Day 15

Today we begin the blog which we intended to begin the day we arrived.  It seemed that setting up living here delayed us.  Three trips to Target, getting library cards, finding the grocery store and post office consumed much of our time.  We will intersperse our ongoing entries with highlights of the first two weeks.

Yesterday was Memorial Day.  At home, I (Sally) would have spent the day with my brother, gone to an Amish auction to buy plants, and visited our parents' graves, and attended a Memorial Day service at the church where we grew up.  i missed that day with my brother.

Instead, we went to Target for our weekly trip for basic supplies- trash bags, rubber scraper, etc.  We could find pretty much anything we need close to our home (with a population of 27,000 people per square mile,  there seem to be all the amenities of a small town within 2 blocks of our home. the trade-off being price), but the familiarity and prices of Target can't be beat.  Target is a 15-minute bus ride plus a 5-minute walk from the bus. 

Target is part of a vertical mall (everything here goes up) on the second floor.  The mall also includes a Marshall's, Costco, Best Buy, and furniture store. So we can get a Costco hot dog at the end of the shopping.

The New York Philharmonic performs a free concert every Memorial Day at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  I read that one needs to arrive early for tickets. Tickets are handed out at 6:15, so I went at 4:15- taking water, a book, and snack.  We purchased little collapsible stools for waiting in line, so the stool also went along.  I think I could have waited until 5 p.m.- but not much later.

St. John the Divine was amazing.  You can't beat at Gothic cathedral for majesty and feeling the majesty of God.

I did not particularly enjoy the selections- a Debussy and Tchaikovsky symphony- but was impressed with the quality of the performance.

Sally

We have been busy. We have had many walks around Central Park. Sally has visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Al has gone to the American Museum of Natural History. We have seen Porgy and Bess and Harvey (with Jim Parsons) on Broadway. Al attended a meeting of the Rotary Club of New York. There were only 27 people at the meeting and 10 of them were visitors. A little sad. However, today he visited the Bronx Rotary and the Chinatown Rotary. They were both very interesting and friendly. It is good to be a Rotarian.

We have three grocery stores, too many deli's and restaurants to count, and three street vendors of fruit and vegetable withing three blocks of our apartment. We have only eaten out three times since we got here. But, that is okay. We are eating healthier.

Al