The South China Sea from my Cheung Chau residence

Manhattan from the bluff near our home in Weehawken

At our wedding

On 6 January 2001 Suzanne Smith and I were married in New York City. Music at the reception was provided by Albert Narkolayev and his band. I had heard Albert playing with his band, then called Shalom Aleichem, at a Muslim wedding in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in 1991. I had been skeptical when he told me of his plans to come to New York, but he made it within the year. His current band, which has three members from his old group, played traditional Central Asian music as well as popular Western standards.

From our new home in Weehawken, New Jersey, we have a 15 minute walk along and down the New Jersey Palisades to the Port Imperial Pier, from which one can take a New York Waterways ferry across the Hudson River, 7 minutes to the 38th Street Pier in mid-town, or 17 minutes to Pier 11 by Wall Street. (Unlike in Cheung Chau, we can also go by bus, which takes 10 minutes to Port Authority Bus Terminal).

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