August 2021: The Family Reunion

Well, eventually I’ll post a July overview, but for now: Let me show you the Barnes (nuclear) family reunion from the second week of August. Having mostly been separated for most of the pandemic, and most of us having not seen any of young Hayden since February 2020, it was good to all gather in Deer Valley for a look at each other, meals, walks, nature, etc.

AUGUST 6: And this is the day we arrive at the cabin. Or house? Some family’s ski retreat rented out in the summer, that’s what it was. We settled in, unpacked, oriented ourselves, and ate dinner #1, and then headed over to the Deer Valley Amphitheater to see the Mike Love Beach Boys. It was a great show, even greater when they played the hits.

AUGUST 7: Today we headed off into the Uintahs. We stopped at a waterfall, which we looked at, and then we stopped at a lake, which we walked around. All this while smoke from California kept rolling in.

Then, back at the house, we held Family Book Club 2021 with Grandma Zooming in from San Marino. After that I took a bit of a walk with Mom.

AUGUST 8: Sunday morning, off to an easy start, when suddenly I see a giant moose out my bedroom window and begin to shout “Giant Moose! Giant Moose!” until the family all sees that there is a GIANT moose outside!

After family mountain church it’s time for: Family Pictures! So many more than these were taken of course. And after Family Pictures? Arts and Crafts!

And then, after lunch, a Birthday Party for Dad, including readings of his poems by all the members of the family and a pinata wacking

And a little bit after that: family walk around the neighborhood followed by birthday cake!

AUGUST 9: A big day for adventure! We take a couple ski lifts over to a mighty hike through all types of terrain.

And, after lunch, we return to the mountains for a ride on the Alpine Coaster, which was awesome! And then the Brother Team was in charge of dinner and we cooked up a chicken adobo feast that was also awesome.

AUGUST 10: And with seconds left on the clock before we’ve got to head out, I get in some vital bonding with nephew Hayden!

What a great reunion! A big thank you to all the parties involved in its planning, organizing and execution!

July 2021: Return of Mom and Dad Returning

Before I write my post about most of July, why don’t I write this important post about Mom and Dad’s first visit to New York since November 2019? (Can you believe it’s been 21 months since my last post where I ate around the city with Mom and Dad?)

JULY 30: In the late morning, Mom and Dad show up in my courtyard courtesy of the MTA.

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We had a little lunch at Taqueria Emilio…

Then we went down and saw new train station, visited the lemon grove, walked the Highline, visited Little Island, and walked through Chelsea Market before hiking down to…

Carbone! I certainly am fortunate that my folks are always glad to have a Carbone dinner. We love giant menus!

Then we walked through Washington Square Park, dipped into the Strand for the last 2 minutes before it closed that night (anyone want a copy of Ulysses?), and then headed back to my apartment after checking on the little folks inside the 8th Avenue subway stop.

JULY 31: Got up and went to Choc for some Saturday morning pastries, then Mom and Dad went to the Met for 3+ hours while I attended my Arno Schmidt class and rode my bike and stuff. Then we went down to the Financial district for dinner at Crown Shy and had a bit of a Financial District walkaround, paying particular attention to the heroes of the Canyon of Heroes.

AUGUST 1: SUNDAY! Begin with a train ride to the Upper West Side Daily Provisions (that there will soon be 4 Daily Provisions in Manhattan is wonderful news for my folks) where they ate breakfast sandwiches while I enjoyed a roast beef. Then we went down to the Center gallery where Mom noticed her hometown neighbors were major donors. Then visited the lawn at Lincoln Center before heading to Union Square church.

Now, Surprise! The reason Mom and Dad had come to town was my ward’s bishopric was being reorganized and I was going to be the new second counselor. Here I am with the irreplaceable outgoing Bangs, who will be dearly missed. After church we visited a certain rooftop that shall not be named and went up to the new Dominique Ansel to pick up breakfast for Monday and sat around Madison Square Park a little bit.

