Back from a break

With work slowing down on the new extension and the renovation of the old house booked to start on 15 July we planned in a two week break at the end of June/beginning of July. We decided on a complete contrast and had two weeks in New York City doing the sites. It also meant we could visit my godmother and family who live just north of the City.

We crammed in all the iconic locations from the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty; art galleries including the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum, which is vast; and walked round all the main areas of the City with an essential stroll through Central Park and a nice stop for lunch at The Loeb Boathouse on the lake.

One of the highlights was understanding much more about the history and importance of immigration to the USA. Interesting given the current political focus on the issue. It was clear from those we spoke to that immigration was seen by many locals as a good thing with a third of New Yorkers classed as immigrants, a number that hasn’t really changed over the years.

We gained a real insight into the life of Irish migrants in the late 1800s at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side and saw how crucial they were as domestic servants in the life of middle class New Yorkers at the Merchant’s House Museum. Our trip to Ellis Island, which was the main entry point for immigrants to the US from 1892 to 1924, was fascinating and absorbing. The process of getting into the country usually took a few hours including a very cursory medical examination. For the US it meant much needed labour, for the migrants it was an opportunity for a new life and to leave poverty and starvation behind. Those not considered fit enough to work were sent home often separating families.

For a more recent event our visit to the 9/11 memorial and museum was very moving and poignant particularly as it was history we had lived through.

I was delighted we could fit in a trip to Broadway and we saw Hamilton. It was great to see it in New York where the action is based.

It was lovely to have a couple of days outside New York City visiting my godmother, a school friend of my mother’s, and talk more about their youth and her life in the US. It also gave us a chance to get to know her daughter, my mother’s goddaughter, and family better as they kindly hosted us for the weekend. It was really nice to have some family time and we also had a great tour of the Untermyer Gardens, more than 40 acres of park land which include a Paradise Garden. It’s an amazing space on the Hudson River that is being restored and which we would never have found on the standard tourist trail.

Unexpected and unplanned by us we happened to be in the City for the 50th Pride Parade which was massive. An estimated three million people visited for the event. The parade itself started at mid-day and was still going strong when we went back to our hotel at 11.30pm! We also saw the 4 July Independence Day fireworks which this year were set off from the Brooklyn Bridge and from barges on the East River. The closest we were able to get was a side street so we didn’t get the full display but we certainly lapped up the atmosphere. Earlier in the day we were lucky to make the walk across the Bridge before they closed it for the evening.

It was certainly a complete break, and contrast, from life at home on a building site. Before we left for New York on 22 June the kitchen still hadn’t been finished. We were expecting the team to be back on site on Monday 8 July, two days after our return from holiday and only a week before the next set of builders were due to start. We were also hosting M’s family for lunch on Sunday 14 July making a working kitchen essential. So a packed week awaited our return. An update on how it all went and where we are now one year on is the topic for my next blog!