Holiday Season in New York City

Before heading back home to Ohio for Christmas, we spent some time in New York City.  Originally, we had planned to be home the week before Christmas, but Charlie's work changed to make mandatory vacation time the week after - so we switched up to come to Ohio the week between Christmas and New Year's.  On Saturday the 17th, we went down to do some final Christmas shopping and see the city.

We started off going to Croxley's Ale House down on 3rd Street and Avenue B.  Croxley's is a little bit further south in Manhattan from where we are used to.  But they had a 20-cent wing deal and a huge beer selection that Charlie wanted to try out.  He got the "Black and Blue" - which was a combination of Guinness and his favorite New York area beer, Bluepoint Blueberry Ale.

After lunch, we were on to the main point of going to Manhattan - shopping.  We went to Grand Central Station for the Holiday Fair in Vanderbilt Hall.  The Fair had many shops set up from local New York businesses.  We got quite a few of our presents for our family from here - and Charlie got Katie's present, a winter painting of our next stop - the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center.

The tree is an annual tradition in New York City going back "officially" to 1933 (unofficially to 1931) - that has, of course, become more and more grand today.  Every year, the Gardens Divisions searches long and far for a huge tree - up to 100 feet tall.  Once selected, the tree is brought in by a trailer to be put up in the center of Manhattan in mid-November.  The tree is then lit toward the end of November, and left up until January 6th.  There is ice skating and a generally enormous crowd surrounding the tree every Christmas season.

We also saw the Saks Fifth Avenue Lights display nearby on 5th Avenue, and Rudolph took some time out of his busy schedule to get a picture with Katie.

We went back to Manhattan on Wednesday night that week for some more New York City Christmas spirit.  We got tickets to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, headlined by the Rockettes.  This is also a Christmas tradition since 1933.  It was a great show and we were glad we got a chance to see it this holiday season!

A wedding in Chicago - weekend of December 10th

We didn't do too much over the weekend of December 3rd - I (Charlie) had to travel to the west coast for work, leaving Sunday before noon.  A long trip to Los Angeles meant I missed the Bengals game (which was fine since they lost 20-19 on a last second play, and would have locked up a playoff spot it they could only hold on to a lead!

Anyways - I had a presentation and meetings in Los Angeles on Monday and the same in Phoenix on Tuesday.  I really didn't get to see much in LA - I got in late and left for Arizona shortly after I was done working.  I was able to see the Hollywood sign from the building, so I have a picture shown below - it looked a lot closer than this picture seems!

In Phoenix I had a little more of a chance to see something in the area - the KPMG office is actually in Tempe, AZ right near Arizona State.  We went to lunch with the team we met with at the Arizona State Golf Club - where Phil Mickelson (he of the KPMG hat) used to play college golf!  I took a red-eye flight back Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, and I don't know if I'll ever do that again...

That weekend the two of us had some travel again for a wedding in Chicago for one of my college friends John.  There are still a ton of my old fraternity brothers living in Chicago - so it was good to see many of them again.  We stayed at the Sofitel in downtown Chicago, right near Michigan Avenue.

On Friday we walked around Michigan Avenue and met up with the wedding party at the Fireplace Inn.  On Saturday, we got a chance to meet with Katie's friend Rachel and her husband Pete for brunch at a David Burke Primehouse.  The restaurant has a cool weekend Brunch feature where they offer "Brunch in a Box" - which is a few different small dishes made to go together all on one plate.  Katie got one of these boxes with a french toast / pancake theme, while I went with a regular brunch menu item - sirloin and eggs.  It was fun to hang out with Rachel and Pete, who I hadn't seen in a while; Katie had to go alone to their wedding which I unexpectedly missed when Griffey got very sick.

The wedding and receptions were on Saturday evening at the Glen View Club where John belongs.  A bus took us out to the wedding, which had a very Christmas-y theme - there was a beautiful tree behind the couple and the night was a lot of fun.  We got to see many friends from Chicago and other cities who'd come up for the weekend, and in typical Theta Chi style danced until the band closed up shop at midnight.  That was plenty of fun for Katie - but I made it out for a nightcap with John and some other friends.

