Day 1:
My trips these days always begin with tortas from Frontera at O’Hare. YUM!
Day 2:
The view from my New York hotel. Empire State Building on the left!
After a long day of meetings, my team went out for dinner at Brasserie Les Halles. This is the French restaurant that is the home base of Chef-at-large Anthony Bourdain. I had the French onion soup and the cassoulet (a French casserole with a white bean base, three kinds of sausage, duck confit and pork belly!). For dessert I had chocolate mousse that was made with Valrhona chocolate, a high-end French chocolate. Everything was SO delicious. My coworkers and I just kept commenting how great everything was!
Day 3:
There was a Dean & Deluca cafe just down the block from my hotel. Very different than the Soho market I used to visit, but still very good when I stopped by for breakfast.
The Roundarch Isobar office is not far from the Word Trade Center. This is One World Trade Center, otherwise known as “Freedom Tower.” Just a few days earlier, “on May 10, 2013, the final component of the spire was installed atop the skyscraper, making One World Trade Center tentatively the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541 m) in reference to the year of American independence.” Look at how incomplete the building was about a year ago when I was in New York.
Security badge photos are the worst!
The East Coast has the best seltzer. I used to drink the Adirondack seltzer when I was traveling to the Boston office a lot last year.
The Garden was around the corner from my hotel.
Going to meet up for dinner at Chelsea Market… Ze Olde Office is across the street.
I was a little early so I walked around Chelsea Market….
…. and went to my favorite chocolate shop, Jacques Torres. Remember when we got a personal tour from the man, himself?!?
I met Jess, Tien, Jeannette, Yvan and Juliette at Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina in Chelsea Market. This was Juliette’s first dinner out. She’s only 4 weeks old!
I had ricotta ravioli with asparagus and it was served in a crispy Parmigiano Reggiano bowl! The food here was so good. All of the pasta was freshly made on site!
Day 4:
I left New York to go to Boston, but before going to the airport, I met up with Jeannette and Yvan and Juliette for coffee.
Juliette is so precious! Only a month old!
Day 5:
Dallas used to live in Boston and I spent a lot of time there last year so it was fun to walk around and talk about places we both had visited. This building is behind a plaza where I used to visit food trucks at lunch. It wasn’t painted like this last year!
Dallas showed me this place, Chau Chow City where he used to go to dim sum with Billy and Ging and Josh. He said it was the best dim sum in Boston. Funny because I used to walk past this place every day when going from my hotel to the office.
Dallas loves Anna’s Taqueria, so we had to go there for lunch.
After lunch we walked around Beacon Hill and then through Boston Common, where there was a Youth Pride event going on.
I stopped at the Intercontinental Hotel to use the bathroom and we ended up staying for a while to watch the Blackhawks lose to the Red Wings.
That night we went to Colleen’s wedding. More on that later!
Day 6:
I had to head out of Boston in the evening, but before doing that, Ross and Chelsea picked us up and we went to visit Matt and Molly. We’ve hung out with their daughter Lucy many times, but it was our first time meeting their identical twins, Theo and Quinn!
I’m holding Theo and Dallas has Quinn. They are about three months old.
Uncle Ross, Lucy and Quinn.
Aunty Chelsea and Lucy were picking flowers in the backyard. We had an impromptu barbecue and sat outside to eat. It was so nice out. And Matt and Molly’s whole yard is in full bloom. I especially liked the lilacs and they have a ton of them!
Excitement at the airport in Boston. I was just sitting there when all of a sudden flashing lights and an alarm went off… throughout the terminal. Everyone just acted like it was nothing but then I saw some firefighters walk by. A few minutes later the alarms turned off. False alarm?
In the cab home. I never noticed the vomit clean up fee.
