June - July 2024: Columbus Life, Columbus Activities!

Liz and I are about to head off to a little family reunion of sorts (and by “of sorts” actually it totally is one) so I’m going to try to get us caught up on what we’ve done since the New York trip.

JUNE 1: Upon flying in from New York I went over to see Liz perform at the Bexley Porch Fest. It was great! What a nice neighborhood, what a nice activity. And after this I went to the Urgent Care and then Emergency Room over some weirdness that was happening with my missing elbow. End result: Urgent Care PA thought maybe the bone was coming out, ER Orthopedist thought it was not bone coming out.

JUNE 4: Get ready for lots of pics of trips to Metro Parks! I picked Liz up from work and (after some Del Taco!) we went and saw the new Ewok Village they’ve built at Blacklick Woods. Pretty cool!

JUNE 15: After a week of just me and Cornelius home alone while the Woolley Women vacationed on Prince Edward Island I drove down to pick them up from the Cincinnati airport in Kentucky (there had been BIG flight home complications). Whilst in Cincinnati we were able to visit college friend Amy Webb’s sticker shop and Holy Smokes, What a Sticker Shop!

JUNE 17: Walking around the neighborhood. Sleepy cat.

JUNE 19: Now this was cool, we went to Indianapolis for the day. We did a session at their big, beautiful temple. We ate Sweetgreen. We watched Inside Out 2. We walked around 2 malls. WE WENT TO THE OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS!! It was so cool to see the city decked out in swimming celebration and then their football stadium transformed into a swimming arena! I loved getting to see Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, Kate Douglass, Lilly King and so many more compete. Awesome night and so grateful Liz joined me for the fun. Oh and Liz ran into an old friend outside the stadium — I’ll update with her name.

JUNE 22: And then that weekend, something just as awesome — we went to see Donny Osmond! He brought Las Vegas to Columbus and What A Show! Consumate entertainer, what a pro, and what an audience, what a fanbase! Followed up with a Smash Burger afterparty.

JUNE 27-29: A big weekend for Jazz with Liz performing at Ginger Rabbit one night, then we returned to the Ginger Rabbit to watch our friend Dylan play the vibes and then bounced over to Hyde Park for Liz’s performance and then Liz was at Hyde Park again the next night. Jazz paradise! And an opportunity to try out some of my new Jazz ‘fits, including one I call the “Harrison Ford.” Also some pictures of goings on around the clubs that weekend. And the cat.

JUNE 30: A Sunday morning Metro Park walk with a visit to a tall observation tower.

JULY 4: A lunchtime experiment frying up tater tots and homemade corn dogs followed by my very first Freedom Games competition at the Gardner’s. What fun! I feel my best performance was with the BB gun. I should train for next year.

JULY 7: Another nice Metropark walk!

JULY 21: And another nice Metropark walk!

AND TO CONCLUDE — Some pictures that didn’t fit anywhere else.

May - June 2024: A Couple of Tourists in New York City

Tuesday, May 28: Basically nine months to the day after I left, Liz and I return to New York City and are back in the touching down at LGA and taking a crowded M60 bus into Harlem swing of things but let me tell you it wasn’t easy getting to that point, because…

…we were supposed to get there on the 27th but found us in one of those agonizing situations where the flight it delayed 2 or 3 hours after you get to the airport and then you finally board and then you go out to taxi but then you’re delayed another hour and then they announce that the flight is cancelled and you just go back to the gate and that’s it. I took it as best as I could but it was a hard thing to take. Fortunately I called the airline while we were still waiting to get off the plane and got an operator immediately (quite the miracle) and rescheduled for the exact same flight the next day while almost everyone else was lining up for a few hours to talk to the ticket agent.

To salvage the day Liz took me to get dinner this odd little local “steakhouse” I’ve been curious about but Oh Guess What! They’re patriots and it was Memorial Day so they were closed! Wound up getting some nice noodles and the Monday wasn’t totally ruined because we had hope for Tuesday.

Tuesday, May 28: So, okay, it’s Tuesday again. The vibe is a lot better. We get lunch at our local Waffle House and you know what? This was my first time at a Waffle House and I loved it!