Tired but having had a good weekend - we headed back home to pick up our dog from camp.  We made it home just before Best Friends pet care closed, so Griffey was happy to see us a day earlier than we thought!

Thanksgiving 2011 - a visit from Katie's parents

For the second year in a row, we did Thanksgiving in Ramsey, NJ.  Unlike last year, we didn't do the Macy's Parade (though we did watch it on TV) and we didn't go to an NFL game (though we also watched plenty of that on TV).  Katie's parents came up to Jersey and we spent Thanksgiving with them.  They drove up on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and spent the week and the next weekend with us.  Griffey sure liked this, as it meant he spent hardly any time in the cage this week!  Katie's mom, Sue took him on at least a walk a day - and he got to spend some good "couch time" with Katie's dad, Bob.

Katie had to work some pretty late nights Monday thru Wednesday because her department was in the middle of preparing the 2nd quarter financial statements for Toys-R-Us.  Good thing for Griffey that he had the Grandparents to look after him.  Thursday, Katie and her mom got up and started cooking all the fixings while Bob and Charlie relaxed on the couch.  They did their part by carving the turkey.   Thursday was basically just spent relaxing and eating and watching football....but isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about anyways?  We watched the Macy's Parade on TV and was delighted to see the Miami University in the parade just before Santa Clause ended the show.

Friday, we had tickets for "Million Dollar Quartet" a play that used to be on broadway but moved off-broadway.  We first ate brunch at a local diner and then took the train from Ramsey into the City.  The play is about one night where Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash get together for a legendary jam session at Sun Records.  It was amazing show....we all loved it.  Afterwords, we walked thru Times Square.

Once we got back to Ramsey, we took Katie's parents to our favorite pizza place - Kinchley's.

Saturday, was the long awaited (over 2,900 days since a Michigan win for Charlie) Ohio State vs. Michigan game.  We made some skyline chili 3-ways for lunch and Charlie was jumping up and down when Michigan pulled off the win over the buckeyes the first time in 9 years.  Charlie had actually attended the last Michigan win - Ann Arbor in 2003.

Saturday evening, we took Katie's parent's to one of our favorite local restaurants called the The Village Grill.  They have really good food and on Saturday night they usually have entertainment.  We were lucky enough to have Katie's parents on the weekend that Lonnie Youngblood was playing there.   We knew Katie's parents would love him.  He is an old soulful singer who sings a lot of Frank Sinatra and songs from the 60's.  Charlie and I discovered him on our date to The Village Grill last Valentine's Day where  we closed down the bar and absolutely loved him.   It was a really fun evening with Katie's parents.

Sunday, Katie's parents helped us put up our Christmas tree and decorations and spent the day relaxing, which it was really nice to have the help.

It was a great week having Bob and Sue stay with us and Griffey really enjoyed having them too!

Some more visits from friends - Week of November 7th

We got to see a couple of Charlie's Theta Chi friends the week of November 7th.  Charlie's buddy Kris was in New York for work most of the week.  So on Thursday, I went down to New York to see him.  We went to a bar down near Union Square, had (what else) some wings, and I was excited to find some Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale on tap!  I was also excited to hear that Kris and his wife Tina are expecting a young one next year - so congrats to them!

That weekend, we saw another friend from Miami.  Our good friend Steve was a fellow accounting major in Oxford - and he did the Masters of Accounting program along with both of us.  Since then, while we've been "bean-counting", Steve has found a calling as an actor.  Steve lives in Philadelphia and was acting in a play in Trenton, New Jersey.  We met Steve in Trenton for a little while before his show at a restaurant called Settimo Cielo (7th Heaven) - which turned out to be an excellent Italian restaurant.  Trenton isn't too crowded on the weekends, but this is a real gem if you're ever there and want some nice Italian cuisine!

The play Steve was in is called "The History of Light", and was showing at the Passage Theatre Company a couple blocks from where we ate.  The Passage Theatre is a former church that has been renovated to house productions like this one.

