July Appendix III: A Land of Extreme Wonder

A good while back I learned about Northlandz from Natalie and Jake and on July 21st I was finally able to visit. What is Northlandz? Why it’s the World's Largest Miniature Wonderland. But to call it that is to severely undersell Northlandz and the Northlands experience. This is simply a place to which you absolutely must go someday.

Here are photos from outside Northlandz and the Northlandz gift shop, lobby, and various party rooms off of the lobby. Two curious features of the lobby: a pick your flavors Skittles machine and a, er, boy wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping on a chair?

And now, let us walk through Northlandz and admire the tracks and tracks and tracks of trains and miniature village (or city) after miniature village. I tried so hard to get the number of photos posted down from the 300’ish I took and I DID…but there were still so many photos I just HAD to share with you. Please. Slow your scroll. Enjoy these miniature wonders!

After Northlandz we were nowhere near done with New Jersey for the day. We also: Ate a Mexican pizza (no photos), visited Ikea (no photos, but I admire the candlesticks Liz got there nearly every day), and visited the American Dream, the humungous new mall — but I only have pictures from the Nickelodeon amusement park and of the indoor ski slope in there:

Then we went to the Weehauken Dueling Grounds to see where Alexander Hamilton got shot

And then, manohman, dinner at Hiram’s! I had a chili dog and a chili burger and here’s the burger.

And that’s it! Brigham and Liz’s summer in New York has been blogged! But I believe I’ve still got a couple more NYC posts to make before I can call my 20 years there Fully Blogged.

July Appendix II: We had Gardner Visitors!

JULY 12: And just 2 days after Mom, Dad and Emily left, Katie and Carolyn (Liz’s sister and niece) arrived for their visit. First stop? Serendipity 3, which I hadn’t been to since…2004? A fun start for their visit indeed!

JULY 13: We started the day with breakfast at Daily Provisions before walking down the High Line to the Yayoi Kusama show — this time we did wait in line for the Infinity Room. From there we returned to the High Line and finished our walk down to the West Village with lunch at Sweetgreen (not pictured) and some soap shopping (also not pictured).

That night? Back to the Future on Broadway, but first, dinner at the Stardust Diner — a thing I had ignored for all of my New York time and then discovered was actually pretty fun and cool. After Back to the Future, Uncle Quentin met up with us for a late night cheesecake hang.

JULY 14: Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island! What a time for patriotic feelings! Also, what a time to be caught out in the open when a gigantic rainstorm arrived. We survived! That’s what matters.

JULY 15: Started the day with a visit to the Manhattan Temple, followed by lunch at the Smith, a walk through Central Park, a pedicab ride for the princesses and cookies with Quentin and Craig in Verdi Square.

That nigh we took a trip out to Carroll Gardens for a fantastic meal at Frankies and a fantastic slice at F&F after our dinner there with Quentin.

JULY 16: The final day! Before church we visited the Cloisters before catching a little church and then it was time for Katie and Carolyn to head back to Columbus. What a great visit it was! A true highlight to our NYC Summer!

July Appendix I: We had Barnes Visitors!

July 6: Mom, Dad and Emily came to New York for one last NYC visit (or, one last visit while I’m a resident, at least). We started off by meeting up in Chelsea so I could check out a gallery or two. With them! We popped into the Richard Avedon show for a bit and then went and had a good time at the new Kusama show but did not wait in line to go into the Infinity Room.

Then we caught a cross town bus and met up with Liz for dinner at Yellow Rose, a TexMex spot that really makes us all say Yee-Ha! Post Yellow Rose, we took a nice long walk up to 34th street.

July 7: We met up for lunch at Urban Hawker and then the ladies and I walked around midtown and the Library before meeting back up with Dad for dinner at Peter Luger. We retreated to everybody’s hotel for a minute after that and then went and saw Peter Pan Goes Wrong and then called it a day.

July 8: A big adventure! We drove up to the Vanderbilt estate up in Hyde Park!

And the we drove up the road a little bit to visit the Roosevelt estate.

And from there we drove over to the Woodbury Commons Parm for a very nice dinner.

July 9: Well, this is odd. Looks like I hardly have any pictures from this day? But we went to church, walked around the village, and had dinner at Anton’s and then walked to the river and got rained on a little. Here is a picture of us on the pier. And then a picture of us paying our respects when we heard that Cosby Edwards had died.

July 10: Came down to midtown in the morning for one last bite with Mom and Dad and Emily. Daily Provisions breakfast! What a way to cap off 20 years of visits and meals!

Here’s a picture of a picture after the first meal I shared with Mom and Dad in New York, btw. “The dumpling house on Eldridge” — back then that’s all that it was known as. Now it’s a Vanessa’s and three times as wide! So much changed over 20 years, but having visits from family always stayed a highlight.