“What are we doing tomorrow besides going to Hamilton, New Jersey and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge?”

This is our last night in New York; tomorrow we’ll fly out of JFK to Washington, D.C. The title is one of many questions Charlie asked recently. We never did make it across the Brooklyn Bridge. (I have been known to over-schedule.) We did, however, make it to Hamilton, New Jersey – two Hamiltons in a week and a half! – to visit friends. Wayne’s childhood friend, Bill – best man at our wedding and eulogist at Wayne’s funeral – and his wife, Julie, and her son, Reliance, met us at the American Museum of Natural History Saturday. Then today, Sunday, we took a commuter train, the same one some very obnoxious and drunk Jets fans took to and from today’s game, to Hamilton to visit them and go to a sculpture park.
Four days is not nearly enough time to do the sightseeing we’d like to do. Even though we stayed in Manhattan, we still spent a significant amount of time commuting – some walking, some train. We had a great time though. Our apartment is about a mile from Union Square Park where we went to farmers markets on Friday and Saturday and where a dreadlocked, yarmulke’d man taught Laurel some good chess strategy. (There were several men with chess boards set up – just like in the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer.) There was also an anti-war (anti-bombing) demonstration going on. We were lost one evening and accidentally came upon Washington Square Park which I recognized from When Harry Met Sally. (I’m very cultured.) There we listened to a man playing a grand piano (How did he get it to the park?) and a young woman singing while playing a keyboard. There was also some kind of play with public participation. It was quite the happenin’ place. We took a double-decker bus ride around lower Manhattan on Friday which Charlie thoroughly enjoyed and then topped it off with a carriage ride in Central Park where we went three days in a row.
I’m looking at the online photos for the place we’ll stay in DC, a beautifully and fully furnished basement of someone’s home. For about half of what I paid for the tiny, NY basement apartment, I get a place in DC that looks like it’s about three times the size and has a washer and dryer on site. New York is a very expensive city.