Chicago and a visit from Katie's parents - Week of June 20th

For the week of June 20th, Charlie had to go to Chicago for work...this time he was teaching new audit seniors and afterwards he stayed the weekend to visit with some high school and college friends that live there.  He got to see many of his friends - Kris (known best as "Roadkill" to many of Katie's Labyrinth friends) and his wife Tina, Craig - who had driven up from Cincinnati on the way to Wisconsin and stopped in Chicago for a night, Jon "Kiess-ring" - who now lives in Miami but was also visiting Chicago that weekend,   "Big Jay", Tommy aka "Tomas", Jason - his best friend from high school, and others.  Charlie spent Friday night beer ponging with Jay, Kris, and Craig into the wee hours of the morning at a bar near Kris's house, then went to Jason's on Saturday.  He spent Saturday afternoon hanging out with some of Jason's friends, then met Jon, Tommy, Jay and others at one of Chicago's many summer festivals.

While Charlie was away, my parent's (Bob and Sue) decided to come visit and keep me company while baby-sitting our dog.  Bob and Sue made the 10 hour drive from Ohio all in one day and arrived in New Jersey Monday evening.  I went to work each day and Griffey got to show them the neighborhood.  We all think he really enjoyed being out of the cage for a week; getting several walks a day by mom, taking naking naps on the couch with my dad and laying in the sun in the back-yard while Bob and Sue helped make the yard a bit more presentable and safer for Griffey.  A little bit about our New Jersey yard...I believe in one of our first posts we sent pictures of the house and yard, basically it could be a really nice yard but it has been let go for so long that it is over-run with poison ivy, an above ground pool that has been partially sunk into the ground with a fairly decent paver patio around it, which all it does it collect rain water and leaves and junk on the cover that from time to time we clean off just so the cover doesn't get too full and a rotted wooden children's play-ground equipment.  The play-ground area of the yard is one of Griffey's favorite parts of the yard..probably because it is so gross and muddy and this area has the worst of the poison ivy, so we always struggle to keep him out of this area.  So my dad had an idea to buy some chicken wire fencing and wooden posts to block off this area.  On Sunday my dad and I put the fencing up and completely blocked off this area...it looks pretty ghetto ...but heh it's Jersey...and the yard is hopeless anyways.  Unfortunately, one side effect of putting up this fence was that I happen to get too close to the poison ivy and unknowingly got some on my legs.  For some reason, the rash did not really show up on my legs until 2 weeks later ...right in time to go on vacation to the Cayman Island's (more on that trip and the poison ivy later).

Other than helping clean our house and yard and baby-sit our dog, I showed my parent's a few of our nearby favorite restaurants in Allendale and Ramsey and on Saturday we took the train into the City for the broadway show "Mary Poppins".  We had orginally wanted to see Jersey Boys...but it is the most expensive ticket in town, so since I am an only child and loved Mary Poppins growing up, my dad decided to suck it up and go see it.  Although we happened to sit right in front of 2 kids who would not stop kicking my dad's seat (Carico luck as he would call it)....we all really enjoyed the play (including Bob).  Afterwards, we walked through Times Square and then took the train back to Ramsey.  

Charlie returned Sunday evening and the 4 of us went to eat at Brady's in Ramsey which over-looks the train station and had a great time catching up with each other.

On Monday, Charlie and Katie had to go to work, but Bob and Sue drove up to West Point Academy which is only about and hour from our house.  Charlie and I had previously gone on the West Point tour last summer with Charlie's parents and we knew my parents would really enjoy it.

It was sort of sad to see them go, but one good thing about being far away is we all really appreciate the time together a lot more.  Thanks Mom and Dad - for all your help around the house and taking care of Griffey.  He sure does miss all the walks and attention.

DC, the U.S. Open and our Anniversary - weekend of June 17th

Our 3rd wedding anniversary was June 14th (which also marked the 1 year anniversary of living in Jersey), fell on a Tuesday this year.  We had planned on going to Long Island for a night the weekend after our anniversary, but the week before Charlie's friend Jon offered up free tickets to golf's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD.  This is just outside of Washington D.C.  Jon was getting married a few weeks after this weekend, and just didn't have the time to make it.  We decided, hey, that sounds better than Long Island, so we took Jon up on the offer.

