The last two posts were written on Sunday, October the 12th after I had driven Kate to the airport for a business trip in San Francisco.  We had hoped that I would be able to go out with her and we could extend the trip and celebrate our anniversary in San Francisco but we just didn’t think it was financially possible.

Kate was there for barely 24 hours before she decided that the city was too nice for me not to come out and spend time there.  She worked it all out and found a hotel rate we could afford and even got me on a flight with frequent flyer miles.  So on Wednesday at 8AM I learned I needed to be out of the house at 9AM in order to make my flight.  Amazingly, I managed to get to the airport, park in long term parking, get to the terminal, through security and board the plane with minimal effort!

The first night there I got to interact with a lot of Kate’s co-workers, see a bit of what the entire medical conference was about and then spend the evening kicking back at the hotel bar with a bunch of her friends from work.  By the time I got to bed it was about 3AM Eastern time and I was dead to the world.  How I managed to wake up in time to be responding to work emails and on calls by 9AM Eastern time, I’ll never know!

I can’t recall what days we did what, but overall we had an amazing time in San Francisco.  We did almost all of the touristy things except for Alcatraz as we couldn’t get tickets.  There are some amazing photos here.

Since San Francisco we’ve not had a weekend at home.  One weekend with friends in Maryland, one with Kate’s parents in CT.  We’re both kind of looking forward to a weekend at home.

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While researching what we could do in the city Kate stumbled accross a tour of the Chelsea Market and Meat Packing District given by Foods of New York.  She has always wanted to go to Chelsea Market since hearing about it on many Food Network shows and we both thought it sounded like a fun enough way to spend a few hours.

From the moment we arrived in Chelsea we had a good feeling.  The area of the city seemed calm, slowed down and cleaner than most of the other touristy areas of Manhattan.  We walked into the Chelsea Market and were immediately impressed by the decorations and design of the building.

We met up with our tour-guide and began the tour.  I knew it was a food tasting tour but I was not expecting much out of the tour.  I figured we might get like a small bite of this, a shot sized cup of that and told about products we should buy.  I could not have been more wrong.  The tour was amazing!  Our guide was very informed about each and every one of the businesses in the market, about the market itself and the people and companies that made it possible.  We were given large samples of food products including an entire bowl of fresh seafood, a smorgasbord from an Italian grocer.

I had my camera with me and tried to get a lot of photos throughout the market, however the indoor conditions mixed with every store having it’s own level of lighting and what not made it very hard.  I never had time to adjust modes on the camera and or balance my white levels for the current rooms light.  We went into the Manhattan Produce Exchange and I got some nifty pictures in macro mode of some produce.

We got to tour Morimoto Masaharu’s restaurant, Morimoto, which is connected directly to the Chelsea Market and we also got to visit Mario Batali’s restaurant Del Posto.  I took pictures in Morimoto’s restauarant as I loved the decor and it allowed me to try different technques to try and get some cool pictures.

After the tour was over Kate and I wandered about on our own and found the Chelsea Apple Store (by found I mean it was right in front of us).  I love Apple’s design aesthetic, especially their grand stair cases and I took a few snaps of that.

All of the photos can be viewed on our photo site.  A direct link here.

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The weekend for me began Thursday evening when I went to play poker with a good friend that Kate and I used to work with.  I had a great time playing and even was re-introduced to somebody I used to hang out with in High School.  I took Friday off to finish straightening up the mess that was our house before the Fink’s arrived.  They arrived shortly before 1 PM and Kate was able to leave work shortly after.  We all relaxed on the deck for about an hour before heading into the city to for our evening.

The entire weekend was absolutely amazing and the concert was the best I’ve ever seen.  A lot of details for those who want to read more below.

New York City: Pre-Concert
We arrived in the city and made our way to a restaurant we had selected for dinner and drinks prior to the concert.  We were all hungry and very thirsty from the heat of the subway and walking in the city and were not so impressed with the wait time they gave us so we decided to go back to one of the numerous awesome looking establishments we found on the way.  We settled on Jack Dempsey’s directly across from the Empire State Building.  We all had an amazing meal and drinks.  The girls shared a pitcher of Sangria which was fantastic and I kept stealing some from Kate’s glass.  I had Fish and Chips in a beer batter which were absolutely killer.  I wasn’t very hungry but I still managed to polish off the entire plate; including every last french fry!

