You don't see that every day

We were walking down the street in DC past the Newseum and passed the front windows where they display one newspaper from every state in the nation. It was at this very place that we found out about President Obama winning the Nobel. We thought it was a hoax. Turns out it wasn't. This headline pretty much summed up our feelings!










And what paper do you think represented Utah that day? That's right! The good 'ole Herald Journal from Logan! Wow, what a well known paper.



We saw some wonderful old Brownstones or "walk-ups" as they call them in all three cities. Since they were built before elevators were common in buildings, they generally don't have any elevators and people must "walk up" the stairs to get to their apartments, usually many flights of stairs. The cities are trying to preserve the facade of these old beauties and keep them from being torn down. We learned a new word that was used repeatedly in Boston and in Brooklyn. The word is "gentrification" and it means the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses. Kinda sad for those lover income folks to be kicked out.













We saw this unique water feature in the National Gallery of Art in DC. It was a sight to behold - bending water!

Before Pat and I attend South Pacific, we went to dinner at Carnegie Deli, a favorite and popular deli across from Carnegie Hall. Pat remembered eating a wonderful Reuben sandwich there years ago, so we ordered soup and a Reuben for dinner. Here is the sandwich that was delivered for our dinner! Pat's face says it all! An open face Reuben sandwich that would feed a small nation. It had four slices of rye bread on the bottom, about five pounds of corned beef on top of that, approximately a quart of sauerkraut, topped with several pounds of melted Swiss cheese. They charged an extra $5.00 if you shared the sandwich and if they brought you another plate. We shared it without asking for another plate (and even took some back to Rick) and they still charged us the extra $5.00 even though we didn't ask for another plate. That really ticked us off!




































Parking rates in NYC are beyond crazy. We drove our rental car into a garage close to our hotel when we arrived and parked it there for two days. It cost $30 a day and we were required to pay $60 in cash to the garage owner when we left. Some how I don't think that money will ever be reported as taxable income. Take a look at these parking prices! $10.14 for a half hour!! $574.45 for a month!!! $844.77 if you have a high end car. Can you imagine? What's with the .14 the .45 and the .77 on those prices? Seriously? Oh, and don't forget to add the 18.375% parking sales tax. Can you imagine paying that much, just to park your car?















We passed so many wonderful little shops along our route in all three cities. Fresh produce, fall decorations, fresh flowers and other little novelty shops were every where. They were pricey, but so fun to look at, especially in the North End in Boston, Georgetown in DC and at shops in upper Manhattan in NYC. It would be easy to spend A LOT of money in these little shops.

I thought this shop in the North End in Boston was especially ingenious. Whaddya Need? They do it all from dog walking to baby sitting to heavy lifting! Could they do it all at one time?

Inside the North Church in Boston I found the perfect solution for LDS congregations! I don't know why anyone didn't think of this earlier! Each family could be assigned a fenced in pew. That way each family could corral their kids and keep them in check. People could lie down on the benches if they got tired and those conducting the meeting wouldn't be able to see! What do you think? Am I on to something?

And the GRAND FINALE...

Inbetween sessions on the Sunday afternoon of general conference, we went into Boston to look around the North End. We fortuitously came across a movie being shot in Boston. It's called "The Town" and it stars Ben Affleck. The three Boston police cars shown below were being driven by stunt drivers. They did about three or four "takes" while we were watching. On the count, all the cars you can see in the pictures would start driving and the cop cars would "floor it" and peel out. They would weave through the traffic (every car shown was driven by people who were part of the movie) and hit their brakes and do a 360 degree turn right before the bridge. A helicopter was hovering by the bridge and it was all very exciting. Very cool stuff! Then they would back up and do it all over again. You don't see that every day! It was a lot of work for just one little scene...but I can't wait to see the movie!