Dave and Jenn’s Adventures

I was staffed on a project in Midtown Manhattan from late January to early May, 2011. One of my friends in Champaign-Urbana commented that it was like a paid vacation. True, except for the part where I had to work 40 hours. Though that part was fun too, of course.

I did thoroughly enjoy being in the city for a few months, especially after living in the cornfields for a year and a half. It was awesome to be surrounded by tall buildings, restaurants, public transportation, and limitless entertainment opportunities.

Check out some of the photos I took while I was hanging out in NYC.

My favorite restaurants in NYC:

Bubby’s Pie Company in TriBeCa. I had dinner here more times than any other restaurant. By the last time, the waitress was trying to remember what my “usual” drink was. Delicious food, chill atmosphere, and great commitment to sustainable and/or local food. [My Yelp review]

East of Eighth in Chelsea. Very chill, good atmosphere, good service, terrific menu. The second time I came here, I ate in the garden out back. It wasn’t breathtakingly beautiful, but it was a nice change to be able to eat in a quiet outdoor patio in the heart of Manhattan. [My Yelp review]

The Long Room in Midtown. The food here is quite good for a pub. Pretty good service, and of course a good whiskey/whisky selection. [My Yelp review]

Rattle N Hum in Midtown. Actually, the food here isn’t that great, but it is a must-stop for beer snobs. Dave was in heaven when I brought him here.

My favorite hotel in Manhattan is the Hilton Garden Inn on W 35th Street (Herald Square). I did several weeks of multi-night stay here. Extremely convenient location, wonderful staff, great views from the upper floors, and an all-around good value.

A close second, though I only stayed there once, is the Hilton Garden Inn in TriBeCa. Nice rooms, and literally right above the subway station.

I’m a big fan of the Hilton Garden Inn because of the mini-fridge and microwave in the room. Makes it easier to just have breakfast in my room instead of having to go out.

As many office workers can attest, one of the most important parts of each day is figuring out where to have lunch. This exercise can start as early as 9:15 in the morning. Unfortunately, my co-workers and I would often have this decided by 10:30 am and still have to wait an hour and a half until we could put our plan into action, stomachs growling all the while.

Here is a list of my favorite lunch places near Bryant Park:

The Kati Roll Company on 39th between 5th and 6th. My co-worker introduced me to the restaurant and the concept, and I am hooked for life. If I never have a kati roll again, I will cry. [My Yelp review]

Goodburger on 45th between 5th and 6th. I’m always a fan of fast food places that make their food from fresh ingredients while you wait. Great burgers, decent prices, and surprisingly easy to find a table. [My Yelp review]

HB Burger on 43rd between 6th and Broadway. Get there early, because it fills up quickly. Not cheap (to be expected, this close to Touristlandia), but I really liked the atmosphere and the bison burger.

Maoz Vegetarian on the corner of 7th and 40th. I’m not someone who goes out of the way to eat a falafel, but I very much recommend the ones at Maoz. It’s definitely a “to go” place – there’s no seating – but the food is very fresh and the line, though it seems long, moves quickly. [My Yelp review]

Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine (warning! clicking this link will cause Cuban music to play loudly through your browser) on 45th between 5th and 6th. My Jamaican colleague was very happy when we found this place. You can get a HUGE meal for lunch prices, or you can opt to get a couple of empanadas. Seating is available if you get there early enough.

Mai Sushi, on 41st between Madison and 5th. Another colleague discovered this for us one day, and we were thrilled for the new option. Affordable yet yummy sushi, with plenty of non-sushi options for those who want something else. Great miso soup. Excellent selection of affordable, prepackaged “to go” boxes.

Though I typically stayed in hotels in Midtown, I just happened to be staying in TriBeCa the week of May 1.

