Off-Broadway

To say we had a rough morning after that wild night Jackson had would be another understatement. Eventually, though, he rallied and we left the hotel room in search of lunch. One of my favorite things about NYC is how walkable it is and how really anything you can wish to eat is a reality. I wanted Mexican and not two blocks away was a phenomenal  restaurant fitting the bill! 

Delicious.

We took it pretty easy during the day and got dressed for the play that evening. Remember when I said we went for the weekend because Justice Ginsburg was going to speak? Yeah, well, I booked our flights and hotel before I saw that the show she was speaking after was SOLD OUT. I'd intended to just go and try to scalp tickets beforehand, but once Jackson was ill that was out of the question. We just attended the night's show and didn't see Justice Ginsburg at all. TEAR! Bad planning on my part!

Cultured Petefish

So big city of us to catch a show!

After the EXCELLENT show, we walked over to our favorite Italian restaurant in all of NYC. We've eaten there each visit since our first one back in 2008! It did not disappoint!

Bruschetta and calamari!

I'd read about a gelato stand nearby that was supposed to taste like a slice of Italy so we wandered over there (I was still in heels!) to try it out.

They lied. Good, but not amazing.

We wandered back towards the hotel but had gotten pretty far away and my shoes weren't reasonable so we gave in and grabbed an Uber. There are not enough words to explain how much better visits are to NYC now that Uber is a thing and you don't have to deal with cabs!

On Monday morning we decided that we wanted an authentic New York breakfast so we went to a little dive diner. You guys, this was the funniest place I've ever eaten. We sat down and the waitress put waters on the table along with menus. Jackson moved his water out of his way so he could look at the menu. She returned with napkins and dumped his water EVERYWHERE. Luckily I did not get wet and he barely did, but the waitress proceeded to blame Jackson for moving his water and made us move tables. It was priceless. The waitstaff carried on about for a good 15 minutes. It appeared to be the first time anyone had ever spilled anything in this diner. One must love the good folks of NYC who blame the customer for their mistakes! :)

Legit breakfast

Showers aside, the food was excellent and the price was fair. From there we took the subway over towards the 9/11 museum to finally pay it a visit. We'd been meaning to come for years and just never made it during previous trips.

Artists were asked to paint the color of the sky
that September morning- it was STUNNING.

An original beam from the towers

We spent a few hours in the museum. I didn't take many photos because it was more of an experience and it felt almost disrespectful to photograph much. The museum got really crowded as the late morning moved towards afternoon and we decided we'd seen enough. The museum was really well done and quite touching, while it was not as emotional as I expected (I'd carried tissues with me) there were still some really amazing tributes to the folks who lost their lives that day.

Looking up at the Freedom Tower

Another view

We wanted to see the High Line Park, too, so we left the financial district and headed for Chelsea. We saw that there was a special on CitiBikes so we got bikes and made the trip across town much more fun and quite quick!

CitiBikes!! 

I have to say that riding bikes along the Hudson River is an absolute blast. We had so much fun ringing our bells and taking in the sights. You only get the bikes for 30 minutes at a time so we took them back with 1 minute to spare, but we'll certainly get them again next time we are in town. The High Line Park was really cool, too. We walked it in its entirety before grabbing an Uber back to the hotel to get all checked out. We headed to Grand Central to have lunch at Shake Shack before heading out to catch our flight home. Yes, it turns out the restaurant had a location right by our hotel and we could have saved 6 miles of walking the first day! Oh well, it was a great time both days.

Our driver to the airport was a lovely man with whom we chatted easily until we'd arrived. One of my favorite things is having a chatty driver! I'm not sure many people share that love with me, though- ha! We had an easy flight home and both went back to work on Tuesday morning. 

It was a great trip and a wonderful way to close out the drama of the car accident. I loved the sailing adventure, the play was amazing and the museum was well done. Thank you, Jackson, for making my dreams come true no matter how nerdy you think they are.

Cuteness at the pizza shop!

