The Sights and Happenings of New York

Every day is an interesting day in New York City. We see tons of different things every time we go into the city. It truly is a city that never sleeps and one that is a happening place. Last week was fashion week, in addition to preparations being made for the 9-11 remembrance. As a result, there were people (lots of young people) everywhere you looked. This dog in the picture below was getting right into the swing of fashion week by wearing these stylish dog shoes. All four feet had on shoes. Sorry that the picture doesn't show the shoes very well.

Because of heightened security throughout the city for 9-11, there were traffic jams all over. Trucks were especially being searched at busy intersections, like this one in front of the temple.

In the little island across the street from the temple was this huge puppet that was being filmed for the Massoni line of clothing that Target stores released last week. Of course, I had to run over and get a picture. The puppet is wearing one of the outfits that Target is carrying. The two men on either side of the puppet controlled the arms of the puppet. There was a person inside of the puppet who controlled the head of the puppet, and another person on the side who controlled the eyes of the puppet with a remote control. It was very impressive and fun to see.

Right in front of the temple was this makeover booth. They were advertising bandaids, of all things. That's why this guy is wearing a bandaid. Oh, by the way, the girl with the fun look on her face is one of the members of our Inwood Ward, Anna Botts.

As you can see, even men got into the picture. Here is the line for people to have a makeover.

After we left the Family History Center, we walked across the street to see if there was any more fashion displays to see. Unfortunately, they were inside and most of the people going in were teenagers. So, we walked past the Julliard School of Music, which is right next door to the Lincoln Center.

Last Saturday was a full day for us. We went to the Family History Center at 10:00 a.m. and I worked until 4:00 p.m. Dick worked until 2:00 p.m., when he left to go help our friend, Mark Levin, as he went through the temple. Dick was with Mark while he did the preliminary things. Then, another brother from our ward actually went through as an escort for Mark. Dick and I had to leave to catch a train, so that we could be in Scarsdale for a couple's dinner at the Dargers. We arrived at the station about 5:30 p.m. We met another couple who came in on the same train, and we walked to our apartment, where we met Elder and Sister Merrell, who drove us up to the Dargers for a wonderful dinner. We have really loved getting together with the couple missionaries. They are a lot of fun. Below are pictures of the missionaries.

Elder Dalebout and Elder Lyon. Elder Lyon and his wife work in the public relations office in the same building as we do.

Elder and Sister Merrell and Elder Greenwood on the right. Elder Greenwood and his wife came about six weeks ago as CES missionaries. Below is President Smith and Elder Higbee.

Below are the sisters. Left to right: Sister Greenfield, Sister Despain (brand new missionaries), Sister Lyon, Sister Higbee, Sister Smith and Sister Greenwood.

After the dinner, the Merrells and Greenwoods came to our apartment so that we could watch the 9-11 Tabernacle Choir broadcast CD with Tom Browkaw. It was really amazing. The church truly knows how to do things right. When they left, we went over to our neighbor Jay's apartment and watched the BYU-Texas football game. Ugh. Not good.

After church on Sunday, we were invited to Yaong and Dillion Lee's apartment (along with Elders Merrill and Fletcher) for a Korean dinner. The meal was very good. We really love Yaong and Dillion. They were in our Marriage and Family Relations class and have been good friends to us. Dillion is getting his medical degree at Columbia University.

There was some kind of Korean stew with chicken, sprouts, tofu, rice and salad. We had a very nice time with them.

We had a full weekend.

Best Friends for 44 Years

It has been 44 years since we were married. It seems like yesterday in a way, but it also seems like eons ago, when we think about everything that has happened. We have had a good marriage. We have done and seen so many things during the last 44 years. It has been a wonderful ride! And, most important, we have a great family, whom we love very much. It wasn't easy raising five children, but they are all amazing people with amazing children.

We are still best friends and we look forward to many years to come.

Friends (Vellingas) and Foes (Hurricane Irene)

The past couple of weeks have been very eventful here in New York. About a week a half ago, we invited our friends, the Vellingas, over for a lasagne lunch. They had us over to their home for Sunday dinner a few weeks ago, and we wanted them to come to Scarsdale to eat and have some fun. Vellingas are in our Inwood Ward. Jed Vellinga (on right) grew up in our ward in Provo. He and his wife, Lisa, moved to New York so that she could go to school to be a nurse anethesist. They have two cute little kids, Dillion and Haley. We went over to the playground so the kids could play. Then, we went on a walk along the path in back of our apartment building and enjoyed seeing all the greenery and beauty. Haley decided that she wanted to collect LARGE leaves, so she got a few a long the way. I took this picture in front of the waterfall. Cute family.

Jed got daring and took both Dillion and Haley out near the waterfall.

We really had a nice time with the Vellingas. We even called Clarence and Annette (Jed's parents), who are on a mission in Calgary, Canada. I think they were a little envious of us being with their kids. I know I would be. The day was absolutely perfect in every way. We were so glad that they came when they did and didn't get caught up in the storm.

All last week, we were watching Hurricane Irene. On Tuesday, many people felt an earthquake, which stemmed from Virginia. We didn't feel it in the Family History Center, as we were on the ground floor of the temple. However, there were people on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of the temple that did feel it. Then, Irene really scared the people of New York. It was a huge hurricane and moved very slowly. When we were in the Family History Center on Friday, the mission office called us and told us that the subways would be shutting down, as well as the trains, Saturday at noon. We usually go to work at the FHC on Saturdays, but we just decided to close it, inasmuch as we couldn't get there on public transportation. The temple also closed at 11:00 a.m. Saturday.

We spent Saturday preparing for the worst--getting emergency supplies ready, filling the tub full of water, ect. We took a couple of walks and the air was very moist and heavy--humid. Here is a picture of the calm before the storm.

At about 7:00 p.m. Saturday night, it started to rain. It rained hard for about 14 hours, with lightening and thunder during the night. We were surprised when we got up in the morning and it wasn't raining too hard. Even the little delicatesen across the street opened up about 9:00 a.m. Church meetings had all been cancelled on Sunday throughout the mission, so we stayed home.It's hard to see how hard it rained and how much it blew, but it really wasn't too bad. We spent the morning doing some scripture study, watched an old movie, took a walk after the storm, and then invited our neighbor, Jay Steele, over for dinner.

I was impressed by by the preparations and precautions that Mayor Bloomburg announced prior to the hurricane. The city was quite prepared. This is a shot from the television with the mayor in blue on the side and plow trucks moving the flood waters on the main screen.

I was also impressed by the way our mission president handled the evacuation of the Manhattan missionaries. They were transported to members homes or other missionary apartments. Then, he checked with the Zone leaders, who checked with the District leaders, who checked with the other missionaries. Also, we all got text messages about every four hours letting us know what was going on. Below, you can see the river and how it flooded over the walking and biking path in back of our house. Also, the next picture show the Bronx River Parkway, which was also flooded.

Below is the waterfall going into the river. It's much higher than it was in the picture with the Vellingas.

This bridge was covered with water and lots of debri that washed into the bridge.

There were a few trees that had been blown down and lots of branches and leaves all over.

On Monday, Dick and I took a drive into a couple of villages away from ours, Larchmont and Mamaroneck. The day was absolutely perfect, and we drove around some of the areas and took this beautiful picture. What a difference a day makes.

Thus, we survived Hurricane Irene. "Goodnight Irene." Here's hoping you'll go far away.