When I landed at LaGuardia, the president had already made his announcement about the death of Osama bin Laden. I turned on the TV as soon as I got to the hotel room. MSNBC was showing footage of college-aged people gathering in a celebratory fashion in front of the White House, and Brian Williams was reporting that people were also gathering at Ground Zero. When I realized that I was less than a mile from the site, I felt a responsibility to go and check out what was happening (even though it was past 12:30 at night at this point).

I don’t know what I was expecting – a vigil? a rally? a media circus? but I knew I should take advantage of being there.

First, here are the Facebook posts I wrote when I got there:

12:50 am: I walked down to the WTC site to see what is going on. A crowd has taken over the street but NYPD is trying to keep it from getting any bigger.

1:11 am: I made it to the crowd by going around the block. It reminds me of a mosh pit.

1:13 am: People are chanting various things, including “USA”, “NYC”, and “Yes We Can”.

1:17 am: There seem to be a few 9/11 families but mostly college age people (of which more than a handful are drunk).

1:17 am: Cigars are being smoked.

1:20 am: Some guys were singing “Proud to be an American.” Now it’s stuck in my head.

1:21 am: The police are losing their barricade battle a few yards at a time. They’re doing their best to keep things contained.

1:50 am: Unlike the kids partying on the street in front of the WTC site, I have to get up early tomorrow and go to work. Hope you enjoyed my attempt at social media journalism. =)

To fill in a few things: when I got there, the corner of Church and Barclay was barricaded off, and the police weren’t letting anyone pass. I tried to go around to the west, but that wasn’t the right way to go. I finally went back and to the east, and found that people had gathered on Church and Vesey. When I was leaving, the NYPD had taken down the barricade at Church and Barclay, but were trying to prevent people from walking down that block of Barclay altogether.

There wasn’t much media there when I got there, but by the time I left, I saw journalists in the middle of the crowd, interviewing people. There was a news van parked on Vesey when I left (I’m not sure which network it was… perhaps local).

It didn’t seem to me that the crowd had much purpose in being there – as though people had heard the news and just decided they needed to be with other people. There was really no focal point to the crowd, and even the chants seemed to occur spontaneously from various areas.

I didn’t get good pictures, because it was dark, and – let’s face it – I was shooting with a BlackBerry. But I tried to take some video, and this video turned out okay enough to give a sense of the situation.

There was an Op-Ed in the New York Times a few days later that I felt did a good job of explaining why groups gathered at the WTC site, at the White House, and elsewhere.

There was quite the media circus a couple of days later when Obama came to visit.

In September, Jenn’s best friend Michelle and her husband Eric (previously mentioned in our blogs about the Utah leg of our 2009 cross-country trip) came to the scenic Midwest to visit. Eric had never been to the Midwest, and Michelle had not really spent time in Illinois before.

While they were here, we spent about a day and a half in Chicago. The first day was perfect weather; the second day was rainy and yucky. The highlights:

• Eric got to see my mom’s cousin’s 100-year-old house in Rogers Park, which he loved (Eric renovates old homes for a living – check out http://dovetail-remodeling.com)
• A stroll down the Chicago Riverwalk (recommended)
• Navy Pier, the first time for all of us (we don’t really recommend it, other than perhaps for the views, or if you’re 13.)
• Water Taxi from Navy Pier to the Museum Campus (recommended, though the water was rather choppy when we did it)
• Lou Malnati’s for deep dish (of course)
• A nighttime stroll through Millennium Park (check out Dave’s awesome photos)



• A very interesting walk around the block outside Wrigley Field during the Dave Matthews concert (super fun crowd vibe)
• Improvised Shakespeare at Improv Olympic (recommended – totally hilarious)
• Breakfast at Ann Sather (Some friends introduced us to it in 2000, and now we can’t think to have breakfast anywhere else in Chicago. Plus, Andersonville made Michelle & Eric feel like they were back in Kingsburg – y’know, the Swedish thing.)
• The Field Museum (I didn’t think it was worth it)
• The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (very worthwhile – an interesting perspective on FLW)
• Dinner at Five Guys Burgers (can’t go wrong with that)

We intended to go up in the Sears Tower, but it thunderstormed Saturday morning, and when we left the Field Museum in the middle of the day – though it was no longer raining – the top half of the building was engulfed in clouds. We figured it wouldn’t be a very good view from up there on a day like that.

