working back

the New York trip summarized in the last post took place after a quick trip to Michigan to visit CBGB (one day in between at home to unpack do laundry and pack again)-

we arrived around lunch time bearing brunch-y items and afterward went to a nearby little town for some scenery and ice cream.  GA cooked that evening - yummy ribs and local corn with a fresh tomato and basil salad.  the next day we did a bit of touring - had lunch in Leland and then headed to a winery- then into Traverse City for a bit of shopping- then another winery stop and finally a fabulous dinner at Stella!

a completely relaxing couple of days- on day three we had a quick lunch at the local inn at Crystal Mountain and headed out to Chicago... oh and did I mention that we left for Michigan after one day at home after my two week+ trip to Bolivia and Colombia? the day in between we refinanced the house - LOL.....

some photos- phone was losing charge so limited number of photos from Michigan....

next entry in the working backward blogging - Cartagena Colombia!

I know I know

I have been gone a month - and seriously I have been gone a month... I have been home exactly three days since the morning of August 14th.  So obviously I have a lot of catching up to do- and now we have out of town company until Sunday afternoon- so I thought I would work slightly backward and start with our most recent trip first.

We spent almost a week in NYC visiting the kids and our friends Laure and Arno and their adorable Alix.  We had a really superb meal at Gotham Bar and Grill. (see empty plate photo- LOL) a fabulous burger at the Spotted Pig in the Village and a tremendously fun meal at Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar (with Jeremy and friend Vanessa) and another good meal at Rouge Tomate (with Angela and Lee)

We had dinner at Laure and Arno's place where we joined by their new neighbor and old friend John (of VOMA post last year- John and Susan moved to NYC two weeks ago and ended up in the same building as "Larno") - we got to see a bit of adorable Alix and also spent an afternoon on the High Line once the weather cooled off a bit. 

All in all a good trip - especially once the heat broke... photos: We had lunch at the Mile End Sandwich place- that serves Montreal smoked meat-

our empty plate from one of the starters at Gotham Bar and Grill:

one afternoon we headed to EATALY for gelato and to browse the things available- soup to nuts or salad to pastries ....

Our lunch at the Spotted Pig was really enjoable - met some folks from Canada to share conversation with as we dined-

We went from there to the High Line for an afternoon stroll:

 

 

construction at the current end point of the raised urban park-

some store fronts along the way back to our Chelsea hotel on 24th street:

and a stop along the way to meet Jeremy & Vanessa - I took the photo because my grandfather always wore a straw hat like this in the summer time-

the bar we had a drink at before dinner with J & V -

then a few photos of the beginning of dinner at JLOB -after a few courses we were too involved with political discussions to remember to take photos- LOL

and finally our adorable little friend Alix

 

flirting with Uncle Phil: