The Big Apple

Two of our days in the city revolved around the Big Apple BBQ Block Party at Madison Square Park. Lured by the smell of BBQ smoke some 10+ years ago from his adjacent office building, Zeb wandered on to the square and started talking to the first BBQ people he came up on. They offered him a beer and he’s faithfully been a proud apron and glove wearing member of the Ubon’s BBQ family ever since. I was happy our time in NYC coincided with the fanfare. When you get good Southern BBQ (in this particular case, a Mississippi specialty), no matter where you are, it’s like going home.

Thanks to Zeb and the Ubon’s Southern hospitality, we got VIP treatment two days in a row. The kick off party was on Friday night as the vendors set up shop. Ubon’s made fresh fried chicken and their secret recipe of Bloody Marys for all their peeps, us included. (Shameless plug. Buy this stuff and use it on everything. Food, drinks, EVERYTHING! You won’t be disappointed.) The following day we literally sat on a bench as Zeb brought us BBQ from all the different vendors while we just stuffed our faces and licked our fingers.

We made fast friends with the BBQ folks and were lucky to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway one evening with Elaine and Ellie, some of Ubon’s finest.

Discussing the benefits of sucking crawfish heads and the best micro brew beer, no doubt.

I had told the boys I would take them to the huge M&M store in NYC. It’s all they could think about. So after the show and when it was sufficiently dark, we took the kids to Times Square to see the lights. Their faces tell it all. Patrick kept saying, “Mom! Seriously! Look at this place!” They both stood gap-mouthed. It was classic. Justin bought them a pound each (let me repeat…A WHOLE POUND EACH) of M&Ms. Which meant we paid $40 for about $15 worth of M&Ms and half an hour of entertainment as they had to get at least one of each and every color and flavor. Pretty cheap entertainment considering it was NYC. I am pretty sure between the BBQ and the M&Ms I snuck from the boys, I gained more weight in NYC than I did 6 months in Austria.

We had an amazing visit to One World Trade Center with it’s sweeping 360 degree views of the city and a sobering visit to the 9/11 memorial. It’s hard to imagine buildings of that size collapsing and the havoc it created. It’s important to remember and I was glad we didn’t miss it.

Another huge treat for us was to see Mia and David, some of our College friends from our Berry days. Mia and Hannah spent the afternoon at the BBQ with us and when we came to need a break from the people (seriously, there are SO many people everywhere) we retreated to their quiet corner of Brooklyn for a nice backyard dinner and some soccer and legos. It was so nice to catch up and be nostalgic for the college days. They actually came through Durango last summer so it’s crazy we managed to see them twice in a year!