dinner in chinatown

 
greg and i walked to chinatown this evening to meet friends for dinner at hop kee restaurant.

we walked along sixth avenue to church street and then turned onto franklin, walked through collect pond park to centre street and then along hogan place to columbus park, which we walked through to mosco street which took us to mott street. the photo above is looking across columbus park playground to the old five points neighborhood.

mosco and mulberry streets . . 

hop kee restaurant is on the right and down the stairs . . we had spring rolls, chicken with cashews and chinese broccoli in oyster sauce . . and tea. it was all very good.

walking home . . 

through little italy . . 

my neighbor said she walked 20,000 steps today . . !

holiday visits

we visited ferrara's cafe this morning (where morgan, harley and i were two weeks ago), as we usually do each year two days before christmas (lille julaften in norway).

fterwards, korrina did a little christmas shopping before going to work and greg walked to veniero's on 11th street for our christmas cookies (he said there was such a long line that they weren't doing their cafe service). meanwhile, chanda and i walked along mulberry street and visited a shop she likes along with strand books before walking across town and getting on the express train to 72nd street for our annual holiday visit with homeschooling friends.

they baked cookies and built a gingerbread house.

my friend olga's beautiful tree.

sweet nutmeg has the coziest couch with a beautiful view.

delicious vegetable soup (anything olga puts together is always delicious . . she's a gifted cook).

solstice lights . . 

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in london, morgan and their friend merlyn attended a performance of a christmas carol . . 

'tis the season!

morgan also sent a photo of harley and her cat summer enjoying a cozy time in front of a warm fire on the solstice . . 

feast of san gennaro

 
greg and i went for a walk at 4 pm to see the feast of san gennaro which began this past thursday.

last night greg's alma mater, florida state university, played boston college and won, 31 to 29. today he wore his hat and t-shirt and a few people called out to him, one of which i caught on this video:

"i like your shirt! i like your shirt!"

"all right! thank you! we just barely survived!"

"one hundred percent!"

mulberry street was so packed with people that we slipped out and walked around the block to mott street and then to grand street, and came upon a grandstand with the ricky tinelli band . . 

(what is cute in this video is that halfway through, the grand marshal pulls her mom away from talking to a friend to sit down with her as the show was about to start.)

this video gives the introduction of the grand marshal for 2023, kathrine narducci, an actress known for her roles in the the sopranos, a bronx tale, godfather of harlem, bad education, and other shows. i've actually never seen her in any of these, but i really enjoyed her heartfelt speech today, and could tell she was having a wonderful time.

the ricky tinelli band sings "i've got the world on a string."

one more song . . louis prima's hey marie . .

more scenes of the carnival games, and greg says he's starting to get weak from hunger . . 

this guy hits the bell twice . . 

the little girl wanted a mermaid doll, which her mom was able to get by ringing one of the lower bells - which happened just prior to me filming this video.

and the ferris wheel . . looking pretty with its neon rainbow lights . . (and greg decided he couldn't handle waiting in one of the very long lines for sausage and peppers - so we began walking home and stopped along the way at a restaurant called the dutch to share fried chicken and broccoli rabe).