Tuesday evening we were exhausted so Jackson ran to the new Noble Roman's with a coupon we'd received to get dinner. There he ran into the Porterfield family and sent me this adorable shot of him and Jocelin. Is she not the cutest?! I just had to share! Also, the new Noble Roman's is amazing and some of the best pizza around. The reinvented themselves!! 

NYC + ECO!!

After the lawsuit from my car accident FINALLY ended, we decided we wanted to take a little time to celebrate the end of a long, hard chapter. I found out that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was going to be in NYC speaking after the performance of a play about the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia. SOLD! Jackson agreed to accompany me to NYC so we could see history!

The trip got off to a great start when we got to the airport and they told us that the flight was oversold. We signed up for a bump at a price of $500 each. When we got to our gate I headed for the restroom and Jackson got called up to the desk. They'd selected us for the bump to AN EARLIER FLIGHT TO ANOTHER NYC AIRPORT. You guys, Delta paid us $1,000 (our flights were $200 total for this leg of the trip) just to fly into a different airport. We got upgraded seats and left immediately instead of waiting at the gate. It was AMAZING. The $1,000 came in the form of gift cards and you had 10 options to chose from so we picked Target cards. We won't be paying for household supplies for a long time. Thanks, Delta!

We got into JFK, grabbed an Uber and headed for the City. Since it was still early our room wasn't ready so we left our bags and headed out to find lunch. We decided to walk through Central Park to the other side of town (3+ miles one way) so hit both Shake Shack (our favorite) and Levain Bakery.

SHAKE SHACK!!!

Levain: home of the world's most excellent cookie

It was a beautiful day so we walked home, too, hoping to burn off some of the calories we'd just ingested. Our room was finally ready so we checked in, cleaned up and then headed next door to Grand Central Station to grab our train heading out of town for the evening.

I've been following a little schnauzer on Instagram for about a year. His name is Eco and he reminds me of the late, great Madison. His family lives on a boat in New Rochelle, a suburb of NYC. We have chatted with his owner, Annabelle, who loves boating and traveling and decided to meet up with them while we were in town. I took one final photo of us so Mom could submit it to the police if it turned out that these people were serial killers.

Police photo.

They were not serial killers. What a relief! We got to the boat just before it was time to take off for a dinner cruise. Annabelle's neighbors run a business called "Dine and Sail" so we all hopped on that boat to be entertained for the evening. It worked out really well.

Greetings!

ECO!

Begging.

Dine and Sail's chef Luc is a French-Canadian who used to cook for the highest government officials. He'd even prepared meals for Queen Elizabeth when she visited the country. I was a little nervous as I don't love fancy food, but he made pretty and delicious food so all was well!

Fancy salad

Dinner was amazing! 

Dessert
*not my favorite texture, but Jackson loved it

Once you finish with dinner you get to really get out and sail. It was a perfect night for a sail so off we went.

Jackson & Annabelle

A gorgeous night for a sail

Happy boy!

You cannot fake that happiness!

Look at him!!!

This home was on the market for about $40M!

Eco even has a lifejacket! 

After about 3 hours we ended the dine and sail and went to Eco's boat to hang out more. Annabelle lives on the boat with her boyfriend, Gordie, who we really liked. We hung out until it was time to head to the train station to get back into Manhattan for the evening.

Saying goodbye

Jackson was over-served

To say that Jackson had too much to drink that evening would be an understatement. Luckily we got a ride to the train station from some of Annabelle's friends, but we were surprised to see the crowd at the station so late on a Saturday evening. With Jackson not in the best place, I sat us close to the security counter until our train arrived. We boarded the PACKED train and about 45 minutes later made our way back to the hotel from Grand Central.

Apart from Jackson's overconsumption (it had been a long time since that had happened!), it was a wonderful night. We loved Eco and his family. Thank goodness they weren't serial killers!

