Thursday morning, May 29, we headed on Delta to JFK airport, then the Airporter shuttle bus to Grand Central Station (officially called Grand Central Terminal), then the MTA Metro-North train to New Haven, then John's Toyota Yaris to his house, then his car back to Milford to the Hampton Inn.
On Friday, Mei's birthday, we mostly ran around getting ready for her baptism, making two trips to Costco, which was near our hotel but a ways from John and Misa's. Mei's baptism was at 6:30 and had maybe 50 or more people attending, including two of Mei's friends and one of their mothers, who are not LDS.
Here's the trip in pictures.
Mei outside their church Friday afternoon.
Mei with her two friends, Annaka (from Sri Lanka) and Minami (Japanese mother and American father-they are moving soon to Japan to teach for 10 years).
Chieko
John and Misa just before the baptism.
The kids' table at the dinner following the baptism.
Mei's opening more presents late in the evening.
On Saturday morning the humanitarians Mark, Candice and Kate Crawford and John Astle headed to Ecuador to do pediatric orthopedic surgery for nine days. They asked me to drive them to Hartford to catch a plane to Chicago, then Miami, then Ecuador. I dropped them at Hadley Airport and found a 7-Eleven, which are quite rare in the East and the only quick stops with a soda fountain. With my Big Gulp in hand I got onto the freeway, and John called to tell me their plane was delayed and they would miss the connecting flights, so would I mind driving to Boston or New York. We ended up driving to JFK in New York.
This is the only picture I have of NYC from this trip, taken out a dirty window with my phone while driving over a bridge about 50 mph. (I wasn't driving; John was.)
All the while, the Astle kids and Chieko had a picnic in the front yard. A few hours later, I picked them up and we headed to Hammonassett State Park. We waited at the entrance to the park for 10 minutes, because the price went from $13 to $6 at 4 p.m.
We had a lot of fun on the beach.
This driftwood hut has been under construction by "the kids" for about two years, or so I heard one old timer tell another.
Chieko tried to see how high she could stack rocks.
These kids are quite a team. They stick together and watch out for each other really well.
Mod Squad.
They call this "shell beach" for a reason. There's a sandy beach next to this one.
Elliot found a crab or similar shell with this tooth-looking thing sticking out the side.
Caroline is checking for pirates.
When we tried to leave, we discovered the car battery doesn't last a long time with the lights on. We had to wait for a tow truck to bring a jumper battery. $93.
We then headed to the new Lenny and Joe's in New Haven for some seafood.
I got deep fired scallops. Caroline and Mei had deep fried shrimp sandwiches. Wells got deep fried clam strips. Chieko got a large salmon steak. The fried food was very good. We decided to stick to the deep fried stuff when we come here in the future.
On Sunday we went to church, where Wells gave a talk in primary, and the primary kids sang Happy Birthday to Mei. Then we headed to Essex, an old boat-building town.
We ate brunch at Griswold's, which is in a building the newer portion of which was built in 1776.
This house was built in 1733. These historic homes each has a small sign with the date the home was built and the original owner's name.
This bird house is obviously newer. The birds love it anyway.
The three Amigos.
The four Amigos. From here we said good bye to the kids and Mialisa, until we see them in Utah later this summer.
Chieko and I headed to Rhode Island to see if we could find any lighthouses. This is Judith Point.
The surf was up.
And the sailing looked good.
Monday morning we got up at 5:20 (3:20 Utah time) and headed for Union Station in New Haven. At 7 a.m. we met Misa and her mother, who took the car home. We caught the 7:20 "local" (not the Express, which left at 7:27) and arrived in Grand Central Station at 9:20 (the Express arrived at 9:10).
I hope Chieko doesn't mind my telling this. She needed to use the restroom, but it was closed for cleaning. The cleaners told her to use the one on the other end of the station. So she came back up the stairs and we walked to the other end of the station. She went back downstairs but then came back and said that one was also being cleaned and they told her to go to the other end of the station. So I decided I may as well visit the men's room while we waited. When I got downstairs I realized Chieko had followed the signs back to the same women's room both times. There was indeed another restroom that wasn't being cleaned.
Sorry to make you look at this, but every urinal in JFK airport has a fly printed in it. Well, I can't verify that every one has a fly, because I haven't checked every one, but every one I've seen over the past few years has a fly. I have my theory. What's yours?
We ate a burger and a grilled chicken wrap at Buffalo Wild Wings (I wasn't so impressed) and got on our 1:10 flight. We arrived in SLC about 4:30.
