One Whirlwind Adventure!

Frank and Nicole Do New York City!

They were almost sleep walking, but they didn't want to miss a thing, so they kept going. Five days to see 5000 sights. Our daughter Nicole and her husband Frank loved it all! Central Park, Harlam, Battery Park, Broadway, 5th Avenue, Canal Street, Park Avenue, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty Island, Coney Island, Long Island, the beautiful bridges, the shopping, the people, the flowers and trees, and the wonderful Bay Shore Ward..."is there anything we missed?"



Chance Reunion in the Subway!

Remember the story on this blog about Elder Caramia? (See May 20 entry about how Elder de Paula and I met him quite coincidentally at a mission conference. Read that story first.)

My last conversation with Elder Caramia was on May 16 when we escorted some missionaries to the Manhattan Temple. He happened to be in the mission office at the time. I got his cell phone number and said I would call when Nicole and her husband, Frank, get to town.

No time seemed to "work out" or be an appropriate hour to call a young missionary, so up until Saturday evening we had done nothing. After touring around all day, we were returning to the Rego Park Church (also the mission office) where we park our car before boarding the subway to head into Manhattan. It was about 10:00 pm. Nicole called out "Look, two missionaries just got off our train!" Elder de Paula yelled "It's him!" We dashed to catch up.

There, underground at the Woodhaven subway station in Queens, New York, the once Italian missionary "Sister Nicole de Paula" met and visited with the once eight-year-old Samuele Caramia from Rimini, Italy whose baptism she attended twelve years ago. They reminisced about members, missionaries and his family. Nicole began speaking in Italian, but Elder Caramia would only speak in his "new" language - English - which is very good! He has about a year left as a missionary, then he will go home to Italy, and return to BYU in the fall of 2009.

Another "chance" meeting. Another blessing from heaven.


Coney Island - Famous for Hot Dogs

On Saturday we took a very long train ride for a hot dog. And that's about all Coney Island has to offer besides the new subway station. Save your money...and mostly your time and go somewhere else. This place is very run down with nothing to do. But this picture of Frank and Nicole is surely cute!

"In the Heights"

The night after they
arrived in New York
City they saw
"In the Heights."
This is the hottest new musical on Broadway and is nominated for 13 Tony Awards.

Frank and Nicole just couldn't stop raving! Nicole texted me at intermission "...it's totally awesome, we don't want it to end!!"

We were across the street at "The Little Mermaid" and both musicals ended at about the same time. That made coordinating subway and car travel back to Long Island easier.

When we arrived back at our appartment, we got online and re-watched all the videos we could find about the creating and promos of "In the Heights." It's just too fun! We flopped in bed at 2 am. What a day!


Nicole and Frank arrived at JFK on Thursday May 29 at 7:00 am and off they went to see the sights... with no sleep.

"We'll sleep later, but we can't waste a minute while we're this close to Manhattan!"

That was five days ago...and we haven't paused a moment, except for Church on Sunday, until now - Monday, June 2. What a wonderful whirlwind. Dining in "Little Italy" was relaxing after shopping on busy Canal Street. Below, it was so peaceful to sit near the lake in Central Park and enjoy a calm Spring day.

Nicole, along with her sister Tiffany and sister-in-law Rachelle will be back in about six weeks and she'll be the tour guide then. For now, Elder and Sister de Paula - the break is over. We are preparing for teaching three classes with three different subjects this week - and so looking forward to our meeting with our dear students.