Fourth of July in New York City

We just got back from a fabulous weekend in New York for the 4th of July. Every time I visit, I come away with a new appreciation for New York. It has lots of character (and characters). We did lots of walking and eating and I even found time to snap a few pictures.

Ryan in Central Park...

New York has such great playgrounds. This one in Central Park had lots of slides, swings, a sandbox and a fountain. Ryan was in heaven.

Yep, that's my boy. Parents of young children are constantly faced with the same dilemma - when your child does something cute-but-gross/dangerous, do you take the shot first? In this case, I figured putting his mouth all over a public play area touched by thousands of grubby hands probably wasn't going to kill him, so I took the shot.

Ryan enjoyed his first sandbox experience...

I didn't have a ton of time for photo exploration, but I grabbed a few shots while we were walking.

This was the view looking across the Hudson River into New Jersey as we got ready to watch the fireworks.

Ryan's #1 favorite "toy," the Blackberry. He had his mind set on walking around the crowded pier, and this was one of the few things that could get him to sit quietly. Until he saw complete strangers making calls and got upset they wouldn't let him play with their phones.

He was also enthralled with the helicopters flying overhead.

Shooting fireworks with a telephoto lens and without a tripod is pretty much an exercise in futility. I tried anyway, but didn't really like the results. After a while I intentionally played with the camera during long exposures to make something more abstract and I thought they were kind of cool.

Here's a shot of the grand finale that came out decently.

We had a great time and can't wait to visit New York again.

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