Scenes from The Cake Boss and Skylark on the Hudson

We've been to Hoboken a number of times. Walked the entire length along the Hudson. Wandered into the back streets. Found our way to restaurants and sports bars. Hoboken can strike you as nearly ideal, in certain weather, at certain hours of the day. It is, always, happening.

It's also home to The Cake Boss. Carlo's Bake Shop sits right there, in the center of things, long lines of sweet-seekers at its door. We stood in that line this past Monday morning because it was about time. Bought a few cookies (and, uh, yeah they were good). Took a few shots. Listened as people ordered boxes upon boxes of delicacies. Then we walked back toward the Hudson, through the train station and into Jersey City, where I had this tower of vegetables at Skylark on the Hudson, a fine diner that, with all its fresh foods and lovely towerings, helped me forget the sugary sins I'd just committed.

Forget all those anxieties about book reviews and sales. This is the real stuff of life.

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spending the weekend with my son; and words I once wrote, discovered by another

We arrived just ahead of a massive storm. Ran through thinning rain drops. Settled down, then walked some more, and last night had a meal at a restaurant of his choosing. I took this photograph just as the storm was lifting. That's the Freedom Tower, fast becoming the western hemisphere's tallest building.

Today was glorious—a morning spent walking the quiet streets of SOHO, taking photos at the front doors of places we love, talking.

Children grow up. That's what they do. And when they are happy—when they have built their own lives, when they have made their own choices, when they show us their 'hoods and their homes—we are old and young in the same vast moment.

A happy day to all of you—no matter who you are or where your life has taken you.

And thank you to Melissa Middleman Firman, who discovered my words here alongside the words of truly great people. I often don't know what I'm doing standing in the same room as some of my heroes and heroines. I certainly don't know what to wear to the party. But I'm glad I was invited.

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