And then we got to the airport and I showed Liz the statue of Jerrie Mock, the Homemaker Aviator.

And then we got on our jet…this is me showing that we were having a very black and yellow day…and shortly after this photo was taken, we really took off and we really flew to New York, all the way to LGA’s funky Marine Terminal.

We had a little time to stash our stuff and gather ourselves before heading downtown for dinner at our beloved NYC TexMex heaven, Yellow Rose, where we were joined by beloved NYC’ers Ned and Patricia. We had nice apps and lovely tacos. I resisted any of the specials because I remembered that I always just like their tacos better. And, since we’re tourists, Liz and I couldn’t resist indulging in some merch purchases (merchases).

From there we took a nice walk over and down to Washington Square Park and then down to Morgenstern’s for ice cream, which I hadn’t been to since I’m thinking 2019, before walking over to the West 4th Street station to head back uptown.

But the Tuesday excitement wasn’t over! We had two miracles left to enjoy: 1, finding that our host Erwin was really rather friendly (although a touch quiet) and 2 A visit from our dear pal Garrett!

Wednesday, May 29th: We started this perfectly clear and comfortable morning off with a train ride up to Inwood, our old neighborhood, for some lovely pastries from Choc and a little walk around Inwood Hill park, a look at our old home of 101 Cooper, and the amazing discovery that our C Town Town grocery store has DOUBLED in size since we left, thanks to the drugstore next door having gone out of business.

From there we went down to the Madison Park area to have a Naya lunch (no photos) and a Kernel lunch (barely any photos). What’s Kernel? Why it’s the latest quick serve concept from the founder of Chipotle (that’s him in the background in the second photo)—this time his idea is a vegan restaurant that you order ahead of time with via app and where the food is prepared by robots and you pick up your order from a cubicle. My waffle-shaped veggie burger was ok but their crispy potatoes (not pictured) were really awesome. I say they turn around the whole concept and just make it a crispy potato restaurant!

From there we visited the portal to Dublin and made our way over to the Whitney Museum. Did you know there’s a new Aesop hand lotion “flavor”? It’s true! There is! The things you learn on a visit to New York!

My “Must Do” list for this trip to NY was very short, just two items, the first of which was “Go to the Whitney Biennial” and that’s what we did that afternoon. It was a lot of fun to be there with Liz, this (bi)year's edition went down nice and easy. We sat in a few of the video installations for a nice long time…that’s how you get your rest in along with your touristing!

And from there we got ourselves over to Brooklyn for a nice little early dinner at Peter Luger. When you’ve got a wife that loves Peter Luger what are you going to do? NOT go to Peter Luger when you’re back in New York?

And then we met up with Jeff and Chaunte for our second dinner — Enrique Olvera’s new taqueria, Esse. I’ve got something controversial to say: This is the least best Enrique Olvera offering I’ve tried. These tacos were nice, but have nothing on the ones from Ditroit in LA. The corn husk meringue sundae is fun, though, and a nice riff on the famous Cosme dessert.

Here Jeff records some footage for his YouTube channel, check it out!

From there we enjoyed a little “by the river time” before calling it a (wonderful) day.

Thursday, May 30th: Good thing I was wearing my Lucky Boy t-shirt Thursday because I sure had a Lucky Boy day!

We headed down to Chinatown and walked over to Golden Diner, which we’d never been to before, to enjoy their famous fluffy pancakes (and an egg sandwich). It was a fluffy, buttery way to start our day. And a very curious thing: The interior of the restaurant smelled a LOT like my Grandma Condie’s kitchen — guess you’ve got to visit both to know what I might mean.

Now, perhaps you remember my friend Andy? Golden Diner was sort of in his neighborhood, and I hadn’t seen or heard from the fellow in quite a while — and Liz hadn’t even met him — so we decided to go by his apartment and see if we could get in and if he was around. Miracle of miracles (no exaggeration), We COULD get in and Andy WAS home. A woman I had never seen before answered the door and his apartment had really been fixed up so in the first moments I worried Andy had been moved out — but then his dad appeared at the door and seemed to remember me, or was used to English-speakers turning up to see Andy, and we were welcomed in. Andy has been on the decline and was not in great shape and was mostly non responsive to conversation but the occasional prompt got him talking. It was sobering but a blessing to see my old friend again and I’m extremely grateful Liz could be there, too.

