Raleigh - May 2017

Suppa Club NC - Keith, JoAnna, Shawna and Keith

The centerpiece of our east coast work trips was spending Memorial Day with the gang in Raleigh - we had not been to see them in over a year.  Keith had arranged for his work trip to wrap up in Hartford, so we both had a 7pm flight to Raleigh on the Thursday night.  But...due to some insane weather in DC (where we were connecting through) our flight was cancelled and we were re-booked on a flight early Friday morning.  So, Shawna quickly booked a room at "her" Marriott - which was kind of cool that Keith could finally see the place she "lives" while in Hartford.

Jonathan, John and Kim

John met us at the airport when we landed - Shawna was already on a call by the time we got to the curb and Keith had one as soon as we got back to the house.  It was a whirlwind afternoon - with Shawna meeting Beth and Lisa for lunch and Keith having more work calls.  After wrapping up work for the day, we Ubered to Bottle Revolution, our friend Julie's new wine and beer bar.  It was super to see her new business, and we did have a couple of really good beers!  Keith and Kate joined us at the wine bar, and Kate stayed with us when we went to Elements for dinner so we could use up a gift certificate of John's.

Julie's Bottle Shop

After a late morning on Saturday, we drove to O'Malley's for lunch where we had fish/chips and beer.  Shawna went to the pool with John and JoAnna while Keith had a nap.  It was then off to Suppa Club - after 9 years we finally did a murder mystery - "Murder in Margaritaland" with Shawna playing Star Bright the famous movie star and Keith playing Cabana Bob, the pool boy.  Keith was thrilled with the role since it allowed him to dress in his normal shorts and tshirt!  The event was hosted by Kim and Jonathan, who provided a great spread of jerk Chicken wings, jerk pork, pulled chicken, fruit salad, shrimp, and cookies.  Shawna brought the ingredients for BBC to top off the beach theme.  It turns out that Keith Artin aka "Lifesavin Sam - the lifeguard" was the killer who killed Phil aka "Jack Daniels - the bartender".  We had a great time!

Keith's Fan Club - Phoebe and Ruby

On Sunday, we drove to Fosters to meet Keith, Kate, and the girls - then we headed to the WaDuke for a walk.  It was fun to do with the kids.  We then headed back to John and Joanna's and hung out at the pool the rest of the afternoon with a few beers consumed.  Dinner was a bit low key at Waraji, followed by watching Old School on Netflix.

On Monday, we walked Umstead for 2 hours with JoAnna while John prepared for their Florida trip.  We then went to the Flying Burrito for tacos, then cleaned up before Keith took everyone to the airport.  Shawna headed home and John/JoAnna went to Florida to meet Paul and Anne.  Keith went to Stephanie's to stay the evening with her and the kids and then left early the next morning for Hampton Virginia for work.

New York City - May 2017

Both of us needed to be on the east coast for work, with Shawna having a meeting in NYC, so we decided to extend the trips and make a weekend in New York City.  While Shawna was staying at the Club Quarters Hotel for her work, we moved over to the Hyatt Grand Central for the rest of the weekend.

Seeing Waitress on Broadway

Keith was flying in from Phoenix, so he did not land in Newark until 11pm or so - not getting to the hotel until midnight.  After some restless sleep, Keith got up at 5:30 am to meet his former colleague Bryant at Joe and the Juice.  After a fun breakfast catching up, Keith was back to the hotel to change and head out for a 2 hour walk up to the park, around the reservoir, and then back to the hotel after stopping by Grand Central for salads at the normal place.  Keith then began his conference calls, while Shawna had been on them all day.  Dinner was a last minute decision - we went to Haru near Times Square before seeing the show Waitress.  The show was based on the movie and starred Sara Bareilles - who wrote the music and we had seen live in concert in Denver with Ralph and Kelly a few years ago.

Lunch with the Snarrs at Standard Grill

Saturday morning was a bit lazy - Keith went to Starbucks for our breakfast and we relaxed until Kim and Tom arrived.  The four of us then walked to the Highline - Tom had not been there before.  It was a slow walk with all the tourists, but it was a beautiful day.  We wrapped up the walk and stopped by the Standard Grill where we ate outside - starting with a Charcuterie Plate and Cheese Plate, and managed to get in a couple of beers while we were at it.  We then cabbed up to Central Park so we could do a bit more walking.  We only had time for a quick shower before all four of us cabbed to Vin Sur Vingst for a couple of bottles of Rose where we were joined by Mark and Alicia.  It was then a short walk to Ilili where we had a reservation for the six of us.  The food is Lebanese and we just threw ourselves at the mercy of the waiter who kept bringing us small plates - and they were delicious!  Shawna headed back to the hotel while the rest of us had a last stop at a bar for a final round.

