Nursing, the High Line, Roosevelt Island, & Surprise Visitors

I have had a great week!  The virus that has been playing havoc with the missionaries has wound down and gone off to bother somewhere else thank goodness.  Now I am helping missionaries who didn't understand the warning about poison ivy. (I received permission from the missionaries to use their pictures.) The rash doesn't appear for 3-4 days after the exposure and one gets a sense of all being well.  Then in the middle of the night, the rash emerges and screams at you!  One had such a bad reaction that the missionary had to have prednisone injections and creams to apply and antibiotics because a secondary bacterial infection happened.  Word of warning!!!!!  STAY OUT OF THE POISON IVY!!

I went to Staten Island again this week.  I think this will be one of the last times with this particular missionary.  A follow-up next week and I think we'll be good to go.  Coming off the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the traffic was backed up at the exit we needed to take.  Thought it was a traffic accident. Wrong. It was a couple of the wild turkeys with their heads wrapped around each others neck doing a "ritual dance" in the middle of the road.  Cars were honking and people were waving and screaming but the turkeys were oblivious.  Finally a man got out of his car and pushed them off to the median.  Through all of this they never unwound their hold on each other.  Didn't get a picture.

Pretty much a routine week until Thursday when I got a call from Jim asking me if he could come see me for Sunday.  Of course I was elated.  He arrived Friday around 5:00 and he stayed until Sunday around 5:00.  Two wondrous days.  With a Saturday full of food and walking, I got plenty of pictures of our activities.

Mizumi on Friday night. I was so busy eating that I neglected to get additional pictures.
I ate until I could eat no more. We also stopped for that scrumptious Duke from the French Workshop
Artisan Bakery on our way home. (Always room for chocolate)

Farmers market on a corner.

Pizza at Keste-delicious! Our first food stop on Saturday.

Street flowers. The color of these daisy-like flowers blew me away!
I think someone secretly injected dye into their roots........water supply.

Bethesda Fountain in Central Park

Bethesda Court

One of the lakes in the park.

Central Park the light was perfect coming from the west.

Jim wanted these bubble sticks but they were too long to take on his flight home.

Green beans and steamed kale, and spring rolls.
Ok. I ate them but bring on the steamed pork buns!!!

Steamed pork buns - to die for!!

This is a collection of articles from Ground Zero. Gary Marlon Suson was the official photographer
for the NYFD. He collected these artifacts from the trash and took thousands of photographs.
He has set up this collection in a small space and does not compete with the 9-11 Memorial.
The proceeds he gets from the entry to this little museum go to families of fallen firefighters.
It was a touching experience to re-visit this time in our history

The glass on the top floors was 3 inches thick because it has to withstand high winds.

Recovered items

This glass was from lower floor.

Ramen noodle soup at a ramen restaurant. Sorry I forgot the name. I don't need to know the name.
That is Jim's responsibility to take me to only the best eating establishments. He researches
for hours to please our palates. So far he hasn't failed. Only problem is my clothes continue to shrink.

This pizza is one we had to try. The crust is deep fried before the sauce and topping go on
and then it is baked again. Honestly-I wouldn't order it again over the regular pizza.
Perhaps not being hungry played a part in the whole effect. Having eaten pizza and ramen noodle soup
and steamed pork buns, I was shall we say - STUFFED to the gills!!

Rectangle pizza at DI Fara in Brooklyn. Thick crust.

Classic DI Fara Pizza. Thin crust.

Di Fara Pizza is a pizzeria in Midwood area of Brooklyn.
The restaurant has been owned and operated by Domenico DeMarco since 1964.
DeMarco opened Di Fara after emigrating from the Province of Caserta, Italy, in 1959.
He said in a 2004 interview:

    I'm 69 years old. I've been in Brooklyn since 1959. I'm from Provincia di Caserta in Italy, near Napoli. When I got here, I spent three months in Long Island, in Huntington, working on a farm... then somebody put a bug in my head and said there's a good spot on Avenue J. I didn't even know Avenue J existed. So I come over here with my accountant on a Saturday night, and this corner was for rent. It was so crowded, the street. So I take the phone number, I call the landlord, and he says to come see me Sunday, make sure you bring a deposit. When I opened the store, my partner's name was Farina. My name is DeMarco. So when the lawyer made the paper, he put the two names together. Di Fara. Di for me, and Fara for him. I bought my partner out in 1978, I think. I kept the same name; I didn't bother changing it.
    —?DeMarco for The New York Times, July 18, 2004

    Each pizza pie is handmade by DeMarco, so the pizzeria is closed when he is not available. Three of his seven children work in the back area of the restaurant.

He makes 100 to 150 pies a day.  DeMarco uses imported ingredients – flour, extra-virgin olive oil, San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella cheese from Casapulla, freshly grated grana padano (a slightly salty hard cow's milk cheese), three types of mozzarella cheese, and hand-grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are all from Italy, and the basil and oregano are from Israel.  In a windowsill flower box, he grows thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, and hot peppers. He cuts fresh basil over each pie with a pair of kitchen scissors.
The pizzas bake for a few minutes at about 800 °F

Serendipity

Menu and history

Having starved all day - NOT!!  We stopped at Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate.
( My motto:  Always room for chocolate.)

