The trip to NYC went really well. Unfortunately, it was threatening to rain the whole time. Fortunately, most of the time it wasn't actually following through. Still, we spent our first day inside:

Sherry and me at the Coney Island aquarium
(sorry, that was cheap)


To be fair:

Sherry and me at the aquarium


The second day we were hoping to visit Claire in Philadelphia, but for $40 each and 4 hours of traveling for a 2 hour stay we ended up staying in the city. We decided to risk the weather and took a walking tour of the Lower East Side, a traditionally Jewish neighborhood. It rained a few times, but what are umbrellas for?


An old synagogue near the start of the tour - interestingly enough, while our tour guide mentioned that this place is likely to stop operating soon as its congregation passes away, as a NY historic landmark the Hebrew on the front will have to stay, even if it becomes, say, a church or a bar. (Interestingly, it had previously been a church.)



The Eldridge St. Synagogue. This one was built by a split-off from the congregation of the previous synagogue who were upset that they were moving into a former church. Clearly, this faction was pretty rich. However, the remaining congregation doesn't even use the space - apparently it was shut up and deteriorating for years until a researcher spearheaded an effort to restore it. It's still kind of a mess inside.



A headstone in the Shearith Israel cemetery, from a group of Jews who migrated around 1650. This was one of many Revolutionary War soldiers buried here, an area which was once swampland outside the (Dutch) city.