July 19

On our first full day in NYC we had a little business to take care of before we could be complete tourists. Our first stop was Fordham University in the Bronx, where Vince had a meeting scheduled with the soccer coach followed by an official campus tour with the admissions office. Besides being a very classy Division 1 school in the center of the cultural universe (NYC), here are a few other tidbits about it:

• U2 played a concert there in front of the main green a few years ago. A very intimate setting and it would have been a spectacular show.
• The bedroom scenes from The Exorcist were filmed in one of the dorms. Wouldn't it be the luck of the draw to get that room your freshmen year.
• It sits just about 2 blocks from Little Italy.

While Vince and Ben took care of business at Fordham, Paula and the girls checked out the fabled Bronx Zoo. When the boys finished up at Fordham the girls still had some zoo to cover, so they headed to Little Italy for something to eat. What a rich and eclectic blend of cultures--Italians, Greeks and Puerto Ricans (to just name a few) creating a universe where food, language and style are all evolving into something unique, that only exists there in Little Italy.

By the time we all met up again it was late afternoon and since we were in the city with our own car and getting back across the bridge to our hotel in New Jersey was a bit of an unknown, we decided to hang it up for the day and get back to home base.

I think this was Gryffindor House

Vince in front of Fordham's main building. That's where U2 played.

Paula and Maya in front of the ornate gate of the Bronx Zoo

If it weren't for the glass, Maya could have smelled this guy's breath.

They had some really big caterpillars...

...and butterflies.