December weekends - visits from friends

In the weeks after Thanksgiving, we had a couple of visits from friends.  First, our friend Kyle came up from Columbus.  Kyle was attending training in Manhattan, and he came up the weekend after Thanksgiving to visit us in Ramsey.  On Friday night, we all went to an Italian restaurant in Ramsey, Bon Giovanni.  The dinner was great - what was interesting was that this was a "BYOB" restaurant (or in this case - bring your own wine).  We found this out as we were seated, so Kyle and Charlie headed to the liquor store to buy a couple of bottles for dinner. We all had some great pasta dishes (and a free dessert!), and then headed over to the local pub, Brady's at the Station, for a few drinks. All 3 of us are Miami-Ohio grads, but we unfortunately just missed the big end to the MAC Championship game, which Miami won in an upset of Northern Illinois. Watch the Redskins (OK, they are actually the Redhawks) in their first bowl game in a while this Thursday at 8 – it’s the goDaddy.com bowl.

On Saturday, we all headed down to the city and met up with our friend Kelly, who is on a rotation program in a different group from Charlie.  We had brunch at a delicious Jewish Deli on the Upper West Side (called Lanskey's) and then walked around in the freezing temperatures at the holiday booths at Union Square. After that, we went to Ship of Fools, a sports bar on the Upper East Side, to watch some college football and meet up with Charlie’s friend Brian.

The next weekend, Charlie’s college friend Jon came up from Baltimore to visit him and Mike. They had a guys night out in Hoboken that involved some 2AM pizza topped with Penne. The next day, Charlie was introduced into his first sandwich from Fiore’s deli, a famous Hoboken tradition. Roast Beef and Mutz, smothered in gravy. Delicious, and highly recommended for anyone who's ever in Hoboken!

The rest of the weekend involved some Christmas shopping for our next trip – a week-long visit to Ohio (post to come soon…)