Monkey PJs

Little Irelan received some new pj's from Shimaine and tried them out this past Sunday. She really liked them and if you ever get a chance, have Irelan do her monkey impression.
The last picture is just a "pretty baby".

A visit from Maddie

Last week Maddie came over to visit with Irelan. As luck would have it, I had my camera ready. So, here are a couple shots of them and then 1 shot of Irelan resting.

Beware - of the KittyKat - Groooowwwwlllll

Little Irelan Went as a KittyKat for Haloween. As usual, pictures are provided with commentary





The official KittyKat pose





Beware- KittyKat on the prowl



Puuuuuuuuurrrrrrr





Practicing to growl

Not so..Hot..Humid...Hazy

Well, the weather is finally starting to cooperate. It got a little cooler during the day. It was still muggy, but cooler.

Yesterday morning, Celena and I went to her college. Before getting there, we stopped by a sports restaurant/bar near her school and ordered breakfast. A lot of the Columbia students frequent this bar after school and, maybe, during school time. I took a guided tour of her school. The building and class rooms are very old style, lots of brick and wood. Reminds me of my grammar school days in Chicago, when I had to take a horse and buggy to school, just kidding, or am I.

Late in the afternoon we went to Chinatown and had dinner. We also took a walk through the streets to check out the merchandise that was on sale. Lots of merchants offering all kinds of deals on watches, jewelry, Cd's and handbags.

After Chinatown, we went back near her apartment to a sports bar to see, if by chance, they would have the Bears/Packers game. Initially, they had the world series on, but as the night progressed, I spotted 1, 2, a dozen and maybe more than 2 dozen Bear fans walk in and before long, the world series was off and the Bear game on. Very cool. It was a good night, the Bears beat the Packers.








Sports bar/restaurant near Columbia.


Sign says it all.

Teachers collage takes up the whole block plus some.

Saw this sign near the campus.

Yet, another shot of the subway.

Chinatown


Chinatown

Hot..Humid..Hazy..Part Deux

It is 5:00 in the morning, New York time, and my shirt is soaked. I just returned from outside getting a cup of coffee and a donut for breakfast. The laws of nature have no effect in NY. When it's dark outside, it's supposed to be cooler not frigen hot. Did I mention that it's crazy hot here in New York. My daughter and her roomies are great, they let me lounge around and sleep in their rooms with the air conditioning on. Plus allow me to take my usual nap or two.

Yesterday we went on the Brooklyn Bridge. The subway, number 6, actually runs near my daughters apartment and ends at the Brooklyn Bridge. The subway is about 1 block from her apartment. The great thing about the subways, besides being great for transportation, is that they are air conditioned. Pretty much any where I was planning on going, I made sure that there was a subway close by, to get some relief from the heat. My daughter purchased an all week subway and bus pass for me to use and use I did.

As usual, it was smoggy outside so I had to do a little touch up on my pictures just so they look half way decent.

Today, I think the plan is to go to my daughters college and check it out.



This is the subway where you wait for your train. Unfortunately, the subway station is not air-conditioned so consequently you perspire for a bit waiting for the train. Then, when the train arrives, it's like a cooler and your body goes into a euphoric shock. Then you start getting cold and can't wait to get off the subway. Is there no pleasing me at all?

Yesterday, when we went to the Brooklyn bridge, we had to share the bridge with hundreds of ladies who were doing the Avon breast cancer awareness walk. The bridge walkway is not very wide and half of it is allocated to bike riders. It was a challenge traversing across the bridge past the ladies

If you are driving from Manhattan to Brooklyn on the Brooklyn bridge, this is the sign that greets you as you enter Brooklyn.

Skyline of Manhattan from the Brooklyn bridge.

Some of the intricate cables connecting the bridge.


A shot of the Empire State building along the bridge.


A different shot of the Manhattan skyline.

Hot ..Humid....Hazy

Well, I went sight seeing yesterday and the weather was crazy. It's as if it was the middle of summer. I believe it reached 88 degrees with a humidity of 95 and visibility .5 miles. It was really hard getting any good pictures. Not to mention that we were in downtown during the middle of the day. I did take some pictures and if you look through them, you will notice that I have added my comments. The pictures aren't the greatest, but I think their worth checking out. So what are you waiting for.....scroll down!







We stopped by Gray's Papaya and had a couple hot dogs for lunch. Nothing really special about them. They're OK but I still like the Chicago hot dogs more. Probably had to have grown up here to appreciate them.







This is just a random picture taken at a random intersection just to let you see the mass of humanity walking through the streets.




