Arriving and Getting Mobbed Up

After landing at LaGuardia, making connections with one another, and making it to the hotel, the Affinia Dumont, we decided to head toward a deli for our first taste of this great city. On the way we passed a little old lady being loaded in to an ambulance. Ray, out of concern I'm certain asked, 'How ya doin'?'

The little old lady, in a plaintive furtive voice intoned, 'ooooooookayyyyyyy.'

The tone for the trip now set, we headed for Little Italy, getting of at the Greenwich Village stop. And what we encountered set the tone for the trip--discovering special friends.

Here Ray meets up with a statue of Rocky. After several pictures, which, by the way, you may see even more by clicking here, Ray was finally rejected by Lady Liberty who told him to get to the end of the line, not unlike Italians who landed at Ellis Island. But more on that later. For now, you may click on either picture above to enlarge it or look at the vast array of snaps that didn't make the final cut by clicking here.

After spending a couple hours at Il Cortile and drumming up business for the restaurant, we waddled back to our digs.

Special Friends Discovered: Iris, Tenille, Cody, and Sal the waiter.