1. After breakfast with the guys at Sam's and after doing my morning writing, I watched the second half of The Rise and Fall of Penn Station. It was fascinating to learn more about the engineering challenges of building the train tunnels under the East River and the Hudson River. The station itself was as stunning a work of architecture as New York or any other city had ever seen. It was built in the Beaux-Arts style. Having trains able to come into and go out of Manhattan from New Jersey and Long Island transformed New York City, making it possible for people to live in the suburbs and conveniently travel into the city to work.
Over time, however, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company went into decline. Railroad travel had hit its peak of popularity, thanks to the automobile and the airplane. In 1963, demolition of Penn Station commenced and the gorgeous station was replaced with a more modern complex that included Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Plaza. Its destruction inspired and galvanized historical preservation efforts in New York City and across the USA. Among those buildings saved by this effort is Grand Central Terminal and the decision to preserve Grand Central resulted in an eventual large scale cleaning and restoration project. Grand Central Terminal had aged and deteriorated, but I know from being there just four days ago that you'd never know that today.
2. Since I'm in a New York state of mind, I decided to see if ESPN was carrying live coverage of the U. S. Open tennis tournament in Flushings, Queens, New York City. I watched the end of Sloane Stephens' efficient and emotional win over Victoria Azarenka and then settled in for nearly four and a half hours as Rafael Nadal and Russia's Karen Khachanov punched it out in a four set match that included some of the most thrilling rallies and exchanges between two tennis players I've ever seen. The twenty-two year old Khachanov played brilliantly, but, in the end, Nadal's relentlessness and experience was the difference as he won the match in four sets -- and every set was a nailbiter. I hadn't watched an entire tennis match for quite a while and it was exhilarating to watch these two players run each other all over the court, make a brilliant variety of shots from the baseline and at the net, and to see Khachanov play, knowing that he could emerge as one of the world's elite players in the coming years.
3. Shawn and Teresa came over for a 90 minute meeting of Beer Club. A local realtor had given Shawn a pressurized growler and he had had it filled with Wallace Brewing's 6:60 India Pale Lager. Being pressurized, this growler has a tap, so it was like having a gallon-sized keg of craft beer on our back deck. Shawn drew us each a delicious beer, then another, and the four of us yakked about what we'd been up to over the last couple of weeks since the last Beer Club meeting. I wondered if we might like to try one more beer and brought out a Blueberry Wheat beer from Ordnance Brewing of Boardman, OR. It was light, subtly flavored with the Oregon blueberries, and a pleasure for all of us.
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