New York! New York!

My fly over visit to my favourite daughter.

(Reminds me of Minnie Pearl with the price tag on the glasses)

                                 New York, New York!

What did my daughter say when I told her I was visiting Gus........  “Well, if you are visiting Gus you have to visit me! It is right on the way. “

I thought.... Work..... NYC......Work...... NYC and Haley....... an easy choice;)

I dropped down out of the sky on a flight from SFO right into NYC, she was right, it was on the way. 

Had a crazy time with the air trans and subway and no I did not follow instructions “don’t talk to anyone on the sub way” Really, you think I can stop talking.... Really....

Well I popped out of the subway and there she was, thanks goodness. Kirk was jealous so he booked a flight to NYC and joined us. 

Haley was off to work next morning while we decided to do a tour of Park Slope  and Prospect Park in Brooklyn before heading to Manhattan.  

We headed up to Hayden Planetarium with pre bought tickets and skipped the mile long line. 

                   Toured the dinosaurs just on principle.

Then ended up in Central Park. As we were encoring the park I got a txt from our Oaks relatives from Connecticut , and come to find out they too are in Central Park. Ok the challenge is set find Amanda, Haley and the Oakes meet at One Rockefeller Center.

Haley was easy, her office, The council for Foreign Relations in the a beautiful old building,The Pratt House on Park Avenue, with all the fine touches in side. 

           Then we found Amanda at the train station.

Now where was Bruce....... Somewhere in Central Park. Finally found Bruce and family. Ended up at Rockefeller Building and then went to dinner. We could not of planned this any better if we tried. Simply amazing.

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We also had drinks at the top of the tower and saw a beautiful but a bit cloudy view. best way to do it so you don’t have to pay and have a great view of the Empire State Building.

We managed to sneak in a Broadway play. Clinton and Hillary, hilarious. Starring John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf. 

The Met was next on our agenda, overwhelming. wonderful impressionist.

                     Had the classic Thinker, Rodin

                                 And a classic Vermeer.

                   Of course can’t avoid the modern art.

Got to do a little research into our outreach physics program and went to a Broadway Physics show. Picked up quite a few ideas. Can’t wait to try the wave music tube with flames. Bet the safety people are going to love that one. 

One last day and we managed the Guggenheim, I have tried to go here for years but never quite made it. The architecture is amazing and had some fabulous Kandinsky’s.   

Took Haley and roommate to dinner at a seafood restaurant with the view to die for of Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn. 

Great to see Haley and spend time with her and the city. 

San Francisco, Here I come!

         San Francisco and NYC are not that far away from England!

                                      I miss my kids;(

 

                                Ok, lets go visit them;) 

                              Off to SFO to find Gus!

Gus’s Office building 

                       Gus in front of his office building.       

The weather was chilly but sunny, great to see Gus and Huck. We had a grand time walking  Ocean Beach, just west of Gus’s apartment on the Pacific. Huck was thrilled, loves chasing his ball. He could stay at the beach all day.
  

                                                     Windy Day

Gus has a great apartment over a Korean BBQ. Nic came into town to join us for all you can eat BBQ. Way cool, charcoal pit in the middle of the table and they just kept bringing you food. We had no idea what we were eating, we just keep BBQing. Lucky Gus and Nick were there, so much food. Delicious. 

We took off for Clearlake for the weekend.  Racing Capri 24’s. What fun, I was so excited. We stayed at an Air B&B on the lake and in the morning we had Bass boats fishing literally right outside out window. 

Spent the day drifting around Clearlake. Managed to get 2 races in and I got to drive, Sweet! Lost the first one spectacularly, and won the second one spectacularly with a brilliant port tack start, took the whole fleet down,(5 boats) :)

 Headed up to Petaluma for dinner with the whole family. Ate at an Italian Restaurant,  family style. Great to see everyone. Ania was in rare form,  can not get babies off her brain. Love you Ania.  Will have to send her my painting of the nursery. Star Nursery.

                                               Star Nursery Orion Belt

Gus and I went to a Giants game. The stadium was awesome, what a view of the bay. They lost but the view was well worth it. 

Manage to fit in a little work and visited Berkley Lab. Got to see a couple of my favourites,   Phat and Rhonda, the wirebonders. 

Phat  and Rhonda Extraordinaire  WIREBONDERS

The view from Berkley National Lab

Took in the Young Museum,  it had a special exhibit of Monet. My favourite. 

Beautiful day in SF 

                                                     Bye Bye SFO, Hello NYC!

Traveling with my favourite snacks!

Can’t find COMBOS in the UK! Thank goodness !

What a great treat!