Catching Up and Wrapping Up, pt. 1

I have nearly 300 photos to post between coming back from our NYC trip and the end of 2025. So I’m going to split them up over several posts. It just seems the right thing to do.

November 27: Some would call it Thanksgiving, but I’d call it “Inaugural Five K Day” because, as mentioned in the NYC post, Liz has become a runner and the keystone of Phase One of the running journey was her running her first “official” 5k (as she had run a 5k or two while in training) in the form of the Circleville Turkey Trot.

The Gardners also come out to cheer Liz on.

Our champion!

November 22: So this is a little out of order! But it seemed more interesting to start with the 5k. Anyway. One night we tried this burger place called Smash Buddies, it was pretty nice. They charge extra if you want grilled onions on your patty melt. That’s like charging extra if you want cheese on your cheeseburger.

November 30: Evening walk.

December 2: Morning walk.

December 3: Another morning walk.

December 3: Followed by an afternoon walk.

December 5: After work I visit a cemetery that’s on my way home. For a look.

December 6: A late afternoon walk with an appearance by a famous runner.

December 6: A trip to the grocery store where we bump into one of our neighbors!

More more more coming soon!

Brigham and Liz: Back in New York!

Against all travel odds, Liz and I went back to New York over the first weekend of November. Can you believe I hadn't been there since last October? And Liz hadn’t been there since last May? Kind of crazy that we let so much time pass between visits but anyway we came Back! And we did Stuff!

November 7: Ok actually I came out a day earlier than Liz did so that I could work with my teammates in Brooklyn. I don’t post about work. So that’s the closest you’ll get to a post about my work. I had crashed at Jeff’s the night before and we met up for lunch at the very nice Burritos Suareze during my workday. But I don’t post about work.

After work (which I don’t talk about) I zipped down to Carroll Gardens for a couple of slices of that nice F&F Pizza by the Frankies Franks.

And then I dashed over to the Lower East Side and Soho and visited a few stores and stuff, you know how it is, walking quickly around the LES and Soho, dipping in out stores on a cool fall night except you’ve got too many layers on so it feels like a hot night and sometimes you grab a bite on your way to a bite. Case in point: a steak trompo taco from Santo Taco while on my way to… (see the next block for that).

…Mommy Pai’s Thai Chicken Fingers! The new chicken finger spot by the good folks of Uncle Boon’s (R.I.P.), Mr. Donahue’s (R.I.P.), Uncle Boon’s Sister (R.I.P.) and Thai Diner (¡viva!). And guess what? It was so bad! These gluten free Thai chicken fingers were just awful. The breading (if you can call it that, more like the crumb globs) just slid right off. Boo. So sad. But now I know. Cool branding and store front, though. I guess that’s what really matters.

Actually, what really matters is that from here I dropped off my bags at our temporary home and bussed out to LaGuardia to pick up Liz, just as I had the honor of doing on several occasions during our courtship. Here she is, Liz! Back in New York!

November 8: Since my last post, Liz had caught the running bug and was sticking to a strict daily running regime. So we started out her first full day back in the city walking down to Central Park so she could do her daily run.

Back to the apartment for a minute, and then refreshed and ready to go, we headed out into the city together once more! Oh what a nice thing it is to be reading William Gaddis on the subway again. And look at that nice A4 Allroad parked right in front of our place of temporary residence!

Our first destination this fine Saturday morning? Brunch with hostess Angelique at Leon’s, the Italian-sister to the very well-liked Anton’s. They made us a very nice selection of pastas and breakfast foods. And after that we visited the Strand for a bit as we were Union Square-adjacent in location.

From there we were just a crowded 6 train ride away from the recently reopened Frick Collection. Here are the photos I was able to take before I was informed that it is a no-photos museum, except for the room with the fountain. I’m sure that room has a name. But it was very nice to finally be able to go upstairs. Bowling alley still isn’t open to the public, though.

From there we popped into a couple UES shops (or maybe just one?) before heading out to Williamsburg for dinner at Rose Marie, the new Brooklyn sister-restaurant to our well liked Yellow Rose with Jeff and Ned. The food is like Yellow Rose food, but it is not Yellow Rose. We had fried potatoes, really great cheese curds (pictured), a patty melt, fried fish, and, uh, maybe more than that.

November 9: Up and at ‘em and down to Hudson Yards for a Daily Provisions breakfast followed by a nice little walk down the Highline.

Popped into the 15th Street Chapel for back to back sacrament meetings. Got to hear talks by Garrett and Angelique and bump into lots of friendly faces that were sweet to see again. Met new friendly faces, too. (The cat was at a bodega, not church.)

