Detour to NY – April 26-28, 2013
Saturday, April 27th is Kevin’s cousin’s son’s 1st communion in Riverdale, NY. Kev & I decided to make the trip. Kev more from the family aspect, me from the dining aspect. We had planned to get in around 9:00 PM, and I thought we’d grab a late dinner at Babbo, which is a Mario Batali restaurant recommended by Heather.
Kevin was flying United and I was on American. His work now requires him to use United, so we are a family divided when it comes to flying. Unfortunately, we were sequestered. Or just delayed because of Friday night traffic at O’Hare. Fortunately both of us were delayed about the same amount of time, and we ended up landing within minutes of each other. By the time we got to the hotel, it was probably 10:30 or so. I was starting to panic that the restaurant would be closing their kitchen soon (I thought I read somewhere that it closed at 11:30). And so by the time we got to the restaurant, it was about 11:15. It was mobbed. I went from panicking about getting there in time to eat, to panicking about getting a table! Fortunately, we grabbed a couple newly opened seats at the bar which worked out perfectly. We love eating at the bar.
We started with an appetizer “compliments of the chef” of BBQ Chickpea Bruschetta. I have no idea if that’s what it was called, but that’s what it looked/tasted like. Yum –EEE. Then we split an Arugula salad with smoky cheese. For entrees, I had the Branzino (fish), while Kevin had the Fettucine with Stinging Nettles (asparagus and prosciutto). Everything was really, really good. It was getting late, and we were being picked up at 10:30 the next morning, so we didn’t walk around much or see anything else. We Uber’d a car back to the hotel.
We stayed at the Club Quarters right across from the World Trade Center. Saturday morning, we walked around a little, and went into Trinity church.
Then we went to the WTC memorial – got in line around 9:30 and it took us almost half an hour to get into the sight (which opened at 10). There were metal detectors, show your ticket 3 times, snake through lines, etc. The park is really pretty; the pools/waterfalls are beautiful. The names of all the people, firehouse #’s, ladder #’s, battalion #’s, etc. were etched into the “rails” surrounding the waterfalls. It was moving and emotional. Very nicely done. The one thing that bugged me was people posing for their Christmas card photos in front of the falls. Really?? I don’t have words for this. After the park, we went to the rooftop restaurant of our hotel, which looked right over the memorial park. Really good view. Truly incredible to try and imagine the buildings and the airplanes being right there. We heard on the news that they just found landing gear from one of the planes – can you imagine? 12 years later?! We didn’t go by where that was, but it seems weird that it wasn’t found before now. Wow.
Cousin Tess’s driver Carlos picked us up and off to Riverdale we went. We dropped our bags at Tess & Marty’s and then walked down to the church to see Ryan eat Jesus. The priest was horrible, and kept talking about how the bread was the same Jesus that was swaddled in the blanket in Mary’s arms and hanging on the cross. I’m like “Dude – you’re talking to 7 year olds!!” So after the fire, brimstone and guilt about showing up for mass on Sunday (um, dude – maybe you’re the reason people don’t want to come??), we went to the lunch party at the Bronx Fieldhouse. (I think that’s what it was called.) Very pretty setting, with an open air veranda, overlooking the tennis courts and pool. Good to see the family and chat with family friends. After the party, we went back to Tess & Martin’s and hung out there, ordering pizza and salad for dinner.
Then up the next morning for flight back to Chicago. Fun weekend – but went by fast! Back to baseball on Monday night!
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