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!