new york, new york. part 1
hamilton and gracie turning 16 was the original reason for this trip. it quickly became so much more. we planned, we discussed what our top must do's were. we planned some more. one week in the big apple. what a week it was.
we arrived on a friday. lunch at ellen's stardust diner. a stroll to 89 E & 42nd st. to see grand central terminal. that was it for day one no photos due to a camera mishap enroute. on to our first full day in the city saturday. we headed to top of the rock. tony was mesmerized at the site of the empire state building. he wanted to see it from every angle. so we tried to do just that. we took a guided tour of rockefeller center our tour ended on top of rockefeller center.
from top of the rock.
Friday afternoon we walked up 5th ave. past central park to the met. callie jo found a slide right past the zoo and just had to give it a try. the other two were right on her heels. all the architecture and fun little signs on benches, the hundred year old stone work we would miss if were weren't walking. i love walking anywhere and everywhere we go.
the met. quite impressive. the girls and i visit museums where ever we go. corey and tony loved this one as much as we did. and it's free. i could spend all day walking, looking, reading in the met. we grabbed a late dinner at playwright restaurant.
sunday was corey's big day. statue of liberty and ellis island. we did the early morning tour. we met our guide bright and early near battery city park. a ferry took us to the statue of liberty. gracie had my camera on the ride over. wow. just wow. lady liberty, to actually stand with her on her platform, in all her glory. it was really something you just have to do. what a beautiful museum they have for her story.
callie jo and her polaroid camera, oh my goodness i love this kid. she choose her photos very carefully. she only had so much film with her. but the replica of lady liberty's face, she splurged. she wanted a good photo then she said now mom i want to do a funny one too. "okay" i said not knowing at all what she meant. then this happened. seriously, i love this kid.
around christmas i began researching our ancestors. unfortunately i didn't get very far with mine. corey's was another story. as we rode the ferry to ellis island sunday aug 13th 2017 corey and i both had all the feels.
corey eugene calla 1975/ robert angelo calla 1950/ angelo calla 1922-1969/ francesco "pinto" calla 1885-1980/ bruno calla
i was able to confirm francesco calla immigrated from serra bruno, calabria italy via naples, italy in the early 1900's to ellis island. ellis island was constructed in the late 1800's. between 1905 and 1914, an average of one million immigrants per year arrived in the united states. while on ellis island you are able to use computers they have set up to research your last name to find ancestors who may have come through ellis island. i knew we had a good chance at a hit. as corey secured our computer i began to type calla. we all knew we were looking for francesco calla. and there he was arrival saturday august 10th 1907. the peak year for immigration at ellis island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. we the calla family were standing on ellis island exactly 110 years and three days to the day the first calla stood on american soil. we had all the feels and chills and some tears. our time on ellis island was surreal. this place, ellis island, defines struggle, and yet at the same time defines hope.
the kissing post; i could see it all, i imagined francesco waiting so impatiently for a familiar face in a sea of strangers. i imagined him finally seeing someone he recognized from his home in italy, so far away in this moment. the embrace, grabbing a face and kissing cheeks, foreheads, lips. all the thousands of tears that must have fallen at that spot, the kissing post. it truly defines hope.
today was going to be all about walking and italy and seeing and walking and new york. it is sunday so lower manhattan isn't crazy. i knew little italy wasn't far, less than 2 miles. let's walk. we saw it all not buzzing by in a cab or on top of a bus, we saw it on foot, we stood in it all. new york stock exchange, fraunces tavern, federal hall, wall st., city all park, st. pauls chapel, chamber of commerce, grace church, metropolitan savings bank building, municipal building, national city bank , and u.s. court house just to name a few.
mulberry st. and we were in a place that felt a little like home, little italy. the subtle calm, busy but laid back. we found a cafe to have a late lunch. we were starving. an italian red for me, a peroni for him, bread with olive oil. the staff was incredible, chatting with the kids about anything and everything. telling them where they needed to go, what they must see on mulberry st. the little italian men in the kitchen looked as though they could be corey's grandpas. this may have been my favorite. our lunch was delicious. and now we were headed for dessert. but first, the kids bagged up whatever we had left from lunch, asked for a fork and napkins as they did at every single place we ate. i actually think they were now saving some of their food. you see, they would find the first homeless person and hand them the bag. a couple times it would be a person asleep and callie jo would just set it beside them like she did at trinity church. other times gracie or tony would walk up and hand it to them. this time tony handed it to a man we saw sitting alone right past the restaurant. this man tore into the bag and began shoveling the food into his hungry belly. all three of the kids just stood for a moment and stared. the man didn't see them staring. he wasn't worried about anything other than eating the food he was just given. this had an impact on our children. they don't know that kind of hunger. the girls and tony looked at me with astonishment on their faces. i simply looked back at them with tears rolling down my cheeks and said "i love you all and i am so proud of you". with a hug we walked down mulberry st. to the bakery our waiter told us about. on our way we saw a man hand rolling cigars. corey of course loved this. souvenir for dad for sure. then the most amazing thing happened. see, i have a thing for graffiti walls, especially graffiti walls in new york city. there is one graffiti wall i have had on my bucket list for a while now. another thing ,i love audrey hepburn. i can't remember when or where i caught a glimpse of this particlar wall, i knew it was out there somewhere. i knew i wanted to find it someday. the thing about graffiti walls is they are way better if they catch you off guard. what i mean is; i love just walking up on them, not really finding the location and going to the exact spot. so, on this day it was completely perfect that this mural sits right on mulberry st. in the middle of little italy. it is simple perfection. on our way to the bakery we passed a pasta shop. talk about eye candy. it was closed and it was a good thing. i swear i wanted to ship it all back to our home in cincy. finally there it was, ferrara bakery. can i just say, i could have eaten every single one of those cannoli's in the giant cannoli right then and there. it was all so good.
with full bellies and hearts i googled and saw the flatiron building was just over 2 miles from little italy. with a little hesitation from the kids and corey we decided to walk. we passed a church with live music, they were praying for people right off the street. we all went in saying prayers for all kinds of people, nana, vivian, grandpa mark, aunt traci, all the homeless people in new york and of course for mom. we lit candles and walked on to the flat iron building.
through soho and noho gracie found her dr. martins she's been eyeing up. callie jo found a backpack she wanted. tony went in every single shoe store along the way. the very last shoe store we saw was the daddy of them all, it just so happened we missed justin beiber by an hour or so. no lie. once there the empire state building was less than a mile. guess what, we walked. all-in-all we walked over 70 blocks. we took a cab from the empire state building to our hotel. it was a great day.
