Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Summer Fun at Brooklyn Bridge Park

I forgot to tell you! Over the weekend Jasper and I also paid a visit to one of our favorite playgrounds - Pier 6 at Brooklyn Bridge Park! Just some fun in the big sand box and in the water park. Now that the weather is nice and it's getting pretty warm out, looks like we'll be spending more time outside and trying to cool off.

High Line Part 2 and Rainbow City

Some of you might remember that one of mine and Jasper's favorite parks in NYC is The Highline - a park recently built atop elevated train tracks. Of course, no explanation is necessary for why it's among Jasper's favorite spots, but I'm very fond of the park as well, and so we try to visit several times a year, especially when the weather is particularly nice, as it was this past weekend. Not only that, but the size of the park recently nearly doubled! You see, a second section, stretching all the way from 14th Street to 30th Street was opened last week, so Jasper and I of course had to go check it out.

And we're happy to report that the second part of The Highline is every bit as great as the first part, although also very different in a lot of ways. If I had to describe it, I'd call it more pastoral - full of wild flowers, narrower and more winding than the first section of the park.

There's even a big grass lawn for picnicking, or in my case, snacking (hey, I was doing a LOT of walking up there...)

But like the rest of the park, this new section maintains some of the same signature elements, like the actual train tracks (much to Jasper's delight!) that were used by freight trains back when the West Side of Manhattan was still an industrial area... 

And lots of cool benches and other seating areas for those who want to slow down the pace a bit and take it all in...

And of course excellent views, in this case, some of Manhattan's most exciting new architecture, featuring here recent buildings by Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel. 

But great architecture wasn't the only thing we could see from up here - we also came across this -

And this - 

Can you even begin to imagine my excitement upon seeing all these giant inflated balls? I think not.

It turned out to be Rainbow City, a "40 piece interactive and environmental installation of colorful inflatables." I'm not sure what what that means, but I want to get my hands on it!

Alas, no matter how much I screamed and stomped my feet in anger and threw temper tantrums (and I did plenty of each), there was no way to take the balls down and play with them properly on the ground. But believe me, I tried. Oh, how I tried...

Jasper, on the other hand, found a completely different way to keep himself entertained.

Whew, that was a lot of fun, even if I never was able to get the balls down.

On our way home, I thought about stopping at Morimoto for a quick sushi lunch, but in the end decided that my freeze dried apple pieces would be more satisfying.

Sushi next time?

Goodbye, old friend.

Saba, one of our oldest friends, has gone to doggy heaven.

It's hard to believe that we'd known her our whole lives, and now she's gone. Daddy still remembers the day he brought her home from a shelter over 14 years ago, and then the time she spent living with him in Virginia, when she was still a little puppy and young dog. 

But we know that she had a really good life and was *very* well taken care of during all those years she lived at Dziadek and Babcia's house once Daddy moved to New York. And we're really glad that we got to spend the last two long weekends with her in New Jersey, playing with her and feeding her and having her watch over us. She always seemed to find a way to be near Everett and me whenever we went to Dziadek and Babcia's house, like she was watching over us. She would even always sleep in the room that one of us was sleeping in, not in her usual spot with Babcia or Prababcia.

But most of all, we're happy for all the memories we both have with Saba and all the joy she provided us  since we were little babies ourselves. Even though we grew up and changed, Saba always stayed the same, patient and gentle with us (even when we might have pulled on her tail or nose once in a while.)

\

Good bye, Saba. We'll miss you!

SEPTA!

Hi everyone - Jasper, here. (Daddy accidentally logged me in as Everett - I think he's a little tired, so we decided to just go with it.)

Anyway, I know that Everett has been providing a rundown of our Father's Day weekend in New Jersey in the last few blog posts, but I just had to add one more thing, because I made a great new discovery while we were at Dziadek and Babcia's house. You see, usually when we go there, I get someone to take me on the PATCO train, which runs from New Jersey to Philadelphia over the Ben Franklin Bridge, and is a great ride.

But this weekend, I made a new discovery - did you know there is a whole other transit system in Philadelphia itself? Yes! It's called SEPTA, and I can't believe I just discovered it now, after all these years of coming here. Better late than never, though, I guess. So of course as soon as I discovered the existence of this SEPTA, I got Daddy to take me for full morning of riding the rails (my very favorite activity in the world, as you might know.)

We started out by studying the system map, so that we would know where we were going.

It didn't really help, since we managed to get lost anyway, but I didn't care, since that just meant more time on the trains. And the train rides themselves were great, especially because on the SEPTA choo-choos, you can sit right up front on the first car and look through the front window into the driver's cab and the tracks ahead - something that you can't do in New York, but that is great fun! It almost feels like you're driving the train yourself - 

At some point after being lost for a while, we decided to come out from the underground stations to get our bearings on where we were in the city, and came across this mural - more trains!

But that wasn't even the best part. The best part was this -

Trolleys! It turns out that SEPTA not only has underground choo-choo's but also several trolley lines - both above ground, and underground, often running next to the trains. Can you imagine that? Well, neither could I, so once Daddy got his bearings on where we were, I made sure we got plenty of time on the trolley as well.

What a great discovery this SEPTA system is. Just one more reason to visit Dziadek and Babcia's house whenever we can!

Lake Oswego

Despite what it might have looked like in yesterday's post, we didn't spend the entire Father's Day weekend at Dziadek and Babcia's shopping at Target and watching TV on the computer. Instead, we continued a little tradition that Jasper begun last year when he spent a day at  Oswego Lake. I was a bit too young to travel out there with him, but this year I was definitely up for the trip, so much so that we actually drove straight to the lake from Brooklyn!

And I'm glad we did, because Jasper and I had a blast, swimming in the lake...

And playing at the little lake-side beach -

I'm not sure how I feel about this little contraption I was made to wear...

It's apparently called a "life preserver" and is meant to keep you safe in the water...

And, is required if you're going to go canoeing, which is the real attraction at Lake Oswego, and which Jasper and I quiet enjoy.

Looking forward to continuing our new tradition next Father's Day!

Not again?!

Yes, again. We'll let you figure out where we spent yet another weekend...