On Sunday, Shawna was not feeling great so Keith went to the Peloton studio by himself.  It was his first trip to the "mother ship" and he loved it.  After walking back to the hotel, we cleaned up, checked out of the hotel, and headed to grand central to Hale and Hearty.  It was then over to Penn Station for our trains north - Shawna to Hartford and Keith to Poughkeepsie.

Santa Fe - May 2017

Dodds Family in Santa Fe

We met up with Keith's parents for Mother's Day weekend again this year - this time for a weekend in Santa Fe.  Shawna had been there once for a high school trip and Keith had never been - though this was Keith's parent's fifth time or so!

Botanic Garden in Albuquerque

We all met up at Albuquerque airport on the Thursday night.  Both of our flights were late - though ours by 1.5 hours so Keith's parents were at our gate waiting when we landed.  It was a quick bus to the Hertz office and then quickly off to Santa Fe.  Dick had arranged a VRBO located at 501 Johnson Street, just off Canyon Road.  It was a cute two-bedroom place on a gravel road just off Canyon Road.

We did not have commitments on Friday, but decided to walk into town for Starbucks followed by a walking tour.  The tour lasted a couple of hours and was quite good.  Following the tour we went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum where we watched a couple of short films and then spent some time in the gallery.  The next stop was at the Coyote Cantina, the lower-cost sister restaurant to Mark Miller's original Coyote Café.  We ate on a rooftop deck and had chips/guacamole, followed by a tostada and pork carnita tacos.  We walked back to the house and had a nap before heading out to dinner.  The first stop was Canyon Road where we walked the galleries and shopped for "spinney thingies" for the yard.  We found a couple we liked but pushed the decision to the next day.  Dinner was at Sazon, a very nice Mexican restaurant.  We started with a mole appetizer of five different moles.  For dinner we had the Ensalata de la Casa and the soup of the day (which was amazing!) followed by a fish dish.  We also had a couple of bottles of Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc.  We ubered home from there.

Saturday was a lot more programmed.  We were all up at 6am with 7am departures - with Starbucks as our first stop.  It was then a 45 minute drive to Georgia O'Keefe's home in Abiquiu.  We met at a tour office in town and were then driven the half-mile up the road to the house in a van.  A woman gave a tour of the gardens and house which were really quite interesting - and had amazing views of the valley below.  Following the home tour, we drove over to the Lavender Farm for some lavender ice cream, then it was another 20 minute drive to a cave tour.  This cave was carved out of the sandstone by Ra Paulette and was really quite amazing.  We then stopped in Los Alamos and toured the Bradbury Science Museum.  After that, it was back to Santa Fe with a stop on Canyon Road to buy our "spinney things" - one for Keith's parents and another for us.  We had a bottle of wine in the living room before driving to Arroyo Vino for dinner - another delicious meal at a combo wine shop / restaurant.  We started with the Cheese Plate and Charcuterie, then had the yellowtail crudo and wrapped it up with the pork tenderloin.  We had to depart by 8pm as we had scheduled an astronomy tour - it was interesting but quite technical.

Georgia O'Keefe's House

Ra Paulette's Cave

Sunday was our last day.  We were not in a hurry to leave the house so Keith brought Starbucks to the house so we could relax in the morning.  We departed at 10am with the first stop at Kasha Katuwe Park.  Shockingly, there were 15 cars lined up and they were only letting in a car every time a car left - the guy at the gate said they had never seen anything like it.  We were not interested in waiting, so we quickly came up with a backup plan and headed to the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens.  The experience way exceeded our expectations - really well done.  It was then time to drop Shawna at the airport.  Since we were wrapped early, Dick checked to see if they could get an earlier flight but it was way too expensive.  So instead Keith and his parents went up to Sandia Peak to take the tram up the mountain.  It is the second longest tram in the world and the scenery on the way up and down was gorgeous.  We then hoofed it to the Taj Mahal restaurant that opened at 5pm.  While there was an initial rush, we were able to be the first seated.  We let them know we were on the way to the airport so they expedited the food and we were out the door by 5:50pm!  It was then a quick drive to the airport for Keith's 7pm and Jean and Dick's 8pm flights home.

On top of Sandia Peak