Just got back from a few days of travel to New York City where I spent the first few day in the Rockaways, one of my old hangouts and slept at Mercedes' 8th floor apartment with a view of the Eastern sky situated along the ocean side of the peninsula. I was in awe of the amount of construction on the beach where large equipment is being used to move massive stones to create right angle jetties at regular intervals along the entire length of the beach. Its not good for the birds that nest there or the people that live along there but someone thinks this is an idea to protect the area from future storms like Sandy that happened ten years ago, negatively affecting that neighborhood and its inhabitants for months after.  

The first full day I was there we donned our winter clothes and took bike ride to Riis park. We were dressed properly so the ride was enjoyable. The most impressive thing going on in that neighborhood was the massive migration of Northern Gannets we saw moving in later that day and then moving out after spending the night on the water, in the morning. It was awesome to see the huge flock of them lifting out of the water and then making splashes while hunting fish a few hundred feet or more from shore. 

It seems I didn't do much exploring of Manhatatn when I lived there in Brooklyn from age 28-48. For the next two days I had a lot of fun seeing some of what is worth seeing there. 

Two church happenings on this trip. One occurred when I happened upon an Episcopal church on the way to a Park Service tour and had time to explore (and get Warm!) 

The second was St Patricks Cathedral with Suzanne on the way to the MET. The tours were exorbinant ($100!) and so were the audio tours. Church masses seemed to be happening all day long and were only 30 minutes long. Suzanne, in keeping with her easy to get along with personality, agreed to attend without hesitation. The altar is huge and the cantor was talented. The sermon was interesting and there was a little "Jewish bashing" which we had a chuckle about since Suzanne is Jewish. Not having attending church in decades I was impressed by what seems to me as a "retired" the fanciful ceremony where wine and wafers are turned into "body and blood".  

The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace is a brownstone on the East Side of NYC owned by the National Park Service. A ranger led an hour long tour of the site and was super effective in relaying the story of this site  rebuilt by TR's sisters on the original house site to serve as a memorial for him. Although the house is a recreation, the furniture is all original to the original childhood home including this sweet circular chair of TR"s that his father had made for him as he was a sickly child and spent alot of time indoors before his doctors encouraged physical exercise to combat his asthma. 

Along with the interesting stories of the house, and TR's childhood, it was amazing to go into this restored solidly made brownstone in the middle of Manhattan and have a quiet, thoughtful tour. 

I also discovered a few museums and collections that I really enjoyed including the JP Morgan Pierpont library where many of Chase's favorite art and book collection were housed after his death. Chase had his own librarian at this site, who over two decades expanded his collection of books for him during his lifetime. 

We stumbled upon a free display at the Grolier club for a collection of decorative paper used for book binding, wallpaper and art. 

The main NYPL site adjoining Bryant Park also had a great collection of music literature and art a called "Treasures. This was an amazing exhibit free to explore on the first floor of the library!

We took the Roosevelt Island Ferry and had a decent lunch at an empty Mexican restaurant there and took the train back to Suzanne's place. Her apartment is really awesome and the room was super comfortable. It was awesome to connect with Suzanne, one of my oldest friends and without a real agenda, explore the city. Honestly can't wait to go back!