The play has 4 actors - it's a really interesting story that mirrors two interracial romantic relationships.  Steve played Math, a successful lawyer of about our age.  He's recently re-connected with Sophia, his childhood and college friend / sweetheart who is a talented but struggling musician.  At the same time, Sophia has just received some letters from France from her father's ex-flame - a father whom she has never met.  The play re-counts the difficulties the older couple faced as an interracial couple in the 60's - which they were ultimately unable to overcome - and intertwines it with the changes Steve and Sophia have gone through.  Here's our buddy Steve with the actress who plays Sophia.

It was a great experience to see Steve "in action".  It was cool to see my old friend follow his pasion - a friend who me, Katie, and our friend Bryan shared countless stir-fry lunches at Bell Tower during our Masters year at Miami!  Steve was very good - I think I could almost sit back and see him as his character, which is pretty impressive for someone who I've known for 13 years.

Weekend of November 5th - A Michigan bar

We made our way into New York City a couple times in early November - well, we both made it in once and Charlie made it in twice.  Both times involved some sports bars.  On November 5th, we went down to the city intent on visiting one of the New York City University of Michigan bars.  After getting some advice from a co-worker, Charlie found out that Professor Thom's or one of the Brother Jimmy's locations.  Both restaurants were near Union Square - we settled on Professor Thom's as it seemed to be the easiest place to show up without a reservation.  Yes - you need a reservation at these places for the Michigan game, as they've dubbed themselves "Michigan friendly" and have become a hot spot for the game.  Since we planned this kind of last minute - that wasn't happening for us.

We got there about 20 minutes before the game, which was too late to get a seat at the bar.  But it was a cool atmosphere, and a really good game.  Unfortunately for Charlie - this turned into a Michigan loss to Iowa.  It was one of their two losses for the year - so this trip may be bad luck.  Not to be deterred, we headed home after getting some gyros from a street vendor - we must say, New York City street gyro's are way better than the counterpart in Columbus!

Returning to Columbus - Weekend of October 29th

We haven't both been back to Ohio in quite a long time - Katie visited friends in Columbus in August, but Charlie hadn't been back since last Christmas!  At the end of October, we made a trip back to Columbus for some tailgating and visiting some of the old stomping grounds.  We flew in on Friday the 28th and headed straight to Planks Pizzeria - the best pizza on the planet!!

We met a bunch of Katie's former co-workers there, and our friends Kevin and Kyle met us as well.  It was great to see both our friends and Katie's old AEP co-workers.  Then we headed to our friend's house (Ashley and Craig), where we were staying for the weekend.  They used to live next to us at Victorian Gate in Columbus, but they had just bought a house in Dublin.  Their house-warming party was Friday night, and a bunch of Katie's college friends came over - Sarah, Lisa W., Matt and Lisa B.  Also attending were Joey, Kathy and a new friend, Lilly, who was all of 8 days old at this point!

6 Labyrinth Ladies with the newest Labyrinth Lady - Lilly

The next morning, Katie dropped Charlie off at the Varsity Club around noon so he could hang out with some old friends from KPMG and to watch the Michigan game.  Charlie was in quite a good mood because Michigan won.  Ohio State was playing Wisconsin and it was a night game that didn't start till 8pm.  Katie came around 5pm with our friends Gary and Heidi and Katie's friend from college, Sarah.  Charlie and the KPMG crew were way ahead of us, so we tried to do some catching up.  Varsity Club was packed as usual and a lot of fun.  Charlie and Gary got a text from one of their fraternity brothers, Joel, that he was over at the Hiney-Gate.  Sarah and Katie had fond memories of the Hiney-Gate when it was in front of the Holiday Inn with the Danger Brothers Band - Hiney-Gate is a long-standing Buckeye before and after the game tradition, sponsored by Heineken.  Last year, they tore the Holiday Inn down and built a Dorm Hall there instead, so the Danger Brothers moved their show way up the road on Olentangy River Road. This year, they moved their show again to right behind the Varsity Club.  Once we got there, we were a little disappointed....it definitely was not quite the same.  The Danger Brothers are getting up there in age; they were still trying to rock and roll, but the location just made it feel a little different.  We didn't stay very long and decided to go back to the Varsity Club, where we got a table inside and watched the game from there.

