Mindy, Jonathan and Abby visited for the week. We picked them up at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday afternoon using the Garff's car and returned them on Saturday afternoon. During the week we spent Monday driving to New Canaan where we visited our home, the church, Waveny, downtown NC, the high school, Saxe and South schools, the Veggie Barn, Kiwanis Park, God's Acre. We drove to Norwalk for a visit to Stew Leonards. On Tuesday evening we invited Craig Smith, our former bishop in New Canaan, and now the stake patriarch and a temple sealer, over to see Mindy after our temple service. We had an enjoyable discussion with him about his family and his service.
They came to temple and performed baptisms for family file names given us by a Family History Center missionary, Tom Hanson.
On the drive home from New Canaan we found Recker Park in the Bronx. This is a famous basketball outdoor court, and a place Jonathan wanted to see because of its storied history of NBA players. Jonathan was always on the lookout for basketball courts. Mindy took him on Thursday to a court on the Hudson River where he played in a pick up game and thoroughly enjoyed himself. On Wednesday we had a private tour of the Barclay Center in Brooklyn where the Nets play. This tour was arranged by Coray's brother, Cam. We saw the courts, the locker room facilities, the private boxes and restaurants. The center has only been open for a few months, and the facilities manager was proud of the building and its contribution to Brooklyn. On Thursday evening Jonathan and I watched the NBA final game where the Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs.
A highlight of the week was a visit to the World Trade Center memorial. Mindy was clever enough to prearrange tickets. The site is beautiful, thoughtfully done, and reverent. In the visitor's center there is a video clip of a retired fireman who lost two sons in the attack. He told his fireman son 'I love you' as his son left to go to assist at the World Trade Center. Very moving.
We biked all over. With our NY Pass we had 4 hours riding around the southern end of Manhattan including a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Jonathan and I rode the Garff's bikes around Central Park and 20 streets into Harlem, around the southern tip of Manhattan from the west side to the east side and across the Park to get home, over the George Washington bridge and back. Jonathan was a good sport, and he seemed to enjoy himself. He liked riding in traffic.
While we were riding, Mindy, Abby and Paula went to see Spiderman, the Broadway play. They had seats on the 5th row and had a wonderful experience.
Other things we saw - the Empire State building observatory, the Skyride at the Empire State building (not so hot), the wax museum, Times Square with a movie premier going on, the American Girl Doll store, Tiffany, Grand Central station, the subway system, FAO Swartz, the Rockefeller Center including the top and the NBC studio, St Patrick's cathedral, dinners at Hard Rock Cafe and Route 66 Cafe, dessert at the Plaza Hotel, the Body World exhibit (not so hot), Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, Canal Street, South Street Seaport, a cruise around the southern tip of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty which as been off limits since Hurricane Sandy, hotdogs at the Gray Papaya, burgers at the Shake Shack, and I'm sure I've forgotten a few things. They went home tired with a busy weeks of Summer activities ahead of them.
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