Weekend in Springfield, Mass.

Hello Gail? Hey this is Andrew. What are you guys

doing this weekend?" Uhhhhhhh, not much that we can't cancel.

Mary, the girls and I are going to Springfield, Mass for

the weeknd. Want to go with us? I have enough

points to pay for your room. We'll be staying at the

Sheridan Hotel...we'll have a great time. Sure, we'd love to.

So Saturday morning we left..the K's and the C's

See below, as we're leaving Sunday afternoon.

Anna and Jennifer in the front

Larry, Me, Mary and Andrew in the back

(Click on picture to enlarge)

It was a fun - relaxing weekend. I even got talked

into having a massage. Now that could get habit forming.

It was a beautiful hotel with many amenities that we took

advantage of. Mary and Andrew won the Catch Phase

game, but just wait til next time, now that we've caught on.

We decided that Mary and Andrew were the winners,

Jennifer the MVP, Larry and Anna were the craziest

and me, well I tried real hard.

Thanks Kovalovich's for inviting us.

We had a great time.

Sharing Local History

It's so easy to talk about something you love.

Prior to sharing with them, there was a nice

luncheon at BCON or Pink Chicken, as the

youth group calls it. 

As town and village historian the Sr. Citizens group

in Northville invited me to talk about local history.

I showed many slides of old Northville and gave

an outline beginning with the settlement of Fish House

in 1762. After the Rev. War, in 1788,  Samuel Olmstead

arrived by canoe up the Sacandaga River where he

built a small shack along the riverbank, then exploring

the area that is now Northville, he sent for his family.

That was the beginning of our village of Northville.

They've asked me to come back and share more

history with them.  There are so many areas of

local  history, I'm sure I could teach a semester

of classes on it.

Our 54th Anniversary

JANUARY 21, 1956 WAS THE DAY

4 CHILDREN AND 11 GRANDKIDS LATER

JANUARY 21, 2010

It's been a wonderful trip. I wish I'd recorded

how we celebrated each anniversary.

We celebrated our 54th by going

to NYC for 3 nights. Thanks Laura and

Alan Kested from Colorado for paying

for our hotel room. We stayed in the Roosevelt

Hotel on Madison Street between 45 & 46th.

Todd met us at the train/Penn station.

He went with us to our hotel where we

left our luggage, freshened up a bit, then

went to a Cuban Restaurant for dinner,

where Kelli joined us. After dinner we
walked around Times Sq. for awhile.

When we arrived back at our hotel, we were

surprised with a special treat from our kids.
Thanks Steve, Shari, Scott, & Sue.

That was a nice surprise and very thoughtful .

We're so thankful for our friend Todd Watkins

who was our personal tour guide all weekend.

Without him we wouldn't have seen half of

what we did, nor learned half as much.

We bought tickets to ride the tour buses.

They were good for two days.

Below are pictures taken on the tour.

Thursday the 21st we rode the Amtrak from Albany to NYC

Returning by Amtrak Sunday evening.

New Amsterdam/Manhattan

DR. HANS KIERSTEDE'S
STOMPING GROUNDS

***

This was on the top of my list to visit while in

NYC . I was thrilled to be walking the

streets where my ancesters lived in 1640's.

***

Stone Street was fascinating. No traffic

on the street. In warm weather they put

tables in the street for diners. I want to

go back there in nice weather. I also want

to go to the museums down there and the

Federal building which has lots of history

of New Amsterdam/Manhattan.

More research to do!

Broadway Musical

MARY POPPINS

at the Amsterdam Theatre

NYC

We had seen the movie many years ago, but seeing

it live was fantastic. The stage/props, costumes, and

acting was superb. The Amsterdam theatre was

stunningly beautiful. We had great seats..8 rows back

from the orchestra. Thanks Jeremy for recommending it.

Todd and Kelli went with us.

Researching in NYC

I just can't seem to go anywhere

without researching something.

The first Surgeon in New Amsterdam

was my 9th great grandfather. I wanted

to find out where his house was. You'll

see on this map where it was. I was able

to find it. What a thrill it was to stand on

that corner and realize that he once stood there.

The upper map is New Amsterdam(Manhattan)

in 1660, with an overlay from 2009.

Close up of the area where Dr. Hans Kierstede's house was.

The house is circled in pencil.

When they dug out for the WTC they

used the fill which made 90 more acres of

land in lower Manhattan, which is the

blue area on the map.

Visiting Grandson in NYC

Jeremy's job is in Time Square and Jenny

teaches vocal music in a private school.

Jeremy subs teaching and also plays

for Off Broadway Musicals.

Sunday we met Jeremy and Jenny for lunch

at DiNapolis's. My friend Mary recommended

it. Thanks Mary it was great. Take a look at

the huge Strawberry shortcake.