Recently (late Jewell-eye 2018) Betty & Rosco Betunada flew to Manhattan (NYC) to attend the wedding of their niece, Sarah. Betty (center) dives right in to re-acquainting with friends and family we hadn’t seen in a while.
We were engaged in a pre-nuptial family gathering — and we had not seen B’s brothers, sister, nephews and nieces for quite some time. B’s sister, Ann (mother of the bride) arranged for everyone to begin the weekend reunion on a Circle-Line-NYC cruise around Manhattan (‘Harbor Lights Cruise’). Quite an experience for us dwellers of the (more-arid-than-usual) desert — all the city lights, ocean spray, chilly enough for light coats! Below, Betty and Ann.
Above, Sarah and brother (Eli) with their auntie B. B has apparently just heard that the polite and pristine vibe of the occasion was disrupted by cigar-smoking reprobates, encamped at the prow of the boat. Never mind, such a minor violation of the Clean Air Act went mostly un-noticed.
Some of the lights, Eric (father of the bride) with his ex-spouse, and their son. Quite a bright building to the right, eh?
I didn’t know it at the time, but the tall edifice in the middle is the “new” World Trade Center. We visited that area the following day (shameless plug for an upcoming post with more bad pixures).
My attempt for a suitable dignified shot of whatever that statue is, was not helped by this surly probably-demented person stumbling by.
More dignified, Eli and his mom epitomize the serenity yet profound grandeur of our surroundings.
I saw a bad science-fiction movie some time back, where the buildings were bent. Looks like the one on the right has a choke-hold on the other …
I thought I caught a whiff of something besides ocean spray. Yes, a couple members of the Consortium for the Promulgation and Proliferation of Foul Air were having a Convocation.
(Okay, you guessed it. Rosco and his bro-in-law, Alex.)
Yeah, we were pretty relaxed — Alex rudely gestures at the picture-taker, no doubt giving us a hard time.
Eli joins us, no cigar, but he was packin’ cigs ~
Below, the reprobates are joined by Ann and Eric, who were also in the mood and prepared for our type of relaxion. Betty, who doesn’t imbibe, hangs with us anyway.
b e t u n a d a 
And a great time was had by all! :)
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we were pleasantly surprised. not having been to “the city” for 10 or so years, we were (predictably, understandably) apprehensive. we were there two more daze, each seeming to be 48-hours long — such was the “assault” (not so much assault as, uh, impact? benign bombardment?) on the senses, etc. wait ’til you hear about THE WEDDING-ding !
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Must have been great experience and I guess that You had good time there. :)
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as mentioned above, we were NOT anticipating “enjoyment” — we were (and are) “country hicks from the desert” in the big city and were not exactly looking forward to it. however, in retrospective, we enjoid it and it seems (a week + later) we are still “de-compressing.”
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What fun! We should try one of those cruises–as often as we’ve been to Manhattan, we’ve never done one, which must explain why I have never before seen those strange embracing/chokehold buildings (all a matter of perception, right?). Kudos to the reprobates :)
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one thing you’d probably do would be to LISTEN to the informative tour guides — continual narration of what’s what, why, when, etc. WE were too busy re-acquainting (I hadn’t seen B’s siblings since 2010!) to pay attention to the knowledgeable tour guide ~
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Charlee: “Our dada says he would rather smell a cigar than a cigarette any day of the week!”
Chaplin: “We’ve never smelled either one so we can’t say.”
Charlee: “Anyway that looks like a fun time, except for all the water!”
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