And speaking of friendly faces, next we visited the Whitney’s Sixties Surrealism exhibit with our dear Patricia before a Yellow Rose dinner and Van Leuwen dessert.

November 10: I took a morning walk around Morningside Park while Liz took her run. Reunited, we headed to midtown…

…for a visit to the MoMA and its Ruth Asawa & Wilfredo Lam shows, along with other great works of art in between.

Next, lunch! I actually had to push out our reservation time TWICE because the coat check line was so long and slow at the museum but eventually we walked over to Empellon. I wanted Liz to try their awesome desserts, I always want to go to Empellon for its desserts … but then I am always reminded that actually the food is quite good, too. The server really pulled some tricks to run up our check, though. Buyer beware.

At my work (which I don’t talk about on my blog) they’re always talking about the new building they built in midtown. So we took a little look at it after lunch. No one who doesn’t work in that building is allowed past security for now, but next year I’ll get all the way inside and maybe be back with photos. But it is an impressive structure and much golder in color than anyone had mentioned before.

From there we went to Grand Central Terminal for a minute (where I was attacked in the bathroom) and the Japanese bookstore before heading back to base for a minute. Then we came back downtown, ate dinner at the Hawker Market, and then saw the new production of Oedipus Rex. It turns out one of us didn’t know the whole story of Oedipus, leading to some very surprising moments for that person.

November 11: Our last day! Our flight wasn’t until that evening, so after Liz had her run, we went downtown for a little Soho time. First stop? Breakfast pastries and hot chocolate at Dominique Ansel where the restaurant is now dirty and cluttered and the staff is rude BUT the treats are still pretty good.

From there we had a good ol’ walk around, popping into all sorts of favorite stores, taking as many full-length mirror shots as we could, and having a nice Parm lunch (no pics of that, but good chance you know what a Parm lunch looks like by now).

Now, a big behind the scenes reveal: Our trip to New York was during that weekend where they were cancelling tons of flights because of the government shut down. The flight we had booked for Tuesday night had been cancelled on Sunday and Monday. So the worry that our flight might be cancelled and that we’d have to spend more lovely time in wonderful New York haunted much of the trip. Ultimately we took matters into our own hands, cancelled our flight (got refunds, too!), rented a car, and drove back to Columbus. Turns out our flight that night did take off, but after a 4 hour delay. It only beat just to Columbus by an hour or so (we got into town at, uhh, about 2 am). Oddly, I don’t have any pictures of the Jeep we drove or from our sprint west, but really, as far as 9 hour drives go, it was pretty quick and painless. Here are pictures from Harlem from right before we left.

Kristen and Cory Visit!

October was relentless in its fun. After West Virginia and California, Kristen and Cory came to visit Columbus!
They arrived late Wednesday the 29th and we spent Thursday work-from-homing together. With the workday done, we could finally take a walk around our neighborhood.

I could’ve sworn I took a picture of Cory during our walk but I guess I didn’t.

Then, to make a good Columbus impression, we went and had dinner at Bonifacio and ice cream at Graeter’s.

October 31: To continue impressing Kristen and Cory with Columbus, we took them down to Cincinnati and Kentucky for the day. First stop, Wyoming, Ohio and the Sticker Shop! And then we headed on down the road a bit more…

…to the Ark Encounter! Because when planning Kristen and Cory’s trip, it was really really hard to shake the idea that they absolutely needed to visit this amazing destination. I’m going to show you a ton of pictures. For words (and a ton of pictures), see my Ark Encounter post from 2022. (And it’s funny how similar some of my photos are between the two trips. Things caught my eye in 2022 and they caught it again in 2025!) And I trust that Kristen and Cory will make a blog post with their thoughts on their experience at the encounter. Read that. I’ll link to it, too.

After the Ark Encounter we thought we’d take Kristen and Cory to see a great Cincinnati institutions: Jungle Jim’s Grocery Store. And the trip was a treat for Liz and me, too, because turns out we went to a different Jungle Jim’s than we thought we were going to. A whole different Jungle Jim’s! Imagine that.

November 1: Ok. Saturday. This is the part of the Columbus trip where we show Kristen and Cory Columbus. We start off with Cherbourg the gluten-free bakery for Cory, then Fox in the Snow, then a walk around German Village, then a visit to Blacklick Metro Park, then lunch at Brassica in the Short North, then Jeni’s ice cream nearby.

Then that night we made soup and watched the Dodger’s win the World Series. No pictures of that stuff, but it was a lot of fun. And, sadly, the next morning I drove Kristen and Cory to the airport on my way to church because it was time for them to go home — NOT because we wanted them to go home, because we didn’t, because we had had a lot of fun having them over to show off Columbus, Kentucky, and Cincinnati.