The Inlaws Are Coming, The Inlaws Are Coming!

Should have changed that to "The inlaws were here, the inlaws were here!"

The day after my 3.5 week trip back to California (here, here, here, here, and here) Jamie's dad and stepmom arrived in Hanover and we had a few days to show off our little town. We took them to all our local hot spots, spent some time on campus, introduced them to our favorite Dean, took them to dinner with some friends, and even attended an official Tuck event where groups of students pitched entrepreneur ideas for a $10,000 start-up prize.

And then there was Fort Ticonderoga.

we got front-row tickets to Lewis's gun show.

Lake Champlaign was a-flooding.

Major detours from washed out ferry crossings, washed out roads, and high levels of water all around the lake we were trying to get across. It made for a pleasant time to catch up while road-tripping across New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York!

Finally, found a ferry.

Kind of hard to imagine folks looking onto the same landscape so many years ago.

These boys were captivated.

These re-enactors were not as captivated...
But they do cook their lunches everyday ala the 1700 fort dwellers.
That day's special = salt pork + cabbage broth.
Mmmmmmmm. 

We took in some great weather, terrific views of the over-filled Lake Champlaign, and even learned a thing or two:

A picture of a picture.

Regarding the photo above, the Englishmen and Frenchmen were arguing...warring?...battling? Blue jacket on the right is Ethan Allen. That's right: "an unusually flamboyant farmer-turned statesman from Connecticut"...turned inspiration for furniture store Ethan Allen. See? I learned stuff.

Thanks for the visit, Kanters. Looking forward to seeing you both again soon. 

Temporarily having dinner in Jersey.

We swung out to Penn Station during commute hours to join the millions of workers trying to get home to their families in the suburbs. They pile you into this cave of a room and make you wait there for your train's track number because, for some reason, there are only 2 trains allowed to have track numbers at a time! You sit and wait and once it pops up, all HELL breaks loose. And when I mean hell, I mean little ladies with spiky heels who use them to kick you out of the way, people with anvils in their grocery bags who will shove them into your unsuspecting ribcage, folks with offensively drippy body odor who threaten to rub up on you to make a more direct path to the train for themselves. eeeek!

I imagine our experience to be similar to telling kids watching the High School Musical 3 movie premiere that Hannah Montana and Zach&Cody were going to be sitting outside, but that they had to wait to know which door the starts would be behind. AND they had to just stand there before the announcement. Sometime in the near future. Maybe in a few minutes. Maybe in a few more seconds. Ok.......now back to a few more minutes. Meanwhile, some genius has decided to turn off the air conditioning in the theater and it's now sweltering and adolescently ranky in the theater. A few more minutes. OK, NOW!!! EVERYONE RUSH TO THE ONE DOOR TO GET TO SEE HANNAHAHAHA MONTANANANANA!!! RUNNNN!!!

either scenario would lead me to believe that the bunk system is going to get someone injured. and more than likely, that someone is GOING to be me. jerks! *for the record, i did receive a minor injury during the ordeal.

Anyway, back to getting out to Jersey! We were going to meet up with Debs and Ben for dinner in Montclair! They had given specific directions regarding which train to catch in which direction and specifically, which stop to get off on. Seemed pretty self-explanatory and I felt v.chic being able to navigate all of this on our own.

Enjoying a happy donut on our way to visit Debs+Ben.
No, mom. It did not ruin my dinner.

And then it all went to poop and I had to call Debi 4 times before we got there just to make sure we weren't getting lost. It was all so much fun though!! I feel v.childlike when I make declarations as such, but "riding the train is so much fun!!"

BYOB @ Osteria Giotto
Cake in a Bottle!

Double date!

I think the flash was preferential to my yellow dress.

Thanks for dinner, guys! And for driving us around the quaint town, celeb homes, and most certainly for taking us to make-out point. The view was incredible, topography lesson so enlightening, and the 9-11 memorial just took my breathe away. Crazy times.

Can't wait for our next visit! xo

Debi did a fine job of summing up our evening here.

Nyc Part Deux 2009

While we generally disagree on a multitude of things on a daily basis, there are very many things I have in common with the guy I'm marrying. Number of hours our tv is on ESPN, for example...disagree. Pizza for dinner AGAIN...disagree. Dishes in the sink vs. the dishwasher each night....DISAGREE. Wait. I was going somewhere with this.

Ah. The things we have in common.

LOVE OF NEW YORK!

love of subways!
love of streetsigns?
Nope. BBQ!!!

We obviously didn't get enough of our favorite city earlier this year so when Jamie was called to Jersey for 1.5 days of work, I suggested extending the trip and joining him over there. I was already going to be in Nevada ("that much closer to the east coast" was my rationale), he hated that he was going to spend longer traveling than time in the meeting, and my flights on Virgin + JetBlue were incredibly priced. Including a $50 fee for changing a flight, total travels cost $275. That's right....flew Virgin to Vegas on Thursday, Jetblue to JFK on Saturday, and Virgin home again on Tuesday.

