Eyrealm: US Open Tennis in Beloved NYC

There probably isn’t a place on earth that Richard would rather be than at the US Open Tennis Tournament every August! We all delight in the fact that Rick/Dad has absolutely not a care in the world about what people think about what he wears. I try to get him dressed up a little for TV shows and church but basically, he just wears what feels good to him. I can guarantee that there was not one other person of the 25,000 or so people at the US Open who wore a swimsuit…especially with a T-shirt that clashed with it…every day! But hey, he just wanted to be comfortable and cool (in the sense of heat) and didn’t give it a second thought! That maroon T-shirt doesn’t look very cool but it was all he had in his wardrobe of four items for the trip and he figured if he bought a US open hat and had an American Express radio in his ear, he’d be fine!

This year even the Open sponsors even sported a smart car display and other fun things for Dad/Rick to look at!

And LOTS of media coverage….

Luckily we have a son and his wife Anita and their baby living in NYC so it’s an extra excuse to go every year. Except that this year Anita and the baby were in Switzerland visiting her parents. She is probably glad she wasn’t there though because while she was gone, several of the other avid tennis fans in our family, namely Eli and Julie and baby Zara from D.C. and Shawni and Dave and 16 year-old Max and 15 year-old Elle (our present high school tennis player) came to join the fun…and camp out in Tal and Anita’s one bedroom apartment. That’s….count it….seven big people and one small one having a sleep over in about 500 square feet. New Yorkers are amazing though. They welcome the wall-to-wall crowds with generosity and grace. And I think they all had quite a lot of fun too!

Luckily Rick and I had another friend to stay with for our one night of “cross over” and one day together at the Open. We had come early and they stayed later but we did have one night when we converged. FUN!

This is the view from the balcony of our friend’s apartment. Pretty sweet!

The Open itself was fabulous!

We got to see poor Venus get beat in a three hour match after a four hour rain delay, and say Federer play along with a host of other superstars in the tennis world. We found a place where sweet baby Zara could sit in her stroller while we walked from one stadium to the other, about twelve feet apart and watched two excellent matches at the same time. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but trust me, it was a great time to be together especially with a baby!

A rain delay that led the matches into the night….

Before everybody got there and since we were on that side of town we decided to take a tour of the United Nations:

We saw the mosaic that Nancy Reagan initiated that was truly beautiful…

Saw some beautiful conference rooms and lots of great talking about helping people of the world in need but we are disappointed that they can’t come up with some sort of action (other than military) against Syria after the travesties committed there!

We also wandered on down to Grand Central Station and the Grand Central Market where we saw splendid food….too expensive to buy…but beautiful….and a gorgeous spice market with a wild variety of spices not unlike the ones we saw in Dubai, except the spices were in bowls instead of barrels.

We also found some absolutely incredible food at a Japanese restaurant that was definitely memorable! Mmmm! I can taste that delectable dish right now!

….and a bathroom that was…sooo Japanese.

Along with this very Japanese appliance that goes with the toilet. Only our family will appreciate the fact that there is no “singing toilet” function on this thing!

Eli and Julie drove from DC and the Arizonans flew into Newark, and made their way to a restaurant near where we were staying. Although this different variety Japanese food was not exactly Max and Elle’s “cup of tea”, Eli, our Japanese guy loved it! it was SO great to be together!