A bridge walkway in Central park





A squirrels eye view of Central Park. Really nice park. Kudos to whoever decided to put a park in the middle of Manhattan.






A Lilly patch in Central Park









Looking down the street with large buildings on both sides.





There were street vendors all over.




This fire truck was trying to get through traffic. It had its lights and horn going full blast. Good luck, there was traffic and people everywhere.






This poster was actually right above Gray's Papaya restaurant. Really funny show.




In Rockefeller square, there are flags all around it from different countries. There are 200 flags displayed and they get rotated periodically. I looked all around for the Lithuanian flag and lo and behold, it was next to the American flag(the yellow, green, red colored flag is the Lithuanian flag). Wow, that was kind of wild seeing it next to Old Glory.





This is a corner of a bottom side of a bridge going through Central park. I loved the coloring and the ceiling was gorgeous. It appeared to be made out of tile, mosaic looking. These pictures really don't do it justice. How do they manage to keep graffiti off of it?





Had to post a picture of what it looks like in New York on garbage day.








This is one entrance to Central Park near 59Th street. Again, a lot of haze which makes the picture look washed out.











Here is that bridge that I mentioned in my previous picture which had the mosaic pictures

Helloooooooo New York!!!!

Well, I made it to New York, the Big Apple. My plane ride was uneventful, which is good, smooth with hardly any turbulence. Looking outside, it was very hazy & muggy, couldn't see more than a half mile ahead and warm, actually very warm for this time of the year. According to the weather forecast, The temperature will be in the mid 80's during the week. So, pretty much any chance of getting fall colors is not going to happen. So I will look address different avenues of photo opportunities.



This morning, I am sitting in a Starbucks drinking my coffee and watching the garbage men pick up garbage. It's so strange walking through the streets and seeing bags and bags of garbage, piled up near the curbs.



Let me tell you about my taxi ride to my daughters apartment. It may be a little hard to describe in words, but bear with me. The best way that I can describe it is actually letting you in my thought process during the ride. Here we go...After about a 20minute wait ,a young Jamaican picks me up and we're off. Again, this is my thought process. Nice cab, clean and not smelly. Has a nice ride feel to it, oops, there goes my head, jerking to the back, I guess we're picking speed. Looks like theirs a car up ahead that wants to get into our lane. Well, there goes my head again, I guess we're not going to let that car into our lane. Looks like we're coming up to an intersection and light has turned red, there goes my head, I guess there must be a 2 or 3 second grace period where drivers are permitted to enter through a red. OK, now we're out of the airport and on the expressway. It's 5:30 in the afternoon and there's a lot of traffic on the road, looks like we're going to be stuck in traffic, oops there goes my head, and my body goes sideways as we take a quick right to get off the expressway. The rest of the ride was pretty much as I described it. I also heard a lot of horn honking and and some yelling out of other cars, but my driver never honked or uttered a word. He maintained focus on the road and got me to my destination.



Today, I should go out and check out some of the sights. If I do, I will post pictures

Fun Time at Marine World

My company, Casto Travel, had their company picnic at Marine World last Sunday. What a great time. Everyone that I spoke to said nothing but positive remarks. My daughter Shimaine, Tasha, Irelan and myself went. My wife was sick and couldn't go. I was the designated baby-sitter for our group which is a job that I relish.

There was plenty of food, animals, people and rides for everyone. It was cloudy and overcast when we got to the park but by noon the sun broke rhrough and it was great.

Below are pictures of Irelan, her mom and a few of the animals that we saw there. One funny note, Irelan loves to look at birds, especially when they are flying. So naturally we made sure that we would see the bird show. But, unbeknownst to us, Irelan was on her own time table. When we reached the bird show location, Irelan decided that it was nap time and she went directly to sleep, so we left. Oh well, maybe next time we are here, we'll make a point to see the show early.

I will be in New York in about 3 weeks, stay tuned.

Exit Baby - Enter Little Girl

My little Irelan is no longer a baby. She is now a full fledged little girl. She has her own unique mannerisms and traits. That little baby face that I totally looked forward to seeing is now changed to a precious little girl that I look forward to seeing. Either way, she's still my precious Irelan.

My niece Bailey's 2nd birthday

A couple weeks ago we celebrated my niece, Bailey, her second birthday. There were plenty of people there and lots of food. My brother-in-law hired a Taco wagon which was a great idea. Don't have to worry about the food, keeping it warm or what will people eat. The Taco wagon took care of that. I took a few photos, not many.


My niece Bailey ready to hit the pinata




My homies, Olivia, Dan, and Vince







Little Irelan taking aim at the basket.