People who "meet" people...

People who “meet” people are the luckiest people…..

This trip has been amazing not only because of the art, theater, opera, scenery, and history, but because of all the wonderful long time and brand new friends and relatives we’ve seen.

We spent a wonderful day in Tarrytown with our dear friends from home, Stan and Elaine, who were visiting family. (See first blog)

In NY we met up with Page (Atlanta) and Gloria,(Charlotte, NC) who roomed together in college. On our Baltic cruise four years ago we hooked up with them and six others to tour St. Petersberg. For ten people who had never known each other, we were extremely compatible and became instant life-long friends, who keep in touch via internet. Dan and I stayed overnight with Page and her husband, Dan, in their beautiful home on a lake in Atlanta, and we even went on an Elderhostel trip with them. On this trip, we spent two days with Page and Gloria touring the art museums of New York, laughing at some of the modern art (???), and drooling over the Impressionists. They both lust after Dan (or so they tell me and Page is even married!), but they are so wonderful I don’t mind.

The four of us had brunch with Joyce and Roger, (New Jersey) also from the Baltic cruise. Roger is a professor of mathematics at Rutgers and Joyce is a retired prof of economics. We caught up on all their trips—they even saw polar bears in the Arctic Circle!

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that we had dinner in NY with a long, lost second cousin of Dan’s, Esta and her husband. They came all the way from Baltimore to meet us! They were so delightful that we felt as if we had always known them.

Dan had a first cousin, David, close to his age, who unfortunately died very young—in his forties (he had diabetes since childhood). His widow, Coralyn, her significant other, her daughter, and granddaughter, live in Vermont, and had us over to dinner at her home. We thoroughly enjoyed their company and New England hospitality.

Over ten-fifteen years ago, we met a wonderful couple from New Jersey, Ruby and Will, when we were seated with them on a cruise. When we first met them, Will pretended to be a “soprano” type from NJ. All I could think was, “Oh, no! We’re stuck with him on the entire cruise!” It turned out that he was a professor of drama and English; both he and Ruby were delightful. We even met up with them some years ago when we toured Charleston. They now live half the year in Nova Scotia and half in Florida. Will was driving down to pick up Ruby, who was visiting friends in NY, and went out of his way to have breakfast and stimulating conversation with us.

Many years ago, I posted my maiden name on Jewish genealogy, and was contacted by a Sue Price from Providence, RI. It turns out we were related on my father’s side and her mother’s side, and she was able to fill in information about m great-great-grandparents. Sue, her mom Salome (pronounced Salom (long ‘O”), and her dad Sherman drove two hours to have lunch with us. Dan and I are very appreciative of how so many people on this trip drove or flew great distances to be with us. We’re honored, indeed! We had a three-hour lunch with family tree, family photos and documents spread out all over the table. The family resemblance from her photos and my photos was remarkable! It is wonderful to have new friends as well as new family.

Last night we had diner in Harvard Square with Dan’s first cousin, Janey, her husband, David, and their son, Danny. Danny is a senior at Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in the country. It is necessary to “test” to get into it. Danny and his parents feel it’s vastly overrated, and after a few of the horror stories Danny told, I have to agree. Janey has owned her own PR firm for years; her main client is MacDonalds, and David is a real estate lawyers. The last time we had seen Danny and David was at Danny’ Bar Mitzvah five years ago.

This morning my Dan had breakfast with Janey’s brother (Dan’s first cousin, )Larry and one of Larry’s daughter’s, Alyssa, who is a paralegal in Boston while her sister Amanda is an attorney in NY. I was too overwhelmed to make it at the early hour—not really early (9 AM), but I needed to pack for our schlep home. Also I no longer can look at food!