Cape Cod

Sunday we had a leisurely morning at Amelia's and a light breakfast. Then we went to Manhattan to the Chelsea Market. We wandered around and ate a good New York lunch. Then we walked on the High Line, a park they have opened about a year ago where an elevated rail line used to be. The tracks are there, but they have paved and planted around them, so you can walk and look at the views. It was sunny and almost warm. There were lots of people there. All the seats were taken. Ray noticed someone he recognized and called me over. It was Carl Martin, the cutting-edge builder/architect (from Athens) and his wife and son. I can't remember her name, but it's not Martin. The son they introduced as Jackson. He looks like Hank, but smaller. Hank is apparently working in Atlanta--on the show Drop Dead Diva. That was kind of fun--to run into someone from Athens. Hank is a year or two younger than Molli and they were friends.

We went back to the Chelsea Market to get gelato, Amelia went on to work, Kevin to the library, and Ray and I walked some more and looked around the Chelsea Market some more. We enjoyed the kitchen supply store--many things we didn't even know existed. We went to the theater where Amelia is working on a show. The space is called the Kitchen. Amelia had gotten us comp tickets. How can I describe this show? Well, it includes some quite traditional ballet, but it also uses multi-media. A video of an older man talking in the woods. Sometimes the dancers talk--they are at a meeting discussing the top 10 ways the world will end. They dance with chairs and tables. The show is apparently built around a quote by David Hasselhof, the actor. He had a drinking problem and his young daughter tried to get him to stop. He was eating a hamburger on the floor and she said he was going to get fired from the show if he didn't stop drinking. Different dancers repeated the same words together or separately. Amelia's job is stage manager; she has to make sure everything is in the right place (including the burgers).

The show also has two guys she calls "the twins" who aren't dancers. They are more like stage hands, I guess. They wear uniforms that say Staff. Anyway for this show, some water got spilled on the stage early on and Amelia decided to send "the twins" in to clean it up. We, naturally, could not tell that they were not always supposed to do that. Apparently the director was initially very concerned, but decided that had been the right thing to do by the end of the show. So Amelia had a stressful show. We waited a little while until she had finished her work (setting everything up for the next day).

Then we headed back to Queens and met Kevin at a restaurant for dinner. I had a great mojito. Ray had lemonade mixed with beer--hmm. Very sweet. We had really good food, including butternut squash soup. Back at the apartment, the Oscars were on TV. I didn't see much of it, because I went to bed.

The next morning, we took turns showering and finished packing up. Kevin headed to work and we went to Penn Station to catch our next train, picking up some bagels to take with us. There was quite a long line and we didn't all get seats together, although Amelia was just across the aisle and one behind Ray and me. Our train left at 8:30 and it was a very pleasant ride. Amelia slept just about all the way. Ray worked on his computer and I knit a pair of mittens. Ray and I walked to the snack bar and got a yogurt and an egg-and-sausage sandwich. Better than McDonald's and cost more, but not too bad for travel food.

In Providence, we got off. Ray had already called Enterprise to meet us at the station. They took us and our stuff back to their office. We upgraded about $10 to keep the Toyota Corolla we had been picked up in and not move our things to the smaller car (Aved?). We picked a restaurant in Fall River, using my iPhone. It was really fun and there was a great yarn store down the street that we had to visit briefly. The trip to the Cape was uneventful. The weather was beautiful. We went to Barbara's house, which was full of people. Ray's mother, of course. Ray's sister, Barbara, her husband Doug. Their oldest son Casey, who lives in Japan, with his wife Chieko and their baby, Ray. The baby was asleep, but we did have to admire him. Casey's younger brothers, Jesse and Devin, who was here from California. Devin has just completed classes to be an EMT and got a job, although it is very part-time for now. Apparently there were more than 100 applicants. You have to start part-time and work your way up. Jesse's huge dog, Nitzy. After a little visiting, the three of us took a walk around the neighborhood, including the working cranberry bog. Lots of people were outside, enjoying the sun and warm weather. Back in the house, the baby was up. He was a little fussy. When he was not nursing, there were a lot of people to take turns trying to calm him down and make him smile, including Grampy. Deb and Kevin arrived, with Kevin's grandson Shawn (not Deb's grandson Shawn). Casey's friend Mark showed up too. We all had dinner. Barbara and Amelia had made cupcakes for Ray's birthday and there were some presents too. People dispersed after supper. Ray and Amelia and I are staying with Deb, who has some extra bedrooms in her basement.

It looks like another beautiful morning here.