utah to get Adam's things, car and motorcycle. I got to see and hold Keira for the first time. She's even cuter than her pictures show.

See?

Matix kind of likes his little sister.

Packed and ready to go back.

This week Jeremy graduated from Cal State Nothridge (CSUN, Syd's Alma Mater) with his bachlor's degree in Management. We're equally proud of his achievement, graduating while working full time and raising a family.

 

Did I mention we're very proud of him. And look at all these beautiful women he's surrounded by.

Kristy's family was all there too. I thought I had at least one picture of them with him, but I can't locate them.

Afterwards we went to Benihanas in Encino to celebrate. We had to take up two tables there were so many of us. 

They brought Jeremy a pineapple to celebrate his graduation.