Skating in Bryant Park

Bryant Park is easily the best place to skate in NYC. It's a nice size, and it's free. Unfortunately it's open for only 6 weeks.

For Desiree's birthday we all went skating. They don't allow cameras on the ice, unfortunately, so we don't have good action shots.

But here's a slice of us drinking our hot chocolates afterwards:








...

WE'RE BACK!!

I have just learned that I can upload videos onto the blog. That makes Young Samwise worth reviving, after a 20 month hiatus. There will be few written accounts of our adventures, but a good share of photos and videos. Thus, those interested in checking in on Sam occasionally can now do so.

Brief update:
- Sam returned from Croatia in September of 2005
- Grandpa fridays continued, with a wide variety of adventures, until September of 2006 when Sam started school (which he loves)
- Grandpa went into mourning

But life goes on, and I sometimes get to pick him up from school on Fridays and we get to remember the good old days...

So here's a few summer 2006 highlights. Because I knew that June, July and August were the last Fridays I had left, and because Sam was verbal enough to tell me where he wanted to go, we ended up at Coney Island.

Every Friday.

On our trips to Coney Island our first stop was always for lunch at Totonno's Pizza, a small place about a half mile from the beach and on a street filled mostly with auto repair stores. But it's worth the walk, since Only God makes better pizza


A brief comment on Totonno's: The son was something of a pizza nazi. When the day’s supply of dough ran out he simply told everyone to go home. If you asked for something different, or asked any questions, he’d toss you out. Sometimes he’d get mad at something someone said and throw everyone out of the restaurant. The patrons would stand on the sidewalk for ten minutes or so until things calmed down and then head back in to finish their pizza. Old-timers consider it a badge of honor to have been thrown out by Totonno Jr. His niece, Cookie, worked with him (and runs the place now) since she was young and one day they got into an argument, which ended with each of them refusing to speak to the other. The silence lasted 17 years, while working side by side every day.

Anyway, the pizza is wonderful. And the dough is still made fresh each day, and the place still closes when it runs out.






And then it's off to the beach:



Then it's up the Astro tower for a panoramic view:


Then it's on to the rides, like this cute train,



and the frog hopper,:


and his first and favorite roller coaster, caterpillar:


Finally, a late-in-the-season trip on the Wonder Wheel:


It's a wonderful place, lots of fun. And I noticed, while compiling these highlights, that we didn't get any photos/videos of our favorite arcade games, or of all the other treats we had. We were having too much fun.