 

My steps for Saturday. I may have burned enough calories for one slice of pizza. Just maybe!

We walked the High Line.  Here is a little info about it:

The High Line (also known as the High Line Park) is a 1.45-mile-long New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line. Inspired by the 3-mile Promenade plantée (tree-lined walkway), a similar project in Paris completed in 1993, the High Line has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway and rails-to-trails park.

Artistic use of old railroad.

High Line

Artwork along the High Line Flowering shrubs

I think these are really interesting looking plants.

High Line

Cute little guy posing on a rock.

A little history:  In 1847, the City of New York authorized street-level railroad tracks down Manhattan's West Side to ship freight.  For safety, the railroads hired men called the "West Side Cowboys" to ride horses and wave flags in front of the trains.  However, so many accidents occurred between freight trains and other traffic that Tenth Avenue became known as "Death Avenue".

After years of public debate about the hazard, in 1929 the city, the state of New York, and the New York Central Railroad agreed on the West Side Improvement Project, a large project conceived by Robert Moses that also included the construction of the West Side Elevated Highway. The 13-mile project eliminated 105 street-level railroad crossings and added 32 acres to Riverside Park. It cost more than US$150,000,000 (about US$2,067,151,000 today).

 The growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the nation, so that by 1960, the southernmost section of the line was demolished. This section started at Gansevoort Street and ran down Washington Street as far as Spring Street just north of Canal Street, representing almost half of the line. The last train on the remaining part of the line was operated by Conrail in 1980.

The High Line Park is built on the disused southern portion of the West Side Line running to the Lower West Side of Manhattan. It runs from Gansevoort Street - three blocks below 14th Street - in the Meatpacking District, through Chelsea, to the northern edge of the West Side Yard on 34th Street near the Javits Convention Center. An unopened spur extends above 30th Street to Tenth Avenue.

Car made from rubber tires.

Covered portion of High Line has booths and people selling things.

Mural on an apartment building wall.

Hudson River from High Line.

Interesting buildings viewed from High Line.

Looking up at the High Line from the street.

We rode the tram to Roosevelt Island.  There we walked to the southern tip of the island. Next time I'll see the northern end of the island the the light house.  Man!  I enjoy Google and Wikipedia!!  Probably way more info that you want but here it is if you choose to read it:

From tram looking down on Roosevelt Island.

Looking up the East River from Roosevelt Island.

Manhattan street view from the tram.

Roosevelt Island is a narrow island in New York City's East River. It lies between Manhattan Island to its west and the borough of Queens on Long Island to its east, and is part of the borough of Manhattan. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85th Streets on Manhattan Island, it is about 2 miles long, with a maximum width of 800 feet and a total area of 147 acres.

Panoramic view of Manhattan from Roosevelt Island.

Roosevelt Park

The island was called Minnehanonck by the Lenape and Varkens Eylandt (Hog Island) by New Netherlanders, and during the colonial era and later as Blackwell's Island. It was known as Welfare Island when it was used principally for hospitals, from 1921 to 1971. It was re-named Roosevelt Island in 1971 after Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1637, Dutch Governor Wouter van Twiller purchased the island, then known as Hog Island, from the Canarsie Indians.  After the English defeated the Dutch in 1666, Captain John Manning seized the island, which became known as Manning's Island, and twenty years later, Manning's son-in-law, Robert Blackwell, became the island's new owner and namesake. In 1796, Blackwell's great-grandson Jacob Blackwell constructed the Blackwell House, which is the island's oldest landmark, New York City's sixth oldest house, and one of the city's few remaining examples of 18th-century architecture.

Through the 19th century, the island housed several hospitals and a prison. In 1828, the City of New York purchased the island for $32,000 (equal to $689,552 in 2014), and four years later, the city erected a penitentiary on the island; the Penitentiary Hospital was built to serve the needs of the prison inmates. By 1839, the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened, including the Octagon Tower, which still stands but as a residential building; it was renovated and reopened in April 2006. The asylum, which was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, at one point held 1,700 inmates, twice its designed capacity.

 In 1852, a workhouse was built on the island to hold petty violators in 220 cells. The Smallpox Hospital, designed by James Renwick, Jr., opened in 1856, and two years later, the Asylum burned down and was rebuilt on the same site; Penitentiary Hospital was destroyed in the same fire. In 1861, prisoners completed construction of Renwick's City Hospital (renamed Charity Hospital in 1870), which served both prisoners and New York City's poorer population.

In 1872, the Blackwell Island Light, a 50-foot Gothic style lighthouse later added to the National Register of Historic Places, was built by convict labor on the island's northern tip under Renwick's supervision. Seventeen years later, in 1889, the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, opened. By 1895, inmates from the Asylum were being transferred to Ward's Island, and patients from the hospital there were transferred to Blackwell's Island. The Asylum was renamed Metropolitan Hospital. However, the last convicts were not moved off the island until 1935, when the penitentiary on Rikers Island opened.

