New York & LA

Back home and back to the grind. Here are some photos from the holiday break, when I was visiting family and friends:

I got to spend a couple days in New York, and the weather was so mild that I ended up walking about 60 blocks (~3 miles) through the Upper West Side one evening. I caught up with old friends over drinks and Shake Shack. 

Another afternoon was spent strolling around Central Park, going ice skating in 60-degree weather, and browsing through the Plaza Food Hall. It was a Kevin McAllister-inspired afternoon, if he were a 30-year-old woman visiting from California. [Side note- I'd never gone ice skating before, so hooray for finally doing it and not even falling on my tailbone.]

Columbia University

Columbus Circle (with a visit from Karl the Fog)

Plaza Hotel

Plaza Food Hall

Central Park ice skating

Then it was back to the West Coast but instead of heading straight home, we took a detour to Southern California. We spent a couple nights in LA, concentrated in Koreatown, Silver Lake/Los Feliz and Downtown, plus Glendale. We stayed in The Line hotel and enjoyed their views, their design, and their food (check out the loaded "notchos" in the pic below, they're addictive). This is probably the coolest-looking hotel I've stayed in - "concrete chic" as you can see in a photo below. I like the desk-as-headboard move, but I love the serape-covered chairs. Pretty much every design-y item in the room was available to buy, which is a pretty smart marketing move. We walked up and down Wilshire Boulevard a couple miles in sunny weather, and hit some golf balls at Aroma driving range. 

We had a lovely tour guide in the form of the husband's childhood friend and long-time LA resident. We grabbed lunch at Grand Central Market in DTLA (like The Plaza Food Hall, but seemingly less touristy) and walked around the Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall before popping into MOCA. I also caught up with a grad school friend over brunch at Messhall Kitchen in Los Feliz (no pics but check out their site)... We've gotten to hang out in a few cities now. All this was before heading out to Joshua Tree, and it was a lovely way to end the year. 

The Line Hotel

way over yonder, the Hollywood sign

concrete chic at The Line

POT Notchos at happy hour

breakfast at Commissary

Commissary at The Line

memorial at RFK Community Schools

Grand Central Market

Disney Concert Hall

November Wrap Up

November was a mix of new and old: I went to my first-ever NFL game and also did a 5K fun-run with friends from the office (okay, I've run races before BUT this one was different). I also went bowling with friends (before they dropped me off at the airport!) and hung out in Dolores Park for the first time in a couple months... gotta love the warm temps in mid-November... and visited home for almost a week.

Summer Travels: NY-NJ-DC

ESB

I just spent about a week across the country back in New Jersey, New York City, and Washington, DC. Since I'm from/have lived in these places, I stayed with family and friends. My luggage mostly stayed in one spot, and I'd have a tote bag of everything I needed for the next 1-2 days (all hail the mighty tote bag). Even though I was out there for a whole week, it still felt like a whirlwind because there's always so much to do and so many people to see.

New Jersey to me is always family time, first with my family and now including my husband's. I don't have any pics from that time but I enjoyed seeing the relatives as well as catching up with old friends. Usually in the summers I get to go down the shore at some point, but this year I just didn't have the time, although the weather hadn't been that great for the beach so that's how I'm comforting myself. This trip did have a some mall shopping (NJ loves its malls and no sales tax on clothes), breakfast at a diner, and late night disco fries, so that it was good quality Jersey time. 

New York is always fun because even though I'm fairly certain I'll never live in the city again, I love going back to visit and walking around to see what's changed and what is still the same. Even though it was ridiculously humid on the days I visited, I walked about a cumulative seven or eight miles through the city. I was in Brooklyn (walked from downtown to Fort Greene), Chelsea, Midtown and Harlem. I finally got to go to The Grange which my friends had recommended for a while now... I am a little sad it didn't exist back when I lived up the street. 

Ft Greene

Yo is Brooklyn in the house...

street art

Then the reason for traveling this specific week was actually to end up in DC for a friend's wedding... actually two classmates of mine from when I went to grad school in DC ended up falling in love and getting married, and they decided to have their wedding near where they met. It was at a beautiful vineyard in Virginia, the weather was perfect, the music was this awesome 90s cover band whose concerts we loved back in school, and of course it was wonderful to have such a wonderful reason to hang out with good friends.

Bluemont Vineyard

Of course being a whirlwind trip, we ALSO saw a friend of mine from undergrad - a friend I had met when we studied in Spain, who moved to DC after I moved out of there. I hadn't seen her since my own wedding and it was good to spend a little time with her and her husband, see their new condo, and meet their adorable rescue dog. Again it was fun to see all the latest changes in a city I used to live in and see old friends make their home there.

And now I'm back home, back on the grind. It'll be another few months before I head back East but I am already looking forward to it.

homeward bound

 

I was walking around Chelsea last week and came across this ridiculously cool doorway. I shouldn’t have been too surprised since it was in the midst of art galleries, but it was still a fun little architectural find. To me this is one of the things that makes downtown NYC so cool.

It wasn’t until I stepped right up to it that I realized it was Commes Des Garcon and I didn’t have time to step inside or else I would have seen it’s their retail store, not just an office or showroom. Check it out when you’re in the area; I definitely will go on my next visit.

At first this confused me, but after hearing it a few times, I’ve come to believe that a lot of people equate comfort with complacency, calmness with laziness. If you’re happy, you’re not working hard enough. You’ve stopped striving.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/09/why-im-glad-i-quit-new-york-at-age-24.html

Searching for someone

Anyone know a German guy named Axel who visited New York City in Fall 2009 with his digital camera? He went to Top of the Rock and had pics of the colorful floors. I met him one night at Fat Cat downtown.

I was on a first date and he sat next to us on the couch watching a jazz group. Axel took our photo without us looking, but then he showed us and asked for my card so he could send it to me. I never got it.

Four years later, I’m marrying that guy. I’d love to get in touch with Axel, who documented our first date.

shivers

http://griddylife.tumblr.com/post/53912394912/that-time-i-wandered-into-moma-and-found-patti


That time I wandered into MoMA and found Patti Smith singing Boots of Spanish Leather