Greetings, friends and family. Today was MOTORCYCLE and CENTRAL PARK day. We began our day by purchasing a few NYC souvenirs, then headed west. We walked through a half dozen firefighters out on call (evidently a false alarm), and Gil stopped to shake the hand of one of them and tell him "We're from California and just wanted to tell you we appreciate what you do." The fireman seemed to appreciate the gesture and handled it with grace and style...I think they have been getting a lot of this sort of thing lately. We sort of meant to hop a cross-town bus, but we ended up walking all the way to the Hudson River, to the immense Jacob Javits Convention Center, where an International Motorcycle Show was staged.

The first venue to greet our eyes - Moto Guzzi. Since Daniel (Becky's brother) owns two of these beasts, we hurried over to meet the newest members of the Guzzi family. Gil kind of moved from bike to bike, sitting on each, "trying them on for size." We also checked out the new Harley Davidson "V-Rod" Aprilia, Ducati, Triumph, and - for Gil (dressed for the occasion in his finest "Honda Racing" t-shirt) - Honda. I was immediately entranced by the cutest little scooters in the Honda area. They're very retro, come in four colors - salsa, sky, juice and denim - and are called the "Metropolitan." Less than $1700 - I want one (see picture #1)! Gil tried to hook up with a couple of online Honda Magna biker buddies. Their system of "meet me at the 'Factory' at 2 o'clock" had many faults...

1/ neither knew what the other looked like...
2/ the "Factory" area was quite large...

...we never ran into them, go figure.

We then caught a northbound bus (it took Gil only SIX tries to insert his Metrocard properly and finally the bus driver had to do it for him in order to let the rest of the line get onboard) and got out at Central Park. A brisk cold day, but lovely to walk through the park. We passed by the famous (and expensive) Tavern on the Green, then found a hot dog stand where we bought sausage dogs and a large, hot pretzel. We sat and enjoyed them on a park bench (see picture #2).

I kept thinking we would spy some famous celebrity as we munched our dogs, but it was not to be. We then headed north a bit more and across the street to the Dakota Apartments, where we sadly contemplated the site of John Lennon's murder (see picture #3).

We consoled ourselves by crossing the street back to the park, where we found Strawberry Fields and the Peace Park section (see picture #4). At the site there were many people standing about paying their respects at t he "Imagine" memorial

We walked to the fountain made famous by the opening scenes of the TV show "Friends," then headed south for ICESKATING! Well, we found the rink, and really truly ALMOST went skating. What a lovely scene, hundreds of people skating slowly around in a circle to the music (nobody particularly proficient), the trees and skyscrapers providing a unique NYC background (see picture #5)....

but, alas the line was too long for us, and our feet were getting awfully tired, so we caught a southbound bus down Fifth Avenue and returned to our hotel, passing Tiffany's, Val Cleef and Arpels, Brooks Brothers, and other world-famous emporiums.....which we will probably never step foot in. We did our usual nightly "slide show" (we hook the camera up to the TV and sort/delete the day's photos) and later went out for pizza slices.

Tomorrow is a big day....our "Day of Remembrance." We plan to take the subway for the first time, south to Ground Zero. We learned on TV last night that tomorrow they will be opening a new viewing platform for people like us who want to pay their respects. We'll be taking plenty of tissues.

Take care,
Becky and Gil

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