Happy Anniversary Babe,

This would have been our 29th year married our 32nd together.  We had so many good days, just not enough years.  You were the best thing that ever happened to me and I would gladly give up anything for a little more time with you.  We leave tomorrow for Paris and we had a good day today.  We rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  Most tourists don’t know that you get a really good view from this ferry which is free.  Hayden almost got left on Staten Island though, he goes to take pictures and gets separated from the group.  It does prove that he is a Krebs’ though, we get lost all the time.  I have a terrible sense of direction and people say sometimes when they are giving me directions, it looks like my eyes glaze over and I go somewhere else.

After the ferry, we walked and took the subway to Rockefeller Plaza, the big Lego store, and ate a 5 guys burgers.  That was the first time I had ever eaten there, even though Stillwater has one.  I am thrifty and those burgers are a little pricey, but they were delicious.  Then we walked over to Central Park, it was beautiful.  It amazes me that the founders of this city had the foresight to build in a green space that big for a city this size.  It was massive, but the quietness of it in the middle was it’s greatest feature.  You could barely hear the city at all.  I do love that of NYC, in California if a rich person wants to buy the beach and keep everyone else off, it can be done.  The city of New York seems to feel that all citizens deserve some green space, I love that.  The land that the park sits on is worth billions to developers and the City won’t let them have it.  They also built battery park along the river and made it open to the public for miles, no condos for multi millions.  We walked it yesterday and I love that it is open to all.  New York City has the highest taxes in the country, and to you New Yorkers…Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do.  Thank you so much for keeping this city alive and flourishing so people like us can come and see what you’ve done.

We have done so much this week that we never thought we would, we have marked off so many things from Debs bucket list.  Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, my personal favorite; The New York Public Library.  Patience and Fortitude guarding the entrance.  Deb had already marked off the subway.  Several years ago we got a chance to visit Washington D.C.  We had contacted our congressman before we left and scored passes to see the US Senate in action, but she liked the subway even better.  Not all of the system was handicap accessible at that time but we found an entrance that had an elevator.  There was a conductor guy down there that phoned the train, when it pulled up a guy with a ramp jumped off the train.  We were standing right where we were told, he threw the ramp down, unfolded it, we zipped up onto the car, and he folded it, jumped on and we were gone in the time allowed per stop.  It was really fun and quick.  I will continue to mark off her bucket list, and I will listen for her voice, leading me to the right ones on the list.

Happy Anniversary Babe and I miss you.