Due to these visitors, the weekend was full of enlightening information, perhaps too much. And too much walking too. And too much boat-riding. We visited the Statue of Liberty, we visited Ellis Island. I got sunburned because it was a relatively nice day and my body has no natural defenses to the elements. We did so many touristy things, but at least we didn't have to go to Times Square. My dad and M stayed at the Essex House hotel, right off the park. I assume this place should be pretty pricey, but even though they got a suite, they paid nothing because, as seasoned business travelers, they have so many points and miles they don't have to pay for anything, ever. Nice work if you can get it.

So we spent a lot of time up in that neck of the woods, taking rides on those dumb horse-carriage things through the park, visiting the Natural History Museum, boozing it up at the Oak Bar at the Plaza, finding the window from which they broadcast the Today Show, and other such lame stuff. It was fun, but I really wanted to take them to some place I actually knew about. So on Sunday I got them on a D train and we headed to Chinatown. Central Park South and Grand Street have almost nothing in common. You can't even see any of the tall buildings down there.

We bought pickles at Guss' as planned, had lunch at Katz's, which I haven't visited for years now (I can handle the place about once a year), and tried to go to the Tenement Museum. But their tours were all full by that point so we started heading to Brooklyn. On the way to the subway we passed a little synagogue that sported a "free tour" sign. So we went in and were inundated with the sad tale of the only Romaniote temple in all of the western hemisphere. What an odd little congregation. This branch of Judaism started when a galley of Jewish slaves shipwrecked off the cost of Greece in 70 CE. The Jews settled in Greece and started a sect that never got very big, and is now close to extinction. I'm not entirely sure how their religion differs from other forms of Judaism, but they did have a neat collection of weird-looking torahs. Does this tale remind anybody of the Waponis from Joe Vs the Volcano?

On the subway we saw a couple of bizarre sights: an old Chinese man had fallen in the subway stairwell, so paramedics struggled to strap him to a backboard while hordes of people pushed past. And a homeless guy was begging for money on the train when an old woman laid into him, scolding him for panhandling when there are several organizations available to help the less-fortunate in town. Never seen that before. I was hoping to show them more of my neighborhood but after hanging out at my house for a while, we decided we were all so exhausted that we should quit while we were ahead. So they left me to collapse on my bed as they returned to their swanky hotel.

They're both still in town, doing something related to their jobs (they both work for the same company). But the 21+ hours I spent with them was probably about as much parental interaction I can handle in a rolling 6-month period, so they'll be on their own until they leave. I'm either impressed with their ability to keep on truckin' through the weekend, or disappointed at how easily worn out I am. Next time I'll need to work out for a few weeks before I hang out with tourists.

Sorry no pictures, Pops was handling the camera so I gotta wait until he figures out how to download them.

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