We both took Friday off and drove down to D.C.  We got there in the early afternoon and walked around to a bunch of the monuments on the National Mall.  We didn't have time to see every one, but we saw a number of monuments we hadn't been to yet, including the Jefferson and FDR Memorials.  The Roosevelt Memorial is one of the newer ones at the National Mall, and it was cool to see.  We also stopped by the Washington and Lincoln monuments, and noticed they are currently working on a tribute to Martin Luther King.

After that, we went to a eat near Capitol Hill at the Monacle.  The Monacle is a great little restaurant that is apparently frequented by politicians.  It wasn't too crowded the night we were there, which was great, and we both had great steak dinners.

The next morning we drove to an area North of Bethesda, where we grabbed the free shuttle to Congressional Country Club, the site of the 111th United States Open.  The Open started in October 1895, and has been the site of the U.S. golf championship ever since (except for 6 years missed due to the first and second World War).

This was the 3rd time the Open had come to Congressional - the previous two times it was won by Ken Venturi of San Francisco (1964) and Ernie Els of South Africa (1997).  When we arrived there, 22-year old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland had an enormous lead on the field.  He was at an incredible 11-under par, which was 6 strokes clear of 2nd place and 9 strokes clear of everyone else.  He only increased his lead that day, and went on to to win the tournament.  

We didn't spend a lot of time watching McIlroy; the last group teed off pretty late, and the crowd was enormous.  When we first got there, we bought some memorabilia in the enormous gift shop tent (as we walked in one of the volunteers was saying "welcome to wal-mart" which was very appropriate for as large as this gift shop was).  Next stop was the hospitality tent.  It was great - an air-conditioned tent with free food and drinks!  Most important was the air-conditioning, as the temperatures were over 90 degrees with a lot of humidity.  Katie sat on the 18th green to watch the golfers finish, while Charlie walked the course.  He followed Lee Westwood and Fredrik Jacobsen, who both moved up the leader board on Saturday.  He also followed Phil Mickelson - who wears a KPMG hat as he's sponsored by Charlie's company.  We got the shuttle back around 7:30 and headed home, tired from an eventful weekend in our nation's capital!

Belmont Stakes and more visit from Columbus folk - Weekend of June 10th

After a weekend where we both had to work, we had friends visit from Columbus for the 2nd time in 3 weeks.  Our friends the Rybickis and Kyle came up on Thursday night for a weekend of seeing a lot of what NYC has to offer.  On Thursday, we went to The Stable in Ridgewood for dinner.  This is a Rodizio style restaurant where you pay an upfront price and they carry out various cuts of beef on a stick - basically serving you until you can't eat any more.  Oh yeah, they do have the occasional pork or chicken product - but, the Chick Fil-A cows would Not be happy as we did not "eat mor chikin''.  It's also a BYOB restaurant, so we stopped by the local licquor store for wine and local beers.  Most of the time when we have visitors, we spend the majority of time in NYC, but it was fun to show friends some of the local areas.

On Friday, Kyle, Jeff and Melanie went into the city in the morning.  Charlie worked a half-day then met them down in Greenwich Village.  They stopped for a beer at White Horse Tavern, a somewhat historic bar in the Greenwich Village area that has been open since 1880.  We followed that up with a trip to Magnolia Bakery of fame from the show "Sex and the City".  This was the second time Charlie had tried the cupcakes - and he was yet again unimpressed!  We then met up with Katie in Times Square to eat dinner at Bond 45, an Italian Steak House, which is one of the most historic restaurants in the Times Square area, housed in the building where the old Hammerstein Theater was and later became a department store named the Bond Clothing Store that was famous in Times Square back in 1940's.  We all had a really good time there and enjoyed our meals, though the huge portions and all the cupcakes and beers throughout the day meant we all shared meals.  We shared the Veal Parmesan, which has become Charlie's "go-to" at Italian restaurants of late.  It was really good!

After Dinner, the 5 of us walked over to the Foxwoods Theatre on W. 42nd to see Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.  We actually unknowingly went to what was called a "preview" showing - before the official premiere.  There wasn't anything special about this - there have been previews since November - but we did really like the play.  It had gotten some bad press because of injuries to some performers when they were first practicing;  it's a musical written by Bono and Edge from U2 where the actors / stuntmen glide over the audience performing aerial battles.  At times they would "jump" (on strings of course) from the stage to the balcony. This was very different from anything we'd seen, and we enjoyed it!  Despite the heavy costuming, we also thought we recognized the actor playing the Green Goblin.  Upon consulting the playbill, we learned he'd played Scar in The Lion King, which we'd seen with Charlie's parents in Cincinnati a few years ago.

