A Class(y) Reunion

This weekend brought us to Washington, DC for a very special reason - three of Alyssa's college roommates met there for a fun reunion! Ashley is the DC’er (and her husband Matt) and Annie and Michelle flew in from Minnesota. We left Saturday morning on the bus from Penn Station and arrived in DC around noon. While we only stayed until Sunday evening, we had a full itinerary. First, we went to Barrel Oak winery in Virginia.





Our next stop was Linden Vineyards, also in Virginia. The drive into the winery was very scenic. It is amazing that you can travel just a short distance outside of DC and see pastures and the Blue Ridge mountains.



That night we went out to eat in the Adams Morgan neighborhood – a very lively area with lots of bars and restaurants. Here is a picture of Bryan getting ready for the evening. Too bad he wasn't brave enough to wear this out.



Obviously the ladies dressed a bit more respectably.



On Sunday we headed to Old Town Alexandria for brunch. Ricotta pancakes with caramelized apples, anyone?



Check out the cobblestone street in Old Town. And you thought potholes were hard on your car.



After brunch we walked around the area and up to the Potomac River. Block after block was filled with centuries-old row homes with fancy doors that looked like this.







Our last stop was Mount Vernon, the residence and burial ground of George Washington.



We were amazed at how expansive and well-preserved the estate was.





The backyard view wasn't too shabby.



After checking out the museum at Mount Vernon, it was back to the bus stop already. The weekend went by way too fast, but it was so nice to be with friends after 3 months of friendlessness. Ashley and Matt were great hosts and definitely showed us a good time!

A Cry For Help

When it comes to food, NYC seems to have everything you could imagine. But we've been here for nearly three months and have identified two glaring exceptions. Exception #1: Malts. We have made every attempt to locate a good malt in this city, but have failed miserably. There's not a single Dairy Queen here, and certainly not a Dari King. Go to Shake Shack, right? We have tried that and, in our opinion, the malts were overpriced and contained little to no malt powder. We stopped by a TCBY this weekend and tried to order a malt. Even though malts were listed on their menu, they informed us they didn't have malts! We stopped by a Haagan-Dazs in our neighborhood and asked if they had malts - nope! The other two ice cream shops in our neighborhood were equally maltless. Why is this happening? A lot of places carry shakes and blended drinks. Is it that difficult to stock malt powder? If you're going through the effort of blending together ice cream and a flavor, what's the harm in adding a spoonful of malt powder? Is there some East coast malt powder shortage that we're not aware of?! What is going on?!?!?

After some additional research, Bryan found "Milk & Cookies Bakery" which had malts on the menu. In hopes of striking gold, we made the trek tonight. It was a cute shop on a quiet West Village street.





After being assured that they had caramel, Bryan ordered a caramel malt. Not wanting to place all our bets on the malts, Alyssa ordered the Grasshopper, an ice cream sandwich (mint gelato between two double chocolate cookies).



Looks good, doesn't it? The ice cream sandwich was good. But as you guessed, the malt was not. As the guy carried it over to the cash register, it was sloshing around in the cup. A terrible sign. One sip and the answer was clear: we were still maltless. The malt - if you can even call it that - was more like caramel milk. It was pretty cold, so we assumed there was probably some ice cream in it, but the milk-to-ice cream ratio was at best 6:1.

Exception #2: Cheese curds. We've scoured cyberspace to track down a place with cheese curds in Manhattan. It appears there are a few places in Brooklyn that offer these precious delicacies, but nowhere in Manhattan.

And so we reach our cry for help: If you know of a place in Manhattan that serves cheese curds or legitimate malts - with ice cream, chocolate/caramel, NO (or very little) MILK added, and malt powder - we would be extremely grateful for your recommendation.

Flower Power

After a two-week bout with bronchitis, we emerged from seclusion this weekend and tried to make up for lost time. First stop - Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We could not have timed our visit any better. The cherry blossom trees, magnolia trees, tulips, lilacs, and rock garden plants were in full bloom. The Garden spans 52 acres and recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. As charming as it is to be crammed up against fellow New Yorkers in a germ-infested subway car, it's nice to have a wide open space to visit.

The cherry blossom trees were so fluffy (disclaimer - Alyssa's adjective).



Bryan in a canopy of pink - his favorite.



The magnolia blossoms.

Other beautiful flowers.

The Shakespeare Garden was quite expansive. Playwright AND expert botanist? Who knew.

The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. A very curious mix of what appear to be koi fish and mallards.

Tulips in bloom.

It was a great day for picture-taking. Our subjects were very cooperative.

Celebrity Sighting #5

If I asked Alyssa who her top three all-time favorite political pundits would be, she would answer Tim Russert, David Gregory, and Doris Kearns Goodwin. After last week’s Doris Kearns Goodwin sighting, the political pundit trifecta is complete.



Doris Kearns Goodwin is most recently famous for her book Team Of Rivals, which was discussed frequently during the 2008 Presidential Election. After we learned she would be speaking at her friend’s book signing in Brooklyn, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge after work to see this Meet The Press all-star. According to Alyssa, Doris Kearns Goodwin was as classy and eloquent in person as she always imagined she would be (nerd alert). As if things couldn’t get better, they served free wine, cheese, crackers and salami at the event. Those who frequent our blog know that this is a big deal. Although we hung around uncomfortably close to Ms. Kearns Goodwin while she talked to her friends, we didn't get the opportunity to meet her. That didn't dampen our spirits though because again, there was free wine, cheese, crackers and salami.

After the event was over, we walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge and enjoyed the amazing skyline views. Because this was a spur of the moment outing, our only photos were taken with my camera phone which, as you can see above, are not the best quality. That just gives us an excuse to walk the bridge again soon and post better photos!

Pillow Fight!

In case the Easter Bonnet Parade didn't freak you out enough, maybe this NYC pillow fight will do the trick. Organized by newmindspace.com, this event was BYOP and took place at Union Square. It looked like several hundred people participated in the age-old art of pillow fighting.





Alyssa scooped up some of the remaining pillow stuffing shown below and turned it into beautiful new pillows for our guests! Looking forward to your visit!



Just kidding, of course.

Easter Bonnet Parade

In Minnesota, Easter normally means getting together with family, going to church, hiding and finding Easter eggs and eating. In New York City, apparently Easter is just an excuse to parade around wearing ridiculously complex Easter bonnets. Check out our photos below from the Easter Bonnet Parade to see what we're talking about. The term parade is used pretty loosely. It's more of a meandering of bonnet- and non-bonnet-wearing people down a lenghthy stretch of 5th Avenue that is closed to traffic for several hours on Easter Sunday.

Ok, not so bad.



Getting weirder...



A bit different...



I wonder what Halloween is like at their house.



The look on this guy's face is classic - "She's making me do this. It's humiliating."



And we've arrived at complete craziness.



This dog looks to be in physical pain.



There were a couple of cute bonnets too...



As you can see, many New Yorkers enjoy the parade!

Although we enjoyed the day, we hope to be back in MN with our families by next Easter. It just wasn't the same here. One Easter Bonnet Parade is enough for us!