Everything sparkles along with Eva’s three-year-old eyes and her three-year-old smile beams as she greets me from ear to ear, “Grandad.” This is an all-at-once event, past and future gone for a moment, melting into this lovely little girl greeting me as Grandad with a huge smile and a hug.

And behind her, his own little face beaming, the younger sib adapting instantaneously, and, remarkably, since he’s still getting his one-year-old voice and vocabularly, there is Boyan, beaming, and also saying, surprisingly distinctly, “Grandad.” And, just like his sister, giving me another huge smail and a big hug.

And then there followed a short, but sweet, visit. I picked Eva up at school, we dillied and dallied on the way back home, she showed me her parks and her playgrounds with pride. We read and read and read about princesses and princesses and princesses.

And Boyan, instantly familiar, flashing his smart smile and his mischevious grin. I’m so glad Paul has video, he’s amazing onthe scooter at barely 20 months old. You have to see it to believe, and even then, remind yourself that this little guy is not even two years old until next February.

And thus passed another good visit with Paul and Milena and Eva and Boyan. I sure wished they lived closer.

Some of the pictures here are from the New York Children’s Museum, which was our Saturday excursion.

Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to getting these three plus Milena to an Oregon visit starting this Saturday.

Eva turned two on May 24, 2008. She and her mom and dad and brother Boyan celebrated several times, including one party for all of us while we (me, Nana, Sabrina, Timmy, and Leo) were visiting.

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Originally uploaded by tim_berry

This first one is of Eva on the slide at Vero Beach.

And the second is a nice snippet of Boyan, being happy

Disney vacation, May 2008. This was in the vacation club master bathroom, with a flat screen tv showing cartoons. Sabrina points out the look on Leo’s face; this was early in the week, so he still had some doubts.

December 12, 2007 The highlight of this visit was Eva Berry’s bright-little blue-eyed sparkling smile, that can brighten up a room. Her nana brought her a frog that sang kids’ songs when she pressed his bellybutton.
She loves the guitar and the kids songs. Every morning when we woke up, Eva would go to the guitar case behind the computer table, and wait for me to play, slapping it and looking back at me.
On Monday morning we took her to the Winter Garden to hang out, look at toys, eat Miso soup, etc.
Nana gave Eva a haircut.  There was a great deal of discussion about the need for haircuts. Noticed the view of the morning, with the Empire State building in deep background.
We took a cold walk by the river on Sunday.
There’s that view again, on a cold Tuesday morning. This is the view from the main window. At night you can see directly to the lights of Times Square, although it’s a few miles away.

Paul and Milena and Eva seem to be very well situated, 37 floors up, in Battery Park, close to work, living in New York but being abloe to escape upwards to the 37th floor, high above the city.

Emily Berry was there for dinner Tuesday night, after an interview with NYU medical school.

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Originally uploaded by noah.p

One of my favorite pictures, taken on July 7 2007 in Shevlin Park, in Bend. Paul and Milena were there for the week of July 4. The rest of the family drove over from Eugene.

The drive was memorable, for me. You all said it was crazy. It sort of started with a three-hour delay in San Francisco the day before, which meant I got to the airport at 1 am so I wasn’t fussy about the red Chevrolet Impala V8 with a tailfin that Hertz had left for me. I had reserved a midsize, the smallest Neverlost available.

The next day, Friday August 3, started poorly. I had to take an ambien at 3 am to sleep, so I slept until 10, then called Hertz about the car. The nice lady on the phone said I should take it to the downtown office — just a few blocks away — and switch it. Fortunately I called first, and when I did they told me they didn’t have any midsize. Oh well. Big, red, tailfin … perfect I suppose for I95 up the East Coast from Philadelphia to Cape Cod.

My presentation was anti-climactic to say the least. Four people showed up. So it wasn’t hard, no tension, but not useful. It started at 2, finished at 5. The concierge sent me to a nice-looking Italian deli across the street for a sandwich and fruit, but it was closed, so I got some food at (gulp) a downtown 7-11. Gulp indeed.

Then it was me and the red impala and Suzie Neverlost, with “on the road again” as background music. I listened to the audible book version of “Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. I drove. I followed Suzy’s directions and she took me over a shortcut from one interstate to another, up New Jersey towards New York. I was okay with a crowded freeway heading out of Philadelphia towards New Jersey at 6 pm, but that traffic gradually faded, and I steamed up the freeway for a while happily.

