Back in February...

February!

That seems like a year ago now -  

we had a planned visit to NYC to visit with the youngest...

The COVID-19 virus was still in a far-away land , but oh, how we saw the worry on the faces of the people around us when we visited China Town [a favorite part of The City for us] as we saw many people crowded into small rooms watching news direct from their homeland. 
We knew then that THIS VIRUS WAS REAL.

 
But it was still so far away - 
And we enjoyed our time in the city - 
always [always!] with our tiny bottles of hand sanitizer at the ready 
[a practice we've had since the Swine Flu pandemic back in 2009.]
Each time we visit we try to do / see things we've not done before - 

One day we had lunch at the Trailer Park Lounge and Grille near Chelsea - 
There's a vintage camper inside! And y'all know we love hole-in-the-wall places! 
Then it was on to SOHO where I NEEDED [ha] to stop in at a favorite designer's shop and see what might be on sale.  

I splurged a little and got a new dress, that might also act as a light coat - love it. [Not a great photo - but it's the purple flowered frock I'm wearing over the green dress here... not sure WHY this photo was taken  - ha.]

We also enjoyed time at the Museum of the City of New York - 
Interesting how different groups skew history just a bit... 
[SO MUCH about Bloomberg and NOTHING about what Giuliani did for the city -]
but it otherwise kept pretty true to the history of The City as I know it.

[Different casts for the Statue of Liberty -]

 We also enjoyed a being in Lower Manhattan on a chilly moonlit evening

as we went to a real, hands-on cooking class at the Institute of Culinary Education. This was SO FUN.

We chopped, and grated, and measured, and COOKED.
And ended up with a meal of sticky rice [with mango], spring rolls, pot stickers, and pad thai noodles. ALL delicious.
 And enough for leftovers for a week!
And honestly - things we will attempt at home! [Thanks Matt!]
 
We went to Brooklyn to check out a crafty store at a little mall.
It was fun to ride on trains that were NOT underground.
[A first for us - ]
And just cool to see a different part of New York -

We also visited Queens Museum - in Queens
[we'd never been before!]
 - home to the 1965 World's Fair!
There were a couple of cool exhibits we enjoyed - 

 One was a private collection of Tiffany glass that was advertised as being hundreds of pieces - but in fact was just a couple of gorgeous lamps and lots and lots of PIECES of glass that he poured. Still, pretty cool...

... and the Art of Rube Goldberg which was incredibly interesting - 
Seriously, click on the link - 
The Queens Museum is MUCH smaller than I had envisioned,  

but it has a beautiful outdoor space that we enjoyed 
walking through on a wonderfully sunny day! 

This still stands from the World's Fair...

And this - which I believe is seen in 
the movie, Men in Black - ?
A good day!

But y'all know we most enjoyed exploring different areas with this guy, who's still loving the city life.. and missing it a lot right now as a I write this - 

Pray for NYC, y'all.
They need to feel God's
hope, presence, and healing in all of this -