After checking out of our hotel and before embarking on the 6-hour drive from Kansas City back to Champaign, we went for a little stroll in the Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden, which is run by Kansas City’s botanical garden organization, Powell Gardens.

This is a charming, peaceful spot in which to enjoy a sunny morning for an hour or so. The various plants are well-labeled, so it’s educational. There are several different gardens, including an indoor winter garden, so there are a number of different “spaces” to enjoy. The highlight, aside from the very beautiful flowers and plants, is the sculpture/fountain of three girls dancing on the water.

Apparently the garden is part of a larger Kauffman Legacy Park. Brush Creek also runs just past the garden, with a lovely walking path alongside it, creating opportunities for a longer stroll in addition to the garden.

We enjoyed it!

We bought tickets via StubHub that included a parking pass, which was SWEET. We pulled up into the stadium, showed the attendant our pass, and he gave us a blue hang-tag and said, “The guy up there will direct you.” We pulled right up near the stadium and were directed to a parking lot mere feet from the gate. So this is what celebrities feel like! *wink*

We arrived quite early (4:30 pm) to see the stadium before the game and also to meet up with friends. The evening was a tribute to the Negro Leagues, so there were all kinds of festivities – free Kansas City Monarchs caps, several Negro League players signing autographs, fundraiser concessions to benefit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (which is in KC), as well as unrelated fun things like live music and face painting.

In Kauffman Stadium there are waterfalls and fountains along the outfield wall, so we watched those for a while. There is also “The Outfield Experience”, which features all kinds of fun stuff for kids to do – baseball-related things like base running as well as a carousel and five-hole putt-putt course. Once our friends got there, we hung around in this area for quite a while, because it was a good way to keep their 3- and 5-year-old boys busy.

For dinner, Dave got one of the fundraiser hot dogs, which was unfortunately not very satisfying. I got pulled pork and baked beans, which was pretty yummy (though of course not as good as the pulled pork at Camden Yards).

Our seats were great – in the lower level up the first baseline. The game was a little odd, because the players were wearing Negro League tribute uniforms, so it really didn’t feel like we were watching the Royals and the Orioles. The game featured more action than the one we recently went to in Cincinnati, but it was still remarkably quick. It started a little after 6 pm, and was over well before 8:30 pm – perhaps the quickest American League game we’ve ever been to. My Orioles were in the lead for a couple of innings, but blew it in the 8th, losing 4-3. The Royals fans were really excited, though. I gotta give it to them – they’re nice fans, and supportive of their team, even though they are typically terrible. A lot like Orioles fans.

At least during the hot dog derby – which actually featured live runners in hot dog costumes, not just cartoons – my chosen hot dog (relish) was the one that won. *smile*

After a quick lunch at Subway, we made our way across town to the Boulevard Brewing Co., arriving at 2 pm just as the next tour was supposed to start. (This seems to be a pattern for us.) Although the tour was very full, the guy let us join it, once Dave told him we were from Illinois.

Boulevard is the largest craft brewery in the Midwest, the second-largest brewery in Missouri (after Budweiser), and – as the tour guide was pleased to say – the largest American-owned brewery in the state. We were introduced to Boulevard not long after we moved to Champaign – their distributor was at our local liquor store doing tastings and PR.

We have done a lot of brewery tours, and this one was among the best we’ve seen. The tour guide had personality and the right voice for talking over 40+ people. There were short videos at about four different spots along the tour – a great way to explain things (like the brewing process) in a more visual way than the tour guide can do, and also to show things that you wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Brewery tours typically are less interesting on a weekend, because they’re not running the machines. (In ten years of doing brewery tours, Dave and I have never seen a bottling line actually running.) The videos helped a lot, and they were really high-quality.

