Chicago to New York, New York to Chicago
In November Mom and Dad came out to New York because he had a meeting and that's a good excuse to come to New York. We started out with a late lunch at Emily in the West Village and a visit to Washington Square Park.
Then we took advantage of an unexpected opportunity and caught a quick train down to Princeton to see a BYU basketball game. I'd never been to Princeton but found it to be pretty cool, even if it was dark when we were there and, you know, you see less when it is dark.
The next day we went to the Michelangelo exhibit at the Met in the morning and that night we ate tacos and saw the Play That Goes Wrong. Boy, did that play go wrong!
The next day Mom and I had lunch at Uncle Boon's Sister and then did a little Soho walking. We found Uncle Boon's Sister to be quite good, a fine relative to the excellent Uncle Boon's.
That night we were back in Soho for dinner at Le Coucou, a truly beautiful restaurant. And then Dad and I went up to the Met to see Madame Butterfly. It was a striking production.
The next day was a Saturday, Mom and I did a lot of downtown stuff like seeing the Luis Vuitton exhibit (really), eating at Fuku, and riding the Seaglass carosel.
Then we rode over to Brooklyn for a visit to the Green-Wood Cemetery, always worth a good explore every few years.
That night we had dinner in Estela. It was superb, just wonderful, I can't believe I had put off going there for so long. It was also too dim for any decent photos. Then, and I still can't believe it happened, we went and saw Cats. I'd never seen it before! We wound up with second row seats and I'm still trying to make heads or tails of what I saw.
The next day was Sunday and we started the day off with lunch at Cosme. It was an absolute home run, hard to believe I almost cancelled the reservation. After church we had dinner at the Dutch and then a nice long West Village walk. Again, too dark for photos. But it was all good. Mom and Dad went back to Chicago the next morning after a good little breakfast at Daily Provisions.
On Thanksgiving Eve Patricia and I went to see the balloons being inflated. The next day we'd have Thanksgiving at Jordan's in Queens.
Here's pictures from a neighborhood walk I took the day or two after Thanksgiving.
Then a few days later I snuck out to Chicago
And grabbed lunch at Johnny's
Before making a surprise appearance that night (along with fellow surprises Kristen and Walker) at Dad's retirement party
The next night we had dinner at Fonda Frontera, a new Rick Bayless restaurant in Wicker Park right by an absolutely beautiful Taco Bell. Fonda Frontera was an absolute home run, I had no idea it would hit so strong with the family.
After dinner we talked Emily into taking us on a tour of the new Mormon church in downtown Chicago. It's a very impressive structure, really puts every Mormon building in Manhattan to shame.
The next morning we went with Kristen and Walker on a tour of Oak Park area parks. Then we had a little lunch at Mickey's, another classic local spot that I'm not sure how long I hadn't been to.
We went and did some important Western Suburb archeology and then, a few hours later, it was back to New York with me.
