NYC

Our kids love our neighbors! We have two sets that treat them like grandkids. Finley & Hadley watch for Larry & Sue to be outside and run over anytime they're out. And I can see why. Somehow a quick "Hi" turned into an afternoon working w/ Larry in his wood shop building three different-sized ramps for their remote control cars.

And Sue shared goodies w/ us from her garden, including a large zucchini that we turned into two loaves of zucchini bread.

Finley's new glasses arrived, they're blue and we like them.

I told Hadley to pick up her room and she asked if she could organize her leggings drawer (she's a digger so it's really a giant pile inside a drawer). I roll my eyes anytime she says "organize" because I don't follow her strategy at all...organizing to Hadley means lining everything up along her bedroom walls, it's so weird. So here she is, "organizing" her leggings by laying them ALL over her room and if you look closely, she's wearing a pair on her head!

Finley started Fall Ball, it'll run through mid October. It's a mix of kids that have never played baseball and kids that have experience. Fall Ball is an opportunity to play and get ready for their next level in spring...which will be kid-pitch for Finley.

Saturday afternoon at the gun range.

I volunteered at picture day and got to see these two at school. Finley did not wear this shirt for pictures, but I promised to bring him a tshirt so he didn't have to wear the "nice" shirt all day (eyeroll).

When a kid asks to get out of the car and run home, why not.

The kids attended the first Cookies & Canvas of fall and made "Pop Art".

They spent the weekend at Grandpa & Grandma's and were invited to their neighbor's house for a Ninja Party & Obstacle Course. Looks like a lot of fun!

On Sunday morning, our pastor's wife texted me this picture of Finley 😊

The kids were at Grandpa & Grandma's house because we were in New York. The trip was Patrick's (early) birthday gift.

The view flying into NYC is incredible...

...we even saw the Statue of Liberty down there.

Our first stop was the Empire State Building, I think the awe-part of NYC is that it's so so so much of everything. So many buildings, so many BIG buildings, so many people, so many lights, so many cars (that are always honking), so many sirens (you can almost always hear a firetruck/ambulance siren). Most of my pictures are of buildings/skylines, but it never feels believable to me that people live, work and raise families in this fast-paced big environment.

That evening we went on a double-decker bus for a NYC tour. It was a perfect way to visit neighborhoods we'd never get a chance to see on foot...

...and to see the Manhattan skyline of lights.

One World Trade Center.

On my post-run coffee walk, I saw major police/security personnel closing off two city blocks across the street from our hotel, so I walked through to see the major crime. No crime, it was preparations for the United Nations General Assembly that eventually the President attended.

Throughout the weekend we used the subway quite a bit, so much faster than Uber or taxis. I was pleasantly surprised how friendly New Yorkers were to two tourists that looked confused/lost w/ our subway map in hand.

In March of 2011, I'd visited NYC w/ Heidi & my mom, at the time, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum were under construction to open on 9/11/11. In that six years, One World Trade Center was also built near the original site of the Twin Towers. And wow, what a building.

The two memorials are in the footprints of the original towers. The memorial ponds are big, quiet, peaceful and list the names of everyone who was lost that day.

The 9/11 museum was incredible (pictures were not allowed inside), but wow. The artifacts, the stories, the pictures, the video clips, just wow. I have vivid memories of where I was on 9/11/01, I remember the confusion, the headlines, and the aftermath. I would highly recommend the museum/memorial to anyone that visits NY.

We hopped back on the subway and got off near the financial district to catch the Staten Island Ferry. It's a quick and easy (and free) way to see the skyline and a peek of the Statue of Liberty.

And an unfortunate sign of our times, there is a heavy presence of police everywhere. This Coast Guard boat (and giant gun) followed our ferry all the way across and back.

Statue of Liberty.

We went to a Yankee Game at Yankee Stadium.

On Saturday, we walked to Central Park, and then walked and walked and walked and walked. I cannot get over the size of this park, the trails, the zillions of people walking/biking/playing/sitting, the music, the everything. I could've sat on a bench all day and people-watched.

From Thursday to Sunday, we ate in a whopping three restaurants. The rest of our food came from delis and street carts, I had three gyros, all so good. One must-have was honey roasted peanuts, I ate three of these bags within 20 minutes.

An ECM selfie in Times Square.

Our last evening we went to A Bronx Tale on Broadway. It was an excellent show and reminded me how impressive Broadway Theater is, in hindsight, we should've skipped the Yankees game and gone to a show that night too.

Our Welcome Home was horrible. My car had been vandalized in the airport ramp 😨 No idea how long it sat "open" to anyone walking by.

The passenger window was completely shattered.

Finley's window also had strike-dings, it didn't break (but needs to be replaced). We found a piece of trailer-hitch on the ground that must've been used.

I wish it were only two windows that needed to replaced, unfortunately there was an attempt to pry my door open and the window frame is damaged too.

We followed the glass/blood trail and found a nearby car also had a smashed out window.

Even w/ a bloody fingerprint inside my car (gross), nothing was stolen, nor even gone through. I immediately called the airport police and they came to take a report and gather evidence. The police officer was very surprised, fortunately this type of vandalism isn't a common occurrence in the airport ramps. He took a blood sample and said they would go through the surveillance footage taken on a nearby camera. Currently my car is at the auto body shop waiting for insurance approval so they can begin fixing it...all $2600 worth of damage.

W/ the exception of my car, we're back to a normal week of school/activities. Hadley liked her Yankees hat so much she slept in it 😂

10 days to go until Marathon Sunday and I'm still in denial that it's actually coming. I don't feel as prepared this time, so it's going to be really hard mentally and physically. I'd like to fast forward to October 2nd so that it's behind me!