Our last day in New Jersey

Friday was our last day in New Jersey!  And by the time this post is scheduled, we are already in Chicago, likely in a very messy house with lots of organizing to be done!  The movers came and got our stuff in New Jersey from Tuesday through Thursday to pack and load all of our stuff, so Wednesday was our last night sleeping in the house in Ramsey.  Each night our dog Griffey was on high alert as he got home and some things were packed into boxes (Tuesday night), everything but the bed was packed (Wednesday) and then nothing was left (Thursday).  Thursday night, we stayed in a hotel room in Allendale (town right next to Ramsey).  Moving here over 2 years ago was a fun adventure for the 3 of us - and the next few days will be a fun adventure for what has now become a party of 4.  With a 6-week old baby, the drive will move at a much slower pace :).

We're very excited to move to Chicago, but it is a little difficult to leave the place we've called home for 2+ years.  Sure, there are some things we won't miss about New Jersey - such as:

• Yankee fans (at least some of them) who seem to think it's their God-given right to be in the playoffs every single year,
• the way roads like Route 17 are set up so you can't make left turns and have to drive 2 miles past where you want to go just to turn around and go 2 miles back to get there (don't miss it on the way back - because this could end up costing you 8 additional miles of driving),
• the fact that we couldn't eat food from the Midwest - don't let anyone out here convince you otherwise, it's not better here.  The rare and more expensive dinners - yeah, they're possibly better in NY/NJ.  But for almost any type of your medium-to-lower priced meals, where we grew up and where we're going is much better.  Delis are the one notable exception to this rule; nothing holds a candle to NJ/NY delicatessens, 
• the poor cell phone / smart phone internet reception here.  Charlie has always noticed the difference, and his few trips to Chicago confirmed how much better it is there, and his mom noticed how bad it was when she was here,
• not being able to do any shopping on Sundays, except for grocery stores all stores and malls are closed on Sunday due to Bergen County being one of the last counties in America to still have what they call a Blue Law which outlaws all shopping on Sundays. 
• not being able to pump your own gas at the gas stations, although pregnant Katie really liked this because she didn't have to get out of the car, it just doesn't seem to be a job that is worth paying people once all the gas stations introduced pay at the pump.  And because you hand your card to a guy who then swipes it for you, we have heard on the news that there are a lot of incidents where credit card numbers have been taken from a side-swiper and the people don't realize it, which this would never happen in the rest of the country because you swipe your own card.  
• being so far away from where many of our friends and family are.

But New Jersey is the place our son was born, we've been married for longer during our time here than in Columbus (though not by much), and it's the longest Griffey has lived anywhere in his short life!  We did a lot of cool things while we were out here, and we'll miss that proximity to so much that the Northeast has to offer.  Griff will certainly miss the large backyard, but he'll like our new house (with a smaller yard) in Chicago, too!

Various "last time living in Jersey" things we did:

• Charlie taking the (really) long way home from work one night to get a meal at his favorite buffalo wing joint of all-time, Candlelight Inn, a couple of weeks before we moved.
• Seeing one last out-of-town visitor the week before we left - Julie, who coincidentally worked with both Charlie (at KPMG) and then Katie (at AEP).  Julie was in New York for a trip for AEP, and was kind enough to take the train up here to meet Brayden.  As promised - she got a picture with the baby on the blog!  

• Seeing friends Brian, Adrienne and their 11-month old daughter Charlotte came down for a quick visit to meet Brayden for the first time last Sunday morning.  Although we were an hour away from them, we always enjoyed meeting up with them and will definitely miss them. 

 

• Finishing all the frozen meals Charlie's mom had made to help us get through the early weeks with Brayden - since both our parents have been up here so much since he was born, this was actually the time when these meals were the most helpful!
• Spending Griffey's last 3 days at Best Friends Pet Care ("Doggie Day Camp") while the movers were here.  Griffey gets a report card each day, and he played with his best buddy Kirby most of the days.  He also got to have one last play day with his other friends (Charlie's co-worker's dogs), Dallas and Benji.

• Saying goodbye to both sets of co-workers.  Katie brought Brayden into her Toys R Us office on Thursday to introduce Brayden to her department and to say goodbye, which was really sad for her because she learned a lot during her time there and met some very nice people.  

• Eating Thursday meals from our most-frequented places in Ramsey.  Lunch was from Goldberg's famous bagels, which is about the best Deli place you'll find.  Dinner was pizza from Kinchley's Tavern, which we haven't gone to quite as often the past year, but was easily our most visited restaurant before Katie was pregnant.
• Walking through the house on North Central one last time Friday to spackle the walls and do some final cleaning.

So Arrividercci, Adieux, Adios, Auf Widersehen, Sayonara and Goodbye to New Jersey from the Mowry family!