On Saturday, we went to the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes, which is held every June in Belmont Park in Elmont, NY.  This is fairly close to Queens - where the Mets stadium and La Guardia Airport are located.  This is the final leg of the Triple Crown in racing, but 2 different horses had won the first two, so the possibility of a Triple Crown horse was out of play. Kyle, Jeff and Melanie had all been to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby in the past, and this was kind of the main draw of their visit.  We got to the race track a little after noon, in time for the second race, and spent the rest of the afternoon betting on horses and exploring the grounds.  We actually bought seats for the race, as opposed to General Admission tickets.  This was a good move as the weather was cloudy with mixed rain showers throughout the day.  In some ways, this was a good thing, as the crowd was definitely less than what we'd expected.

Charlie hit a trifecta on an early race, but lost his winnings and then some on the actual Belmont Stakes.  Katie also lost money, but (if I remember correctly), Jeff did walk away with some winnings. Animal Kingdom was the favorite in the race, having won the Kentucky Derby and finishing 2nd in the Preakness.  But, unbeknownst to us at the time, he stumbled out of the gate and we were wondering how he was in last place for the first three-fourths of the race.  He got up to 4th toward the end, but finished 6th.  Shackelford, who was one of the favorites, led most of the race, but a horse we hadn't heard of, Ruler on Ice, ended up winning as a 20-1 longshot.  Needless to say, none of us picked that horse.

We showed some of our local favorites to our friends - we went to Goldberg's famous bagels for breakfast before the Belmont and finished up by going to Charlie's favorite wings joint, Candlelight Inn in Scarsdale, NY.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to catch a game against the Indians.  Kyle is an Indians fan, but unfortunately for him, it was quite a blowout by the Yankees.  We got outfield seats and had a good time touring the stadium, which opened in 2009.  Charlie had been to the park twice the year before.  After the game, our friends headed to La Guardia from the game and we rested after a busy but extremely fun weekend!

(can't believe they have sushi at the ball-park right next to the funnel cakes...we are not in Ohio anymore!) 

Friends visit on Memorial Day - Weekend of May 28th

The weekend of May 28th (Memorial Day Weekend) is known as "Fleet Week" around NYC...which means that tons of sailors and military come into the city for special festivities to honor their service and this year amongst all the sailors there were also a lot of dentists due to a national dental convention...which lucky for us brought our good friends Craig and Ashley to the city for her professional continued education.   Friday the 27th was the first warm sunny day the City had in a few weeks, so we decided to try "The Frying Pan"...which is a sunken ship that was recovered and now floats in the Hudson off of the Chelsea Piers (http://www.fryingpan.com/) ...very popular amongst the young NYC professionals after work.   A friend of ours warned us that it gets crowded really early, so Charlie and I got there around 3pm...we didn't have to wait in line to get it...but once we got on the ship...we realized how popular it was.   Everyone just buys buckets of corona's ($36 for 6 beers in bucket...typical NYC prices) ...so we bought 2 buckets and waited for our friends Craig and Ashley to arrive.  Unfortunately they arrived right when the after work crowd was getting there and had to wait in a long line.....eventually they got in and we sat on the Hudson enjoying the weather and finishing our $6 beers.  Afterwards, we took a short cab to Greenwich Village and stumbled upon a couple of pubs for dinner and drinks.  Craig tried using his "smart" phone to look up nearby bars with entertainment....one of the most highly rated bars in the area was called "Marie's Crisis"....so we walk over to it and check it out...to find a small cramped piano bar in a basement packed with the most show-tune loving guys and girls....not exactly what the 4 of us were looking for....so we quickly ducked out...and the homeless person out front started laughing at us ....saying "i could have told you guys..that bar wasn't for us"...I think he stands there all night just getting a kick out of dumb people like us.

On Saturday, we went back into the city to see the Broadway play "That Championship Season" with Craig and Ashley.  They were able to get really good tickets from the half-price ticket booth.  Our seats were so close...we could literally see the sweat rolling down the actor's faces.   The plot was a little depressing....basically about a group of men in their 40's or so that had been on the championship basketball team back in their high-school days that have a reunion at their coaches house to talk about all their life problems...but the cast was amazing....Kieffer Sutherland, Chris North (Mr. Big from Sex and the City), Jim Gaffigan (Comedian ..has been on lots of shows..but I recognized him most from the Sierra Mist commericals), Brian Cox and Jason Patric.

It is always so much fun ...when we have people come in town to visit.