Watch Family Retreat Weekend 2005 -- New York State

[dlbpharmd]

Safe trip, Duchess!

[duchess of malfi]

Calibaby just staggered home after something like a 16 hour work day. He physically has the work done, but he has a couple of meetings and has to do some paperwork tomorrow morning. So it sounds like we'll be leaving noonish, arriving in New York sometime in the wee hours.

I'll give Fist and Danlo a call when we drag out of bed on Friday.

[Fist and Faith]

food after dlb lands sounds perfect :!::!: diner real good food

[Damelon]

Have fun, all of you.

[Dragonlily]

If only I had been able to get the time off work. *sighs and envies*

Have a grand time, all of you.

[duchess of malfi]

I have no doubt that we will have a grand time.

Joy, how I wish you could be with us! I hope if we ever have another get-together, the timing will be better for you so you can come! And Damelon -- since it was originally your idea for people to converge on Fist to cheer him up, it doesn't seem fair you won't be there.

Still looks like noon when we'll be leaving. We're all packed and ready to go. House is clean, Jeep is packed. All we need is to throw the drinks in the cooler, throw that in the Jeep, and hit the road as soon as Calibaby makes it home.

I'll give you a call as soon as we are on our way, Fist. And yes -- good food as soon as Don hits the ground!!! But I should warn everyone that my younger son cannot stand Chinese food (which drives the rest of us nuts since we all love it ). Anything else should be fine with any of the four of us.

[danlo]

Had dinner with Fist and his 3 adorable children, Dan, Lisa and Miss Shaina. Met at the Barnes and Noble at the Palisades Mall on the west side of the Hudson off the Tappan Zee Bridge (above the George Washington Bridge). Gods that place is huge! 5 stories and an indoor ferris wheel-they think they're bigger than the Mall of the Americas (or whatever it's called). Anyway it looked liked an aircraft carrier. That B&N had THE most deplorable SRD collection I've ever seen: one copy of TIW, one of TWL, 3 PTPs, 2 new The Mirror of Her Dreams and one new Daughter of Regals...that was it---we couldn't find Runes anywhere... TIW cover is very stange--Garroting Deep looks like a baseball diamond and we couldn't figure out who the people were supposed to be--Fist thought one guy was Mhoram and that strange guy that was drawn with Salty on the other cover (who looks like a Warmark or a Hiltmark) is on the very bottom of the cover.

We ate dinner at Chili's and then went to Cold Stone Creamery-fabulous, but I think my belly drove home Bought the kids toys at Target and then I hung out with my sister's fam and watched the Yanks avoid being swept in the ninth. Duchy called while we were in B & N they were beginning to drive across the long state of Pennsylvania. It's very hot and humid here (but I cooled off earilier today at my sis's swim club) but supposed to be much nicer when we all meet tomorrow.

[Fist and Faith]

thanks for posting danlo -- kb is messed up so it's not easy to type ---- called dlb on the way home -- he sounds like my sister's hubby from the mts of north carolina

[Avatar]

Have fun you guys.

--A

[dlbpharmd]

he sounds like my sister's hubby from the mts of north carolina

Would you expect anything else? I'm not even going to try to hide my Southern drawl (as if I could) so get ready!

Up really early this morning because I was called into my hospital (sigh). I will be going back in to work this morning, but I'm leaving at noon. Will be a long day, hopefully I can sleep a little on the flight into Philadelphia.

[Fist and Faith]

dlb landed only an hour late -- probably a new record for the airline -- this computer really bites

[duchess of malfi]

Don had a rough day yesterday. He got called in to work at 4AM, then had to go back in and work half the day because they were short. And then he got trapped in Philly where he had to change planes. He looked very tired when he went off to his room last night.

What am I doing here? The hotel has a bunch of computers with high speed access off of the lobby that guests can use for free.

Yesterday was a nice day. I had thought I had an agreement with Fist and Danlo that I would call them and we'd get together when I and my family woke up. But I guess they couldn't wait. Fist called in the morning and sais he was in Middletown and when could he drop by? And then I called Danlo to tell him Fist was coming by in half an hour, and he told me that he was already in his rental car, driving up! Those guys are so precious to me!!!

We all ate breakfast together at a pancake place, then pretty much rested for most of the afternoon. Fist brought his daughters and they splashed around in the pool. His older daughter is a really good swimmer, and the little one is darling -- she's a little blonde curly top -- amazingly cute!

We were all going to meet Don at the airport, but he was trapped in Philly, so we went to the Outback Steakhouse next door to eat dinner. Don called and said he was finally on his way, so Fisty headed up to collect him and bring him safely back. The rest of us enjoyed our steaks while we were waiting.

Fisty and Don got in about the time we got done eating. Don is really sweet, and has a wonderful Southern accent. Despite having a trying day, he seemed really upbeat.

Today we will be heading down to Manhattan. We want to see Ground Zero, and possibly some other things as well.

[Dragonlily]

Hooray for the hotel's free hi-speed computers! Hope you will keep updating us, Duchess. I, for one, want to hear everything.

[Fist and Faith]

Hey, know what? If your laptop's keyboard is dying, just plug in a regular keyboard!!! Sometimes I'm such a dope!

Manhattan was great! The train from Beacon got duchess & family, dlb, and me & Lisa (my 6yo) into Grand Central Station at about 11:30AM. danlo was already there waiting for us. We got a subway to pretty close to Ground Zero. Then we walked around, got some pizza, looked at the Statue of Liberty. We didn't go to it, since you're not allowed into it these days, and the ferry wasn't going to the island for another hour, but it was nice to see it.

