New York - part 2

Tuesday morning Jill and I went downtown to see the 9-11 Memorial site and Freedom Tower. Upon leaving the subway at street level, we were confronted with people trying to sell photo brochures of the memorial and the terrorist attacks. The sellers thrust these images in your face. It is abrupt and very unwelcomed.

The memorial site is calming and comforting. The trees and waterfalls are a beautiful tribute to all those that lost their loves on 9-11.

As part of celebrating Jill's mom, we went to Serendipity on East 60th. Jill brought some of Joan's ashes which she sprinkled on yellow tulips we put outside of the restaurant.

Jill ordered a frozen hot chocolate as soon as we sat down. It was her mom's favorite.

Jill's friend Laralu met us for the rest of lunch. I left them to catch up with each other and went down to Greenwich Village to meet an old theatre friend, Rebecca. We had high tea and a good time catching up ourselves.

Tuesday evening we went to the American Ballet Theatre performance at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.

ABT is celebrating their 75th anniversary. We were treated to three pieces from their repertory. The first piece was classic Russian-style - beautiful costumes and regal ballet.

The second was a French-titled piece, The Lilac. A story of a woman promised to a man she does not love and denied the man she does. There was a moment when the characters are all on stage and freeze in a very long tableaux... then she steps out of the frozen image and makes a haunting move toward the love she is denied. It was incredible.

The third piece was Rodeo. Wow! Aaron Copeland's music and Agnes DeMille's choreography. Wow!

Wednesday we went to two shows. Before the 2pm matinee of An American In Paris, we stopped at Sardi's. Jill ran into a woman she worked with at Oregon Shakespeare. New York and theatre are a small world.

An American In Paris, the musical, is stunning. Jill's friend, Veanne Cox is in the show and graciously met us afterward.

We met a couple of actors Jill knows from Oregon Shakespeare for dinner at a Brazilian/Cuban bean and rice restaurant. That evening we went to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. An incredible play based on an autistic boy's life.

Our friend Helen Carey is a member of the ensemble. If you have a chance to see this show, definitely do.