Missives from the 6th Floor

The flight back to Boston by way of Washington DC was uneventful, and after a bit of a snafu with the rental car (the P.O.S. Ford they offered us was missing it's keys, thank goodness, which "upgraded" us to a Kia) we hit the road for a scenic and quite pleasant drive to the La Quinta Inn in Wayne, NJ. Along the way we stopped at a Tim Horton's for lunch (can I just say that I love the idea of a lunch combo that includes a donut?!), and made it in in time to have a late, but quite good, dinner with my family at a local vegetarian Indian place that Google and Yelp found for me.

The following afternoon was the anniversary party, so Dawnise and I and my siblings took the morning and wandered around the "greater Paterson area" - checking out Lambert Castle before heading to the restaurant. My grandparents were in good spirits, if a bit worse for wear physically (nearly 90 years will do that to you), and the party - put together by my uncle with help from my dad and aunt - went over quite well. Post party we congregated back at my grandparents house - which I hadn't seen in a looong time.

The following morning the extended family met for breakfast at one of my grandparents favorite diners before my immediate family dropped the car at the park-and-ride and took the bus to Port Authority.

We spent the day wandering around Manhattan, with my sister (who's living in Brooklyn attending NYU) acting as very competent and patient tour-guide. An act made all the more significant being it was her birthday (what do you wanna do on your birthday? Does it include schlepping your family around NY? Hmmm?). We walked, and ate, and walked some more, finishing the evening with dinner at a Japanese restaurant that provided a good quiet atmosphere and reasonably good sushi. Laurie escorted us back to Port Authority where we caught a bus back out to NJ, picked up the car, and called it a night.

The following morning, after finding a place to breakfast, Dawnise, Mike and I drove into the city (oh. my. god. Becky. look at that traffic), parked the car at the hotel garage, and met up with my sister for another day of fun and frivolity. She found an awesome pizza place for lunch, and we took the Staten Island Ferry past the statue. We got back, checked into our room at Hotel 17, dropped our stuff, and headed out to B&H Photo Video - the mecca of photography stores, with a plan to meet up with a friend whom I hadn't seen since working for Disney, some 12 years back.

B&H is every bit as crazy as people say - and totally awesome. As I was sighting through a lens that cost way more than I was planning to spend (a 50-200 f/2.8 IS) some jerk put his face right up in my field of view. It took me a split second to realize I was seeing an old friend, highly magnified, and when the realization hit, I nearly dropped their very expensive lens.

I took the receipt for my much more modest purchase (a 50 f/1.8) down to the cashier while Doron and I chatted - like two friends who'd just seen each-other a few weeks ago. Re-joined by Dawnise and my siblings, we hopped a train to central park and wandered the park, continuing to chat. Before parting, we accompanied him to do a bit of shopping (ostensibly for veggies, but he and my brother were paying more attention to the shoppers of the female persuasion than to the lettuce). We parted at the subway station, and the four of us headed for a Mexican place Laurie knew of for dinner.

Mexican in NY wasn't as bad as I expected (actually, it was pretty tasty) though the service left much to be desired. After dinner we wandered through Time Square, visiting the M&M and Hershey stores between Dawnise standing agog at her surroundings.

We got back to the hotel, thankful that we had turned on the AC that afternoon, and fell asleep on a slightly to small, and much too hard, bed.

Wednesday morning we wandered over to the Trader Joe's near NYU and grabbed a couple bottles of wine to offer as thank-you gifts for Clark and Lisa, with whom we'd be staying in Boston, and met up with another friend and former co-worker for a "real NY bagel" breakfast. Now that Dawnise has had the real thing, I think she'll have a better understanding when I whinge about not being able to get real bagels 'round here. After breakfast we hoofed it back to the hotel, checked out, and payed the ransom to retrieve the car.

My sister had asked if she could come back to Boston with us - having never seen the city - and our hosts didn't hesitate a bit before extending the invitation. My brother's bus back to New Hampshire left at 5:30 in the afternoon, which left us plenty of time (I thought) to get him there, having left around 11:30.

Most of the drive was quite nice - a coffee stop at a Dunkin Donuts, lunch at a Friendlies, and a rest room break or two later, we were stuck in Boston Rush hour traffic, watching our hour buffer disappear.

We got him to the bus with minutes to spare, and started the long process of getting back out of Boston into the 'burbs - a goal we achieved around 6:30 that evening. Clark - ever the host - had wine ready and waiting, and we fell into conversation that lasted 'till Lisa arrived home and we were treated to a home-cooked dinner of roast veggies, couscous, and steak (for the omnivores). Desert and games followed, and we turned in a bit after midnight, road-weary, but happy to be in the company of friends.

Thursday morning we woke, had coffee, and bummed a lift from Clark to the T-station, where the three of us headed into the city. I started feeling a bit under the weather on the ride to the T, a lethargy that's stuck with me to this moment, but despite that, we had a nice day wandering around Boston.

Laurie caught the same bus back to NY that Mike had, and Dawnise and T'd it out to Harvard Square and walked up Mass. Ave to Chez Henri for our 6pm reservation (the early eating time mandated by Harvard's commencement booking them otherwise solid). We abdicated our dining room table and took over the front of the bar, where the menu includes they're awesome Cuban sandwich. The seven of us had a nice dinner, good conversation, and parted ways a couple hours later to head back to our respective points of origin.

Friday morning Dawnise and I packed up, bid farewell to our hosts, and hit the road to see a few sights before heading to Logan for our afternoon flight. We were wandering a revolutionary war era graveyard when I got a call from Tony suggesting we meet for lunch on our way out of town.

I don't know why I'd never been to Red Bones in all the trips I've taken to Boston, but I hold Tony personally responsible ;) The BBQ was awesome - the Jamaican Jerk beef sandwich made my eyes water, and was super tasty. We chatted a bit, before parting ways - us to the airport, him back to work.

We dropped the rental car, got through security, and boarded the plane for Denver.

On touchdown I retrieved my voice mail and discovered our connecting flight to Seattle was delayed. We huffed it through the concourse to see about going standby on the flight leaving "now" but it turned out "now" was "then" and the flight was closed and pushing back - bad news for those booked on that connection.

We ended up leaving Denver about half-past midnight, landing in Seattle around 2:30, and getting home and in bed around 4.

That afternoon we hopped over to Whole Foods for a sandwich, there being nothing in the house to eat, and assembled a local housewarming gift for Chris and Rebecca, who found an awesome rental in Ballard. We stayed longer than either Dawnise or I initially anticipated, getting back home around midnight.

Today was lower key, a shopping trip for food this morning, dinner and a movie, and now thoughts of sleep.

A very good week. Good to see the family, good to see old friends, and good to spend time in two of my favorite cities.