People

No, I am not going to break into a song.  The picture is one that I took at Phipps today.  A man brought his parents to Phipps and they parents walked along the paths together hand in hand.  They smiled, they spoke to people, but they also sat on the bench in the Sepentine room and watched.  They watched as the families came from the butterfly room, with excited children, and yes, excited parents.  They smiled, they nudged each other.  And as the woman looked tired, the husband reached over and took her hand in his and stroked it lovingly.  And as you can see in the picture, he became tired and as their son took her hand, she gently took her husband's hand and led him along.  It's one of the wonderful things about working at Phipps.  It allows one to observe.  It allows one to see the joy through a child's eye.  It's showing them the wonder of a butterfly emerging and flying for the first time, often from their own finger.

So, New York City, 2013 has come and gone.  I knew it was going to rain, so rain ponchos became standard.  Forgot the umbrella, however.  Scott drove us the the Megabus stop and we arrived an hour early so we could get the front seats on the second level of the bus.  And we did.  Somewhere along Route 22 it began...that pesky rain.  And it continued....however, it stopped long enought to load the crew at State College.  And when we arrived at the rest stop...well, that was an experience.  Our driver became frustrated and pulled onto the grass and told us to hurry, we had 20 minutes.  The women began to take over the men's room...that's all I'll say.

Hard rain began about 30 minutes outside of NYC, and all I could think was how would we ever get from the bus stop to the hotel.  Fortunately, the rain stopped long enough for us to get our suitcases and get a cab.  And the hotel sold me an umbrella.  Which was a good thing. 

We unpacked and decided to go for a walk to stretch our legs a bit.  Can you say monsoon?  I don't actually know the definition of a monsoon, suffice to say that Linda's umbrella was blowing inside out, the rain came down horizontally and the street was flooded in a matter of 10 minutes.  Matt loved it.  Stood in the rain as we huddled attempting to keep dry.  Matt only had one pair of shoes...can you say boys and puddles?  So, we headed back to the hotel and as we reached the door, the rain let up, so off we went for yet another try..

We made it to Ellen's Startdust Diner.  What a wonderful experience!  Waitstaff singing to us, us singing with them, decent food and a great way to forget about the rain...until we left the diner.  Back to the hotel for what else?  Swimming.

Katie visited colleges, Matt came to the Sony Tech Center, we saw Newsies and Blue Man Group.  We paid an exorbitant amount for a cab back to the hotel after Newsies just to get out of the rain.  We took the subway to Blue Man Group thanks to the expertise of Linda. 

The Holland Tunnel was closed due to the rain, it came down in droves.  Umbrellas, ponchos, wet shoes on the air conditioner, being blown dry with the hair dryer.  Matt to NHL store, Katie to SoHo for shopping, Katie exploring the city on her own, swimming in the pool at the hotel....it was a good trip.  It really was.  The sun came out Sunday as we left the city.  Of course.

Came home to have Peppi's again, this time with Tammi.  Always good to catch up with her and feed my face.  Back to Phipss, baseball and hockey.  Pens lost, Pirates lose and win.  I hope the Pens win tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.