We Had a Wonderful New York City June

June 7: A big, big day. The day we loaded a summer’s worth of stuff up into Liz’s car and drove over to New York City. With a cat in the car! He was pretty well behaved, although irresistibly compelled to head for the pedals beneath the driver’s feet. But we made it to the smoke covered city (after a little stop at the amazing Vince Lombardi rest stop) nice and easy and started up our New York City summer . . . as you see below, Cornelius got right to his usual tricks (though he did not care for how loud Inwood was compared to Hardest Heights)

Also of important note, Night One in the city and we had Visitor One of the summer — BYU friend, neighbor, and roommate Brandon! He was in town with his family and came up to 207th street say hello all on his own. A much appreciated visit, a big instance of things not changing so much over the 20ish years since we last saw each other.

June 8: Getting right to New York City business, we head to the Met on one of the last nights of the season to catch a performance of the Magic Flute. Gotta make sure Liz sees those chandeliers rise up while we can! — And I always enjoyed a trip to the Met, it would be hard for me to figure out how many times I went there as a New Yorker . . . here let me take a second to count (this is a list where I’m not doublechecking any names or spellings): The Little Mermaid Opera 2 times, Tales of Hoffman, Don Giovani, Rigoletto, Marriage of Figarro, Madame Butterfly, The Rosencavalier, the one about the Carmelites…something this one time at Christmas…2 ballets…ok honestly pretty sure went to more than 10 operas there but that’s what I can think of right now. I know I went by myself at least one time, with friends at least 4 times, with my Dad (+/- additional Barnes family members) at least 6 times…okay that only adds up to 11 . .. ANYWAY — Always glad to visit the Met, what a blessing.

June 9: We’re on the road again! This time headed to Rochester, along the way we enjoy a totally cool visit to Watkins Glen (which is a gorge). I visited Watkins Glen when I was 14 and am glad to say is still a great place to walk all around, up and down, left to right and right to left.

From Glens to Groves … approaching Rochester we realized we were driving right by Palmyra so we thought we better have a look. You might not tell from these pictures, but most of them were taken from the Sacred Grove, which it turns out you can just go into at like 9 o clock at night even though everything is closed. Hadn’t been here since I was 14 either, still holds up!

June 10: So why were we in Rochester! For the annual convention of the Mormon History Association, of course! At which I was presenting my Finnegans Wake paper, like I had done in Logan a few weeks before. This Mormon History convention, it’s like a real convention! So many people, so many panels, so many vendors. If you have even the mildest interest in ever attending, I suggest you really ought to go. And if you have the mildest interest in presenting, I suggest you submit! It’s fun!
I only tuned up my talk a tiny bit, but I think I delivered a much better presentation than I did in Logan . . . but great news, I’ll be presenting in Logan again at the beginning of October, so you still have a chance to hear what might be my best presentation yet (or ever?) of this material — I say “ever” because I think I’ve given this presentation enough, time to focus on publishing AND preparing the next presentation. Something new!
Oh and maybe you can tell from these photos, maybe you can’t, but I attended this one panel where a presenter was speaking about LDS cinema and showed a clip from/spoke for a moment about my brother Greg’s Sundance winning short. Barnes boys taking over Mormon History Association Convention!

June 13: Well here’s something pretty cool … Friend Alexis hooked us up with tickets to the premiere of Asteroid City and Liz and I decided we were not against showing up early to watch the celebs arrive.

Bryan Cranston was the first to arrive, extremely friendly to the crowd, he walked around shaking hands and giving friendly greetings to everyone and sharing an exchange with anyone who talked with him. NBD at all to get the selfie.

From then most of the stars cruised right in or spent a little bit of time with the people right at the entrance, but still, pretty fun to be there (and even more fun to leave the line and go inside and watch the movie).

Below: Adrian Brody, Jeff Goldblum making a real Jeff Goldblum appearance, Jason Schwartzman and Wes Anderson, Maya Hawke, Jeffrey Wright Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig, and Noah Baumbach.

June 14: Cornelius and I enjoy some bonding time while Liz zips home to Columbus and back — look at her and the cat, so happily reunited! Also, apparently I went to Times Square while she was gone? Probably to see a movie.

June 20: Liz sings in New York at Silvana in Harlem. She’s a big hit! It was great!

June 21: Here’s a few photos from a severely under-photographed trip to Six Flags Great Adventure — we made quick work of the under-attended park that day (or perhaps it made quick work of us? — our resistance to dizziness isn’t what it used to be!), getting in rides on the Runaway Mine Train, Nitro, Jersey Devil, the Dark Knight, the up-in-the-sky swings, El Toro, and the Harry Houdini House (WOW!) by 2 or 3 and saying “You know what? That was good.” and heading out to eat a late lunch at Chili’s and watch Elemental at an AMC somewhere in New Jersey.

