Ellie before performance as butterfly

Bluebells

At the Brooklyn Botanical Garden there was this field of blue bells that was extremely beautiful. Thousands of plants growing closely together.

BBG

Japanese Garden

Brooklyn Botanical Garden - A lovely old garden in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, funded by a private foundation. Quite large in scale with diferent sub divisions. This picture is of the Japanese garden that was created around the beginning of the 20th century. The plantings are very well maintained.

Wall art!

A bill board along the High Line that was changed out overnight between our first and second visits. The signs in the area are selected for their humor.

Freedom Tower

The Freedom Tower is replacing the destroyed World Trade Center twin towers. It will be the tallest building in North America, 107 stories when completed. It has now surpassed the Empire State Building as the tallest in NYC. Hard to imagine working that high up and getting all of your materials up that high. A lot of other buildings are being erecte around the WTC also.

Princeton Club

The Princeton Club is centraly located on W 43rd between Fifth and Sixth Aves. Very convenient to Grand Central Station, the subways, and Times Square. It was built around 1965 so is a little dated but our room was very adequate and the food was excellent.

With Kira and Luca

Kira and Luca held still long enough to get a pretty good picture on the walk way in front of the Morris's apartment building. The skyine of New York and the Hudson River are right in front of the apartment. Hoboken is really being gentrified. Lots of little kids in the neighborhood with young families living in the surrounding apartment buildings.

Morris Familt

The Danny Morris family in Hoboken NJ

View across Hudson from Morris'

A cruise ship leaving NYC, going down the Hudson River in front of Danny's apartment in Hoboken. Taken from their living room window. Fabulous view. What a fun place to live.

Julie and Luca

Luca Morris, 15 months old, with Mom.

Dan and Kirs

Kira and Dad

View from Hoboken of the NYC skyline and the Hudson River. Empire State Building on the Right.

Ferry across Hudson

These small passenger ferries run every twenty minutes between 39th Street Manhattan and the Hoboken pier right in front of  the Danny Morris's apartment. Great way to get to work every day.

Evening cruise

Princeton '63 minirunion Sat night cruise on the Hudson with great views of the Statue of Liberty at night. The reunion had chartered the entire boat with cocktails and dinner as we cruised along the waterway of NYC.

The class

The members of the Class of 63 who attended the minirunion. We only knew five of the guys reasonably well and had to reintroduce ourselves to the rest. Everyone was very friendly and open to getting acquainted. Many are retired by now with a few hanging on to work.

Statue of Liberty at night

Geat view from the cruise boat which idled for awhile in front of the statue.

? Bridge

Williamsburg bridge over the East River from the cruise boat.

Freedom tower

Freedom Tower under construction with its top in the clouds on a misty evening.

Dan and Julie's

Dan and Julie's apartment house from the river with a sailboat motoring by.

Loyd Axelrod and the John Grossman's on board the cruise boat. Both are physicians that I remembered very well but had not seen since graduation 49 years ago. Fun get reacquainted and meeting spouses.

Al and classmates

Bill  Board along the High Line, which is used for pop art.

Flowers along the High Line. The plants are supposed to mimic a meadow.

A street from the High Line.

Flowers on the High  Line. The High Line was the elevated railroad tracks that brought trains into the Chelsea and Meat Packing areas of Manhattan. The trains stopped running in the 1960's and the structure lay dormant with the discussion whether to tear it down. Private citizens took the initiative to convince the City to preserve it and to make it a special park funded in large part by private donations. It opened the stretch of renovated park land in the mid 2000's and has enabled a fantastic economic resurgence in the area with new apartment buildings, restaurants, schools, etc.

An art structure in the backyard studio as seen from the High Line. The High Line ends in the Chelsea district where there are a lot of artists working and living and many galleries. A variety of art constructions are placed along the High Line.

The High Line. The walk way is supposed  to remind you that it was origninally an elevated railroad structure. Many of the old tracks are still visible and an intimate part of the landscaping. Great views of the city from the elevated park. The current length is a little over a mile. Lots of people strolling along.

War Horse

On our last evening we went to see this amazing production at Lincoln Center. The horses were puppets, each operated by three people. Their actions and behaviors were very realistic. After awhile you forget they are puppets and think they are real. The staging was fantastic with a lot of simulated battles with minimal symbolic staging effects.

Where are we? Bowery Park!

Memorial waterfall

The sites of the twin towers have been converted into deep holes with water cascading in to the deep excavations that outline the foot prints of the towers. The water disappears in the center. The names of  those that perished are etched into the stone borders of the fountains. Lots of trees have been planted with one tree having survived the catastraphe. The new building of the WTC are being erected around the original site thus preserving the site of the original twin towers as a memorial.

Freedom Tower

The Freedom Tower under construction.

WTC Memorial

The deep pools of the water feature constucted on the sites of the twin towers. The water disappears in the center and is recirculated. The names of the victims are inscribed all around the edge of the pools.

Looking for lunch at Chelsea Market

Waiting for espresso along the High Line

Empire State Bldg

Dinner with "old" friends the Ambinders

We had dinner with the Ambinders at Noucatine in the Trump Hotel, 1 Columbus Circle. Great food and wine and lots of fun catching up. We last saw them a couple of years ago at ASCO.

Al and Ed

I first met Ed in my junior  year at Princeton. We both ended up in Dial Lodge together and then at Cornell U. Med School. He was  a year behind me and ended up practicing medical oncology in NYC and being on the staff at Mt.Sinai Medical Center. He started dating Abbey when we were at PU and we saw alot of her the summer Ed and I shared an apartment while we worked in the chem lab. Ed was also an usher at my wedding. We have shared alot over the years and it is always fun to talk about medicine, the old days and our families.

Waiting for train to Brooklyn

Visit with the Dan Morris Family

Rockefeller Center

Always fun to stroll through the Rock. This time it was Sunday morning as we walked from the PC to St.Thomas Episcopal Church for communion.

St Thomas. 5th Avenur

We always enjoy attending services at St. Thomas on Fifth Ave. It is a gorgeous gothic style church that has its own choir school for boys. The traditional Anglican men and boys choir is really thrilling to hear. This service was confirmation so the Bishop of New York was present and confirmed a class of about 35 people.

Long Day having Fun!

We had a long Saturday of our reunion with a tour of the High  Line, a large lunch at the Fig and Olive in Chelsea, and a tour rapid highlight tour of MOMA.

And still more to come.....evening dinner cruise.

Jackson Pollock

Marvel duChamp

Visit to MOMA

We had a very rapid two hour guided tour of MOMA with the goal of seeing a progression of modern art from Monet and Pacasso to the cubist to Andy Warhol to abstractionist and minimalists of today. Needless to say one can spend days there if so inclined. Not sure I am.

Future addition