It has been a very spotty year for Play with Food - with some family health issues and an increased freelance workload meant I had to focus on the writing I have to do and left me with little time to do the fun posting that I love to do here. Demands on my time have taken meals and food from a creative expression to quick necessity. However, there have been some notable food-related events, and I want to begin regular posting by sharing one of the biggest-a 40th anniversary trip for my husband and I to New York City.In trying to think of something to commemorate something as big as being married for 40 years, I
agonized. Neither my husband nor I are big jewelry people, and a party would just be a ton of work for me, but then I had an inspiration- how about a trip? But the question was-to where? We both love the beach, but we go there at least a couple of times a year, and so it didn't seem special enough, but then I thought-why not NYC? Gavin had been there before with my daughter for the NFL draft but I had never been, and there would be things there that both of to enjoy and a great way to make new memories to carry us into the next several decades. An additional advantage was that I could meet a new client there and explore new freelance options while there.
Now here's the rub-my husband is not a flier, so I needed to find a way to get to New York that did not involve my husband driving more than 8 hours (I was hoping to continue our marriage and stay out of jail). So I began making arrangements. Amtrak tickets to and from New York, choosing a hotel convenient to midtown Manhattan so we could get to things easily, deciding how long to stay and what we should try to do while there. Except for the travel and hotel the next biggest expense would be food, but I was determined that we could not skimp there - after all, what is an anniversary without an anniversary dinner? I knew there were places Gavin had gone to with Bridget when they were there - Evergreen Diner, Juniors, Toasties - that my husband would want to go back to,but I was motivated to find some special fine dining experiences while there. But how to eat well in the most expensive part of the city? Groupon turned out to be a great resource- I looked to see what was available in NYC in the area of our hotel, and used Yelp and TripAdvisor to select some great options (more details in future posts).
I really wanted to keep this a surprise until the day before we left,but discretion is the better part of valor so about a week before our departure, I set this at his place on the table. Needless to say,he was first mystified and then delighted! We were ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple!!!!
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