Visitor Number Two: Former New Yorker Dave was in town for business and stopped by our crib before taking us to dinner at Taqueria Emilio’s. It’s a fine thing to get to visit with Dave again.

June 23: On a cloudy, misty, foggy day we venture out to Long Island City to visit Matthew Barney’s studio where his latest major work is on display. It is . . . a football game? Re-enacted in the studio, filmed, and shown there. Art! It’s wonderful stuff. From there we walked up to the Socrates Sculpture Park which we found to be a little under-sculptured, but always nice to have a look at.

June 26: This is just a picture of what I looked like when we were at home, eating dinner, and talking about a book someone had given us.

June 27: Liz’s boss was in town from Ohio with family because her daughter was singing at Carnegie Hall. We ate pizza with them and then Liz watched the performance. Imagine how cute that second pictured would be if my Ricoh understood that people standing right front and center in front of it are what it should focus on!

June 28: Liz had her second NYC gig of the summer, this time at the Rockwood on the Lower East Side. She sang so great that night! Those people walking by on the street truly did not know what they were missing.

June 29: Looks like I went down to Midtown that afternoon and sent resumes out from the Library as a nice little change of scenery. I imagine I went to a movie after this.

I’ll be back soon to post pictures from our Amazing New York City July!

I Took a Quick Little Jaunt to California

August 5th Liz and I drove back to Columbus from New York, and then on August 10th, after a few blissful days together in Columbus, I flew out to California alone so I could go to Aunt Louise’s big 100th Birthday Party (it was Liz’s first week of the new school year so she kind of couldn’t miss that, hence I traveled alone, and she was quite missed in California).

Arriving at LAX, my legs felt like they needed a stretch. So I started walking. And before I knew it (or after an hour and a half) I was nearly to Collin and Mallory’s house! BUT Mallory picked me up on her way home from picking up Blair and we went over to the pure heaven that is Brother Cousins tacos. And a few hours later, Collin and I would go to El Idolo but circumstances conspired against our circumstances and I don’t have any photos of that nice place or their nice tacos.

August 11! I went and got my haircut in Alhambra from the lady that does such a good job, test drove some cars, and came home and took a walk to check out the Caltech Turtle Situation. The Caltech Turtle Situation was major! I counted 99 between the 3 pools!

And then, that evening, after Mom, Dad, Afton, Katharine, Kristen, and Rachel had arrived (Frank and Emily were in San Marino before me), it was time for Louise’s big party. We got there a little early and admired the majesty of the In n Out truck (sometimes “food truck” really means “food TRUCK”), the party decorations, and I had never been inside the old Alhambra chapel so I had a good look around at the old Alhambra chapel.

Proud granddaughter at the wall of bishops

and amidst all the excitement (and wondering where she was) the Birthday Girl materialized in the lobby, holding court and telling people where to put Family History binders. At last the party was beginning for real! At last it was time for our In n Out!

Louise got a little time on the mic to impart some brief words of wisdom before sitting back and enjoying the entertainment of watching her grandsons and great grandsons dance the haka for her (the MC had taken my brothers and me for Louise’s grandkids, not nephews, and I’m glad that was cleared up by the time the dance was organized.)

And soon the party was over . . . but you know what comes after the party? The afterparty! Many game family members came with Greg and Me for a little Chengdu Taste while the two of us Chengdu Dug-In to that famous Alhambra Sichuan goodness. V. glad to have it finally checked it off and tried the famous toothpick lamb, I miss Lucky Noodle King.

August 12th: I got everyone to come down to Ditroit for lunch and you know it was a giant hit! Those suadero tacos are a forever classic forever and the fish taquito also totally amazing. A smaller contingent came with me over to Mariscos Jalisco and then I took the deluxe contingent to Dover Street Market and Kang Kang food court. (We were taking it easy on lunch because we had a big dinner to eat).

That night we celebrated Dad’s birthday with dinner at Malbec, our favorite Argentine restaurant in Pasadena, followed by hot fudge sundaes at Twoheys’. There was a bit of a wait for a Twohey’s table, so a few of us took a little walk. And then most of the group went to cross a bridge they weren’t supposed to cross, so Emily and I stayed on the sidewalk and respected the signs and tape. Everyone survived crossing the bad bridge and everyone enjoyed eating their sundaes. Which…I didn’t get any photos of? Well, if you’re actually reading this, you probably know what a Twohey’s sundae looks like.

Sunday the 13th: Church. Big family dinner. A game of Poetry for Neanderthals. A family walk to Cal Tech with a Facetime with Liz (not pictured) and a Facetime with Owen (shown here).

