New York, New York!

It's not easy to take a little vacation with your husband when your family lives so far away and there's no one to watch the kids... so we improvise!  Every September, Eric has to report to NYC for the UN General Assembly, usually for a few weeks.  So I drove up to Charleston to my parents' house with the kids and dog in tow... and what did I do next?  I kissed the kids goodbye and caught the first flight up to New York!  Thanks to my very generous parents (generous with their time, their patience, their food, and their laundry detergent!), I got to spend a long weekend with Eric, kid-free, in one of our favorite places.  Nine years ago, Eric proposed to me in New York City, so whenever I go there, it kind of feels like my ring is "back home!"



This is how our time went: slept in as late as we wanted, went for a run in Central Park, ate breakfast at the cafe next to the hotel, and then Eric went to work for a few hours while I went shopping!  I was perfectly content to walk around and shop by myself... it was so nice to be able to try on clothes, take my time looking through all of the racks, and NOT have to maneuver a stroller or stop to change a diaper!  In the afternoon, I would head back to the hotel for a nap and then we'd go to dinner.  The first night we went to watch the Clemson/Auburn game with the local Clemson Club at a bar (therefore: we ate bar food, but it was worth it to watch the game with 100 other Clemson alums)!



The second night was the best.  We made reservations at Gordan Ramsay's restaurant, The Maze at the London.  Little known fact: I'm slightly obsessed with Gordan Ramsay, the BBC, and I love the show, "The F Word."  Yes, we watch Ramsay's American shows, "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares", but "The F Word" is soooo much better.  Ramsay is just a lot nicer and more real... I think the bully act is just that, an act for tv.  Anyways, we've always talked about being able to go to one of his restaurants and this was our chance.  It was amazing!!  We started with a shot of chilled pea soup with watermelon. Then I had sweet corn soup with nectarine, shrimp, and jalapeno and for my entree I had halibut with linguine and mussels.  Eric had grilled octopus and a dry aged strip loin with portobello and eggplant (which Eric devoured thinking it was a potato!).  There were lots of other ingredients involved, most of which we didn't recognize.  But every bite was SO good!  For dessert we had a chocolate fondant with ice cream and chocolate pudding with peanut butter ice cream, along with coffee, decaf tea, and caramel truffles!  Can you tell I'm easily impressed?  I mean, usually when we go out to dinner, which is once a week, we go to Chick-fil-a!  On a "nice" night, it's Outback Steakhouse!