Instead of writing up a whole post on my parents visit, I will just steal the text from my moms e-newsletter:

"Last Thursday we flew Jet Blue to JFK and took a taxi to the hotel where Susan and Mahmoud were staying. We walked a couple doors down to a cute Italian restaurant for lunch. We got to enjoy a good lunch and catch up a little before we heard that Karen had finished at her job. We said good bye and walked to Grand Central Station to meet Karen. It is huge and beautiful inside. I was amazed by the interior decoration and all the stores and eating places.



Karen arrived shortly after we did and we took the subway, two of them to get to her apartment in Brooklyn.( The whole visit we got everywhere by subway which sounds easy, but it involves many stairs and long corridors. It was quite a work out, but it was fascinating. The people watching was one of the a highlights of the trips. I have no idea how many languages we heard spoken.) That afternoon we walked around the are near Karen's apartment. We brought home a pizza from a place near Pratt where Adrien is in graduate architecture school.

Their apartment in on the third floor. I can't imagine how hard it was to carry all their things up those steep and narrow stairs. They have done a very good job decorating it. It was warm and cozy after our days of sightseeing.


Friday Karen took us to the New York Botanical Garden where she works. We took a short bus tour around it before going to the special orchid show they are having now. You can not imagine how beautiful the orchids were. It was practically empty too because it was raining outside so we almost had the place to ourselves. After we admired the flowers we went to see the children's area where Karen works. It is a really beautiful place to visit. Right now the theme is vanilla and chocolate. The vanilla beans come from an orchid plant and we saw a cocoa bean growing in the conservatory.









We returned to Manhattan and had Indian food at Grand Central Station. Then we went to Bloomingdales to get some socks for Karen to wear to her interview. That is a huge store, I could easily get lost there. For dessert we walked to the toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz to have a hot fudge ice cream sundae. It was delicious! We enjoyed looking at the baby things. Then that night the four of us had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. It was in an old pharmacy with lots of wooden cabinets lining both sides and a big glass window in the back where the pharmacy used to be, but now was the kitchen. The food was so good.

We decided that we could see the most by taking the sightseeing loop tours. It was also good to get out of the cold wind. So Saturday we took the lower Manhattan tour. We got to see ground zero,Wall street, little Italy and Chinatown. We got out at a big Asian store and bought a few things for "Sweet pea" and a tea pot for ourselves. We went in a few other sores too. We finished up the tour at Times Square which is incredibly crowded with tourists. Karen headed back to her apartment to meet Adrien and got see a dance performance in Brooklyn. Terry and I mostly killed time at Starbucks to keep warm before we could go to the theatre. Karen and Adrien had given us tickets to see Wicked for our Christmas present. It was wonderful. The music, costumes, sets and singing and acting were just what you would expect of a fabulous Broadway experience.

Sunday we continued our bus tour with the Brooklyn loop. On each of the trips I saw places I want to return to on our next trip . At the end of this loop we bought some cheesecake to go at a famous Brooklyn pace called Juniors and met Adrien for a very good hamburgers. Adrien was busy a lot of the time getting ready for his midterms. After lunch we went back to Manhattan to take the Uptown loop that goes around Central Park and through Harlem. There are many museums that I would like to see someday. We returned to the south edge of Central Park and went to the Time Warner building where there were many stores and a big Whole Foods. Then we took the subway to the Chelsea district. I had seen something about it on one of the shows with Rachel Ray. We went in the building where they film some of the food channel shows. There were lots bakeries, an Italian grocery, and coffee places there.



From there we walked to the area near Parsons where Karen went to school in the fall. Karen and I got a $10 manicure while Terry walked around. Then we went back to the apartment for dinner. Karen and Adrien often have food delivered because it is so convenient. That night we had a pasta dinner and they had a salad delivered. They also had the best bagels I have ever had delivered for breakfast.

Monday was Karen's interview for graduate school at Bank Street School. We tagged along to see more of New York. The school is on the upper west side of Manhattan. We went in an incredible Episcopal cathedral which was as elaborate as any I had ever seen while we were witting for her. We also walked up and down the street looking at all the restaurants. The menus are posted on the windows. It was the same street that Columbia University is on. After her interview we had lunch at a French restaurant. Karen had a glass of champagne to celebrate finishing her interview. Then we took the subways back to Brooklyn. We were only there a short time before we headed to the airport. Karen went with us on the first two subway trips. She got us to the air tram that goes to the airport and then headed back. I think that she was on subway about six hours that day! Our flight was delayed and then there were computer problems so instead of getting home around midnight it was closer to 3 am."