anna went to minnesota!

(I was going to title this post "Anna Goes to Minnesota," but our trip was a month ago, so I thought past tense would be more accurate!)

A month ago we had a whirlwind weekend in the Twin Cities. Highlights included a picnic with our best friends to celebrate the upcoming birth of Baby H, brunch with our dear friend Melissa, dinner with Seth's cousins and their three kiddos (one of whom sustained an injury during our visit, which prompted Seth's cousin J to yell "We're going to the emergency room!!!"... luckily, that turned out not to be the case!), and staying with our dear friends and watching Anna & their daughter Ella have fun together.

So happy to be where there are trees!


Anna & her future husband Leif


The whole gang!

Very excited about something!

The parents-to-be


Melissa & Anna at The Egg & I

Cousin Nathan explaining the ways of the world

Cousin Payton preparing for big sisterhood (her brother Jack was just born yesterday!)

Pushing Ella's doll stroller

Four happy girls

pictures!

These are from our recent stay at a B&B in Santa Fe (the early music ensemble Seth recently joined had its annual retreat there).


And here we are celebrating our third anniversary!

Sorry, I haven't had a chance to write a proper recap yet, but our NYC pictures are up here!

input wanted!

As you may know, Seth & I are going to New York City in 12 days! We are VERYVERYVERY excited about this. Not only will we be spending 5 days in the Big Apple together, we will also be making our Carnegie Hall debut singing Faure's Requiem. I think I may be a teensy bit more excited about this than Seth, considering he may very well sing at Carnegie again and I will most certainly not. At any rate, we are really looking forward to our trip! We've both been to NYC before and have done all the really touristy things, so this trip will be more of a walking-around-and-eating-lots-of-food-
and-maybe-going-to-a-museum-or-two kind of excursion.

And that's where you come in! What are some of your must-visit places in NYC -- attractions, restaurants, shops? Here's a partial list of some things we've heard we have to try. Any other ideas?

* West Village (Magnolia Bakery cupcakes, Amy's Bread, Rocco's for black & white cookies and cannoli)
* Carnegie Deli?
* Cafe Europa?
* Le Pain Quotidien
* A fancy restaurant one night -- maybe Gramercy Tavern or one of Mario Batali's restaurants (Babbo, Otto, Lupa) or Artisanal, which I hear has a cheese list to die for)?
* Gray's Papaya hot dogs (because Fools Rush In is one of my favorite movies)
* Sarabeth's for brunch?
* The Boathouse over the rowboat pond in Central Park -- I'm told that getting a glass of wine & a cheese plate there is a wonderful way to relax in Central Park

(Um... does it seem like maybe all we're going to be doing is eating? A friend of mine also told me about a fabulous handbag consignment shop, and we plan to spend some time at the Met or MoMA, too. And we're hoping to see either Wicked or Avenue Q on Broadway... in between dinner and our midnight snack, of course.)