Good thing I kept a copy of my itineraries taped to the inside of my jacket (Away We Go reference, anyone?).

MmmMMmmm...smells great in this subway.

As soon as I figured out that we could be there for the 7th annual BIG APPLE BBQ Festival, I don't think my fingers could type or click fast enough to book those flights!! BBQ!!

Left Vegas on a plane to JFK then a subway ride to a midtown hotel room where Jamie was waiting to go get dinner. 11pm arrival, dropped my bags, and took off again for the East Village + Arepas! So.worth.everything. Best Satnight dinner. We found a terrific frozen yogurt place, held hands, and strolled through the streets FILLED with folks going out + partying. Perfect people watching. But no partying for us...a few more meandering moments then to bed.

Faux Bill Cosby sighting.

Sunday was an absolute 'nother story! Lots of partying for us on Sunday!! Luckily the BBQ Festival was weekend long so we were able to get Trish down from Connecticut to join us...and our partying!

Grubbin' on some ribs.
Almost ditched my new fiance for this guy + his shirt.

it's so green here in the summers.

We found Trish's brother + girlfriend on the corner of Ribs Ave and Coleslaw Way.

One Arizonan, Two Kentukyans, and an Connecticutan = lost.

Get yourselves here asap.
As I mentioned awhile back, I LOVE this store.
So many points of inspiration for future crafting!

Lots of long, dangly chandeliers....envy.
Don't worry, we sent Jamie to some more boy-affiliated shopping.

We thought this looked like a mini version of Devon's wedding gown.
Don't you think??

We said our "see ya laters" to Trish Sunday afternoon.

I found my obligatory red velvet cupcake.
And we wrapped up our day with some glorious sunshine in Washington Park.
We love this town.

30 Rock Rocked!

Are you guys all watching 30Rock with as much fervor as I am? Tina Fey has certainly had quite the run the past couple of years, but for whatever reason, I've been super delayed on catching this HILARIOUS programme. An error on my part, as it has quickly risen to the tops of my list. An error on my part for which I am slightly grateful; thanks to Netflix + earlier seasons being available on DVD!

We'll have something to do if Hollywood decides to strike again.

If you're watching this show, AWESOME for you. We should chat. If you're not, try it on for size tonight! The hilarities are simply terrific and priceless.

And now for some real, in-person, 30Rock photos of our own (most captured by JK):

i wanted to go to there.
so we did.

loving the architectural detail.

holla!!

all sorts of tv magic happens in this building.

"excuse me, have you seen tina fey??"

so. windy. lost my hat.
jamie had to run after my vest that the wind also tried to steal.

angle of the ice rink statue i hadn't noticed before.

JUMP!

JUMP!

Valentine's Day Redux

Bet you thought I was done with the new york pics, huh? You thought WRONG! They're still coming, folks. Lots and lots of 'em...

What we were up to on 2.14.09:

Tooled around Rockefeller for a bit...

Headed over to 5th Ave + Lexington for some shopping
and a quick bite with Trish + Doug...

What recession??

Watched some ladies being filmed...

A matinee Broadway show...

Jumped around the city...

Dinner @ the infamous Four Seasons Restaurant...
here's a review from 1959!

Highlight of dinner = dude...COTTON CANDY.

Which we brought with us to a post-dinner meet-up
with Trish + Doug...

View from our hotel...

Happy belated valentine's day!

HIGHLIGHT OF NYC TRIP and happy monday!

Last summer, when Jamie was on a boys' trip gallivanting around New York, he sent me a pixtext highlighting a gaggle of teen girls PILED AROUND around a building in midtown. The caption read something like, "Could this be a Jonas Brothers sighting??? Oh wait, NO. Just a freaking new Abercrombie + Fitch opening. Are they serious??"

He was infuriated for days and for the past 6 months, has continued to vent about tourists traveling to metropolitan areas only to hit up a store they could find in their local suburban supermall in Minnesota or Wyoming or something. ((nothing against those states)) And as a point of disclaimer, we definitely went into an H&M clothing store....there are probably 6 locations within 4 miles of our home in SF....hey man, i needed a $3 beanie!

It's become an ongoing joke though, one we try to let in as many people as possible (because we really think we're hilarious). Literally, every time we see a group of tweens, we keep our eyes peeled for the next A+F store and/or the band-group-boys-actors-whatever-the-JB-claim-to-do. We're so incredibly "cool" that we don't know what the freaking Jonas Brothers are about. It wasn't even until this year that we figured out what a Hannah Montana was. We're hip. We're cool.

Hmmm...gaggle of people.
Can't tell if they're teens or just shorter tourists.
But around the apple store?
Is there a new laptop launching?

Are they giving away ipods??
I wanna know! I NEED to know!!

Eep!! Can't contain the excitement!!

Is this really, really for REAL??

Yesssssssssss.

For more stalker pictures, click here.

And yes, Ali, your recent BBMAK post had PERFECT timing ( i still love that song).