She Gets A Purple Heart

Last week when my family was in town for Thanksgiving, we gave them a whirlwind tour of New York City.  Grams and Becky had not been in NYC longer than a plane stop-over, and it seemed like everyone had something on their “list” that they wanted to see.  We started with Jane’s Carousel under the Brooklyn Bridge, then walked across the bridge, had hot dogs in the park for lunch, took  the Staten Island Ferry to S.I. and back, then hit the Rockefeller Center and Times Square before returning home to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.  It was a lot of walking, a lot of steps, and a lot of train rides.

Definitely not a flattering picture – we are all stuffing our faces! 
Grams, Kenny, Me, Ben, Becky enjoying NYC hot dogs!

On the train – Wes, Mom, Grams, Dad, Ben, Elaine, Becky, & Kenny

The Christmas Tree wasn’t lit & decorated yet, but these giant ornaments adorned the water fountain by Chase bank in Rockefeller Plaza.

Elaine, Mom, Grams, and Bex on the train.

I had originally planned our route to include train stations with elevators and handicap accessible ramps so that Grams wouldn’t have to do as many steps.  (She has bad knees, and steps are particularly difficult).  But as we added stops and activities, and changed the order of things, the train stations got a little out of hand.  Grams ended up doing quite a few flights of steps.  We tried to stop and rest in between walking and sight-seeing, but I know that we wore her out!

Grams and Dad on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge

In an effort to take it easy on her, Dad hailed a bicycle cab from Rockefeller Center to Times Square.  The bicyclist could tell they were tourists, I guess, because he took the long way around.  I think my dad must have gone into shock when he was told it would be $52!  (They charge per person, apparently).

We cheered Gramsie on all along the way, and jokingly said that she deserved a Purple Heart for surviving our fast walking tour of Manhattan.  As I thought about everything that we did that day, I realized that she probably really did deserve a Purple Heart.  I also realized that she will probably never come and visit us in Brooklyn again!

Thanks for visiting Gramsie!  Here’s your Purple Heart!

I want to mention too that Gramsie got to meet her newest great-“grand.”  She has always called us grandkids “the grands”, and Nolan is the newest member of the Godby family.  He enjoyed the time he got to spend rocking with his Great-Grams!