Then we went down to Emily’s for Brussels sprouts, a hot katsu sandwich, and pizzas.

AUGUST 2nd: Monday went from “what are we going to do?” to “wow, we did a lot'“ real fast. Started the day by walking up broadway to Van Cortland Park.

Then we took a nice long subway ride down to Thai Diner for a wonderful lunch.

Then, over the course of 3 or 4 hours, we did a lot of thing between Soho and Koreatown, but apparently I only have a picture of some of the pen shopping we did?

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And for our final meal? Finally! Dinner at Her Name is Han. Super excellent Korean home cooking. Then we made our way over to Penn Station and back on up to Inwood.

AUGUST 3: And Wow, the visit ends when Mom and Dad grab a 3:45am Uber outside my apartment! It’s a jarring thing to witness, but even more jarring when I realize I’ll be doing it myself in just a couple of days. But maybe I’ll be lazy and take a 4 o clock car? Thanks for coming back, Mom & Dad!

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July 2021: What do you call a prologue that takes place in the middle of the story?

July has been shaping up to a month with plenty to blog about, and in order to trim down the main post, I’m making this post about last week now. Call it a return to blogging in a timely matter or a late birthday present to my sister, but here’s some stuff that happened when Cory, Blake and Rachel were in New York last week.

JULY 20: Things got off to an excellent start when we met up for a lunch of burgers, bacon, and tomato & onion salad at Peter Luger’s. Followed that up with a little walking around Williamsburg before taking the train back to Manhattan for a visit to Chelsea Market, Little Island, a walk up the Highline, time at Hudson Yards that included beverages at Shake Shack and buying a suit for Blake at Suit Supply, then a walk over to B&H Photo for a look around (preceded with a visit to a lemon grove and the new train station), then a walk up to Times Square for dinner at Tacos No 1 and dessert at Shmackery’s. You may notice that the photos stop after Little Island. Weird, right? Guess I was just living in the moment and also starting to get tired of walking and taking pictures of everything.

JULY 21: I met up with Blake and Rachel in Soho and we went in and out of a lot of stores. The Soho Zara was closed for some reason and this was clearly ruining a lot of trips to Soho. But we survived. After a while Cory snuck up from work stuff and he and Blake ate gluten-free cupcakes while Rachel waited patiently to be reunited with Prince Street Pizza pizza. Then she and I walked around Chinatown while Blake and Cory ate gluten free pizza. After we were all reunited, Cory ran off to a work dinner and Blake and Rachel went back to their hotel and I went to Festus’s birthday party (but that’s content for the forthcoming main July post).

JULY 22: Rachel had come to New York in hopes of eating a bagel, so I had her and Blake meet up with me at Absolute Bagels by Columbia. I believe it was a bagel success? Blake needed to eat, too, so at Mom’s suggestion I took him to a street meat stand for some chicken and lamb and rice. Rachel was understandably skeptical but it was a giant hit with Blake. Then we walked by Grant’s Tomb, through Columbia campus, visited the reclining Statue of Liberty in Morningside Park, and THEN walked all the way down to Sheeps Meadow, through and along Central Park.

BUT at that point we weren’t even nearly done walking! Because we needed to get down to Times Square before 3:30 to see the Instructure lights in Times Square. Signs seen, we: ate really good gluten free pizza, walked over to Rockefeller Center, used bathrooms, walked up 5th Avenue, found a Zara that was open, went down into the Apple Store, went and got street meat for everyone from the Halal Guys, went and got Rachel some Magnolia Bakery banana pudding, and then went back to Shmackery’s. It was a huge walking day and I actually tied Tuesday exactly on exact number of steps stepped.

JULY 23: While Cory, Blake and Rachel were still in the city for a bit on Friday I wasn’t able to meet up with them as I had a bus to catch to Philadelphia and miles and miles of walking to to recover from before I put in a few Philadelphia miles. But what a great visit! It was grand to get to put in some uncle time with my oldest niece and nephew. I hope they left feeling they saw a thing or two and ate a few good things, too.