Planning travel is never easy. This year put us to the challenge. Kai was heading off to study in Japan, uncertainties due to the Iran war (what would ticket prices be?) , and trying to weave into Chika’s busy schedule made added even more variables to the mix. I think after this trip I have mastered the frequent flyer model — every single ticket was rebooked at least once and sometimes 2 and 3 times, but the result was pure perfection including everyone getting upgraded for every flight.
The model was a simple spin on the classic — land in Yardley, visit NYC, and of course some quality time on the beach. But sometimes recipes get better over time. To kick off, we had on day 2 and extended BBQ at Mike and Mel’s with special guests Aunt Paula and Uncle Allan (plus the new cats Hershey and Nestle), preceded by a visit to the Netflix House Strange Things Adventure and some delicious dumpling action. Day 3 was back to Great Adventure — some inclemite weather cut the day shorter than planned, but also kept the lines pleasurably short. This was followed by the first of 2 Pop-Pop’s ribeye grill specials.
Thursday, Chika and I took advantage of some free childcare and headed off to NYC. The first night was a happy reunion with some great NYC friends – Stirllng, Mari, Seb, and Joe with special guest Jeff who happend to be in town for the night. The New Wanjo Korean BBQ was better than ever — really great meal and just great service. Footnote: I had my 38th birthday there as well as a pre-wedding meetup for out of towners. The next day was just for me and Chika and it was one of of those great NYC wandering days which led us to a great exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory: Clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. Chika realized our dinner reservation was 8pm, and after a quick change we arrived at Kazumi Omikase in the West Village for a fantastic 5pm experience. Every course was amazing all the way down to the pefectly sized creme brule cheesecake. I was happy that Chika approved. But then a massive storm arrived making our trek back home a bit more adventureous.
The next day, the boys came up on the train to meet us. Even though their original train was cancelled, they were able to grab the earlier one as the last minute. From there we went for a New York classic — Barney Greengrass — with some fantastic bagels with whiteish and nova (with Teo opting for a roast beef special). Conveniently around the corner, we got to meet Stirling & Leah’s first born Mazzy. Knowing this couple, this name is going to be publicly known at some point in the future.
After walking through Central Park, we succumbed to the heat and went to check into the next hotel. Chika booked us into the Blue Ribbon Sushi downtown for a great meal, followed by a visit to the Mercer Labs exhibition which surpassed expectations.
The next day, we did a small bakery run to check out Frenchette Bakery. I need to compare their Kouing Amann to ours in Berlin (Berlin won, FYI). We then roundezvoued with Brendan, Raquel, Benjamin, Anri, and Chika’s colleague for a final dim sum at Golden Unicorn where bao and gao were had by all.
At this point Chika needed to sadly head back, so while the boys and I headed back to Yardley, Chika was off to Berlin before heading to Japan. Our stay was short as the beach portion of the trip was about to begin the very next morning. After succesfully packing everything into dad’s Subaru, we headed down to the shore. And of course, the first task at hand was to order in some subs from Dino’s before hitting the beach. To make the first night easy, mom had prepared her classic meatballs coupled with some red wine (for the adults) and some after dinner gin games to cap off an excellent first day.
The next day, Kai and I make our first pilgrimage to Mallon’s in Ocean City. The Yardley neighbors had gifted my parents some buns and I had to admit they were very tasty, and thus Mallon’s has moved into my top spot as Casel’s has left the business. With main task completed, Teo and I took off for a second ride as we couldn’t miss a nice weekday riding the boardwalk. On the way back we stopped at Casels to pick up a sub roll, but couldn’t resist the exceptionally rare roast beef at just $9.99/lb (it’s like hitting the lottery! I ended up going back for more on Wedneday.). After lunch, the boys opted for fishing so we picked up some minnows and I drove them to the Point in Longport. Teo make the call to bring the beach chairs — why it took so many years to figure this out, I don’t know… I took the opportunity to have a beautiful afternoon beach nap and then shortly after waking up got the call for a pick up. Apparently Kai caught one flounder, but as usually it was too small to keep. Luckily, Kai had requested salmon for dinner so we were able to at least enjoy some fish for dinner. The next days were spent relaxing at the beach, or swimming at the pool, hitting the gym, and of course some more gin games where team Yardley consistently beat team Berlin, even when down over 170 points.
