Future Blipper

We took the 4-hour drive to NYC early this morning and finally got to meet our 19 -day-old granddaughter. She is beautiful and we both wept as we looked at her and held her for the first time. She is our 10th grandchild, but as my husband said, "this never gets old."  I will be here for a while to help out so I will post pictures of her over the next few days. 

We picked Hailey up early from school, and after a stop at the community garden to see the tulips, and a quick play at the playground, we arrived back at the apartment.  "Graypa" was quite tired, as he did all the driving while I napped, so he dozed off on the couch. Hailey grabbed her camera and thought it quite funny to get shots of him sleeping.  Here she is "chimping" her shots. 

It is hard to believe we haven't been here in 16 months.  The city is quieter, and lots of lanes on major streets have been closed to allow for the restaurants to expand for outdoor dining.  Everyone wears a mask.  I did not see one person without one, unlike in other parts of the country.  The memory of last April, May, and June is seared into the heart of every New Yorker.  Wearing a mask and social distancing is very little to ask to prevent something like that again.  

The age-old dilemma when you drive to New York City is what to do with the car.  We are staying on the East Side with friends who have a little more room than our son's apartment which is on the West Side. We are still reluctant to stay in a hotel.  It is about three miles between them.  We went to the West Side first and as luck would have it, we got a parking spot right outside their building....so we very quickly rethought our plans to garage the car on the East Side for a small fortune and decided to leave the car where it is, and Uber over to the East side with our bags.  New York has a very complicated parking system, with alternate side parking two different days a week for street cleaning, but during the pandemic, this has been cut back to once a week, so our car is good in that spot for 1 week!  If the weather is good we will walk across Central Park and back and if not, Uber worked out well and will be far less expensive than the garage. Our driver had been vaccinated so we felt very comfortable today. 

Many, many thanks for all the lovely comments and hearts for my last blip.  I couldn't believe when it shot to page one, top row.  I am so pleased you all liked it.