NYC

NJ/NYC was great. A million thanks to Mr. & Mrs. G for their hospitality. We did a ton of stuff, spent a bunch of time catching up, and I came back feeling very much recharged and relaxed. A most excellent vacation.

We went to The Met, MoMA, and the Museum of Sex. The Met was amazing. I'm sure we say billions of dollars worth of art and history in our short time there. MoMA was very cool in the sections I liked, but there was plenty of stuff that you would be hard pressed to convince me belonged in a museum of any sort. The Museum of Sex was just kind of alright. I've seen way crazier stuff on the internet than anything I saw there. Some of the videos they showed were pretty hot, but everything was displayed as the history of porn in moving pictures and that evolution from the first silent pictures to the modern day HD-DVD female-directed erotica and instruction. I have a picture of myself from the hands-on section of the fetish gallery that will help to ensure that I never hold public office.

We went to the Jersey shore one day. It was surprisingly nice. The beach was huge and clean. The water was just barely warm enough for swimming. Well,at the least it was just warm enough for a handful of folks. It had been a long time since I had swum in the Atlantic -- not since sailing with my hosts in the BVI back in May of '03.

We spent ridiculous amounts of money on food and drink. That cost me well more than my airfare, and I was treated to many meals including our outing to Danube which was one of the highlights of the trip - our now ritual outing to a ridiculously expensive and fancy and fine restaurant wherever and whenever we get together. We had lamb, steak, and veal, but that does not even begin to describe the dining experience. Mrs. G's lamb came out overcooked the first time after she had accepted the waiter's recommendation to have it cooked medium-rare per the chef's preference. The middle was medium-well, at best, and most of the piece looked well, and when I say it looked well, I mean it looked bad (Not really "bad" but way off temperature). But, they got another one out as quick as reasonably possible; nailed the temperature and served a magnificent entree on the second try; apologized repeatedly and profusely; offered to strike the food-runner; brought us an extra desert after we all-three ordered our own sweets; brought out perhaps the most fabulous desert - a peach melba - that I have ever experienced as that free desert; bought us a free round of a fabulous Tokaji desert wine after we had finished our first round of (different) desert wines; and gave us a delicious lemon pound cake to take home when we left in an appreciated effort to make up for the first lamb. The veal and the steak were great on the first try. I think I forgot to mention my foie gras app which leaves my knees shaky just thinking about it. Anyway, my point is that is was both awesome and expensive. Oh yeah, we drank an Austrian cab-merlot blend from '99 with dinner. It was really good. Less woody than most Californians. Impressively well-aged given the ???? (heck, I know nothing about Austrian reds). Best now, good for another 3-6 years. The name? Couldn't tell ya. Sorry.

Spent time catching up with both the Mr. and the Mrs. Mrs. G and I had a fascinating and scarily-detailed discussion on the baby-making process. I never knew there were so many needles involved -- I think I've been doing it wrong. Mr. G tolerated my rude arguments concerning the nature of his chosen profession and then humiliated me in darts. He made sure the exploding steam pipe didn't land on my head while I was chowing Scottish eggs in a bar nearby. Hard-boiled eggs dipped in a sausage batter and fried, you say? Delish! He schooled me on some of the league-level ins-and-outs of European soccer, but couldn't explain why anyone would want to watch a bunch of guys in the middle of a giant field play to a 1-1 tie after two hours of coverage.

Great vacation.

Jonathan 7/27/2007 07:47:00 PM