Getaways

Happy, refreshed, rejuvenated, revived, relivened, we returned to New York City from Newport, Rhode Island on Tuesday. At least, I believe we returned in that condition. To begin with, Craig's parents arrived in New York last Thursday in the later afternoon. Craig left work a little early to wait for them at the apartment, and I left a little early with him only I swung by a couple of stores to track down lightweight shirts for what I presumed would be a humid spring weekend (turned out much cooler though). I still made it back to the apartment before his parents, but they were right behind me, and his mom walked in and immediately began to gush about how adorable our place is. We do hope! We've worked extremely hard at turning our varied belongings into contemporary 30-somethings' interior design, and I think we've excelled. I stress we because for some reason, Craig opts to take all credit for all interior decorating! He's very good at it, I can give him that. Anyway, Thursday, because they arrived later than expected, we walked them to the edge of Central Park, bragged, There it is!, and walked back to 2nd Avenue to Nina's for dinner. Nina's is by far our favorite food establishment in our neighborhood. The young male host who might also be a part-owner, we suspect, knows us and waves when we walk by on any given afternoon while he is outside scoping out the street. And their food is just always so good. We love their dinners, we love their brunches. I have discovered a very buried love for the art of a delicious Eggs Benedict at Nina's. Their olive oil garlicky grape leaf chunky bread spread is also delish. The fact that the place only seats a max of 20 people makes for great dining. There really isn't anything to complain about Nina's, other than the fact that they're closed Tuesdays, and Tuesdays seem to be the day we always crave their food! But I digress.*Friday I worked and Craig toted his parents around New York: to the Lady Liberty on a ferry, to Ellis Island, to the World Trade Center site, including the Winter Garden, and whatever else. Then, I left work early again and came home to quickly change for our night out on Broadway: Phantom of the Opera and dinner at 11 on Restaurant Row. Phantom was very good. The songs weren't my favorite Broadway tunes ever but there were definitely memorable moments, for instance the theme song, and the masquerade song which opened Act II. Either way, I redeveloped Broadway musical fever and now I want to go see them all! After the show we ate at Becco, a cute Italian place which serves a pre-fixed dinner of Caesar salad or vegetable of the day plus three different types of pasta, bottomless. All of the wines on the house wine list are $25 a bottle. When I say bottomless pasta, what I mean is that they serve you a portion of each type, and then a nice waitstaff guy roams around with steaming stainless steel skillets of more of each type. I, of course, fairly well filled up on round 1. Craig indulged in a second round, however!*Saturday, then, we woke up, took showers, drank coffee, ate cereal, and left the apartment to sightsee. The weather was perfectly gorgeous, unlike my parents' weather when they were in the City! (sad!) - sunny, cloudless, warm in the sun but cool in the shade. We went to Rockefeller Center, top of the Rock (for stunning commanding views of New York City) and we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, to Union Square for lunch, and to SoHo to wander around. I am in love with SoHo. I think it might be my favorite neighborhood in New York! Then we came back to the apartment and changed clothes and headed out for dinner. We wound up at Jasmine, our favorite Thai place in the neighborhood. Craig's parents had never experienced Thai so they were wide open to give it a shot. I think Craig's mom might be able to get by with never eating Thai again but Craig's dad enjoyed it. And after dinner we came home and watched Notes on a Scandal.*In the spirit of wanting to post the Newport adventure on its own, I'm going to keep this short. I will post again soon regarding part ii. of the adventure. But, notably, the photograph above depicts the beginnings of the second love of my life: empty vines at a winery we toured in Newport. These vines will soon be swollen with grapes which will then go through the loving process of becoming wine. I snapped this photograph while the tour guide talked about the heat required for grapes to turn into full-bodied reds. Here's to my Saturday night, a glass of full-bodied red, the homemade tomato sauce simmering right now which will soon be turned into a new vodka sauce for us, cool weather in May, doing nothing on a Saturday, and to feeling refreshed after returning from a trip out of the City. And props to the Mets for winning the first two games of the Subway Series this weekend!*