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.
Sunday, 3 August 2014
Saturday, 2 August 2014
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.
Friday, 1 August 2014
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Salt Spring Island May 4-11, 2014
Jan, Delores and I drove to Salt Spring Island, BC for a week to help Barry and Emma (Jan's brother and sister-in-law) with their move. We left on Sunday night after dropping Randi off at the airport for her 2 month trip to Europe. We drove as far as Valemount and spent the night. We then got up early and drove to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal arriving at 1 pm - the 1 pm ferry was full so we had to wait until the 3 pm ferry. We arrived in Sydney at 4:40 and hopped on the Fulford Harbour Ferry at 5 pm. We arrived on Salt Spring at 5:40 pm. Ferries are exhausting. We had dinner and a visit and then dropped into bed. We got up the next day and started to work - the sold property had a lot of "treasures" to be sorted through. We spent the first day working on the main floor of the shop. We spent the second day working on the second floor of the shop. We took a day off to explore the island a bit and spent the next day working on the crawl space under the cabin. 3 full days of work but we got the majority of the place cleaned up. There were 3 destinations for the "treasures": the dumpster, the fire pile or the new house. At the end of 3 days, the small dumpster was 1/3 full, the fire pile took on a fair amount, but the majority of the "treasures" ended up back at the new house including about 100 axes. We enjoyed Saturday at the famous market and had lunch in downtown Ganges. We got up and left on Sunday morning - we drove the entire way ending up back in Edmonton at about 2 am (with a quick stop at the lake to drop off some "treasures" from Salt Spring).
Monday, 17 March 2014
Jasper March 13-16, 2014
Off to Jasper for the weekend. The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge is hosting their annual PJ Party and we were given the opportunity along with Call the Kettle Black to have a Pop Up store at the JPL. We arrived Thursday afternoon and went for Pizza and French Onion Soup at Bright Spot in town - they have my favourite French Onion Soup in the world, literally, it is better than in France. Jan and Robyn spent the evening getting ready for the event and Scotty and I just relaxed.
We got up on Friday morning and got the Pop Up Shop set up. While Jan and Robyn were working, Scotty and I went into town about 1 pm and had a breakfast skillet and beer for brunch. We then walked around town and bought candy, beer and chocolate (bear claws) in that order. Stopped at Jasper Brewing Company for a beer sampler and then back to the JPL to check on the girls. Had a nap in the late afternoon and then off to dinner at Downstream Cafe - it was excellent. Kate and Greg showed up late on Friday night to bring us more stock for the event.
On Saturday morning, we lounged around the main lodge until mid afternoon. Went for lunch at Jasper Brewing Company with Scott, Kate ad Greg. Back to the room for a nap. Then to dinner at Olive which was also excellent.
On Sunday, I slept in (while Jan worked) and then we packed up and came home.
We got up on Friday morning and got the Pop Up Shop set up. While Jan and Robyn were working, Scotty and I went into town about 1 pm and had a breakfast skillet and beer for brunch. We then walked around town and bought candy, beer and chocolate (bear claws) in that order. Stopped at Jasper Brewing Company for a beer sampler and then back to the JPL to check on the girls. Had a nap in the late afternoon and then off to dinner at Downstream Cafe - it was excellent. Kate and Greg showed up late on Friday night to bring us more stock for the event.
On Saturday morning, we lounged around the main lodge until mid afternoon. Went for lunch at Jasper Brewing Company with Scott, Kate ad Greg. Back to the room for a nap. Then to dinner at Olive which was also excellent.
On Sunday, I slept in (while Jan worked) and then we packed up and came home.
Friday, 7 March 2014
PV - February 18-22, 2014
… our last few days in PV were based on relaxing and eating. We did spend a day in Sayulita doing some shopping, eating, beaching and body surfing. All in all - a great trip!
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