An eventful trip to Chicago - weekend of September 8th

I (Charlie) made one last trip to Chicago before we moved.  The intent of this trip was three-fold:

1) Drive my car and a few of our things to our new house,
2) "Check in" to the new house - as Friday the 7th was the first official date of our lease,
3) Go to his friend's wedding in Chicago.

Then Sunday, I'd fly back and we'd drive the second car to Chicago the next weekend.

Unfortunately, things didn't go so well with #1 from above.  I left Thursday afternoon/evening, and planned to drive about half of the 12-13 hours that night.  About 4.5 hours into the 12 hour drive, the tire-tread from a semi in front of me flew off, smashed my fender and went right under my car.  It pretty much shredded the underbelly of my car and, for good measure, dislodged the bumper on it's way out the back of the underneath of my car.  Luckily, I was fine and was able to pull over on the off-ramp of an exit nearby.  My car, though, was not fine by any stretch of the imagination.  I'm so glad we have Triple-A, as it made things really easy to figure out who to call.  Katie called the police nearby, and my car was towed, I was checked into a hotel and on the phone with the insurance company just over an hour after the 10 PM accident.  The car won't be ready for a few more weeks, so logistics of getting it will be difficult, but, the good thing is that I'm fine even if the car isn't.

I got a rental car by noon the next day, moved my stuff over to that car, and finished off the drive to Chicago the next day.  Luckily, our real estate agent was able to meet me at the house much later than I'd anticipated, and I was able to get moved into our new house!  Unfortunately, I realized about 800 miles too late that I'd brought the air mattress but not the pump, so I spent the next two nights sleeping on the floor.

Even though so many things when wrong, still, it was a good trip!  I'm excited about our new house, and I got to go to an old college friend's wedding.  Tommy (a fraternity brother from Miami who's a year younger than me) and Lauren were actually both on the Miami University traveling trip through Europe back in the summer of 2001 - the same trip where Katie and I met!  So they're (at least) the 2nd "Miami Merger" that was on that trip!  Lauren and a group of 4 or 5 other girls spent a lot of time with Tommy, me and 3 or 4 other friends on that trip.  But they weren't dating at first, and in fact were just really good friends for the rest of college and even well after college when they both coincidentally moved to Chicago.  They started dating after their 5-year reunion back at Miami, and the rest as they say is history.  It was neat to see that the relationship of two of my friends had turned into a great marriage.  The only bummer was that Katie couldn't attend, but it was about a week too early for Brayden to travel.  I'm excited that we'll get to see them more now that we're moving to Chicago!

Brayden's first trip - meeting Great-Grandma over Labor Day weekend 2012

To round out the visit from Charlie's parents, we went down to St. Michael's, Maryland, so Brayden could meet his great-grandmother, Dorothy.

St. Michael's is in the Chesapeake Bay area, and we've been there a few times to visit Charlie's grandmother since we moved to New Jersey.  Charlie's parents could drive down there and then be closer to home, so they could head back to Cincinnati from there.  This was a good test for us - it was the first time bringing Brayden for a longer car ride.  He's been in his car seat quite a few times - on the way home from the hospital and for his and Katie's doctor checkups.  But this is a 4-hour drive if you don't stop at all.  And with a 4-week old baby, let's just say you will stop on a drive of that length.  Add a 4-year old dachshund to the mix, and do the drive on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, and door-to-door time was closer to 7 hours!  Still, the drive was a success, and we made it down to Grandma Dorothy's house in time for dinner!

We weren't there long, but we had fun hanging out at "Sei Han So" (the name of Dorothy's house).  On account of having a baby and a dog in tow, Charlie and Katie got the honor of sleeping in the upstairs bedroom for the first time ever (with Tom and Leslie taking the bed in the attic).  Katie and Leslie even made it into St. Michael's on Saturday morning to do a little shopping!  Tom and Charlie were again fine watching the baby.  We got a few family pictures - first up, 4 generations of Mowry's...

... and a dog!  When Leslie was taking this picture, Griffey decided that it wasn't fair for him to miss out on the excitement, and he jumped right onto Dorothy's lap!  That's OK, we don't want the first baby of the family to feel too left out :)

We also got some Michigan pictures in, as this Saturday was the first chance for Brady to watch Michigan football.  Tom and Leslie were already recruiting him for freshman classes in 2031...

... Unfortunately, Michigan did not impress Brady very much with the beat-down they got at the hands of Alabama!

We also got some pictures outside by the dock.  Griffey loved running around with Charlie in the expansive backyard - after that, he decided the 7-hour car ride was totally worth it!  And we took a picture by the tree Charlie used to climb (and once unexpectedly sang the Star Spangled Banner as a 5-year old).

And, the dock out back where Charlie, Peter, Abby and cousins used to catch crabs for Grandma's crab cakes...