Then another couple of subways to get to Times Square. Lisa was good beyond my wildest expectations, so I took her to Toys R Us while the rest went to ESPN... Station? They started eating while Lisa and I bought toys, candy, and rode the ferris wheel. We joined them in time to get some food, then we went to Cold Stone Creamery, where Don, Lisa, and I had some delicious stuff.

Then we walked a couple blocks so Don could see the best view of Times Square, then we walked maybe a mile back to Grand Central Station. We hung out for an hour until the train left at 9:02. Lisa and I got home a little after 11, and showered the City off of us. Feels GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!

And here I am.

[Damelon]

Fist, but what about the anatomically correct statue of the bull?

[Fist and Faith]

Ah.... The bull. I fell in love with a few women who posed in particularly fun ways with that anatomically correct bull!!

[duchess of malfi]

Yes, that bull.

We took the subway from Grand Central Station (where all of our trains went) to the end of Manhattan, where we saw Ground Zero. We then ate lunch (classic New York style pizza with thin crispy crust, little sauce, and cut into slices as big as your head) -- and then we walked through the financial district to Battery Park, so we could see Lady Liberty.

Well, in the middle of the financial district there was this huge statue of a rampaging bull.

It is very anatomically correct.

Spoiler

I don't know why they say "hung like a stallion" -- seeing this statue, it should definately be "hung like a bull"

After visting Battery Park we wandered up to China Town, where Canal Street is this huge open air market along the steet with countless little booths selling designer knockoff purses and scarves and perfumes and pretty much anything else you can imagine. It was a very cool place to just sit down and people watch.

Then we took the subway up to Times Square. We went to eat dinner at ESPN Zone (sort of the ultimate sports bar, they even have tiny televisions showing sports above each urinal and toilet in the bathrooms). We also did a bit of shopping, and Fist and Lisa and Don got ice crean at Cold Stone. Fist amazed us by eating two bowls right after eating a big dinner. In fact, he was dancing and bouncing in his chair at dinner, just thinking about ice cream.

The train ride was very nice. The train goes between Beacon, on the Hudson River, down to Manhattan. It follows the River until you get into the Bronx. The river was gorgeous. We saw pools of water lillies as big as football fields, West Point, and Yankee Stadium from the train.

Don is great. He is very nice and thoughtful, and fitted right in like a long lost brother. And Fist was right -- Lisa was an angel all day long. Six year old spending a 12 hour + day with a bunch of grown ups and not a single whine or complaint. She was great!

[danlo]

Yes they have this huge bronze-ish statue of a bull near the NY Stock Exchange (Bull/Bear markets, whatever) and all the Mexican tourists were jumping on it's neck and all the naughty people were having their photos taken under the butt or touching the...anyway when I was passing by some kid was under there and I said "Those are some grande cojones!"

We dined at the ESPNZONE which is the huge cable sports network ESPN's version of the Hard Rock Cafe--football, baseball and other assorted sports coming at you from 16 different angles. We were watching the Yankees/Devil Rays and the "Tokyo Bowl" (or the first preseason NFL game of the year [Falcons/Colts]. Yea Football is back!!!!) at the same time.

We had pizza at Carusos' which is about as good as Ray's Famous and Fist had about 12 bowls of ice cream at Cold Stone. I ran around Canal Street trying to find Tam (my wife) a replacement for her imitation Gucci purse she bought there 3 years ago--but it was impossible--I got a good workout though while the loyal troop waited for me.

Time Sq. was neat but the security around NYC is like being in a war zone-I fly back tomorrow and duchy and Californiababy (who btw kept me going on the final part of my Chinatown [Canal St.] quest) are coming here in a little while--they're offering to take me to the Delaware Water Gap--but I don't want them to spend all this time going out of their way. (If they do take me it will get me out of construction duty [throwing out tons of bathroom tile and fixtures] at my Bro-in Law's house--don't worry he and my nephew are strong and caused they mess in the first place )

[duchess of malfi]

My family and I just spent a very nice day with Danlo.

Don is up in Conneticutt playing poker with Brinn.

Fisty spent the day with his three kids.

But I will see those two in about an hour for dinner somewhere here in Middletown.

But today we drove down to Hastings on Hudson and picked up Danlo at his parents' place. Yes, I got to meet his Mom and Dad. We took him out to a late breakfast at a little diner in Hastings on Hudson (which is a very charming village right on the river). We then drove up to Tarrytown, two river towns up, and toured the estate of one of America's first great writers (the first American who could make a living with his pen, in fact) -- Sunnyside, the estate of Washington Irving (he wrote Rip Van Winkle and Legend of Sleepy Hollow). It turns out that his publisher was Putnam, which is also the American publisher of a more modern day fantasy writer, Stephen R. Donaldson.

Sunnyside was a beautiful and charming little house, and they even had the outbuildings like the ice house and the barns so that you could look at them. Some of the vines (a trumpet vine, ivy) had been planted by Irving himself, and his study still had his desk and his books, and his French china was there in the dining room. It was right on the river, and it was lovely and preaceful, even with the commuter trains rushing through every few minutes.

I would say more, but Fisty is due to arrive at any minute, so I have to go.

[dlbpharmd]

Quick note - eveyone is great! I'm having a great time! I've been a picture taking fiend, and will post them when I get back to TN.

I have a picture of the afore mentioned bull - Fist was just a little bit too impressed.

Got to meet Brinn today, and had a great time with him at Foxwoods. He bought lunch (thanks again!) and while eating we formulated our master plan to conquer the world for Conservatism. Have a great pic of us together that I'll post later as well.