Reunion with an old friend, NYC, January 21

  Today was another chilly day, but sunny. The East Coast is battening down for a HUGE snow storm which will affect the entire coast and put Washington D.C., our next destination, in the bull's eye. Hence, we will leave here tomorrow as early as possible and hope to get there hours before it hits and shuts the city down.
   Today we had a very good breakfast at our hotel on 40th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, the Staybridge Suites. Then, we went to the nearby subway station and were definitely obvious at the "out of towners" as we tried to get Metro tickets. The machine was a cash only, but...would only give $9 in change. We had to get $10 tickets and had a $20 bill, so no go. So, we got out of line to search for smaller bills because there were people behind us. Eventually we conquered the machine and got our tickets. And then, Mark struggled with putting the ticket in the turnstile. Oh dear....out-of-towners written all over us.
   Anyhow, we took the C train to 86th street and walked across Central Park which was beautiful, although cold. (31 degrees with a breeze, I'd say)

A chilly walk through Central Park

Barbara in Central Park

Mark in Central Park

We went to the apartment of an old and dear friend who we had not seen since 1984. It was wonderful. We met his two daughters which was a treat. The three of us had planned to visit the Museum of Modern Art, but we had 31 years to catch up on, so....between the three of us, we managed to tell story after story and did not get to the Museum. We had a lunch at a local diner, Three Brothers and then went back to his apartment to talk some more. We are so happy to have reconnected.

The View from Weldon's apartment

So nice to meet up with Weldon after 31 years!!!!!

   Then, we took the bus down Fifth Avenue and walked back to our hotel and went to their happy hour which featured tacos so...that was dinner. We met a nice family visiting from Texas and had a nice chat with them, especially the 20-year-old son.
    What a nice day.