Yes, dear readers, both of you, a few shots for the historical recreated village from last week's Quebec trip. This is the estrip equivalent of sitting through my vacation pics....but I had a decent camera.

Travel is good. Nothing a long weekend doing all the fun stuff in Manhattan and Brooklyn to guarantee a little renewal. Getting to see it again was a lot of fun. My daughter and I Jet Blue'ed it into Kennedy on Thursday night and met up with family at Sal's Pizzeria in Brooklyn for a snack.

Friday, I got to renew a long familar acquaintance with the stink that is Canal St & Chinatown. I can only imagine the fumes on a hot day. We meandered up there into SoHo, stopping at all the groovy places along the way (and there were many). Lunch at Two Boots Pizza was pretty awesome and we worked our way uptown. After cruising through midtown, we worked our way into Chelsea for a dinner with my older sister at Chelsea Restaurante. My sister is a minor celeb there as she's lived in the neighborhood for quite awhile and I think is also a pretty big tipper. You eat wonderfully there.

Saturday was more of the same. After being unabashed consumers on Friday, we tempered that a little with a trip to the Natural History Museum. Had to see the whale. The trip up town was marred by the whiniest cab driver I've ever had in NYC. All the street festivals going on had him crying the blues. Despite his pissing and moaning, it was kind of cool to sneak in behind Grand Central on our way uptown. I tried taking pictures of the "Whale" but I don't think they came out okay.

I've gotten kind of blase about celebrity sightings over the years, but my darling daughter was clearly taken sharing a row with Oprah, running into Richard Belzer on 43rd st, and having Teddy Geiger say excuse me to her as he went by at JFK yesterday.

The picture I wish I would have gotten was the gonga line of planes out the window yesterday. The tower had everybody doing a series of u turns to get to the big runway. At one point, you could see a series of 15 planes of all sizes jockeying for space, sort of fun and intimidating to see in the twilight. Guess I'm a dork that way.

A fine time, just what the doctor ordered.............

My remote post, live from not so colonial Williamsburg. I've been playing tour guide/fellow tourist with my eldest daughter in New York, We've been bunking with my younger sister in the Williamsburg Section of Brooklyn. Weather has been rather blech, but that hasn't stopped fortune from smiling in the right way.

My darling child went off to see The Color Purple last night and sat near Oprah, who happened to be there checking on her latest investment. From Canal st to the east and West Village to mid town to the parks (Central and Washington Square), she got a good intro in fun as a carefree Manhattanite.

(e:Hodown) is right on the money about the Mac Store. Full of posers, but I had a good time compiling a mental wish list anyway.

While my child was getting cultured in Time Square, my future brother-in-law and I repaired to a truly unique place in Brooklyn, a joint called Barcade, lots of good local brew and the joint is lined with vdeio games from the 80s. I can still rock Super Mario Bros.