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I put the web site for my blog on Facebook so those who connect with me there can also see the blog if they are interested so I thought I would mention here that I am also on Facebook and have added a few more pictures from the New York trip there.

Back to Charlevoix

After a few days in Holland to catch up on a few things there we're back to Charlevoix for a few weeks.    We had a nice time having dinner with our friends the Freckmans Monday night and on Tues. night had a great homemade dinner at Mom and Dad Spaulding's.  Brother Ken came too and it was nice to chat with them.  Also Tues. I went with Jamie, Jacob and Ashlyn to help Jamie out while she did some "pre-school" shopping.

Our friends Chuck and Carol are here on a stop on their boat trip so Larry took them for a boat ride in the Hacker-craft this afternoon and then we all had dinner at Gray Gables.  Mary is here too visiting for a couple days.  Always fun to have "sister Mary" around and she enjoyed meeting Dr. Beck (Chuck) as well.

Girls Weekend in New York City

We had very full day on Fri. and besides taking the ferry to Staten Island and seeing the Statue of Liberty on the way we also went to ground zero.  There was this memorial on the wall of a fire station near by.  Pretty awesome to see the big hole in the ground where they are working and think about all the things that have happened here.  There were also pictures of the buildings and a park they are planning to build there.
We did some shopping at the Century 21 store that says it is New York's best kept secret but when we got in the store it was packed with people buying LOTS of stuff.  I guess the secret is out.  

We did a lot of travel by subway and also took a cab up to Bloomingdales since the Concierge at the hotel had given us a little packet of coupons for Bloomingdales.  Allison got a free cappicino and Jamie and I got free frozen yogurt.  Then we headed to Times Square and did a little more shopping before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the play.

We had a great steak dinner near the theatre and then headed over to the play.  It was really a lot of fun and very well done.  It had a few more songs than the original animated feature and Amanda decided she liked this version better.  She also told us last night that if she had to have another job that she would like to be a Broadway Actress.  Who knows, maybe we'll see here there someday!

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed to Central Park.  We visited "the lawn" were there are some baseball diamonds and there were quite a few people playing ball.  Then we went to the "castle."  The girls climbed the stairs up into the building.

.....And a REALLY big boat

Today we added a boat to our list of transportation that we have taken in the past few days.  We took the Staten Island Ferry and went past the Statue of Liberty.  Very cool.  I had never seen it before and it is very awesome.

The rest will have to wait as I'm VERY tired!!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (and Subways and a Taxi)

Not in that order but we have done them all in the past two days.  Jamie, Allison and I flew Wed. afternoon to Binghamton, NY and drove our rental car to Ben and Amanda's in Owego.  Then Thurs. morning we drove (actually Jamie did the driving) 2 1/2 hrs east to a train station where we got on the train to go to the city.  We had to transfer to a second train for the last 10 mins. of the ride and that was a bit more work than expected but we made it.  LOTS of stops on the first train we took but hey, look at all the new towns we've been in in NJ now!!  Then we took a cab from the train station to our hotel.  We decided to go to Canal St. for some shopping and took the Subway from near the hotel down to the Canal St. stop.  LOTS of T-shirts, purses, sunglasses, watches and jewelry there, shop after shop and they are all ready to give you a "really good deal."  Don't like the price?  How much do you want to pay?  $30 instead of $35?  How about $33?  Anyway it was fun!  I think we all came back with at least a little something.

After a little rest back at the hotel we talked with the Concierge and asked for a suggestion for an Italian restaraunt.  Her suggestion was GREAT!!  I'll have to find the name later and post it as a recommendation if you are ever in NY City.  Then we had to walk off all the good food so we walked to Rockefeller Center, took the elevator ride to the "top of the Rock" and got a great view of the city all lit up at night.  Very pretty!!

A little more walking brought us to Time Square (or at least pretty close) and it started to rain so we just had to duck into the M&M's store.  Very fun place.  By the time we left the rain had let up some so we started our walk back to the hotel and just a few blocks into the walk the rain slowed way down and then stopped.

I don't know if my feet are up for another day but I will see how it goes.  We have more to do tomorrow but some involves some riding and maybe not so much walking.  We'll see.

That's all for now "from the Big Apple!"  :-)

Back in Holland (for a little while)

Here is a picture of Jacob and Ashlyn in the fountain in Charlevoix last week after the"grand opening" of the fountain during the Venetian Festival.

Larry and I made it back today with the "big" boat.  We decided to bring it back to Holland and were going to try to get back last night but got a little bit later start that we anticipated and then stopped in Leland for fuel and that took quite a while.  So by the time we left there the weather wasn't looking too good and 1 1/2 later as we were getting close to Frankfort we heard other boaters saying they were watching a "light display" over the water in Ludington.  It looked like there would be thunderstorms all the way to Holland from anywhere south of Frankfort so we ducked in and spent the night there.  Didn't get as early of a start as we had hoped but left there about 8:30 this morning and arrived back in Holland about 1:45.  The lake was a little rougher today than last night.  Mostly out of the south of course so we had to slow down a little.  

We have a couple days here then Larry heads out to Huntington Beach, CA for some meetings and Jamie, Allison and I leave Wed. morning to fly out to Ben and Amanda's.  We will spend the night there, and the girls will drive down toward NYC on Thurs. and then take the train into the city and stay 2 nights.  Then head back to Ben and Amanda's on Sat. and spend another night there.  I'm looking forward to it a lot.  I have the flights booked, the car rented, and the hotel booked and have left the rest up to the girls to plan.  Should be fun!!  I'll try to post some pictures later.

Travis and Allison are getting married in May (for those who might not already know) and last week made an offer on a condo that was accepted.  I know they are excited and I'm looking forward to going to see it too.

Always lots of mail to go through after we've been gone a while so that is my "job" for the rest of the afternoon.  

Already went out and took a walk around the house to see how much weeding needs to be done and so that will be next on my list while I'm home.  Couldn't resist pulling a few as I walked around too but I run out of room in my hands quickly.

It is always nice to get back "home" and my friend Melody greeted us on the dock to welcome us home and helped with the lines too!!  We're planning to have lunch tomorrow so we can get "caught up" a little bit.

So there, I finally got a chance to write about what's "coming up" as well as what has happened.  Now you will all be so anxious to get back to my blog to see how it all went.  :-)