Well, not all of the game.  Unfortunately for us, with 4 minutes ago and the score was 26-14 (OSU winning), we figured the game was over and the Burritos as Big as your Head were calling Charlie's name.

Please note - Charlie NEVER wants to leave a sporting event early, so this clearly can be blamed on the 12 hour day in combination with him missing La Bamba's.  Anyways, after we left Varsity Club and started walking to La Bamba's, we heard everyone talking about the exciting end to the game...Wisconsin scored 2 touch-downs to actually take a 28-26 lead, then OSU scored again on hail mary to win the game.  Our burritos tasted great though...Charlie missed them so much that he ordered two.

The next day we went to visit our good friends Bryan and Kristen who had a baby 6 weeks ago.  We brought some skyline over for lunch.  Charlie didn't understand why the baby couldn't eat skyline yet, so instead Kristen gave Charlie a bottle to feed baby Will.

Afterwords, we met Ashley, Craig, Gary and Sarah at Buffalo Wings and Rings to watch the Bengals game.  It was fun watching the Bengals game with some friends because we don't get to see many of the Bengals games in Jersey.  The Bengals pulled off a win against the Seahawks.

Sorry about that last post...Charlie posted that while I was not looking.

Sad day for the Buckeyes :(  I suppose we can let the Wolverines win once every decade. 

Go Blue!

that is all

October Weekends

We had 2 separate visits from former members of the Wyoming High School cross country team in the middle of October....

The weekend of October 15th, Charlie's friend of high school, Jason, came to visit him and another high school friend, Brian.  Jason had been in New York for work for the week and stayed for the weekend.  On Saturday, the three of them met at their favorite Wings Place (The Candlelight Inn) in White Plains near Brian's house because his wife, Adrienne was just a few days away from her due date.  We posted about it about a year ago, but the Candlelight Inn isn't a romantic restaurant that the name would make you think .... it is quite deceiving because it is home to the area's best wings (or so Charlie claims, even better than his previous favorite in Ohio, Wing and Rings) and a small little bar with only about 10 tables.   Katie had a hair appointment and met the guys and Adrienne later at their house with a brand new hair-do.  Charlie was a little shocked because it was first time in our 11 years of being together that Katie had bangs.  Charlie said it was a nice change but he said he always liked the way I looked before too.

All three of the boys' teams - Michigan (Charlie), Illinois (Jason), and Clemson (Brian) - were all undefeated coming into this weekend.  It looked like they were bad luck being together - Michigan lost to rival Michigan St. in the 12:00 game, Ohio State beat Illinois in a 3:30 game, and Clemson was on the ropes against Maryland in the 7:00 game.  Clemson did come back, so the teams weren't winless.   Katie brought Griffey to the Adrienne and Brian's - he was a little nervous, but he got along great with their cats!  Just kidding - Griffey does not seem to be a cat-friendly dog...

The next weekend, Charlie's sister, Abby, came to visit NYC and Philadelphia with some of her medical school friends.  She came a couple days early to stay with us and it was great spending time with her.  We picked her up from LaGuardia Airport on Saturday evening and took her to a new (well new to us) restaurant in Ridgewood, New Jersey, which just a few towns over from our town but has a larger down-town area.  We picked a Neapolitan Pizza place called A Mano.  The restaurant is one of 3 in the United States certified by the two organizations that authenticate Neapolitan Pizza restaurants.  We shared 2 pizzas between the three of us - a classic Neapolitan (Margherita) and a "Mezza Luna" - or half moon pizza - which is half pizza, half calzone.  And then we got a smorgasbord of desserts - Tiramisu, Nutella "pizza" and even some Gelato!

On Sunday, we headed into the city with Abby for some sight-seeing.  Charlie and Abby went to the famous Katz's deli in Manhattan for lunch.  Katz serves some of the best deli-style sandwiches you'll find - Abby got corned beef and turkey reuben, Charlie both got a pastrami and tongue combo.  When you walk into Katz's - each person gets a ticket.  When you order, they cut you a taste test of what you ordered, write down what you've got to pay, and you can't leave without handing over the ticket and payment on the way out.  If you're ever there - go with the corned beef.  Charlie usually likes pastrami best - but he tried some of Abby's sandwich, and the corned beef here is amazing!

