2015 By City

I have been doing this "year by city" since 2006. Figured I shouldn't end it now.

Each of the below cities included at least a one night stay in 2015. Cities denoted by an asterisk included multiple visits.

• Las Vegas, NV
• Muskegon, MI
• Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ
• Huntington Beach, CA
• Red Bank, NJ*
• New York, NY*
• McLean, VA

Christmas 2015

Christmas this year was pretty standard compared to Christmases past. 

I went to the Christmas Eve service at New City Church.

The Kruckenberg family.

Faith, Bella, Gina and I.

I chose to bring a cheese board for the Horton Christmas Eve.

I thought it turned out well.

My Aunt Colleen bought a new home this year so she hosted Christmas Eve.

Eric, Brett, Lindsay, Jocelyn, Tyler and Shane.

Uriah was not a fan of Santa this year - even though the Santa in these pictures is his Grandpa Sam Hiatt. Below is the progression of pics.

Erin and I used the opportunity to get our picture with Santa.

Uriah is always up for a selfie with me.

Christmas morning I slept in a little before hiking Camelback and seeing Camelback Santa.

Looking northwest from the top of Camelback.

We started Christmas Day at mom and dad's at 3pm.

I found this 3-wheeler at Costco a couple of months ago and thought it would be a good first bike for Uriah.

He's still a little small for it but I am sure he will be riding in the next 6 months.

Dad helped Uriah open the first present so Uriah thought Grandpa was the present opener. Whenever he got a present he would take it to my dad.

Reading to Uriah about NYC.

Uriah's gifts from my Mom and Dad - recycled Fisher Price toys from the 1980s.

The door on the barn still "moo's" when you open it, although when I was a kid it seemed much louder.

I can't believe Mom saved all these, but Uriah enjoyed playing with them.

Mom and Dad with their gift...a cruise from me and flights from Kyle, Kellyn, Coby and Uriah.

Dinner group selfie.

Reading books to Uriah after dinner.

And finally watching Elf with Uriah...he had too much Christmas fun.

NYC December 2015

I was in NYC from December 16th - 20th. The last time I was in NYC at Christmas was when I lived there in 2011 so was definitely good to be back.

On Thursday morning I stopped for coffee at Macchiato near Grand Central. I had been here before - it was a Brian and Gina recommendation. I then hopped on the subway to Astoria to go to Athena Nails - they spend So. Much. Time. on you to do a manicure and pedicure - and it is cheap too.

After I got my nails done I came back to midtown and met my friend Anna for lunch. She and I worked at Pfizer together, and she still works at Pfizer. This picture was in our old office - I used to sit at the desk on the left.

I stayed at Pfizer for a couple of hours and said hi to people. It was pouring outside so was nice to be inside. I then met Dave at Grand Central and we went to the TKTS booth in Times Square to get Broadway show tickets for that night. My poor Uggs were soaked after standing in line.

After we bought the tickets, we ran across the street and went into the closest subway station to get out of the rain. I said we would figure out where we were going once we got out of the rain. Fortunately the line we got on was the one that we needed to get to the Ace Hotel for some Stumptown Coffee. We weren't the only ones with the idea to sit in the hotel lobby to get out of the rain - but, we did get a seat so spent a couple of hours there waiting for the rain to let up.

When we left the Ace, it had stopped raining so we walked back to Times Square, passing through Herald Square on our way. Macy's window theme was Charlie Brown.

We saw An American in Paris - it wasn't one of the best Broadway shows I have seen, but wasn't one of the worst either. 

It was in the Palace theater - right next to the Doubletree in Times Square.

We walked by the Lord & Taylor windows on the way back.

And then had dinner at Bareburger.

Friday morning we walked to the UES to go to H&H for breakfast. On the way we walked up 5th Avenue - this was the Bergdorf window.

Dave had never been in Central Park before.

And I had never had my picture taken with Balto.

Carbs, carbs, carbs.

We walked around the UES for a bit, and then took the subway downtown. We got Rockettes tickets for Friday night at South Street Seaport.

We walked down Wall Street and saw the bull, and then to Battery Park City...

...and then to One World Trade Center.

The memorial pools are just like a park now.

We also did the 9-11 Museum. I thought this would be a 2-hour thing at most, but we were in there for 4 hours and still didn't see the entire thing. It was very overwhelming.

The picture above tell the story of these stairs.

Friday night we had dinner at Cafe Buon Gusto on the UES, and then saw the Rockettes at Radio City, and then stopped at Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake.

Saturday morning it was back to the UES for breakfast - H&H and Starbucks again.

My old neighborhood Christmas tree stand at 80th and 2nd.

We were in line at H&H and I saw Tiffany Hudgens sitting at a table. Crazy to run into Jordan in NYC.

We walked across the park to Strawberry Fields.

And then to the UWS for a cookie from Levain Bakery.

And then back towards midtown to Columbus Circle.

From there we took the train to TriBeCa to visit Taylor Swift.

She wasn't home and she is having work done on her apartment.

We walked back to Union Square through SoHo and NoHo and then through Washington Square Park.

We had dinner at Gato (a Bobby Flay restaurant) and then walked to Little Italy to have a cannoli. (I really needed major workouts after this trip.)

We then took the subway back to midtown to do the Saks windows...

...and the Rock Center tree.

Sunday morning was back to the UES for H&H and Starbucks and then to church at Redeemer and then to the airport to fly home.