A Month?

Cut me some slack.  I’ve been traveling.

We flew to DC on International Workers' Day, which is my birthday, comrades. We were there for the Hebrew naming ceremony of our unbelievably cute twin grandchildren taking place the next day, my wife’s birthday. We rented the same place we had last Christmas. My sister and LA joined us from Sleepy Hollow and The Wig and CC came up from Richmond. The place is quick walk, which even I can handle, from SB1 and LGMG’s house.

We were up early for the ceremony, which took place at a local church the congregation is using while they work on the funding for their own synagogue. It lasted about 2.5 hours and featured more Hebrew that we were expecting, but that was OK since I’m gifted linguistically. The twins did well, napping a bit before their star turn. About two hours in, we and SB1’s in-laws were called up to hold up the tallit as the Torah was unrolled and the babies laid upon it. The significance of the chosen names was explained. SB1 choked up a bit as he spoke of his brother, which choked up everybody else. We then sat down for the conclusion of the service. Afterwards we had a catered lunch.

Since we are on the names topic, I’m going to veer just a bit to discuss blog names and grandparent names, which will be one in the same in some cases. Going forward, I won’t have to refer to “SB’s in-laws” because they will be Grandma and RaRa. We’ve already told RaRa that the r sound is one of the last a kid masters, so we’re not sure what they’ll be mumbling at him for the rest of the decade. As any true student of the blog knows, I am D Pop.  My wife will be Grammy. The two grandmothers dug deep for their names.  Also, I had floated CC for Mrs. Wig in an April post and just used it above, so it is indeed fortuitous that that is also her grandmother name.

With the ceremony in the books, the after party took place at our Airbnb. We fortunately had good weather, so the outside deck provided additional space for the crowd of forty or so. My sister and LA had brought up some goodies and SB1 hit Costco earlier so everyone had their fill. The twins had company from the several youngsters there.

We hung in DC until 5/6, spending a lot of time holding babies and supporting the take-out food industry. One evening I acted as prep cook while chef/SB1’s MIL/Grandma cooked us a fine meal we had at our place. The grandmothers had had a busy day, taking the kids to the park, where they practiced their sitting. There’s a cute video of my grandson – will he ever have a blog name? – sitting then slowly plopping over. His sister is a little ahead of him in that skill. We closed out our stay with a dinner in Georgetown with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who jaunted in from Potomac.

We then took the Amtrak up to NYC. It was a gray day and towns like Wilmington looked a bit drab from the train window. We picked up a lot of passengers in Philly, birthplace of DJ. A couple more stops and we were in Penn Station. We hopped on the subway downtown. We both managed to pay our fare with our phones without too much difficulty. I pushed my bag through but didn’t manage to push myself through, so I had to double pay on that one.

We checked into Hotel Washington Square, kitty corner from the park. Dinner that first night was with Rockville Centre’s golden couple, The Running Beast and his wife. We chowed down at Boucherie and were not disappointed. It was pretty roomy and they were serving several tables outside as we departed around 7pm.  We had scheduled an early dinner as our companions had a flight the next day.

I need to be particularly detailed about the NYC leg of our trip.  JB and I have had a recent email barrage, but she does not seem to be satisfied with the data I have provided her. I was apparently supposed to have done more with my time in NYC. When I told her we visited Ellis Island and the 9/11 Museum, my upbeat friend dubbed it our “depression tour”. I also learned that we were in the city at the same time.  She had lived there for many years and still goes often from her Florida home.

Our first full day took us to Ellis Island. My wife told me I had walked over three miles that day, so I was a proud gimped-up geezer. The weather was excellent for our boat trip. We saw folks from many countries and heard varied languages.  One guy was taking pictures of his family with his glasses. I plan to skip the glasses and wait until they can implant a chip in me. Am I digressing? OK, lots of folks hopped off at the Statue of Liberty and then we docked at Ellis Island. We watched a movie and saw dozens of pictures of immigrants in their native dress. These were taken by one of the early 20th century employees who was also an amateur photographer. Unfortunately, the section where you can research your family’s roots was closed for remodeling.  My son has already done a great deal of research, so I know that my nonno Tommaso arrived there on 03/24/1904.

I was a little tired afterward, so we hopped into a cab. My spidey sense said we were about to be scammed when he asked if we had cash. He then said the short drive to Washington Sq. would be $40 to $45. We indignantly hopped out. We may be suburbanites, but we are not complete rubes. We then were scoping out the subway route on the phone when a friendly local stopped to give us directions.  We had a nice chat and learned that his granddaughter is playing soccer for UCLA. I proudly mentioned my Middletown roots.

Dinner that night was at Cecchi’s. My sister and LA came down, and my brother came in from his PA abode. Google refers to the place as a “trendy eatery”, so I felt right at home.  It was packed but we scored a window table up front, so we were pretty well insulated. I’m always amazed when full cocktails arrive without a drop spilled. Do they have one guy clear a path and the other guy carry the drinks? This and many other things puzzle me, such as why don’t I take notes so I can tell you what we ate. Ah hell, you don’t really care.

NYC day 2 started with a tour of the 9/11 Museum, which is certainly an emotional whirlwind. We had seen the memorial fountains the last time we were there, but the museum was closed that day. It is a tough slog but I’m glad we did it.  They displayed the remains of the first fire truck to arrive. We spoke with a docent from Staten Island who provided lots of detail and also pointed us to an exhibition that we almost missed. I’m pretty sure I mentioned my Middletown roots again.

Since I have to be detailed, I’d like to mention a star sighting. Esquire magazine recently had an article stating that John Bernthal is everywhere. Well, he was certainly at the bball court on 6th Ave. and W. 3rd. They were running full and I wished I was forty years younger so I could take Bernthal to the hoop. He is currently doing Dog Day Afternoon with The Bear castmate Ebon Moss-Bachrach when he’s not taking jumpers.

We dined alone that evening at the Little Owl, a tiny spot at the corner of Bedford and Grove. My sister recommended the meatball sliders, so we had those as a fine appetizer. We also shared our entrees. We played fair and left each other exactly half. The Ridge Zin I had seen on their web menu was unavailable, so we consoled ourselves with a Sonoma Cab. JB had asked me if it was a good place for old people. I told her they had welcomed me with open arms, but that I doubt she’d have the same experience.

The next morning, we were off to Grand Central and hopped on Metro North to the Tarrytown station. My sister picked us up and brought us to their Sleepy Hollow enclave. My college RA will soon be one of her neighbors, once they complete the latest set of condos in Sleepy Hollow. This final stop allowed us to relax a bit before returning to our hectic retired life in FC. My sister and LA always treat us like royalty when we are there. It was good to have a few home cooked meals. We ventured up to the Millbrook Winery in Dutchess County on Mother’s Day. LA picks up her Williams Selyem shipments there. It was well attended and we had some good food truck BBQ before making our exit minutes before the skies opened up. Our final dinner was at Trattoria Da Vittorio. We took a quick hop over the Tappan Zee to Rockland County’s Piermont to this cozy place. Many thanks to our gracious hosts.