From Andy’s we took a Lower East Side & Soho walk, dipping in and out of stores as one does, all the way over to lunch Hamburger America—item #2 on my two item NYC Must list. This living hamburger history hotspot opened after I left and I was very glad to sample their classic smash burger, Oklahoma onion burger, and olive burger as well as fries and a chocolate milk. Loved the burgers and also loved the “yeah, I could probably make these” feelings they gave me. It was a real nice time at a real nice place.

From there we walked through Tribeca where Josh Groban’s dog ran into Liz in front of Taylor Swift’s house (not a lot of tourists get to say something like that!) before we headed back uptown for a bit.

We ended our time together with dinner at the UWS Parm … this is where we had our last meal together the first time Liz came to New York so, I don’t know, it rhymed? Also it was Manhattanhengeing a little, so everyone needed a picture of that. But I got a picture of a dog stopping in the middle of the street to have a wee. Post Parm we took a nice night time walk through Central Park where many a person was still celebrating the big corporate run they hold there every year.

Friday, May 31st: So this was the day we were scheduled to leave back when we thought we were going to be coming to New York on the Monday. Liz was kind enough to encourage me to stay another day while she headed back to Columbus. It sure was nice to have one more New York day and to do some classic Brigham New York activities.

See you soon, Liz! You’ve sure gotten good at taking the M60 to Laguardia!

Kicked my morning off with the Drake’s sample sale (funny how the timing worked out for this).

Then I did some Soho walking around (which is how we spent a lot of the day before, too) including a stop at the Leica store. Can I just say, here on my unpopular blog, that the guys at the Leica store are so condescending and difficult? Like here I am, I came into your store with a Leica on my neck and you’re looking down an extremely long nose at me when I try to engage you in shop talk. Whatever. I take my business to Popflash.

Got an early lunch at Thai Diner before heading back to Harlem. The banana blossom salad still makes the scalp sweat.

Up in Harlem I spent a little time with our host Erwin before taking the bus down to the Met.

On a beautiful spring day like this you know the Met’s going to be poppin’! I was there for an hour-ish and checked on lots of my favorites while checking out a few new things (like their really good Harlem Renaissance exhibit), too. Felt real good to get this second blast of art on the trip.

From the Met I walked down Madison Avenue and 5th Avenue to Midtown. Just the day before (or the day before that?) was when Donald Trump was convicted so there was a lot of action outside the Trump Tower and I think his motorcade even drove by me when I was heading down Madison Avenue to J. Press.

My midtown wanderings had me winding up in Times Square and environs where I enjoyed an Upside Slice. Say what you will about Times Square, I do like taking pictures there. When I got to 50th street I picked up some Halal Guys and took it back to Harlem where I ate, grabbed my stuff, and went out to Brooklyn to crash at Jeff’s for my last New York night.

Saturday, June 1: And I was up and at em early in Brooklyn to take a couple of trains and a bus out to Laguardia. Then it was home to Columbus with me nice and easy in time to catch Liz at Porch Fest AND visit an emergency room. What a Saturday! And what a nice tourist trip to New York City!

May 2024: A Trip to LA. To Talk.

May 22: I flew out to LA once more, this time because I’d be presenting at the conference of the Mormon Scholars of the Humanities once more…but not on James Joyce this time! This year I talked about Marguerite Young and her novel Miss MacIntosh My Darling. Also, it was the last week of school, so Liz couldn't come along. I’ll just get that bad news out of the way if you were here hoping for Liz pics. (Don’t worry, though, next post will have Lots!)

Mom, Dad and Grandma picked me up and we all went to Schreiner’s German Grocery Store for sausage sandwiches in Glendale. (I do not know if it’s full name is “Schreiner’s German Grocery Store” is it’s full name but it fits).

