SoHo & the Village

Today my cousins Lin and Judi [daughters of Dad's brother Al] drove up from South Jersey and we met Sis and Don on Downing Street, the street our Italian immigrant grandparents settled on when they were young. It was there that our dads and their older brother were little boys.

We ate at 10 Downing, and loved it. Judi had the world's best burger with a slice of luscious blue cheese on top. Lin had "Hole in One" Egg Benedict. For dessert, Sis, Don and I shared chocolate brioche with dainty scoops of excellent chocolate and hazelnut ice cream. And I had a cappuccino that would be hard to top, with a big creamy cap. Yum.

We loved seeing Downing Street, tried to imagine it with cobblestones and horses, with three little brothers playing outside. We also walked over to nearby King Street, where Uncle Al and Aunt Edith lived as newlyweds.

Then we headed to SoHo. It was packed with shoppers and walkers. We went to Bloomingdale's on West Broadway, where we looked at brightly colored Marc by Marc Jacobs tops, Diane von Furstenberg dresses and Tory Burch handbags--saw a really nice gold metallic one with chain-link handle, on sale but still out of my budget.

Starting at about 5 o'clock, we waited almost 30 minutes, jockeying from corner to corner, until we finally caught a cab back to the Port Authority for the bus to Montclair. Our feet hurt. But our hearts were happy. We laughed--and listened--a lot. It was like I had three sisters for a day [and one brother-in-law]. Grateful.

TCOY

1. Took life in my hands.
2. We did exercise with all of that SoHo and Village walking.