The first part of the tour takes the group through the brewery’s original system, from when Boulevard started in 1989. Then it transitions into the new facility in the adjacent building, which opened in 2007 and features top-of-the line brewing technology as well as industry-leading efficient equipment and architecture. It was pretty impressive.

Like all respectable brewery tours, it ended in a tasting room. They had given us four tokens each (actually bottle caps) to be redeemed for 4-oz tastings. Since I don’t drink beer, Dave got to taste 7 different brews – he kept the last token as a souvenir.

While in Kansas City, we made a point to do more than just go to a baseball game. One of the more significant things to visit in the area is the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, MO, which is just east of the city.

We got to the museum around 10 am and spent about three hours there. It was pretty empty when we got there, but it was starting to get busy by early afternoon.

It’s a nice little museum. The exhibits are done in a fairly contemporary style. A lot of older museums have a dated style, while some newer museums are overwhelmingly interactive. This one strikes a good balance. It was a good reflection of the personality of this understated, “regular midwestern guy” who happened to have been president.

It was a lot of information. There were so many significant things that happened while Truman was president: the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of the Cold War, the Marshall Plan, the Korean War, the rise of the American middle class and consumer lifestyle. It was fascinating to spend a few hours focusing on the beginnings of what we typically think of when we picture 20th century American society.

The first floor of the museum is a series of rooms that feature Truman’s presidency. There is also a peaceful courtyard which contains an eternal flame, the graves of Truman and his family (wife, daughter, and son-in-law). Off the courtyard is a little room with a view into Truman’s office, where he worked from the time the library was built until he died.

The second floor has a newer (seemingly), more kid-friendly and more interactive exhibit, that focuses more on Truman’s life. There was also a temporary exhibit called “Memories of Korea”, which wasn’t as well-done. It had some interesting information about the Korean War, but it felt very disjointed, without much of a narrative.

Recommended if you’re ever in the Kansas City area!

On our way back to Maryland from visiting friends in Richmond, we stopped for a quick hike in Prince William Forest.

It’s convenient and easy to get to – just off I-95 next to the Marine base at Quantico. There’s a $5 fee (a bit of a hassle because you have to go to the Visitor’s Center first to get a little receipt), a drop in the bucket to help defray the costs of maintaining the park. Of course, silly me, it should have been free because we JUST bought a National Parks pass – but of course I had left it at home.

Prince William Forest isn’t anything particularly special, but it’s nice to have a large chunk of protected forest land (15,000 acres) with many different trails and bike paths. The park also features campgrounds and picnic areas. Dave also learned in the Visitor’s Center that there are various small, historic cemeteries located in the middle of the forest, which are difficult to find unless you’re with a ranger (or you just stumble across one).

We hiked a trail called “Farm to Forest”, which got its name because that particular spot was once a farm, and has now been allowed to return to wilderness. I was aiming for a 1.7 mile hike, but once we got there, we realized that there were really two trails – a 1-mile loop, and a 1.7-mile extension. So, we ended up hiking more like two and a half miles. Fine for me, but maybe a little much for Lucas, since his elbow’s not 100% yet.

It was a very nice hike, and it was perfect weather. It was labeled as “moderately strenuous”, which really means it’s perhaps on the slightly strenuous side of “moderate”. There were a few ups and downs, but no major inclines or much elevation change. The trail ran along and/or crossed Quantico Creek for the middle part of the hike, which wasn’t as scenic as you might think. The best feature of the trail was all the evidence of beavers – we had never seen so many chewed trees. The beavers had obviously been quite successful, actually, because a number of the tree trunks had been chewed all the way around and had fallen. There were one or two very effective beaver dams on the creek as well. Unfortunately we didn’t actually spot any of the critters.

If you live in the DC area and are looking for a place for a quick hike, or if you’re visiting the area and are looking for a place to camp near the nation’s capital, check it out: http://www.nps.gov/prwi/.