NYC - August 9, 2014 - Italian, Chinese and Broadway

Late start again which meant no breakfast and straight to lunch at Casa Bella (our favourite restaurant in Little Italy).  We were greeted by Wilson - the smooth talking maitre d.  We got a seat outside by the entrance and Wilson was worth the price of admission with his "forget about it" and "how you doin'" to all the passersby.  A young italian couple sat behind us with 2 kids about 3 and 1 years of age.  The 3 year old was crying and whining and Wilson said to him "Stop it.  You are in my house now!" with a very stern voice - the kid stopped crying instantly.  We had another great meal and then wandered into Chinatown to find the Ice Cream Factory - a famous ice cream joint in NYC.  They had great ice cream (isn't it all though).  We wandered around Chinatown for a while and came across Columbus Park and watched some basketball for awhile while Jan and Kate chatted with a lady with a baby.  We started to walk back to the hotel when a guy in front of us dropped a chinese dumpling in the ground.  Scott and I looked at each other and decided we needed dumplings so across the street to Tasty Dumpling we went.  We ordered dill and pork dumplings and an onion cake.  As we were waiting for our order, a guy came in and bought 5 containers of Kim Chi - he told us that it was the best chinese style Kim Chi in all of NYC and he came from the Upper West Side for it.  We decided we needed some too!  The entire bill was $7.  It was all delicious.  In the evening we ventured to Times Square for dinner at Guy's American and then went to Matilda the Musical on Broadway.  It was really cute.  Home on the subway (which is much quicker than a cab on Saturday night).  Ciao.

NYC - August 7 and 8, 2014 - Diners Drive Ins and Dives and Washington DC

Thursday started with a hearty breakfast at the Landmark - if you missed a previous blog post, we get bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and coffee for the price of a Starbucks latte. The group split up for the afternoon with Robyn, Kate and Scott going to Central Park for a bike ride and Jan and I wandering around SOHO.  Jan and I ended up at the International Culinary Institute on Broadway in SOHO which is a Hells Kitchen type establishment where the students cook, serve and host.  We had a 3 course lunch with wine pairings and it was fantastic.  Had our obligatory nap and then headed to the Redhead Pub in the East Village - this place was on Diners Drive ins and Dives. We had fried chicken, bacon peanut brittle, burgers and a salad.  Another great choice for a restaurant.  After dinner, we went to Momofuku (aka Milk) for their famous cereal milk ice cream and cake donut holes.  The line up was about 1/2 hour long.  Jan and I sat on the bench while the kids waited in line.  We were speaking with a local couple for quite a while when Kate not so subtlety told Jan that her shirt was almost all the way undone.  Jan then gasped so everybody in the line looked over.  The guy we were speaking with said, "I thought it was just a new style - we are in New York after all".  We walked back to the hotel about 20 blocks (it took us about 40 minutes).

We were up at 5:30 am on Friday so we could be at the tour bus by 6:15 am.  We took a day trip to Washington DC.  Before booking, we did not realize that it was about a 4 hour bus ride there and about 5 hours back because of rush hour.  Regardless, it was great.  We visited 5 States in one day - New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia as well as the District of Columbia.  We had a champions breakfast at a truckstop consisting of Popeyes chicken, Cinnabons, Auntie Anne's pretzels and Starbucks.  We arrived in DC shortly before noon and saw the Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery and Jefferson Memorial from the bus.  We then stopped and visited the Vietnam Memorial (there are 2 of them), the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, Mirror Lake and the Korean Memorial.  We then hopped  on the bus for ride to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - the White House!  It is much smaller than you think and you can actually get pretty close to the front.  We visited the Wax Museum which has all of the Presidents and numerous celebrities.  We drove by Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot and then stopped at the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian for a short visit.  It was very fascinating and we needed a much longer time there.  We had a quick bite at the museum - from McDonalds - the only restaurant at the Air and Space Museum.  We visited the Capitol building and then hopped on the bus for the 5 hour ride home.  Great but long day.  On our arrival in Times Square, we hopped into cabs and ended up in Little Italy for a late supper.  We love staying in SOHO (and away from Times Square).

