roadtrip part 2 - from mike's to the belly dancing recital

after hell... we headed to Mike's in Marysville, MI... which just so happens to be right across the river from Canada and the city just on the other side from Mike's apartment is Sarnia. Sarnia is actually where the 'Griffin' family homestead is... anyways, time with mike consisted of sitting, sleeping, movie watching, eating, phase 10, true colors, and drinking... it was fun.



from Mike's we moved on to the longest leg of our journey... the 12 hour drive to long island went relatively smoothly... no major mishaps, and plenty of good music.

In Long Island we stayed with Erin's friend Lindsey and Lindsey's fiance's parents. Their house was awesome, and Vinny, the father-in-law to be made us breakfast each morning.

Our first full day in NY we took a train trip into downtown NYC. Our first stop was ground zero, which much more than a whole in the ground is a bustling and busy construction site as they work on the freedom tower. So instead of showing you a picture of the cranes... here is a beautiful one of one of the trees in the cemetery of the church just across the street from the World Trade Center. It is a beautiful church that was a big part of the relief efforts after the 9/11 attacks.



After ground zero we walked until we found a spot where we could get onto the double decker bus tours. Now the double decker bus tour is a tricky thing, and is only ever as good as your tour guide. I'm not sure that we really perfected that of this journey, but the great thing about NY's bus tours, is that you can always get off and wait for the next bus. Here's a pic of Lindsey and Erin pointing out something very specific...



and of course, some of the sites...





After our long day in the city, we made it back to Long Island before midnight. The next day we have a lazy morning, and then in the early afternoon erin and i left long island, and headed to the bronx to visit with our friend Joy.

Joy just happened to be participating in a recital that day, which was awesome. It was the best part of NY for me, by far. The recital consisted of a variety of different performances by all the different classes at that particular Bronx Community Center. The atmosphere in the room was awesome, like out of a movie. There were over 50 kids in the room in different colored tutus, many also wearing tap shoes. it was great, and joy's class did a phenomenal job. Joy was awesome... and all the people around us were commenting on how they wish they had been in the class. I've only included one picture of the whole group, i'm saving the rest for blackmailing joy at a later date (i'm going to be rich someday).



after the recital joy took us to this awesome local pizzeria, john & joe's. joe was behind the counter, and once again i felt like what joy was living in was community and it was a very beautiful and tasty thing!