In Manhattan: Sunny Day, Everything's A-OK

I decided not to bring my camera or my cell phone today into Manhattan, where our family spent a spectacular day celebrating our older son's 17th birthday. I wanted to fully engage my eyes and ears in what we were doing and experiencing and not have the filter of my electronics. I'm glad I did. 

We (my family of four and a good friend of Gabe's) started the day by taking the subway from Penn Station to the Lower East Side. It was lovely to have Gabe lead us and to witness how he's learned through the years to navigate the city's subways. We ate lunch at a place he's taken many high school friends to: BaoHaus, a hole in the wall that features Taiwanese street food. Amazing.

Gabe and his friend headed to Soho for thrift-store shopping and people watching. My husband and I, along with our younger son, hoofed it to Chelsea, where we walked the High Line, a relatively new city park that is built on abandoned, elevated freight rail tracks near the Hudson River. (The first section opened in 2009 and the second section in 2011.) It is filled with public art and spirited landscaping and yesterday, with people of all ages and backgrounds, a happy sea of humanity.

The High Line was a lot more crowded than this on Saturday!

It felt as if we were walking through a child's playful re-creation of a city landscape. 

Later, we met our son and his friend at Eataly NYC in the Flatiron District. This is a 50,000-square-foot marketplace of Italian food that opened in 2010. We ate another amazing meal - this time a dinner of fresh pasta at LA PIZZA & PASTA, one of seven restaurants within Eataly. This was a great way to end a full day of walking (nine miles total!) through Manhattan. 

All day long, that Sesame Street song kept playing in my head. This week was rough for us and I know our friends sent prayers and good wishes our way. Prayer works. How blessed we are.