chen update

we shared a meal with the chen’s at corner23. mmm…taiwanese style pork hock. definitely getting our chinese food needs replenished. wish we had more time, but it was good getting updated with each other’s lives; matia is going to preschool, learning ballet, and preparing to be a big sister!

hpac yard sale

the weather was perfect for our church yard sale this past weekend. after a lot of donations, we ended up with a pretty good variety of things, including a kitchen sink! we had a great turn out and it was fun being able to meet people from the neighborhood. interesting neighbors. thanks team!

eating in nyc

okay… one more post on our new york trip! we definitely had our share of good eats. here’s a bit more in addition to food i’ve already blogged about. shortly after arriving, pam introduced us to yogurt… and we had our first red mango. our first day was especially memorable since we had two dinners. read more »

on the road again

we had such a great time in new york! pam was an amazing hostess, and we were glad to be able to see a bit of her life in nyc. eventhough we feel like we saw a lot, there was still so much left to do… hopefully we’ll have a chance to return one day. read more »

nyc 2009 (day five): mesa grill, united nations, harlem

on our last day in new york city, we returned to some neighborhoods like soho and did a bit more (window) shopping. look carefully, the building on the left is actually a trompe l’oeil. the flatiron building is on the right. for lunch, we treated ourselves to “mesa grill” near the flatiron district, one of read more »

nyc 2009 (day four): the met, central park, broadway

we spent the morning (into the early afternoon) at the metropolitan museum of art. their egyptian collection was quite impressive, and i liked how they would create spaces reminiscent of the artifacts’ original locations. the temple of dendur: i thought this painting by salvador dali was very interesting. up close, the painting consisted of white read more »

nyc 2009 (day three): statue of liberty, financial district, chelsea

on our third day in nyc, we planned to visit the statue of liberty and ellis island. fortunately the line-up onto the ferry was pretty quick, but even with a reserved ticket, we still had to wait a really long time to get into the pedestal and museum on liberty island, but i think it read more »

nyc 2009 (day two): brooklyn, union square, high line

today we got to visit pam’s church in harlem called “newsong”. it was a warm community church that reminded us a lot of our own church in chicago. we enjoyed the soulful music and the friendly atmosphere. afterwards we decided to visit brooklyn since we had heard of the brooklyn bridge flea market, and of read more »

nyc 2009 (day one): nyc or bust

we had a somewhat lazy morning in elizabethtown and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with james and jana. thanks so much for having us! then on our way back on the road, we took one last look at the quaint town. note the parking meter: 30 minutes for a nickel! then we drove another few hours read more »

roadtrip to nyc: tolls, rain and kai

we are off on a roadtrip from chicago to new york city! today we started early at 6:30AM, armed with a 5 pound bag of coins, and drove 11 hours to elizabethtown, pennsylvania. the tolls certainly took their toll (get it?) on us; so far a hefty $40 or so! (i think we’ll try taking read more »