Rachael's Birthday

Have some birthday cake

Traveling with your camera helps make friends fast!  We were strolling New York’s vast Central Park at 9am on a sunny October Friday and paused at the majestic Bethesda fountain to savour the view and brisk air. 

Anna spotted a young couple sporting a cute little black and white paper bag shouting  “Happy F**king Birthday”  in bold letters.  She asked if she could photograph the bag to add to our “funny signs of the World” collection and they said yes.

“It’s Rachael’s birthday today and she is my best friend” smiled a handsome young man named Allison “ have some birthday cake!” 

Anna and David with Rachael in Central Park

From the naughty bag came a partially eaten fancy cake topped with burnt out candles,  and napkins, plastic forks and a knife. We were suddenly gorging on double chocolate with creamy icing.  Yummy!!  We quickly shared taking photos of each other with our cameras while others around us laughed at the impromptu celebration in the park. 

We love photographing people we don’t  know, a subject covered in   a recent Blog post. 

We learned they are both Brazilian – he from Sao Paulo living in Boston and arrived just an hour ago to spend just a few hours that day with Rachael a native of Salvador de Bahia and living in New York City.   They were clearly not “just friends” but were willing to share their joy with a crazy outgoing couple  at least 35 years their senior. (but act much younger?) 

We strolled along and chatted together for while and when they learned we had visited and  loved Salvador de Bahia just a year or so ago they immediately invited us to stay with them on our next trip there and we reciprocated and exchanged email addresses with glee.  The two couples parted ways with big smiles and affectionate hugs and we pondered how this could all happen in just 30 minutes without a camera to create such an instant bond between strangers – another life lesson from a camera.