We couldn't stay long - with the upcoming move to Chicago, we had a lot to do.  We left a little after lunch and again faced a drive that seemed longer than you'd expect, but was fun to do with our little family of 4.  It was good to see Grandma Dorothy with the newest addition to the family.

P.S. - Charlie also got to cross another restaurant from the Man vs. Food TV show off his list - we stopped on the campus of Rutgers University for dinner.  Rutgers is famous for their "Grease Trucks" - and if you think that sounds unhealthy, well, you'd be right.  These trucks are famous for crazy combinations and including the sides (i.e., french fries) inside the sandwich - R U Hungry being the most well-known.  They aren't very expensive either, which is a necessity for college fare.  We just split one sandwich - the #11, which was titled the "Fat Vastardi".  It has Gyro meat, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber sauce.  It was yummy, but probably wouldn't be a good idea to keep on your regular diet!

Tom and Charlie - Trip to Cooperstown

Today's my Dad's birthday, so Happy Birthday, Dad!  It's also appropriate I do a post about the other trip Dad and I took while my parents were in town.  Thursday, after Katie and my Mom had gone down to the city for a play and lunch, Dad and I made the 3-hour drive up to Cooperstown, New York, to see the baseball Hall of Fame.  Katie and I had been there once before for the HOF induction ceremony in in 2009, when we lived in Columbus.  I'd really wanted to go back when we got to New Jersey, since it's so close.  But for various reasons, we never had the chance to make it to any of the 3 induction ceremonies since we've been out here - including hometown favorite Barry Larkin's induction this year.

The drive is about 3 hours from where we live in Ramsey, and 2 of those 3 hours are on rural roads.  Cooperstown is a beautiful little town, though it was surprisingly busy the day we went.  It seemed like there was a little league tournament going on - we saw a bunch of kids in baseball uniforms.  Makes sense, as there is a field in the middle of town.  We had lunch at the Double Day Cafe, which is somewhere I remembered that Katie and I had really liked.  From there, we walked to the Hall of Fame & Museum, first checking out the Museum part.  There is an incredible amount of baseball history there.  Starting on the 2nd floor, the exhibits go chronologically, starting with the teams from the Northeast that played baseball in Hoboken, NJ and various parts of Manhattan.  There is a ball used by 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings - baseball's first professional team - and a trophy given to the team for their undefeated 1869 season.

There was a Babe Ruth exhibit that had many things, including the bat from Ruth's famous called shot against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series.

There's that bat Bobby Thompson used to hit the "Shot Heard Round the World".  He homered off Ralph Branca in 1951 to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers send the New York Giants to the World Series.  This is considered in many sources to be the most memorable moment in baseball history.  My Grandmother Dorothy, who was from Brooklyn, was at this game.  They never found the ball that Thompson hit.

There was a good display with a bunch of mementos from the Big Red Machine.  The bat above Rose's jersey was the one he used to notch his 4,000th hit.

A full locker that Hank Aaron used to have had been placed in an exhibit to honor him; I took a picture of Dad in the locker.

I got my picture in front of the plaques for two new Hall of Fame inductees - hometown hero Barry Larkin, and Ron Santo.  Santo was my mom's favorite player growing up, while Larkin was of course a Cincinnati Red for his entire career.  Larkin was the first native-born Cincinnatian to be inducted into the Hall - and he's an answer to an interesting trivia question.  He's the 4th Hall of Fame players played their entire career for a team from the city they were born.  Larkin is the only player not from New York - the other 3 (Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto) all played for the Yankees.

Below is a closer-up look at Larkin's plaque.

Our last few trips to Manhattan - week of August 27th

My (Charlie's) parents came in town as Brady was a little bit older - 3 weeks by this time :).  He isn't sleeping through the night yet, but he was starting to sleep 4 or 5 hours, so getting out to do things was a little bit easier than it was in the first week or so.  So Katie and I got to have separate side trips to Manhattan while Mom and Dad were here.

On Tuesday, Dad and I went down for a brief trip to grab lunch at Carnegie Deli.  Katie and I went there for lunch during our first Thanksgiving in New Jersey, after going to the Macy's Parade. Dad and I had also been there a few years before on a trip to New York.  Carnegie Deli is famous for having huge Deli Sandwiches:

That's just one sandwich!  Basically, we probably should have just split one sandwich (though we made the same mistake the first trip).  Dad got pastrami, while I got corned beef.  We each ate half, and brought the rest home for a future meal.  We also walked through Times Square on the way back and stopped by Junior's, which is a famous New York cheesecake restaurant.  I got a full cheesecake to go so we could have some dessert later in the week.

We also stopped by the Empire State Building (before lunch) and went to the top there, which was something my Dad hadn't done yet.

