Catching up with friends in New York

With all of our busy lives, we have not been able to organise a get together for  6 years, so we were very excited to be meeting up again at last.

We met our American friends on a cruise to Alaska, when we all found ourselves sitting at the same table for dinner each evening.  We hit it off, and have been keeping in touch via Facebook, emails and the occasional short visit. 

Jeanette and Erlinda have since had a little girl, Gabriella, who we had not seen in real life, until now. They live in the Hudson Valley, a beautiful part of New York, and we were staying with them as well as our other friends from Long Beach, California, Sally and Janet, as well as Ellen.

We visited the Hudson Valley wine region, having a few wine tasting stops along the way.  The wine at each winery was very different. 

We went to our first ever baseball game with the New York Yankees, at the Yankees stadium in the Bronx. Here we are doing the Bronx sign. 

Sally and Janet came with us to Philadelphia for a few days, we got to see the Liberty Bell, Liberty Hall and learnt about American history and the beginnings of a new nation.  We kept a low profile in Philadelphia as the English were definitely the 'baddies' in this part of American history!

We went to Lancaster, Amish country with the girls and the last part of our trip Tracy and I went to Washington DC, to follow the progress of the first settlers to their current governmental capital.  It was such a fantastic trip, not only catching up with our dear friends, but seeing some fabulous places and having some fantastic experiences.  An extra bonus was the food we experienced in all of the locations

we visited.

What an amazing trip.  Thank you all guys for so many great memories.