On Thursday, I was meeting my college friend in Ocean City so we decided to hit the White House for cheesesteaks. While good, they weren’t as exceptional as the test run Mike and I had done the year before. One hypothesis is that the lunch sub overperforms but we didn’t have the time to verify this trip.
On Friday it was time to move to the new place, but not before a quick Mallon’s run to restock our buns supply. Our new venue in Ventor Heights was walking distance from our place last year, but allowed for everyone to have their own room which the boys happily adopted. And as an extra bonus, the new place had a BBQ which provided for a delightful grill pork cutlet dinner paired with mom’s extra sauce over pasta. Kai and I decided to take a walk to the beach, but couldn’t pass up stopping at Custard’s Last Stand for some soft serve delights. Mike and Will stopped by for leftovers, followed by Mike and I revisiting the annual pub crawl through the Margate bay bars.
Saturday was the full family fest, starting with a bagel brunch with Jillian, Riley, and Stella and then joining the Freedmans on the beach. Dad and I were victorious on the quoits field, but the victory was a bit shallow as we were playing Michelle and Dave i.e. without Barry. Jeff and Ollie joined at the beach and continued with us to the annual lobster fest. This time we didn’t want to leave anyone left hanging and upped our order to 17 lobsters (which turned into a bit of situation when the store call the day before asking us when we were going to pick up the lobsters but thankfully mother was able to convince correctly that the store had made the error). We did do massive damage with only one claw (the small one) left standing. Dinner was followed by a trip to the Dairy Bar, which was the perfect close for an epic family day.
Sunday, Mike had the genius plan to redo our annual bike ride. Rather than repeat the long strech of Ocean City, we drove to the top of Strathmere and rode back to the point of origin — Stone Harbor — where we had spend many of our summer childrood holidays. We did our best to hit all the old sites, including the Risen’s old house in Sea Isle, the 96th Street Promenade, Springer’s Ice Cream (which unfortunately didn’t open until 12), and Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. After completing our ride and a professional house call for some friend’s of Mike’s we picked up our last subs of the trip for lunch before some beach wiffleball (as the weather wasn’t so beachy). Mike’s work colleague had suggested an Italian restaurant which had a branch in AC, so we decided to check it out. Our friendly waiter had suggested to go for the veal (because you can always make chicken cacciatore home, right?) so we tried almost all the varieties and left quite satisfied.
Monday morning weather wasn’t so great, so our crew decided to close up shop and head back early. The reward: another ribeye steak dinner. Tuesday, Mike had organized tickets for the Phillies game. As we were going to be in the city anyway, the boys and I decided to do a bit of city exploring starting with some sushi (not bad, but nothing worth reporting). We wandered down through South Street and onto Penn’s Landing. Our timing was off as there wasn’t a submarine tour for over an hour, but we switched gears and headed to Dave & Busters for some arcade entertainment where Mike and Will joined. While the original plan was to pickup food before heading to the stadium, after arriving at Tacobee’s we all decided it was time to chow down on some $6.99 taco specials (except for Teo who got the biggest burriot I have ever seen. Defintely enjoyable. The baseball game was a great success, with some good suspense and great playing. Plus, we got to enjoy an afterconcert by Flo Rida.
Winding down the last hours, we made one last visit to Great Adventure followed by a final dinner of mom’s chicken schnitzel. The next moring, we grabbed the 7am train to Newark Airport so Kai could catch his flight to Japan where he will study at the German school there for the next 6 months. After depositing Kai in the lounge and having a quick breakfast, Teo and I headed into Manhattan. One of my bucket list items was checking out the Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern. We arrived at 12, the burgers arrived around 12:08 and Teo’s was gone by 12:14. The patty was exceptional, but I think the bun could be improved upon. As the weather was fading and Teo was tired of my city explorations, we headed back to the airport for a second run at the lounge before heading back to Berlin.
While this trip followed the general pattern of years before, it definitely took it up a notch. Everything ran smoothly and we never had a bad meal or a washed out day (compared to last years hurricane). Now the question is now that the bar is raised, can we do better? Well at least certainly we will try.