Maybe more importantly, Katie and Leslie got the chance to get out of the house.  This was really Katie's first chance to do something away from the baby since Brayden was born.  So as scary as it may have been leaving Dad and Grandpa in charge! (we did fine)  The 2 ladies did lunch and a play in Manhattan.  Lunch was at Ruby Foo's, an asian cuisine restaurant that we'd had a year or so earlier.  The show was a new Matthew Broderick musical called "Nice Work if You Can Get It", a musical comedy based in the prohibition era.  Katie is still recuperating a bit - so she was tired after a fairly full day away.  But it was good for her to get down to the city and have a day of fun!

Charlie's Trips to the Midwest - weekend of August 25th

As we mentioned a few posts ago, I (Charlie) made the trip to the Midwest a few times since Brady was born.  Both times I made a trip to Chicago first before heading to a friend's special event.  The reason?  We're moving to Chicago in a few weeks.  My rotation out here in Montvale is up and a good opportunity came up to move back to the Midwest.  The other option was to stay here and I'd work in New York City, but once Chicago got in the picture we decided that was the best fit.  The opportunity to work on certain clients there combined with the fact that it's closer to family and friends was too good.  So, we're moving to Chicago next week!  Right now we're very busy trying to get things settled with where we'll live (which will be in Lake View, which is in the city limits to the North), getting our stuff ready for movers and all sorts of odds and ends.

Having our parents come up to New Jersey was very helpful - I got to head down to Chicago to look for places, and I was able to go back for a couple special occasions!  The second one was a weekend at the end of August, when my parents were in New Jersey.  I flew to Chicago to look at a house we liked, and we decided to go with it once I'd seen it in person.  After that, I drove down to Cincinnati for a friend's wedding - Brad, who is a friend from way back when I was a little kid in elementary school in Wyoming.  Brad lives in Paris now, so I don't get to see him very often - thus his wedding was something I didn't want to miss.  Brad got married to Claire, who is French, though they actually met in China!  The wedding was at his parents' farm in Brookville, Indiana, which is about an hour west of Cincinnati.  I stopped by for a couple hours Friday night for the get-together they had the night before, then headed to my parents' house in Wyoming to stay the night.  Very importantly, I picked up late night La Rosa's for dinner on my way there.  Got to get in the favorites while I'm back home in Cincy!

For lunch the next day, I met up with sister Abby for lunch.  She drove down from Wright State where she's going to medical school.  We met sort of halfway at Gold Star Chili - so I got another opportunity for a taste of Cincinnati.  It was good to see "Aunt Abby" - hopefully she gets to meet Brayden soon.  Abby just took her boards and will be applying for a residency over the next few months, all during her 4th year of medical school.

I snuck in a little time to watch (on TV) a ceremony for Barry Larkin getting his jersey retired at the Reds game, then drove to Brookville for the Wedding.  The ceremony was beautiful - it was held in a Gazebo on the lake at his parents' farm.

After that, there was dinner outside and of course, followed by plenty of dancing.  I was amazed at how many family and friends came all the way from France to celebrate Brad and Claire's wedding.  A few of them taught me how to order a beer in French - though I seem to have already forgotten (looking it up, it's "Je veux une biere, s'il vous plait" :) ).  It was cool to see Brad and meet Claire.  The last time I saw Brad was almost 3 years ago, when he stayed with Katie and I in Columbus for a few days.  He had just started dating Claire, so it was good to see that relationship has grown into a very happy marriage.  Congrats to the happy couple!

Tom and Leslie get to meet baby Brady!

After Katie's parents visited, we had a week in between until Charlie's parents came up to New Jersey.  It was their first chance to meet their new grandson, Brayden (AKA Brady - we're starting to call him by his nickname Brady as much as his given name).  They drove up on Friday, August 24th. Their was a bit of musical chairs - the same day, Charlie was on his way back to a friend's wedding in Cincinnati.  So having them there to help Katie while Charlie was out of town was great.  While Charlie was away for the weekend, a couple of interesting things happened.  First, the last piece of Brady's umbilical cord fell off - so that was kind of a big milestone out here in baby-land.  Second, Brady had gotten big enough that Leslie and Katie gave him his first bath in the new Winnie the Pooh baby bathtub.

This works much better than what you have to do when the baby's first born, which was a sponge bath on a towel on the table.  Brady seems to like filling the little tub much better - probably because he's not as cold!

When Charlie got back, we had a busy slate for the week.  Charlie and Tom played a (partial) round of golf that was interrupted by rain, and Grandpa/Dad and Grandma/Daughter-In-Law each made separate trips into Manhattan.  More on that in a later post.  The week Tom and Leslie were here was fun and helpful during our first month with Brayden in our lives!

Grandma Leslie meets Brady!