Hello friends, I’ve been on vacation for the last two weeks which explains the lack of posts. I haven’t been back to see my family for an extended trip for almost four years. About two years ago I made a quick appearance at a couple of celebrations that were bookends on brief beach vacation to Rhode Island, so I was due to visit and spend some time. And it’s back to the work madness on Monday!

If you read this blog regularly you know that across my siblings I have a gaggle of nieces and nephews from ages four to twenty-one. They were of course the primary focus of my trip and led to a lot of happy moments. I had promised to take my twelve year-old niece for her first sushi experience and it was wonderful. She was incredibly adventurous, at one point reminding me that we didn’t order the octopus. She did great and really enjoyed the experience. The sushi place was across the street from the candy store owned by the actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan on the Walking Dead and my oldest niece is a huge fan. Unfortunately he wasn’t there, but the candy was delicious.

A milestone was hit on this trip, for the first time one of my nephews is actually taller than me, given I was 5’6″ when I graduated high school and am just under 5’11” now, I’m excited for him. My other nephew, about the same height, is also bigger than me, I’m quickly losing ground to the munchkins. My two youngest nephews are absolute madmen and I love them madly, they’re still at the age where we can rough house with each other. My littlest niece, four years-old, legitimately beat me at a video game, multiple times which she thoroughly enjoyed. She’s the boss she reminded me repeatedly and is about as stubborn and she is adorable. She also completely melted my heart. I brought her a snow globe, and she told me, “when I miss you, I shake the snow globe and look at it, then I don’t miss you so much.” Her parents are in so much trouble with her.

I did the family rounds and everyone is doing well, it was good to have some time with everyone and a scheduling miracle that it worked out. On the friend side it was much crazier, some were out of town, some were busy, and three different friends had health issues including coming down with COVID. But I did get to have dinner and coffee with a couple of old friends, including a couple of old geezers I’ve known for over 50 years.

I timed it well, it was a beautiful week in New York, sunny and warm for fall and absolutely beautiful. If you’ve seen the news, the very same places I was at last week have been drowned with rain this week.

I had some time do the things that I miss in New York, while in Brooklyn at one point, I had pizza for five straight meals. I don’t know if I could possibly make you understand how much I miss really good New York pizza. A shout out to My Little Pizzeria in Brooklyn Heights, really good pizza, if you’re in the area definitely check it out.

Spent the last night in the town I grew up in, and it was one of the type of days I absolutely love in the fall in the northeast. It was a warm, lightly raining day followed by a clear warm evening. A perfect night to walk the city streets I grew up on and take a few shots.

My hometown honors veterans this time of year on the main street with posters featuring veterans who grew up there. There are a group of four brothers who were WW2 veterans featured at the top of the street. Three of them are my great uncles:

The fourth is my grandfather who we lost in 1969, I named him POW as a toddler, perfect photo to be the last one I took in town, kind of brought things full circle.

And to perfectly round out the trip, my farewell NY slices at JFK.

Have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane