Another cousin!

It just so happened that Miko's cousin Janelle was also in NYC while we were there. So we planned to meet her in the city while she was passing through on her way to London. She is such a world traveller. Janelle has been teaching English in Japan, and is now going to move to London to work on a graduate degree in journalism! We met her near the Village...I think...near NYU's campus. We walked through a street fair, stopped for brunch and continued on our tour of the city. Next stop was the TKTS booth to get some tickets for a show...we ended up going to The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I would recommend it highly, but it is not for kids...as some parents found out midway through the performance.

-Landon

Cousin Lance and Francis

Thanks to our cousin Lance and Francis for taking great care of us during our stay in NYC/NJ. They live in Newark, in an amazing 18 room 18th century home. The formal name for the property is the Sydenham House. Lance and Francis are the third owners! Can you believe that? Their home was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. Wow! Here are some pics to give you an idea of what it is like. I wish I had taken more pics of the inside...Francis is an antiques expert and some of the items he has gathered over the years are quite amazing. I felt like I was in a museum. Who needs to go to the Met??

US Open - August 30

This is our first day at the US Open. A first for both of us, since we have never been to this event. I have to say it has always been a dream for me to be here. Growing up playing tennis, in Hawaii, which seemed so far away, there was always 2 weeks of great tennis in New York every August/September. Now finally, thanks to one of our great friends, Michael, we can say that we have been to the US Open.

Here is how day one began. We jumped on the subway from Columbus Circle, paid $2, and rode all the way out to Flushing, which is east of Manhattan, through Queens. BART should learn from NYC's MTA. $2 anywhere on the subway! No matter how far.

Enough about my wishes for public transit...we got off the station at Shea Stadium/Flushing and you get off the subway and you are literally in between Shea Stadium, to your left and the USTA tennis center on your right. You walk down a wooden boardwalk and can see Arthur Ashe Stadium to your right, getting bigger and bigger. It is hard to imagine that they constructed a stadium so large, just for tennis. It is fabulous.

All tickets to the US Open get you on the "grounds". This means that you can watch all matches except for those on Ashe Stadium, which have specific tickets for specific matches. (i.e. August 30 - day session, match 3) I would have been so thrilled to just walked the grounds. Any tennis fan could spend all day there. In the first week, there are matches going on throughout the day, on every court. You literally have to scan the schedule each day and decide which matches you want to see. We had fun trying to time each match.

-Landon