Christmas 2016

This Christmas my family assembled at Demian's house in Seattle.  Charlotte and Lucien came up from their home in southern Washington and the other grandkids, Sam and Lily were home from college.  Twas a joyful gathering.  Much good food and companionship. 

Lucien thinks his two big cousins hung the moon and they are great with him.  

 Lucien and Lily

 

Lily, Lucien, Demian and Sam - ice skating at Seattle Center

 

The Frank Gehry designed MoPop, formerly the Experience Music Project (EMP).

 

 A walk in Discovery Park with Lily

 It was a lovely Christmas holiday including much family togetherness, much play and too much good food culminating in our traditional Christmas Eve fondu, both cheese and chocolate.  This tradition started some thirty years ago when Charlotte became a vegetarian; a festive, meatless dinner.  And it's a memory  I have (accurate or not) of Christmases when I was young and my mother made fondu on Christmas Eve and we lit the candles on the tree.  

I hope you all had a great holiday season.  All the best in the coming year.  Looks like it's going to be interesting.

 

Miscellaneous NYC

 Such a photogenic place, so many interesting sights, one could just walk and gawk endlessly

 

A Peruvian religious festival

 Happy bike share users

 Frank Gehry

 

That brings us to the end of my trip to the Eastern Seaboard.  While North Carolina had some interesting sights and it was great to spend time with Kim and Laurie, I'm not drawn to going back there.  Soon I'll be able to visit them in Northern California.  The farm is on the market and they're getting ready to move west.  But I'd go back to New York City in a heartbeat.

And more NYC

We went to the Museum of Modern Art and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Saw a terrific exhibit of Diane Arbus' photographs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus.  A very moving exhibit of displaced peoples, chronicling the issue of refugees all over the world.  And many other less memorable exhibits.

Our route took us through Central Park, thronged with people on this beautiful day 

Bethesda Fountain

 The John Lennon Memorial

and lots of interesting architecture and character buildings.  

The Dakota Hotel

And there was Zabar's, 

a favourite of Barbara's, a store full of everything food related:  cheese, meats, fish and seafood, bakery, pickles and pastas and pestos, you name it.  

 And upstairs was where the hardware was, all the equipment you'd need to cook the food you buy downstairs.  

Barbara and I are both Bela Fleck fans so, when she saw that he was doing a show with Victor Wooten while I was there, she got tickets.  A fabulous show.  

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntiQmSjZjVs&t=114s

And we went to a way off Broadway play one night, a one woman play in a tiny venue that seated maybe 30.  Such Nice Shoes was a good play, very topical, well performed.  http://www.suchniceshoes.com/  

We explored a big street market in upper Manhattan on Sunday, a cornucopia of sensory delights,  

  
and more.

To contrast the urban experience, we shopped at the farmers market in Dobbs Ferry

 and took a nice walk along a trail overlooking the Hudson River and the Palisades, fall colours just starting to emerge.