We were either getting ready for company or had company to entertain. I think we've become pretty good tour guides over the years. We love to show off the city, so it makes it fun to find new ways to entertain our guests.
We started off with a long weekend with Michael's parents. We took a day off of work and rode Metro North to Cold Spring. Cold Spring is a charming little town that has a main street directly accessible from the train depot. It is on the Hudson and we were able to see some good color with the leaves. (They refer to people who come to see the leaves changing colors as 'leaf peepers' - and Cold Spring definitely welcomes leaf peepers.)
The main street in Cold Spring has a mix of little boutique stores and antique shops. One of the best stops was a pet store (no animals, just great toys for dogs and cats), I think it was called 'Reigning Cats and Dogs'. They had a huge supply of cats toys that I had never seen before and the prices were very reasonable. And just like people the cats like getting presents too!
The picture below is Michael with his parents in front of a building in Cold Spring. Can you believe the color of the leaves? It was really beautiful.
Of course after being out in the cold air we had to stop for a little snack to make sure we had energy for the train ride home.
We went to T-Bar steakhouse for dinner Friday night. Michael and I found T-Bar during restaurant week. It has a cool steakhouse/lounge vibe, good food, and reasonable prices. We did well as everyone left full and content. Michael and I are headed to T-Bar for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. They have their regular menu items plus a turkey platter with the trimmings and beef wellington. I like the idea of dressing up to go to dinner and no dishes! It's a change of pace from the big family dinner - both are good it's just nice to do something different. (Editor's note: Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. I had the turkey platter. It was a large portion of both white and dark meat with a pan gravy, butternut squash puree with a hint of maple syrup, roasted hericot vert, and a delightful cranberry relish. Michael had the Beef Wellington - the turkey dinner was better luckily I had more than enough to share.)
Saturday it was a rainy day and we spent most of our time inside in The Met. Dinner was at a fantastic Argentine restaurant, Nina's. Nina's specializes in Italian food (I know I just said it was Argentine, they are Italians from Argentina) - one of our favorite days is the 29th of the month when they serve 'Lucky Gnocchi'. They only serve gnocchi on the 29th of each month and under your plate there is always a surprise.
We were so lucky with the weather, Sunday was bright and sunny and that was the day we were headed to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Dinner Sunday was at a restaurant called 'Fish' (yes, the specialize in seafood) for dinner. Fish has a 'red, white, and blue' special - 6 Blue Point oysters or clams and a Pabst or glass of house red or white wine for $8. Helllooooo - do the math! With a deal like that how can you not eat there?! Pre-dinner we introduced Michael's parents to Murray's Cheese shop. I think they enjoyed it all.
Monday was a work day and Michael's parents headed to Philly to visit some dear family friends. That gave us a few days to relax, clean, and do laundry.
Thursday night Michael's sister and her boyfriend landed. They were here for the marathon and Chris (the boyfriend) was ready to run on Sunday. We were nice enough to make sure they had lucky gnocchi waiting for them for a late dinner Thursday night (no surprise under the plate when it's served at home). Friday night we enjoyed a few hours at The Met. They have a visiting display on the Samurai. There are swords, suits of armor, and amazing helmets on display. One suit of armor is so rare it only goes on display for two weeks every five years (or something like that - you get the gist). We had a late dinner at Candle Cafe - the sister restaurant to Candle 79. The food is gourmet vegan and very delicious. My favorite was my starter, grilled seitan with a chimichurri sauce. The grilled seitan had that great open flame char-grilled flavor.
Saturday Michael's parents were back in NYC - it was a full gaggle of Waldron's in our apartment. We had Nick's pizza for dinner. Nick's is a classic NYC thin crust coal oven pizza, great for a crowd and definitely wallet friendly. Saturday was also Halloween, we stayed far away from the madness of the Halloween parade in the Village. In our new apartment building there was a sign up sheet for trick-or-treating. If you wanted kids to come trick-or-treat you signed up and specified what time you would be there to hand out candy. It's a pretty good system considering we don't have a porch light to turn on or off - the suburban way to let trick-or-treaters know if you are handing out candy. We just had treats for the cute kids across the hall - they are little and one was a cheerleader and the other was an elephant.
Sunday was marathon day! We had to leave relatively early to make sure we could get across 1st Ave. They close off the streets and you are limited as to where you can easily travel in the city, especially in our area which is right on the course. Michael's mom made t-shirts for the group - they were awesome! We had strangers taking our picture and commenting on them all day (and of course we all loved the attention); one woman even said we should send in our picture to Ellen because she would put us on tv.
The marathoner, Chris, did have a t-shirt that said 'Chris' - but this photo was taken right after he met us post-marathon. He ran it in 2 hours 53 minutes and 50 seconds - totally amazing! We were all so proud of him and his accomplishment.
My shirt was really funny, it read "Chris' Girlfriend's Brother's Girlfriend". By the time people made it to me and started to read they would just kind of roll their eyes and give up. People really liked Jenn's shirt "Chris' Girlfriend" - it was the easiest to figure out the relation to Chris! We wondering if next year we'll see people copying the idea.....
Sunday we had dinner at an upscale Italian place just around the corner - after the long day it was good to have a mellow evening. Monday Jenn and Chris headed out to tour Vermont. Michael and I enjoyed one final dinner with Michael's parents at York Grill. Tuesday they were off to the airport and it was quiet again for a few days.
We had a great time with everyone in town. Can't wait for them to come back again!
