Sometime later, and somewhat poorer after paying for the unavoidable toll roads (seriously - it was $16 to cross one of the bridges! Suddenly driving over the Severn into Wales seems very good value indeed), we pulled up outside Elad and Daphny's apartment in Brooklyn. It's been a few years since Berkeley but very little has changed, except for a little boy called Ollie who they gave birth to.
On Tuesday we took the subway into Manhattan. Never again will I complain about the elevators in DC Metro stations. In New York they just don't bother with them, and my aging body and growing child meant several aches and pains from carrying a pushchair up and down the stairs while we hit Times Square, Battery Park, then walked all the way up past the World Trade Center site to West Village.
There we met with the other member of my family who abandoned Welsh roots to find fame and fortune in the New World. My cousin Katherine has done a bit better than me, given she's a curator at The Guggenheim and married a film director, and she has a new little boy too, who's called Orson and stays still about as much as Pete. It's fair to say Pete didn't really understand why a baby was constantly grabbing him and knocking down the blocks he was building but, given how certain members of this family get along, I'd describe this first meet-up as a great success.
This morning we filled up on gigantic pancake breakfasts in a 24-hr diner. A classic experience, including a New York waitress getting into a huge shouting match with a customer, only drowned out by the rumble of the subway trains passing underneath. We made it home, stopping at the amusingly-named Delaware Welcome Center motorway services.
What did Emily think? She admitted that the sum total of her New York knowledge was from films and TV shows, and the real thing didn't disappoint. Was she overawed by the huge buildings, the hectic pace, and the sheer number of human beings crammed into a towering city? No, she said, but then she does live in Bristol.
Some things never change - Elad stays up too late, I end up sitting there talking about how we should have formed a band.
Pete sizes up Fry the cat. And the other way around.
And Noozie's here too!
Daphny likes having her photo taken as much as she used to as well.
Emily fulfills one of the classic aunt roles. Push!
This is their Statue of Liberty pose, they tell me...
Looking at the skyline from a pier in Brooklyn.
And then heading in!
Times Square (although we found none of the famous body-painted women).
Orson, who could power all those big screens with his energy.
Cousins playing together. Sort of.
A little pre-dinner drink.
Katherine, Rob and Orson - my closest relatives.
A quick run around the amazing Prospekt Park before our drive home.
Boys' adventure.
Ollie! If I wasn't so friendly with Elad and Daphny I'd have just kidnapped him.
Emily didn't want to go hungry on the journey. Or for the next three days after that.