Katie met them down in New York laster due to a Junior League lunch.  We met in the Meat-packing district where the "High-Line" starts.  The High-Line was an above ground rail-road system (similar to Chicago's Train system ) that was built in the 1930's remove dangerous freight trains from the streets of Manhattan by building a train system 30-feet in the air. The train system stopped being used in the 1980's and was transformed into a park in 2009.  It starts in the Meat-packing district around 13th Street and currently ends at 30th street (but there are plans to extend it to 34th street) and we walked the whole way.  It was a beautiful day and had lovely views of the city.

Here's the website: http://www.thehighline.org/

Afterwords, we walked over to 5th and 34 Street streets for the Empire State Building.  Charlie and I had gone to the top of the Empire State building, a few years after we graduated college once while we visited NYC.  The top of Empire State building is magnificient and is amazing to think of how it was constructed in 1931 and towers as New York's tallest  building at 102 stories currently.  Charlie had some fun with the camera settings on his phone...

Abby headed down to Philadelphia to meet her friends - while there she determined Penn Station has better Philly Cheesesteaks than Philly does, and after a few days there, she and her friends headed to New York City.  Charlie was working in the city on Wednesday, and he got a chance to meet them in the afternoon at the new 9/11 Memorial at what used to be Ground Zero.  The monument is an excellent tribute to the tragedy of those days - there are two reflecting pools where each of the Twin Towers stood, surrounded by the names of people who passed away in the 9/11 attacks and the 6 casualties of the 1993 WTC bombing.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Most Americans know the famous story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.  The short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was actually written by Washington Irving, whom lived and wrote about Sleepy Hollow, New York.  In Irving's story, the schoolmaster Crane vies for the attentions of Katrina van Tassel with Abraham "Brom Bones" van Brunt.  There are many ghosts known to Sleepy Hollow, most notably the Headless Horseman - a Hessian Soldier decapitated during the Revolutionary War who haunts travelers in search of a new head.

Sleepy Hollow is an area in the settlement of Tarrytown and happens to be right over THE BRIDGE (the Tappan Zee, not the one in the story :} ) from us.  Tarrytown has a number of events in the month of October in celebration of Halloween.  We went to three of them on Saturday night, October 8th.  The first is a storytelling of "The Legend" in the Old Dutch Church, which is the church by the burial ground where Crane is attacked by the Headless Horseman and also the cemetery where Washington Irving is buried.  This is told by local storyteller Jonathan Kruk - and was our favorite event of the weekend.  We'd really recommend, if you're ever around New York in the month before Halloween - this is something to do.  Kruk is dressed up in New England 18th century attire, and he really gets into the spirit of the story and halloween.  It's a great thing to do when the leaves are changing and it's Halloween season.  Here's the link to the website.

Before we went to the Old Dutch Church for the storytelling, we had a alittle bit of time so we took a stroll thru the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  Irving is buried there, but he is not the only famous person there.  Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, oil baron William Rockefeller (brother of John D.) and auto Walter Chrysler (founder of Chrysler Corp.) are all buried in the cemetery.

After the story telling, we walked across the street to Phillipsburg Manor which is transformed into a haunted house for halloween called the Horseman's Hollow.  Katie is a wimp when it comes to scary stuff, so she opted to stay out by the gift shop and Charlie went in by himself.  Charlie was impressed, but things like that just aren't quite that scary when you're 31 years old.

Next stop was dinner and we found this cute little restaurant with great views of the Hudson and the Tappan Zee Bridge appropriately called Bridge View Tavern in Tarrytown.  Great hamburgers and a Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale to tide us over before the last Halloween event!

Our last stop was The Great Jack-O-Lantern Blaze a few miles up the road from Tarrytown, at Van Cortlandt Manor.  Thousands (seriously - thousands) of pumpkins carved into amazing displays.  There were all different sorts of themes - pumpkins carved into a large snakes, dinosaurs, pirates and undersea aquarium of pumpkins.  A really cool experience that definitely put us in Halloween spirit.

(this one was Katie's favorite)