Back to Grandma’s for a little rest (I now remember that my flight out of Columbus had left at 6am) and then went to Alhambra for haircuts with Dad. Then I stopped by Cal Tech to check on the turtles … nearly 80 of them were out and a LOT more were at the top pond than the bottom. This isn’t the usual situation there.

For dinner I picked up Howlin’ Rays for everyone. And then I got a patty melt to share from Lucky Boy because it was time for them to all try this patty melt I’ve been getting every now and then the last few years. And while I was getting the patty melt I also ran into the Trader Joe’s across the street. It was a perfect pick up mission. The Mapps joined us and boy these pictures don’t do their visit justice. You can’t even see Blair! Oh well we were eating and having fun, that’s all. Also: I got the spiciest level heat from Howlin’ Rays and I’m telling you now that I do NOT need to do that again. Also: The patty melt was a giant hit. Of course.

May 23: Dad and I went to Claremont for the conference. Heard lots of great presentations, interacted with friends (colleagues?) I hadn’t seen for a year. It was a long day. Food was hard to find on campus, we ate ramen after for dinner. Not a lot of pictures. Was taking notes and revising my presentation in my mind the whole time. But here are some pictures from the campus.

May 24th: The day of my presentation! I got up at 4am (a.k.a. 7am in Columbus, so actually I slept in) to make a slide show (which you can see here) for my presentation (a version of which you can read here). I had had this idea the morning before: What if I made my presentation entertaining? And I think I did! People seemed to really like it. Mom, Dad and Grandma came. I was flattered to have them there. Dad took this picture of me presenting, it looks like I presented to 3 people But actually it was over 20. He also took this picture of me A’ing a Q. That’s like my favorite part of the presentation game, if I get asked questions after. Also, that’s not my Dr. Pepper. Get real.

After the presentation it was lunchtime and we went to Del Taco. What a great way to celebrate. Dad got the salad. Wow. I had never seen the Del Taco salad before. Or such a big handicap parking lot…I mean space!

Dad and I stayed for the rest of the conference and then we all met up again back at Grandma’s and headed downtown for dinner at Damian. We like Cosme, we like Detroit, it was time to try Enrique’s fancy Los Angeles place. Grandma came too, I was a little worried if she would like it. Well, guess what? She LOVED it. Super big hit of a dinner, what a great feeling.

The food we ate was:
-”Chips” and Salsa
-Guacamole
-Salmon Tostada
-White Bean and Veggie Tlayuda
-Potato and Artichoke Huarache
-Ricotta Tamale (just about killed us all dead with joy)
-Soft Shell Crab Tacos
-Pollito al Pastor
-Swordfish
-Carne Asada
-The Hibiscus Meringue (we also had 3 other desserts)
-Mom and Grandma with the corn soft serve, one of those 3 other deserts

May 25th: Mom and Dad and I went to the LACMA in the morning. Turns out most of it is closed for renovations, but that’s ok, I just wanted to see Metropolis II in action and I did. Other good stuff on display in the contemporary building and then some good WWI and Persian stuff in the building across from the contemporary building. Also saw those famous lamp posts and the big rock.

The LACMA is right by the new Academy of Motion Pictures museum so we went into their lobby and saw an original Millennium Falcon model and the camera they shot those Star Wars models with…there was a presentation going on, that’s why it’s crowded. And we walked over to the tarpits to have a look at tarpit things, too.

On the way home we had lunch at Villa’s Tacos, which keeps winning awards and, you know what? I say it deserves them all. What an awesome and delicious operation. Don’t be scared of the line, they really keep it moving and get you that food.

Here’s some around the house pictures from Grandma’s. For dinner we had Lucky Boy because everyone wanted a patty melt again! I tried the bacon avocado cheeseburger and, wow, it blew my bacon avocado cheeseburger expectations away! So much bacon, so much avocado. Lucky Boy DELIVERS. Keep your eyes out for pictures of me in my next post wearing my new Lucky Boy t-shirt.

May 26th: Off to church! And from church I go to the airport and fly on home to Liz, just in time to repack for our next trip. It was a trip-filled end of May! You’ll see!