Sunday's Sourlands Winter Hills Ride

Got out on the road.

(Update from Last Sunday's Ride)

The roads were messy, but everyone had a great time. Did about 36 miles. Of course, stopped for some picture taking. It turned out to be a beautiful day...

Flat Stanley Visits NY

Joy, my niece, called last week and explained that Olivia, her daughter, had a school project and asked for my help. Olivia wanted me to take her friend Flat Stanley to NY. I immediately replied that I would do anything for Olivia.

Flat Stanley arrived in the mail a couple of days later. On Friday, I took him with me to NY. We rode the New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station and then started our walk across town towards my office. Walking up 34th Street, Flat Stanley saw the Empire State Building and decided to climb a tree to get a better look.

Next we stopped in Herald Square and imagined what it would be like to be part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.




Our next stop was Bryant Park. Bryant Park is a wonderful spot that is located next to the NY Public Library. It is a great example of public-private partnerships. During the summer, they show classic movies in the evening and have concerts on Friday mornings. Right now they are setting up a big tent for "Fashion Week", where they will have a Fashion Show. Too bad Flat Stanley wasn't here a week earlier, when Ice Skating was set up in the Park.

We continued to walk across town. Normally, I don't walk through Grand Central, but I knew that Flat Stanley would like to see the inside of the famous landmark. Grand Central Station was built at the end of the 19th century by shipping magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. By the 1970's the station was badly deteriorated and many people wanted to tear it down. Others banded together and found the money to restore the station. The revitalization was completed in 1998. Today it is a beautiful and functional space.




























I only work two blocks from Grand Central. When I got to the office, Suzie, my assistant, volunteered to show Flat Stanley around. Flat Stanley especially liked the view of the Chrysler Building from my office. He liked it so much, he tried climbing my plant to see if he could get a better view.






Flat Stanley also got to meet some of the people I work with. We have a lot of diversity in my group. Elodie is from France. The next photo is of Mark (from England) and Nitin (from India). The third photo is of Tara (from USA). In my small group, we also have colleagues from Puerto Rico, Viet Nam, Germany, and Ireland.




After a long day, we headed back to Princeton. When we got home, we found that Julian was still there and was happy to see Flat Stanley. Julian is the first son of Lizzy's cousin Len. Len works in Princeton and we are lucky to get to see Julian quite often.
On Saturday we we drove down to Washington, DC. We were able to visit Olivia's cousin Mark and his fiancee Gloria at their new home in Hyattsville, MD.

It was very nice having Flat Stanley visit us. But I think he may be happy to head back to Atlanta and to get out of this cold weather!