We then had a good chunk of time to kill so we decided to explore some of the stores in the local area.  We first entered a store called “Accessory Palace” and could have been renamed “Crappy Jewlery Made By Small Children in Foreign Country”.  Beyond the stuff being ugly there were hundreds of signs that read, “You can not try!  Sorry Sorry Sorry.” and multiple “Sentrys” standing around the floor and some even on stairs or in offices above monitoring everybody.  I felt like a prisoner in the yard and we left quickly.  Our next stop was a Dollar Store called Jacks Dollar Palace I believe.  It was amazingly entertaining; but scary.  Immediately upon entering the store there was a group of large bins with T-Shirts sitting in it.  Peole were diving in full body trying to find the “one good shirt” in the bin.  After walking around the first floor we saw a sign that said there is more upstairs.  We found our way to the pet area and saw parenting at its best.  To begin with I pointed out the awesome parenting of a mother who let their child run free in a huge and very crowded store in NYC; but more than that, the kid ran past toys and went directly to a dog toy.  I turned to point this out and with my back turned I missed what the rest of the group saw.  Said child took a giant bite out of the feather portion of the toy and the mother spent the next chunk of time removing feathers from her childs mouth!

The Concert
I can’t even express in simple words how outstanding this concert was.  The amazing performance by Billy Joel, the amazing video and lighting effects, the amazing energy in the crowd and the guest performances made this concert 100% worthy of being the last musical performance at Shea.  The stadium can now be torn down knowing no better show could have been performed there and it went out with a bang.

Billy had on either side of the stage a jumbo-tron setup in the shape of a NYC Skyline.  These screens would play zoomed in bits of Billy playing the piano (his hands), him singing, his guest stars and some prerecorded video and effects.  For example during Zanzibar the screens showed a highlights reel of the NY Mets.

The show started late with Billy’s apology as they needed the sun to go down a bit more in order for us to get the full effects of the light show.  For all of those who may have heard rumors that the man can’t sing anymore; you’ve been told wrong.  Granted he needs to care for his vocal chords a lot more but he was very frank about this.  He used a misting bottle and some bottled water to keep his vocal chords moist and his voice ringing out.  His first surprise guest on stage was Tony Bennett who sang Billy’s New York State of Mind.  Tony is an amazing vocalist with a long career strongly associated with New York City.  My brother-in-laws father even told Kate later that weekend that he saw Tony in the 50s after his prom at the old Coco Cabana.

Next up was Garth Brooks who sang his song Shameless, which Billy Joel wrote.  Not being a country fan at all I wasn’t overly excited but he did do a good job and I appreciate him coming on stage wearing a Mets jersey.  I am sure some of his fans were not pleased to see him in NY colors.  Shortly after Robert Daltrey from The Who came on stage and sang My Generation which ended with Billy smashing a guitar on stage.  The next on stage was Steven Tyler of Aerosmith who sang Walk This Way and if these stars weren’t enough Paul McCartney came on stage and sang I Saw Her Standing There.  We left shortly after Paul left stage, in fact we just waited for Piano Man as we had a train to catch.  Because of this we missed Paul coming back on stage and taking the piano to play Let It Be while Billy sat on the piano and sang along.

New York City: Post-Concert
Well, this was an interesting event.  We made it out of Shea and pushed our way through the masses.  Landed on the first seven train that was waiting at the platform and began our trip to the Times Square subway station to transfer to the A,C,E line for Penn Station (train station).  Unfortunately as there were no express trains running the trip took a short eternity.  As we were standing on the A,C,E platform we realized that our train back home had just departed Penn Station.  We decided we’d determine what to do once we were at Penn and had the train time schedules at our disposal.  We arrived at Penn Station and realized we had already missed the next train to Newark, NJ for transfers to our line.  We then decided we’d take a train to a major stop like a New Brunswick downtown.  The train wasn’t scheduled to pull in for another hour so we wandered around Penn Station and people watched.  The train ride home was entertaining with some extremley trashy girl screaming and carrying on about topics ranging from boyfriends to “stomping on peoples faces”.