The 20th century was a time of change for the island. The Queensboro Bridge started construction in 1900 and opened in 1909; it passed over the island but did not provide direct vehicular access to it at the time.] In 1921, Blackwell's Island was renamed Welfare Island after the City Hospital on the island. In 1930, a vehicular elevator to transport cars and passengers on Queensboro Bridge started to allow vehicular and trolley access to the island. In 1939, Goldwater Memorial Hospital, a chronic care facility, opened, with almost a thousand beds in 7 buildings on 9.9 acres.Thirteen years later, Bird S. Coler Hospital, another chronic care facility, opened, and three years after the Coler Hospital's opening, Metropolitan Hospital moved to Manhattan, leaving the Lunatic Asylum buildings abandoned. The same year, 1955, the Welfare Island Bridge from Queens opened, allowing automobile and truck access to the island and the only non-aquatic means in and out of the island; the vehicular elevator to Queensboro Bridge then closed, but wasn't demolished until 1970. As late as August 1973, though, another passenger elevator ran from the Queens end of the bridge to the island.

More changes came in the latter half of the century. In 1968, the Delacorte Fountain, opposite the headquarters of the United Nations, opened. Mayor John V. Lindsay named a committee to make recommendations for the island's development in the same year. A year later, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) signed a 99-year lease for the island, and architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee created a plan for apartment buildings housing 20,000 residents. In 1971, Welfare Island was renamed Roosevelt Island in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and four years later, planning for his eponymous park, Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, started.

Federal funding for redevelopment came from the New Community Act. In 1976, the Roosevelt Island Tramway opened, connecting the island directly with Manhattan. The tramway was meant as a temporary solution to the then-lack of subway service to the island, which began in 1989 with the opening of the Roosevelt Island subway station, on what is now the F trains.

During the 21st century, the area became more gentrified. In 1998, the Blackwell Island Light was restored by an anonymous donor. In 2006, the restored Octagon Tower opened, serving as the central lobby of a two-wing, 500-unit apartment building. In 2010, the Roosevelt Island Tramway reopened after renovations. In 2012, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park was dedicated and opened to the public as a state park.

East River and the north end of Roosevelt Island.

I liked this flowering tree.

Cherry Tree Walk

From Roosevelt Island

United Nations Building

I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday about mothers.  I could choose the topic.  I chose to talk about womanhood in general with a focus on mothers.  I told of the Christ-like attributes of my mother through various stories of mine and her own growing up years.  She was caring and comforting, patient (although she had a temper at times and was stubborn beyond reason), frugal, humble, faithful, and endured to the end among other qualities.  She and I knocked heads together from time to time but with other things, she taught me a love of cooking, life, family, the Gospel, and my Savior.

There were other women in my life that were role models and taught me besides my mother:  sister, daughters, teachers, friends, aunts, church leaders, etc.   The role of women is vital.  Here is one of the quotes I used:

 "Most sacred is a woman's role in the creation of life. We know that our physical bodies have a divine origin and that we must experience both a physical birth and a spiritual rebirth to reach the highest realms in God's celestial kingdom. Thus, women play an integral part (sometimes at the risk of their own lives) in God's work and glory "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." As grandmothers, mothers, and role models, women have been the guardians of the wellspring of life and have perpetuated wholesome environments in which to raise secure and healthy children."

Elder Todd Christofferson October 2013 Conference.

I also like a quote from Sheri Dew who was a second counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency for several years and a prominent business woman.  She has never married nor had children. This quote is from October 2001:

"When we understand the magnitude of motherhood, it becomes clear why prophets have been so protective of woman's most sacred role. While we tend to equate motherhood solely with maternity, in the Lord's language, the word mother has layers of meaning. Of all the words they could have chosen to define her role and her essence, both God the Father and Adam called Eve "the mother of all living"-and they did so before she ever bore a child. Like Eve, our motherhood began before we were born. Just as worthy men were foreordained to hold the priesthood in mortality, righteous women were endowed premortally with the privilege of motherhood. Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us.

President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that "God planted within women something divine." That something is the gift and the gifts of motherhood. Elder Matthew Cowley taught that "men have to have something given to them [in mortality] to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. [They] are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls … and the regenerating force in the lives of God's children."

Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed His sons with priesthood ordination. It was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children keep their second estate. As President J. Reuben Clark Jr. declared, motherhood is "as divinely called, as eternally important as the Priesthood itself.

I know, I absolutely know, that these doctrines about our divine role are true, and that when understood they bring peace and purpose to all women. My dear sisters, whom I love more than I know how to express, will you rise to the challenge of being mothers in these perilous times, though doing so may test the last ounce of your endurance and courage and faith? Will you stand steadfast and immovable as a mother in Israel and a woman of God? Our Father and His Only Begotten Son have given us a sacred stewardship and a holy crown in their kingdom. May we rejoice in it. And may we be worthy of Their trust. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I am blessed to be a wife and a mother and grandmother.  I am the mother of 7 children by birth, but I am also blessed to be the mother of many more souls whom I love dearly. 

I love you my family and friends.