We left the dark of Seattle behind and headed for the lights of Broadway. Of course, it's also dark in New York City when the lights of Broadway are most noticeable, so maybe it wasn't much of a change. The main purpose was to hang out with Dave. We also worked in many activities, including a Broadway show, Come From Away. The musical is about the epic generosity of the people of Gander Newfoundland following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Our interest stems from first hearing the story when we visited Gander, and then seeing the world premier here in Seattle. The story and the play are a delight.

Looking Down Broadway Towards Times Square from 45th Street

News & Notes

• New York got snowed on the day we joined Dave to tour the farm and greenhouses. The farm was gorgeous, snug in its white blanket. The greenhouses were in full production, home to several varieties of salad greens and oyster mushrooms. Dave has already started some of this summer's warm weather plants - tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.

  

  Kitchawan Farm

• One of our favorite stops in NYC is the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Special to this visit were works by artists from Middle Eastern countries that - as the museum explained - would be prevented from entering the US by the administration's proposed immigration policy. It was the artistic case for welcoming visitors.

  

  Pop Art

• To touch on three other NYC highlights -

  - We stopped at the New York Public Library to check out the newly refurbished Rose Main Reading Room. But we also enjoyed other features of this monument to intellectual life, such as a mural titled Newspaper Days in Old New York.
  
  - We stayed until closing time at the Mossman Lock Museum. Housed in the Mechanics Institute of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a society founded in 1785, we studied, admired and were baffled by the hundreds of locks in their collection.
  
  - With Dave's friends Isak and Valerie, we "crawled" the restaurants of Jackson Heights, Queens. This is a neighborhood that speaks more languages than any other in the US, and they must have equally many ethnic restaurants. We tried Southern, Tibetan, Bangladeshi and Nepalese. Wow! Curiously, to get to the Tibetan place, you need to walk through a cell phone store, out the back and down a long hallway!

• Continuing the story from last time, our pole-vaulting niece Anna Paradee, star of Western Washington State University, participated in the 2017 NCAA National Indoor Track and Field Championships (D II) in Birmingham AL. The official results are in, and she vaulted 12' 10 1/4" to come in seventh. (That broke a school record held by her coach.) Congratulations, Anna!!!

  

  NCAA's Top Women Pole Vaulters

• We fit in a February visit to Montana, which in recent years has been uncharacteristically mild. This year was more typical Montana weather with ample cold and snow. Lake Koocanusa was nearly frozen over for the first time in years.

  

  Lake Koocanusa, Nearly Frozen Over

  Despite the outside weather, we spent a delightful Saturday with Jim in Kalispell enjoying the Metropolitan Opera's simulcast of Dvořák’s Rusalka. What a delight! One thing about grand opera; no matter where you are seeing it, it is always grand!