NCAA- ACC Semifinals in Brooklyn 2018

UVa buddies Lukas, Nick, Brady, Briggs, and Kevin went to the ACC Tournament semifinals in Barclays Center in Brooklyn. They sawy the UVa-Clemson game and the UNC-Duke game. UVa is going into the NCAA as #1.

(Lukas, sort of), Nick, Brady, Kevin, and Briggs

Nick and Lukas

Kevin's 38th Birthday 2018

For Kevin's birthday this year, he wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit on David Hockney. We made a day of it and also went to a good Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and tried a brewery he'd herd good things about in Brooklyn.

David Hockney exhibition

Lots of people at the exhibit

iPad art!

Outside in the regular exhibits

Dark like my mood

Near the Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian temple from 10 B.C.

We actually went to lunch before the museum, but it's my blog, and no one reads it anyway, and I liked the pictures in this order better.

Vietnamese coffee

Everything here is so delicious

After lunch and the museum, we drove out to Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn. The crowd was really different than our last brewery, Trillium. Haha. I felt a little-- but not quite too -- old. 

The brewery was completely packed and loud 

The beer was sublime

Casey and Jacyn Visit NY 2017

Earlier this month, Casey and Jacyn were in New York City for an event. Kevin and Jon were able to meet up with them for drinks. Sorry I missed you guys.

KEvin, Casey, Jacyn, Jon

SantaCon 2016

Ash and I are brave, wild, and young-at-heart. The evidence? We did SantaCon. We even enjoyed it! True, we did a vaguely scaled-back version, but still. We were like good PR for SantaCon. We did our donation, Ash gave out candy, and we made lots of friends.

Madison Tavern

Toy Soldier

Made a new friend

Santas at Stout Bar

At Stout

Zen Ramen & Sushi

150 West 36th Street- SO GOOD. SO GOOD!

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Ash in Times Square. Thanks for coming out, Ash!

Michele Visits NYC 2016

Michele visited New York last weekend! Happiness! I met her in Karen in Chinatown where they were already 2/3rds way through a dumpling crawl. We went to Joe's Shanghai for a few soup dumplings.

Karen, Michele, me inside

Karen and Michele outside Joe's Shanghai

Then we decided to get foot massages, but there was a little bit of a wait so we went for a hot chocolate and coffee. There's not a lot of coffee shops in Chinatown so write down the location of this one!

Cheers at Little Canal cafe, 26 Canal Street

Finally, it was foot massage time! It was my first massage and Karen's foot massage. Why have we been waiting? Amazing. I didn't take photos inside but this is what it felt like:

Renew Day Spa, 42 Bowery

Seriously, they'd rub something on my feet and then it would start to feel like a pleasant burning. And then all the sudden I'd feel it on my ear lobe or something. Crazy.

Then it was time to head to Williamsburg to celebrate Karen's birthday! Michele and I got there a little early and had drinks at Sugarburg. Then we were risking being late so we ran to the restaurant. Everything at Mesa Coyocan was delicious and the drinks were amazing. Karen's friends from grad school and home were awesome and fun, and the whole evening was well worth it. 

David, Nate, Hannah, Nada, Sarah, Karen, Michele


We mixed and matched (the hard way)

Birthday desserts!

Happy birthday, Karen! 

Apple shooters!

Sunday, Michele and I met Ash for brunch at The Breslin in Midtown. Brunch was delicious, it was great to all be together, and I forced everyone to take many many photobooth photos which I haven't scanned yet but will update this post to include later. Perfect visit!

 

I saw these pretty pumpkins on the way- so selfie!

Ash and Michele at The Breslin

Michele + lamb burger + amazing fries + tea = happiness

Midtown selfie: me, Ash, Michele

Intrepid Museum 2016

We thought it would be a good idea to put the kids in the car and sit in hours of traffic in New York to see the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. These are the results minus the behind-the-scenes struggles and tears.

Even though we live 70 miles from the Intrepid, it took us over 2 hours to get here.

Happy now that she's outside

The Intrepid!

We asked the kids whether they wanted to go on the big ship or the submarine first and they were both in agreement that they wanted to see the submarine. James's reasoning was that he's been on a boat before but never a submarine. We soon discovered Miranda was "too short" to go on the submarine. James was delighted that he was big enough to do something she couldn't. Kevin took her to the Intrepid Museum, while James and I waited to go in The Growler submarine. And waited. And waited.

Thinking she's going on the submarine... she's not.

James and me inside the submarine

Navigation Room

Sonar Room

Going though the air (water?) locks. 

James with a torpedo

After the submarine, James and I went to meet Kevin and Miranda in the museum. We started on the third floor- the deck- with all the aircraft.

Top deck- third floor of Intrepid

Being a helicopter

We went down to the second floor where there were many warplanes and war videos with bomb special effects... and I booked him through there to get him to the kids section.

 

Some super cool navigation device

But I couldn't resist a Cuban-Missile-Crisis selfie. Who can?

The best part of the museum if you're a parent is the Exploreum Hall, where kids can interact with things and run around like wild monkeys.

We took her to a museum of technological wonders- she's excited to touch a feather!

Flying the jet

Shipmates

Playing with pretend sonar

She has an important call from the CIA

Don't worry, they're on their way!

Endeavoring to build her own rocket

This whole time the temperature was in the 90s. We thought we'd be mostly inside in a nice chilly museum, but a lot of it was outside and the museum itself was not that cool temperature-wise. So I decided we had to get ice cream.

Eating Ample Hill ice cream at Gotham Market

I got the dark chocolate and it was the best ice cream I've ever had.

Part of the saga of getting to the museum that I left out in the beginning was the struggle of finding parking. We had gotten everyone out of the car when we realized we were illegally parked, so rather than put the kids back in- there might have been a mutiny!-- I took them to the nearest park while Kevin parked the car.

Prequel: De Witt Clinton Park fun