Happy New Year from the Big Apple!

We were very excited for New Year's Eve this year because 2 of our very good friends, Craig and Ashley, were coming to visit us and we planned a very festive night out in the Big City (no, not Ramsey - Manhattan).  They arrived Thursday morning, Charlie picked them up from the airport and right away they had plans to go on a walking tour of the City while we went to work.  They definitely got their fill of NYC during their 6 and half hour walking tour and saw just about everything (everything except for the Rockefeller Tree) and even witnessed the remnants of the 2 feet of snow that fell the day after Christmas.  Later that evening, the 4 of us went to dinner at Dino and Harry's Steakhouse in Hoboken.  It had been highly recommended by one of Charlie's friends, however we felt like we needed a "local" to get noticed by the waiter, and were pretty sure are order was forgotten.  The service that night was a bit of a deterrent to the overall experience, and maybe by the time we got our food we probably would have eaten anything.  But the steaks were excellent! And although the waiter decided to go with the avoidance tactic, he partially saved himself by giving us a free dessert.

Friday morning, Charlie took Craig and Ashley to a New Jersey Diner (while Katie had to go into work).  They all seemed to enjoy the over-abundance of food that the diner always dishes out.

We took the 4:45pm train into the City for our big night out, but before dinner and drinks, we had a very important stop to make first...the Rockefeller Tree!  We got to the tree and, although Charlie thought it should be bigger, the rest of us felt that our holiday season was complete!

After our tree excursion, we tried to make our way to Bocca di Bacco, an Italian restaurant where we had reservations. However, getting to the restaurant became quite a challenge.  While Katie was trying to talk on the phone to the Emergency Veterinarian (more on this part of the evening below), we noticed tons of people starting to run past us.  We stood there for a little while trying to figure out why everyone was running....should we be running from something?  Apparently everyone was running to get into 7th Avenue because the NYPD was blocking off each cross street. Miss the cross-over, and you would have to go many blocks North before being able to cross to the other side of Times Square.  They do this to control the crowds and funnel the people down toward the ball dropping, but we started to panic about getting to the restaurant. Fortunately, technology saved the day! We told the police that we had dinner reservations on the West side of 7th, and Charlie could pull up the email on his phone to prove it!

The restaurant was really cute and decorated for New Year's Eve and served some very delicious italian. After dinner we killed some time at a random pub and then made our way to The Stone Rose at Columbus Circle.  We had pre-bought tickets for an open-bar party at The Stone Rose, which over-looked Central Park and Columbus Circle.  The 4 of us had a great time ringing in the New Year while definitely getting our money's worth at the open (top-shelf might I add) bar.

In typical NYC fashion, we had pre-arranged for a car service to pick us up at 2 AM and we were  thankful that we did.  The car was waiting for us and even had bottled water for the ride home.  Charlie chatted it up with the driver while the rest of us passed out in the back seat.

Aside from all the fun that we had, the evening started out with a bit of a scare.  Katie had taken Griffey to a new Vet on Thursday morning to get his updated Rabies Vaccine.  That evening, the poor little guy's stomach became upset.  He threw up several times but then seemed to be acting normal.  Friday morning, we gave him a little bit of food and he seemed fine.  We were having him stay at Best Friend's Pet Care ("Camp") where he stays when we are out of town. At 5 PM we got a call that he was sick again.  We were concerned so the good people at Best Friend's agreed to take him to an emergency animal hospital.  They gave him some IV fluids and something to calm his stomach and thought that he probably had a reaction to his vaccine.  Charlie and I could not wait till the morning to go get him and make sure he was ok.  They took very good care of him and the IV fluids and medicine seemed to help and he was back to acting like his old self.

The next day, the 4 of us and Griffey just hung out watching New Year's Day bowl games. We cooked pulled pork, vinegar-based cole slaw, hot cookies (recipe courtesy of Charlie's mom), and jalapeno dip. Charlie's hangover was not helped by Michigan's poor performance in the Gator Bowl - they were blown out by Mississippi State, but overall it was still a great weekend!