Monday the 14th: With the clock ticking, we go check on this house that’s being moved around its yard and another house where they’re going to build an underground 5 car garage and then I paid one last little visit to the turtles. Then I go with Mom, Dad and Rachel to Home State and, well, few hits hit quite like Home State hit with them. What a nice breakfast taco time we had before picking up Roma sandwiches and catching one last flight (plus a Chicago layover) back to New York (pilot blessed us on the right side of the plane with a slow ride up along the whole side of Manhattan, tip to tip. Thank you, pilot, it looked real good even if the cell phone picture doesn’t.

We Spent April and May in Wedded Bliss In Columbus

So after our neat Hawaiian honeymoon, Liz and I drove from Chicago to Columbus to start being married people together. With Cornelius!

This will be a post about things we did during April and May in Columbus, but it will also be pictures from walking around in the neighborhood, something we and I did quite a bit of.

A great thing about Columbus is driving over to Katie and Joel’s for a meal or for a hang. Right off the bat we were there right away.

Just a few days after getting to Columbus, Mitch & Niall and Co came through town as part of their great American road trip and we met up with them for Mexican. It was wonderful!

Also right away it was Easter and Katie and Joel hosted a big Hawaii-themed Easter dinner where we made kalua pig and showed a honeymoon slideshow. Also Cornelius had to wear his Hawaii outfit but didn’t have to come to dinner.

As you might know, we got a cat carrier backpack so I started taking Cornelius on walks around the neighborhood. He doesn’t love it. But he does love sitting in the carrier out on the patio. He understands that that’s the way he gets to go outside so when he sees me come down the stairs in the morning he runs full speed and leaps into the backpack. And also here are some pictures from walking around outside, not always with the backpack.

One afternoon I was helpful and picked some stuff up at the church that Liz had left there.

There was this evening where we walked to the Giant Eagle grocery store.

April 14th we had a real fun night — we went out to Marion, Ohio to see their High School production of Mean Girls as one of Liz’s intern Alyx was handling percussion for the show and the show was just great! Amazing star power they’ve got out in Marion. And equally amazing was the Stewart’s Root Beer Drive-In they have in Marion. They hang it right on your window, just like in the movies! Great stuff.

The next day (Saturday the 15th) I got to go watch Liz play songs for old folks at their home and then we did some furniture shopping before my niece-in-law Carolyn came over to eat noodles and watch Champions with us while outfit-coordinating with Liz.

Here are miscellaneous photos from April 16-20th…

On the evening of the 20th I got to go see Liz play with ORB (the Obscure Reference Band), a video game music band.

Then the next night I went with Liz and her (our?) friend Claudia to see this band Snarky Puppy. Always interesting when a band you have never, ever heard of before turns out to be very popular.

Then the next day, April 22nd, I had an early birthday party with the adults from Liz’s family at the 94th Aero Squadron by the Columbus Airport. I had my 15th birthday dinner at the Chicago Aero Squadron so it was a lot of fun to return to one again, even if it was about to close in a few weeks and definitely acting like it.

A few days later we had a picnic dinner before helping clean the newly renovated Columbus Temple

Another performance by Liz for old people … this time at a really fancy retirement community

And then on the evening April 28th we drove down to Nashville and got dinner at the amazing Joyland before crashing at Jeff and Noelle’s

Saturday the 29th started with Benji’s football game, a visit to the Buddy Bench, and tiny donuts before a visit to the new Prince’s Hot Chicken (I miss the old Prince’s) with Cousin Katharine joining us before it was time to say adios to the R*smussens.

Then we went to Loveless Cafe with Annemarie and Adam before spending the night at their place. And then I woke up and it was my birthday! Which began with country livin’ and chickens before the drive back to Columbus (with a stop for a little birthday lunch at Skyline Chili!)

Here are pictures from around the neighborhood and of Cornelius and a second ORB gig from another during the next space of time before our big Columbus reception and the visit from my folks.

After the reception weekend and after my parents had left there was a big gathering of Liz’s family at a very fancy Dairy Queen. And after this there are nice pictures of things we did before our trip out to Utah for our big third and final wedding celebration, like making cavatelli at Katie and Joel’s or going to Target a few times or taking Cornelius out in a stroller he didn’t like very much and stuff like that.

Oh and something really fun we did before the Utah trip was go on a little taquito tour of our neighborhood, enjoying a little meal at Las Carnitas and Super Torta before getting dessert at a very busy Culver’s.

Oh! And the Saturday morning after that there was a surprise birthday party for Anne, Liz’s mom, who is also my mom now, too.

And then we went to Utah and came back from Utah. In the tiny little bit of time before we left for New York I got my neighborhood pool pass and went swimming once. What a life!

Ok, now I just need to make a blog post (or two?) about our Summer in New York and then I think we’ll be all caught up? As long as we don’t do anything else, like drive back to Columbus or fly out to Aunt Louise’s birthday party.