We arrived in New Brunswick, NJ at about 2:30 and took a taxi back to our place.  Then John and I drove out to the Bridgewater, NJ train station to pick up Kate’s car.  I was washed, teeth brushed and in bed by 4 AM.

Saturday
On Saturday we all just lounged around the house and ate amazing food.  The girls went out shopping while Fink and I played some Xbox.  We then all sat on the deck and drank, ate chips and multiple dips including Rachel’s famous pizza dip.  For dinner we made two whole chickens with fresh spices, grilled potatoes and grilled ceaser salad.  Very awesome meal.

Sunday: Sheridan’s Birthday Party
Sunday we went to my sisters house for my nieces firt birthday party.  We had a nice time chatting with people and I spent some time playing with my nephew.  I then helped build one of Sheridan’s toys which was very rewarded to see her play with the finished project.  I’ve a bunch of pictures I took but I’ve not had a chance to take them off the camera yet let alone cleaned them up.

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We had tickets to see James Taylor at Tanglewoods an outdoor venue in Lennox, MA (The Berkshires) on Thursday, July 3rd.  Kate’s parents had kindly booked two nights at The Chesapeake Inn (a bed and breakfast) for Wednesday and Thursday after the show.  This allowed us to experience The Berkshires, local culture, food and sights as well as to have a stress free concert experience as the Inn is only a 1/4 mile walk to the venue.

The Inn keeper, John, was an amazingly nice man.  We really enjoyed his hospitality and he even endulged our odd questions with stories and background on his life.  He allowed us to pick our breakfast the night before and shopped for everything fresh in the morning to prepare our own individual breakfast meals.  Anything from breakfast meats (including a six ounce steak) to fresh fruits and juices were provided.  This was Kate and my first stay at a bed and breakfast and if any of them can be on par with John and the Chesapeake Inn I think we’ll be doing this again.

On Thursday we relaxed around the Inn with a gloomy sky over us waiting for mother nature to let down with pooring rain.  She heald out all afternoon and let loose just as Tanglewoods opened the gates at 4pm and we made a beeline to the lawn to setup our gear and begin the tailgating lawn seat extravaganza.  The rain was brutal and did not let up until just before James Taylor came on stage.  While it was chilly and certainly more wet than we’d have liked the experience was amazing and the venue was pretty full for a rain storm packed evening.

James Taylor was, as usual, absolutely amazing.  He and his band played many of their classics as well as some stuff from a new album he’ll be releasing which is his first time ever doing cover songs from such artists as The Temptations.  We all had an amazing time with great food, drink and of course an amazing concert.  The local newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, has a very good article on the concert goings.

After the concert it was a short walk back to the Inn where we played cards and laughed at the fools in their cars suffering through bumper to bumper traffic.  We played a few games and turned in for the night so we could wake up energized and explore more of The Berkshires on the Fourth.  I took a bunch of photos throughout the two days (none at the concert due to the rain).

Today we’re back in CT and after an awesome breakfast at our usual haunt we’re cooking up good food of our own.  Since my in-laws know I love to bbq, grill or otherwise cook outdoors we’re making 16LBS of pork butt into pulled pork.  We have two amazing recipes going.  One is a mustard based one we’ve done before and we’re also doing a Memphis style recipe I’ve been aching to try for a long time.  Below is a picture of the pork on the charcoal grill just before it started its two hour smoking session. I’ve already stolen a taste of each and they’re amazing so far.  Neither of them are even dressed with their respective sauces yet!  I can’t wait.

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Kate got me a new bag which is quite awesome, pictures below:

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UPDATE: Many of the photos I took are up on photos.waxman.org here.

Below the cut are some of my favorites:

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