Uncle Dan

Brian's best friend came to Rhode Island from Boise for training but stayed 3 1/2 extra days with us! It was so nice to have him around. The kids immediately loved him and he was great with them. The girls curled up to him on the couch to watch conference even! I got to spend a few hours with him in the City while Brian worked. I have to admit it normally would have made me a bit uncomfortable being alone with a man not my husband, but Dan, he is a man of good character and I knew I didn't have anything to worry about.

It was great to have time to chat with him and get to know him better. We stood in line for Phantom for about an hour and a half, so we had nothing to do but talk. Great, great guy! Claudia is a lucky girl. I'm glad Brian has a friend like Dan. So Saturday we saw the same parts of Times Square for about 3 hours then we finally got to walk to Brian's office where he showed us up to the 34th floor. They have BIG windows that show a 360 view of the city. INCREDIBLE from that height! I'm so glad I got to see it. Then we took Dan to see Grand Central Station and then off to dinner.

We went to Pergola des Artistes for dinner. It sits at 252 W 46th St, between Broadway and Eighth Ave. It was amazingly good! I recommend it to everyone! If you are going to be on Broadway, duck around the corner for some very FINE food! Marie is the lady at the bar with the sparkly baseball cap and is the sweetest ole lady! I had lobster bisque, scallops on a bed of spinach and a side of some of the BEST vegetables I have EVER had at a restaurant! The spinach was incredible! I would eat it every day if I knew how to make it like they did... NO KIDDING. Brian had veal which was so tender and delicious. He ordered bleu cheese on his salad, they actually put a chunk of bleu cheese on his salad. OMGosh! It melted in my mouth. Dan said he's never liked bleu cheese, but that was great! He ordered salmon with dill sauce and a French onion soup that was so amazing I almost wished I had ordered that myself. The salmon was so flaky and yummy. It was a great dinner! My scallops were perfect! SO, if you need a good place to go....go there! Their two course dinner is very reasonably priced too!

We watched Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theater there on Broadway. WOW! I don't have a word in my vocabulary to explain that experience. WOW! Definately one of those where you just have to be there! If you ever get the chance...go. Very well done, the detail to the stage and props are very pleasing. Gives me chills just thinking about it. It was Lovely! Go.

Sunday we watched the first session of conference while enjoying a Delicious brunch that Brian made. I don't know the name of it, but it was very Delicious! Conference was inspiring and I can't wait to watch the sessions I missed. We had a quick lunch then took off to show Dan a view of the city from the reservation and 9/11 memorial. We conversed back and forth about where we should take him next and couldn't agree. Then Brian got a wild idea that we should take him to the shore! What a perfect idea!

The waves were crashing pretty hard against the sand bringing TONS of shells and small pebbles onto the beach. It was perfect because Dan wanted to take shells home to his kids. We spent the next few hours finding the best shells to send home to our Idaho friends. We got pockets full! The sunset was radiant! Watching the moon rise was so nice. What a beautiful way to end his Jersey experience! Just up the shore they were celebrating Oktoberfest and had fireworks. It summed up the night just right.

Monday we didn't get to see him, he was back in the city. He met a girl he baptized in Australia on his mission years ago. And then this morning we had to say goodbye. The kids were cute about it on the way to school talking about the fun things they got to do with Uncle Dan, and how much they would miss him.