As I approached New York, seeing the skyline and bridges and all, I assumed Suzy would take us to the left of the city, as indicated by Google maps. Nope. Before I had time to stop and reconsider, with me going 60 plus MPH the whole time, she took us right over the George Washington bridge into (gulp) Manhattan. It was upper Manhattan, ugly, squat, hot, threatening, and absolutely jammed with traffic. We crept slowly inch by inch through the Bronx, going about two or three miles in an hour. It was almost 8 pm before I was on the New England turnpike at freeway speeds again. Suzy said we still had almost 5 hours to go.

I just kept going. Night fell. The freeway was well lit but I slowed from 80-ish to 70-ish in the dark. The book kept going, stayed interesting. By about 9:30 I realized I’d made a significant failure to plan, I was still hurdling through Connecticut in the dark at 70 miles per hour but I was also still a full three hours from my destination, meaning that I’d get to my destination in the middle of the night with nowhere to sleep without waking up Dad and Liz, if that was even possible. I considered calling 1-800-hhonors but where was I, how could I ask for a hotel if I didn’t know where I was or where I would be? Then I decided I’d get Megan to get on Google maps and help me, but I called home and talked to Cristin, Megan wasn’t there. The prospect of sleeping in the car was not fun. I didn’t slow down though, because Suzy kept saying I still had a long way to go.

I lucked out. Around Mystic CT there was a cluster of highway motels. Howard Johnson’s had only a smoking room, Econolodge had nothing, but the Holiday Inn Express had one room left.

“It’s a handicapped room,” the guy said.

“Is that bad? Do I have to be handicapped?”

“No, it’s fine, it’s just the last room we have and it’s late enough now that we’re supposed to rent it.” It was 10:15 pm. So I got a nice clean normal hotel room and went to sleep. The car said we were 2:16 from the destination.

I was up at 7 and on the road at 8, but no luck on the 2:15 from the destination. Suzy Neverlost is totally naive about traffic, and there’s a bottleneck getting into Cape Cod around the Bourne Bridge and the Cape Cod canal that meant once again, as with New York the day before, it took me about an hour to advance three minutes on Suzy’s schedule.

So I was there about 11:15, and it was a great day in Cape Cod, alternatively cloudy and sunny, Paul and Milena and Eva were already there, the condo was comfortable, the water was warm, we had lobster sandwiches on the deck of the clubhouse for lunch and lobster on a patio restaurant overlooking a harbor for dinner. Dad and Liz raved about Eva, Paul, and Milena, all of whom were very nice, charming, good looking, hard working, and smart.

Paul Milena and Eva left after a breakfast on Sunday, but we met on the beach before breakfast to swim in the ocean. It was warm again, and Sunday was spectacularly beautiful, about 80 degrees high, low humidity, bright, blue, and, well, beautiful. We had a nice dinner at a nice restaurant, Ocean something, and dad and I sat up talking for a long time.

Monday morning was a special treat. Dad has a regular tennis game every day about 10 a.m. and he borrowed a racket for me to join. It was a bit surreal to feel like a youngster at 59, the whole group was in their 70s and 80s, they all played excellent tennis, they were also a very fun group, great spirits, joking, teasing, enjoying themselves. I was forgiven for my mediocre tennis because I was so young, or so it seemed — and I’m 59 years old as I write this. The whole thing made me happy on several levels, I’m really glad dad is doing so well, I’m glad he’s happy, I’m glad he’s healthy, and the group is a reminder to all of us that some people do well with age. These men all play better tennis than I do, they are all very much alert and aware and alive, and they are all in late 70s or 80s. For the record, dad is the oldest and the best tennis player of all.

– Tim

Click here for the google maps for this.

With thanks to Paul and Milena for taking the initiative, we had family in Bend. For me it was a really good 10 days, a chance to get to know Eva better and spend time with Paul and Milena too. Paul and Milena and Eva left New York in the wee hours of Friday morning, and I took off from Eugene about midday. Noah and Sabrina and Timmy and Leo came that evening.

Days were a mix of house looking, hiking, the boat park, etc.

The first and second picture here are at Nancy P’s, just down the hill from the Parson’s house, which became the place of record for breakfast and lunch.