Our car this year is a real comedown from last year's convertible. We have a beige Suburu Forrester. We were expecting at least a Ford Escape, but, well, we're learning to like what we have. We brought Josh's portable GPS unit along to help out. Went to the hotel right from the airport, this is base camp for the next five days, the view from our door:
From here we headed east to Bergen County for some questionable sightseeing. This is taken outside Satin Dolls, aka the Bada-Bing on the Sopranos. Here's where Tony used to park the Suburban, and where Silvio bought it in the next to last show.
After that it was a more personal tour: the house in Teaneck [below] where Josh spent his first four years, and which was once also his Grandmother Audrey's house; the house his Grandpa Henry grew up in a few blocks away; the newsstand in Teaneck where I took him every Sunday morning to buy the New York Times, and the man at the counter [Josh could barely see over the counter] would give him a Tootsie Roll. Also in Teaneck were the library, where his mother used to take him for story time, and across the street, Holy Name Hospital, where I was born. Then we went to my father's gas station in Ridgefield Park, which is no longer a gas station and no longer recognizable from what it was.
We added those great bay windows in front of the Kipp Street house, where we lived right before we moved to Illinois:
Ventured farther north to Dumont, where I grew up, and stopped at my grade school, junior high school, and high school, a few of the old spots around town, my church, and of course the house I grew up in.
Final stop: Englewood Hospital, where Josh was born.
Then back towards the hotel, a quick easy dinner at a Chili's, a store run to get some bottle water, and here to blog. It's already getting late and we have a full day tomorrow sightseeing in New York City. Still don't know what we're doing yet, but we'l figure it out. Ciao for now.