NYC - August 6, 2014 - Cronuts and America's Got Talent

We (all of us but Scott) got up at 6 am so we could be in line at Dominique Ansell Bakery at 6:30 am to get cronuts - a combination of croissants and donuts.  The bakery opens at 8 am so we waited for 1.5 hours in line.  We were near the front and there were at lease 100 people behind us.  This happens every day!  The limit is 2 per person.  They were delicious and worth the wait.  We then went back to the hotel for a nap.  We went to Times Square and had lunch at Guy's American - Guy Fieri's restaurant - it was really good!  We then went to line up to get our tickets for Americas Got Talent at 3 pm - our voucher to get the tickets said to lineup at 3:30 pm - when we arrived at 3 pm there were at least 400 people in line ahead of us.  Actually, it went pretty quickly and we got our main floor tickets.  We did a little shopping and had some snacks and beer at HB Burger.  Back to Radio City Music Hall for 7:30 pm - the line was massive - obviously our day of lines.  We got in about 8 pm with the live show to start at 9 pm.  Shortly before 9 pm, Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum, Howard Stern and Nick Cannon came out and the live show started.  We were prompted to stand, clap and cheer throughout the show.  It was pretty cool.  After the show, we hopped on the subway (yup Shaundell, we rode the subway in New York at 10:30 pm).  Kate was hungry so we stopped in Little Italy for some pasta and sangria.  We all ate of course even though only Kate was hungry.  Late night - to bed after midnight.

NYC - August 5, 2014

Up late again so we went directly to lunch at Lombardis - a famous pizza place in SOHO. It was delicious and rivaled our favourite pizza place in NYC (Johns). We did a little shopping before Scottand and split away from the girls who continued to shop. Scott and I went to Little Italy before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon nap. In the evening, we went to Times Square to look for a show on Broadway (at a discount). We struck out at Matilda the Musical and Aladdin the Musical before finding tickets to If/Then with Idina Menzel. Amazing voice!  We went to Southern Hospitality restaurant for dinner after the show for a feast of ribs, BBQ chicken, chili, buffalo max and cheese and brisket.

NYC - August 4, 2014

We went for breakfast at The Landmark - a down and dirty NYC style diner with breakfast for $5 - it was great.  We then walked to the Dominique Ansell bakery for a cronut (a combination croissant/donut) only to find out that you need to line up at 7 am for the bakery opening at 8 am to get one.  Kate is determined to have a cronut so we will do this one day.  We then walked downtown to the new World Trade Center building and the memorial.  It is pretty amazing.  They have constructed 2 deep waterfalls/pools on the sites of the original 2 buildings.  We had some lunch and beer at Battery Park before waiting in the sweltering heat for about 1.5 hours to get the ferry to the Statute of Liberty.  It was pretty cool even in the heat.  On our return, we walked to Fraunces Tavern for a beer and some snacks - George Washington actually sat at the bar in this tavern.  We walked to the South Street Seaport and listened to a band for a while and then walked back the 30 or so blocks to our hotel.  Quite the day of walking.  We had a shower and a nap and then headed to Chinatown for dinner.  We ate at 456 Shanghai and it was delicious - we would go back.  

NYC - August 3, 2014

Up early today as we were attending the Curve Pajama Show. We arrived there for 9 am and spent the entire day visiting suppliers and seeing what will be available for Spring. We then went to our favourite NYC pizza place - Johns Pizzeria in Times Square. Ordered one large pizza as it was just going to be a snack but them decided that it was so good that we ordered another.  We then got great discount tickets to see Motown the Musical - the story of Barry Gordy and Motown. It was fantastic. Back to the hotel at 11 pm. Ciao.

NYC - August 2, 2014

Woke up at 11 am. Whattttttt?  That is 5 hours past my normal can't sleep anymore wake up time.  Obviously, we skipped breakfast and walked straight to Katz Deli for a delicious pastrami sandwich and a Brooklyn Lager.  Classic and required when visiting the big apple. We then walked about 15 blocks to get to Momofuku (aka Milk) for delicious crack ice cream and cake donuts.  We stopped at an old school barber shop so Scott and I could get a haircut and a shave. Baby face again. We walked back to our hotel stopping for protein shakes and a pitcher of sangria. Rough day. We had a nap for a few hours and then took the subway to Times Square to see a movie - Guardians of the Galaxy. It was really good.  We went to Shake Shack for burgers, hopped on the subway home and are back in our room at 11:30 pm.