July in Indiana

Once we were back home from Naples the month of July flew by. We did take our bikes up to the Muncie area to ride the Cardinal Greenway one Saturday evening after meeting my folks for dinner. It was super hot out so we were the only folks foolish enough to ride that evening. It was awesome. The Greenway cuts through some beautiful parts of the state and we rode for what felt like forever. Jackson says it was less than 10 miles. I think it was closer to 100. Whatever.

Gorgeous Indiana scene

Quick rest break on the bike ride

What a beautiful place to ride!

We also got to visit with Kathy and Grace when they came to town. I forgot to snap photos of that, but here is a shot of MacKenzie waiting to go inside to see them. :)

MacKenzie pacing outside of Grammy's door

We also had a date night to The Escape Room with the Bates family. We got out, but we were racing another team and lost by under a minute so it was only a half win. Note: if you go to an Escape Room make sure you have a group large enough to have the room to yourselves. We had to play with strangers and they slowed us way down. (Can you tell I am just a little competitive and still sore about the family next to us winning?)

We escaped!!

We also spent some time watching little Ella, much to MacKenzie's chagrin. Ella is about to turn two and she's turned into such a sweet little girl!

Puppysitting

Independence Day in Naples

The golf course in Susan's community in Florida had been under construction and reopened just in time for the Independence Day holiday. She and Jackson decided to go down and play and MacKenzie and I tagged along for a beach trip because we're not foolish!

Resting up for her flight

Rainbows from above

Tiny airport greeter

MacKenzie did an excellent job on the flight. She gets a little heavy to tote around the airport in her carrier, but she is worth a little extra work. She brings so much joy to people just by looking adorable. I love watching people's faces light up when they see her and get greeted by her. It is amazing how many people tell us that they grew up with schnauzers and seeing her brings back wonderful memories.

The golf course being open again meant that MacKenzie had plenty of people to keep track of which is a job she takes very seriously when she's in Florida. Her Grammy loves that. HA!

Tiny golfer greeter

We got to town in the afternoon on the 4th and had some rain so we worried about whether or not the fireworks display would be on. The storms cleared so we headed to the beach to find out. Us and about 4 million other people. :)

Feeling festive!

Petefish

The fireworks went off without a hitch and were awesome! Jackson loves fireworks so getting to see two displays in one week pleased him. I was happy because the fireworks were far enough away from the condo that MacKenzie didn't have a terrible night. She does not find fireworks entertaining at all!

MacK and Grammy
notice MacK has her eye on some golfers

Jackson and Susan played a bunch of golf on the fancy new course. I worked some hours catching up on things and read books for fun (a personal favorite). We also spent plenty of time at the beach!

AMERICA!

Not a bad view

Exhausted from barking at golfers

Visiting Naples in the Summer is much more enjoyable from a population standpoint because, compared to season (aka winter), it is empty and everything is on sale! Restaurants have their menus at 50% off! You can actually get a table places. You can actually push your grocery cart around the store. Amazing!

Checking out boats = his happy place

Susie was AMPED to have shrimp nachos

"Lotsa Lobsta!"

YOU GUYS, LOBSTER GOES ON SPECIAL IN THE SUMMER. IT IS THE BEST!

"Keep it down!"

Sunset

Since restaurants go on sale in the Summer, I waited to have my birthday dinner from Susan until we were all in Naples. There is an Italian place I'd always wanted to try, Bice, but it was too expensive for me. At 50% their menu was actually moderately affordable so we made reservations and were not disappointed.

Check out that pepper mill!

The BEST pasta I've had in the U.S.

Jackson had the 3rd best dinner.
This never happens.

Lobster pasta? Yes, please!

Chocolate souffle 

Bice was FANCY. It was also home to the best pasta I've had outside of Italy. We all left absolutely stuffed, but super happy. Thank you again, Susie!

We decided we'd better walk off some of that dinner so we headed for the beach to catch sunset.

Sunset with Jackson

Susie with the photobomb!!

We all flew home on Monday morning with tans. It was a great time! 

A couple of days later I took MacKenzie in for her grooming appointment and she came back looking stunning so I had to share her photo! :)

Fresh new haircut