Friday = Fun + Food

Today was our "day off" from babysitting Julia.  We decided to head over to Manhattan and ride the Hudson River Greenway up to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que (one of our favorite restaurants in NYC).  The weather was hot and humid, but we had a nice ride from the WTC PATH station up to 125th Street.  Our son, Dan, was able to take a break from the bike shop and join us for lunch.  Mark and Dan shared a rack of ribs.  At Dinosaur, you get a choice of "sides" with your meal, and that's always the most difficult part of my lunch selection:  They have about 15 sides from which to select; I've had about 10 of them over the years, and they're all good.  Some of the choices (in addition to the standard cole slaw and french fries) are:  barbeque baked beans, barbeque fried rice, carrot and raisin slaw, Syracuse salt potatoes, and macaroni and cheese.  They also have a vegetable of the day - today it was black-eyed peas with kale.

After eating our hearty lunch, we headed next door to Fairway Foods, a fabulous grocery store in Harlem.  Mark had the grocery-style saddle bags on his bike, so we stocked up on gluten-free items and other goodies (chocolate-covered pretzels for me), then headed back down the greenway.  Of course, the wind had shifted so that we ended up with a head wind both directions!  But it felt good to get out for a 20-mile ride.

Babies and Beer Gardens

Today began week two of taking care of Julia.  What a fun job!  We went out for a couple of walks.  In the afternoon, we walked to the Zeppelin Hall Beer Garden, which is about 1-1/2 miles from John and Nancy's apartment.  We got there at 4:00, and the Jersey City Mom's group was meeting up there for a networking opportunity.  There were probably 15 moms and 20 babies there.  And don't worry, while Mark had a gluten-free beer, I drank water.  (No drinking on the job!)

Bike/Wok to Work Day

Our furnished apartment lacked a wok, and I was already missing Mark's fabulous stir-fry creations.  We decided we couldn't live without a wok for the summer, so Mark ventured across the moat to Manhattan. He took his bike on the PATH, biked up to Mod Squad to change his fixed gear to a coaster.  (It's too crowded around here for a fixed gear -- always need to be stopping.)  Then he headed downtown in search of a wok. After searching several shops in Chinatown, he headed over to the Bowery, where there a large number of restaurant supply stores -- and success!  He put the wok in his messenger bag and brought it back to JC.  We seasoned the wok and plan to buy fresh vegetables tomorrow for stir fry -- yummmm.
p.s.  Mark had two flat tires on this trip.