NYC - August 1, 2014

Jan, Kate, Robyn, Scott and I were up at 4 am for a flight to NYC for 10 days. We arrived safely and had a "great" NYC taxi ride in from the Newark Airport which is across the river in New Jersey. The NJ side of the trip was fine and fast. The NYC side was interesting. Traffic is horrendous which is expected. What was unexpected was our taxi driver getting out of the taxi at one point to go yell at someone who was blocking a lane. We were also going about 100 km per hour down some side streets with 1000's of people on the sides of the road.  We are staying in SOHO this time which is in Little Italy and close to Chinatown. We had a good dinner in Little Italy at Da Gennaro. They close down Mulberry Street on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the summer. Early night as we were up early.

Update:  Had a nap until 9 pm and then ventures out to Little Italy again for some pizza and beer at Toby's Public House.  Also went to Rice to Riches which is a rice pudding emporium!  Probably 30 different flavours of rice pudding.  We had the butter pecan and caramel. Delicious.

Grand Rapids, Michigan June 27 - July 2, 2014

Jan and I are traveling to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a conference called the Retail Success Summit.  We are looking forward to a little bit of R&R and some great retail inspiration - Robyn is joining us on Sunday.

We left Edmonton at 8 am on Friday, June 27, 2014.  On a side note, as we were leaving Edmonton we saw the largest plane in the world with six engines - the Antonov 225 - on the tarmac - it was delivering a piece of equipment for a fertilizer plant in Redwater.  We flew to Dallas and then back up to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I usually make fun of people to make these awkward connections but it was actually shorter time-wise than flying through Chicago.  We did see several people wearing overalls in Dallas, Texas - wasn't sure that they were still in style, but I guess they are.  I will be looking for a short version in Michigan!  We arrived at the Amway Grand Plaza in the downtown area (Grand Rapids is the world headquarters for Amway) about 7 pm.  We wandered around downtown for a while and then stopped at San Chez Tapas for dinner.  It was excellent!  We had seared Ahi tuna, chicken and chorizo, pickled watermelon salad, potato/cheese croquettes, olives, calamari.bacon, whiskey soaked cake and tres leche (three milk) cake along with a carafe of Sangria.  So good.

On Saturday, we slept in until 11 am - WHAT!!! That is about 5 hours past Bob's usual wake up time.  We went for coffee at Mad Cap Cafe and had a "flight of coffee" - 3 extremely impressive coffees - we were told.  It was ok.  We then watched a bike race and and walked around downtown for awhile.  We stopped at Hop Cat Brewery for lunch - this is the #1 Brewpub in the USA.  I had a couple of belgian style beers (one form Michigan and one from Belgium) and Jan had a raspberry beer - all delicious.  We had some food too.  Jan asked where we might find a store for some hand cream and we were directed to "Lucky" a few blocks away.  As we arrived at Lucky, there were several homeless people hanging around.  We walked in and out very quickly - Jan decided she did not want to ask the guy behind the cage/cashier where the hand cream was.  We walked back to the hotel and stopped at GP Sports Bar to watch the end of the Brazil/Chile soccer game - had another beer while Jan had a coffee and peanut butter pie.  Went for an unremarkable dinner at Sundance Grill and then back to San Chez for dessert.  Jan had a chocolate concoction and I had a flight of port.  They sure like their "fights" here.  Home to bed.

On Sunday, we slept in again.  Had coffee at Starbucks and then off to San Chez Bistro (clearly our favourite place in Grand Rapids) for lunch.  We sat next to Motley Crue who are here for a show on July 2.  Great lunch and then off to GP Sports Bar to catch the end of the Netherlands/Mexico game - a nail biter.  Read a book in the massive lobby for a while.

Robyn arrives late Sunday night and then we attended the Retail Success Summit for 2 days. Amazing conference and we each left with 30 pages of notes and 4 pages of point form action items. Our plane was delayed leaving Grand Rapids so we missed our connection in Chicago. We spent the night at the Hilton Airport and left the next morning.