A Tale of Two Cities

On Sunday, we all enjoyed going to the Feast of San Gennaro in New York.

We started off with dinner in Chinatown, which was amazing because Alex actually ate his food without 8,524 promptings from us to eat and stop playing with his food.

Of course, when the food looks like this, it's hard to resist.


That would be sweet and sour chicken in a pineapple boat. I had chicken in ginger. They were incredible, and cheaper than what we would pay for Chinese anywhere around here.

After getting our fill and letting the food settle, we headed over to Mulberry St because the San Gennaro feast was going until 11 PM on Sunday (instead of 1 AM on Saturday). Despite being a schoolnight, it was still packed to the gills - which I expected, but which surprised Kim a bit.

The kids enjoyed the festival, for wildly different reasons.


Alex, because he played a carnival game, got to throw balls to break plates, and won a nice prize all by himself. Here he is, holding his latest Clifford toy.










Sammie, because he got to enjoy a lot of the sweet treats offered at the festival and to see a lot of people (including Danny Aiello, as the celebrity sighting of this festival.) Here she is, enjoying some raspberry cheesecake from Caffe Palermo.







Kim was able to go into the church of the Most Precious Blood (the national shrine of San Gennaro), located about a block and a half into the feast, and we all marveled at the interior.

Overall, quite fun for all - and amazingly, when we left, it was only 10:00!

Now, for the second city - and it's about as different as you can get from Little Italy in New York. Last night (and again tonight), I am volunteering with the Knights of Columbus at the North Georgia State Fair here in Cobb County.

I did not have the camera with me, as we were bringing bags of ice to the various vendors around the fair. It's too bad, because then I would have some great pictures of the Oak Ridge Boys performing in the Equestrian Pavilion, which was right next to our truck.




One festival is on a busy city street, the other in a wide-open park.

One festival had Danny Aiello, the other had the Oak Ridge Boys.

One festival is easily accessible by subway, the other can only be driven to.

One festival had lots of fashionably dressed folks trying to wear as few clothes as possible, the other had lots of rural and suburban folks who should wear as much clothing as possible.

One festival had everyone walking around with drinks in hand. So did the other one.

One festival had lots of people heading home by 10:30 when the concert ended. The other, I'm sure, kept going well into the AM since it's easy to take the 6 or N train back.

One festival had great food of several different nationalities all around. The other had funnel cake and barbecue. Both are wins there.

Both festivals, though, were lots of fun in their own way.

I'll have the camera with me tonight, as the kids are coming along, so I'm sure I'll have some pictures later.