New York New York

Last fall Mike “Googled” and thought he located one of his cousin’s that he grew up with in Brooklyn and left a message.  Miraculously he received an answer, and it was her.  They hadn’t seen each other in 23 years.  Both of them lived in the same duplex and were in the same graduating class from Brooklyn College.

Believe it or not – we found a beautiful campground at Bethpage on Long Island.  Mike’s cousin came to the trailer and we visited for a couple of hours before going to her son’s house for dinner and meeting his family.  Her oldest daughter stopped by to meet us as she lives very close.   It was a very nice visit with family we hadn’t seen in a long time and some we had never met before.



The next day we met his cousin’s significant other. The four of us visited and then another cousin’s daughter and her son from New Jersey came to visit.  Mike had seen her at her wedding 23 years ago.  Prior to that she had come to visit us in 1984 when she was in L.A. on a business trip.  It was a very enjoyable day visiting with a cousin, her significant other, a cousin’s daughter and her son. 



Thursday we visited the Guggenheim Estate.  There were two castles on the estate.  One was Falaise built in 1923 for Harry Guggenheim and the other was Castlegould built in 1902 for Howard Gould.   The land has frontage on Long Island Sound in a magnificent setting.  They were shooting the film “Gods Behaving Badly” starring Christopher Walken that is due out next summer.  Crew members were all over the place, both inside and outside; with cables and cables and cables all over the ground. All sorts of equipment was inside and outside and we just walked up to and through the castle where they were shooting since we asked to use the bathroom.  We succeeded in our quest.  Then we walked the grounds and left as it was extremely humid.



For dinner that night we went to Mike’s cousin’s oldest daughter’s house.  She invited another cousin’s daughter and her husband whom we had never met.  It was a long and fun filled day.



Saturday we took off for Brooklyn to visit Mike’s brother and his wife.  We got to the neighborhood a little early so we stopped where the family used to live on East Eighth Street, spoke with neighbors who were sitting outside and found out a little about the area now.  The outside of the house looks nice and the neighborhood looks well-taken care of.  Our next stop was P.S. 199, the elementary school Mike attended.                                                                     
                       



We then went to Mike’s brother's and schmoozed for a while.  Next was a tour of the upstairs that he has been working on to bring it more up-to-date.  Just two more rooms to go.  Mike drove the ladies to Nathan’s Famous – a Brooklyn Landmark since 1916 known for their hot dogs and french fries. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!                                                

For dinner they took us to L & B Spumoni Gardens for New York pizza.  The place is unbelievable as they have lines outside for everything.  One line is for ordering take-away or eat outside pizza, one line for spumoni, etc.  We wanted to eat inside so they took our name and we then had to wait about ½ hour.  The wait was worth it.  Each of us had a salad and two large pieces of the pizza and it was gone!  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!  What a great food day, and a family get-together that was also great.  Another long fun filled day.