Some August, 2

A big thing that happened in August was I flew out to LA to drive up to Utah for Andrew’s wedding and then drove back to LA. This is going to be an extremely cursory overview of that trip that, even in its brevity, contains about 100 pictures.

August 19: I fly out to LA with a layover in Denver.

August 20: San Marino stuff during the day, including a walk to see the turtles at Cal Tech, and went to Disneyland to check out Galaxy’s Edge with Collin that night. (That was it’s whole own post though, remember?)

August 21: Today was the big drive up to Utah. It was an all-day activity. I ate with my buddy Brandon in Vegas and, well, didn’t take a lot of pictures of the drive or anything.

August 22: Utah! They’ve got a new dog at Kristen’s house. In the afternoon I had Prettybird with Natalie and Jake…they just can’t make it hot enough for me there, though…and I spent the night at Andrew’s getting ready for the wedding.

August 23: Woke up in Midway and Andrew was buying everyone donuts…and also very protective of his rice vinegar bottle.

Ok, insert here me going back down to Highland for a bit, then fast forward to that evening. It’s the wedding! And things were a little too busy for picture taking. But here’s some I snapped after the ceremony when Andrew, a married man for mere minutes, began making everyone pizzas.

August 24: Sunday in Utah! What more can I say?

August 25: Back on the road! This time I took pictures. The “big” thing about my drive back was I stopped to check out those rocks everyone was Instagramming last year. And stopped into a desolate casino to find a bathroom.

August 26: Lunch with Collin at Disney, tacos downtown with Cher.

August 27: Had a little time to go to the LA Arboretum with Grandma before my flight. I had not been there for a VERY long time and it was a LOT bigger than I remembered. Still has peacocks, though.

Some August, 1

Too much happened in August! Will I be able to blog all of it? Really I don’t know! Good thing I already posted about going to Galaxy’s Edge. Now let’s get to work on a chronological review of some of the rest of it!

AUGUST 1: On the first of the month I went to Forest Hills, past the most beautiful Buffalo Wild Wings and past the Fantasy Land buildings and past the tennis courts to the old tennis stadium to see the Chemical Brothers. I don’t know how, but I wound up front and center, behind only one person. Their opener was a Belgian techno DJ named Charlotte DeWitte who was great and then it was a real blast to be blasted by the Chem’s big beats. Tons of fun and more production than we deserved!

AUGUST 3: Walked to the Bronx to try Panda Express’s Hot Sichuan Chicken and really made an afternoon of it.

AUGUST 9: Carol was in town! We had dinner at Fish Cheeks. It was: Good. It was also: a bigger restaurant than I had expected. Dropped her off at Maggie and JB’s, took a good photo (if you ask me).

AUGUST 10: And then the very next day I went to Brooklyn with totally different friends to have lunch at another acclaimed Thai spot, Ugly Baby. For a famously spicy restaurant, they sure do all they can to keep you from eating anything spicy. Still, hot enough to merit a walk over to Ample Hills and then some additional Gowanus-adjacent wandering. Many Croc sightings, too.

From there I wandered through Soho a bit and wound up at Morgenstern’s, where Carol had met up with Suvi. Carol and I would then go to the Little Spain Market at Hudson Yards. It’s real good. And I met the billionaire-owner of a major British soccer team. What a world!

AUGUST 12: Nice walk through the West Village over to the pier to celebrate Kim’s birthday. Kim’s party had: tons of Williamsburg Pizza pizza and: a cake with her face on it over and over again.

Brothers Weekend 2019

Why finish posting about everything that happened in August when I could jump ahead to the major event of September? Brothers Weekend 2019!

The weekend got off to a late start Thursday night (Friday morning) with Cory arriving at 1:30am and Owen at 2:30am. Flights were a problem but they made it!

September 13: We eased into Friday’s activities and started the day with lunch at Superiority Burger (Owen’s choice! But Cory had Otto’s), a trip to Supreme and Stadium Goods, and a general downtown walk around.

Then we met up with Greg at Ground Zero for a little Financial District time.

And then we headed out to Brooklyn for the main event: Dinner at Peter Luger’s! I hadn’t had dinner there for 10 years, nice to check in and see that the steak is still, wow, pretty great!

Then we walked back to Manhattan across the Williamsburg Bridge, got take out honey butter chips + ice cream from Oiji, saw the Peanut Butter Falcon (my third time and the shine is still on it) and came home for a little video game time.

September 14th: Started the day with a little Cloisters time.

And then we headed downtown for that very necessary Cosme lunch. Brunch? Whichever.

After that we headed for the High Line and Hudson Yards but first a little stop to have a look at the Peloton Studio and a donut or two at the Donut Plant.

At Hudson Yards we put in some time at the Little Spain market for Owen to share his expertise.

And then deep underground we went to get ourselves over to Tacos No 1.

Then over to the Library and Grand Central we went for a minute. Oh! looks like I don’ have any Grand Central photos. But you know what it looks like over there, right?

Then Cory, Owen and I went to the Dodgers/Mets game. Great seats, medium-good game.

September 15: Owen did my the great honor of wearing the Wheaton tie I got him a number of years ago for Christmas to church. After Church I met up with Owen and Cory after their Frick Museum time and we visited Jeffrey Epstein’s house around the corner. It is really big. Really, really big. Then we walked across the park and got Cory onto his train to his plane back to Utah. Thanks for coming, Cory!

Then Owen and I went to get crispy cheese smashburgers at the Usual before meeting up with Greg at Morgenstern’s before a little NYU/Village time.

September 16th: Started the day with breakfast at Daily Provisions before dropping Greg off for school.

Then Owen and I ran up to the Met for a quick couple hours of art before zipping down to Chinatown because if Owen wants spicy Chinese, Owen gets spicy Chinese! Oh and also a slice from Prince Street Pizza.

And then it was time to drop Owen off his his train to his plane back to Idaho. What a great celebration of brotherhood we all had!