Park Naps and an Appetizer Crawl ( 6.17.2007 )

Our friend Amber had been out of the city for over a month, and this Sunday seemed like the perfect day to catch up now that she had moved back to the city. The plan was to go and spend the day in Carl Schultz park over on the East river in the 80's, since we have never been there. It was a great idea on Molly's part, except it was (what I thought then) a really warm day. So, in all my wisdom I said that we had never spent a lazy afternoon in Central Park with Amber. It qualified for Sunday rules (something we had never done before), so we made a lunch, grabbed all the sports equipment that I could stuff into one beach bag (soccer ball and Frisbees) and found ourselves under some big trees in between what must have been two extended Hispanic families. We had good tunes and kids running around us all afternoon. We ate lunch, threw and kicked the ball, and slept in the shade for about three hours. It would have been great, except for the next day I woke up with little bug bites all over my arms and legs. Stupid bugs.

Molly and Amber. Welcome back to the city Amber! We all missed you.

Damn I'm a cool versatile sports kind of guy. I can throw Frisbees and bounce balls off of my head.

After the park it was way too hot to cook anything and Amber didn't really feel like going home yet, so we decided to go out and visit some restaurants on the Upper East Side. A great way to visit a lot of restaurants is to go in for appetizers and drinks. So we decided to do some restaurant hoping for a four course meal. The first place was an Italian place called Bardolino. We had some Carpaccio and Martini's. Good, not great.

Second was a place picked by Molly called Uva. It was an Italian themed wine bar. My expectations were very low. These joints are usually filled with hipster jerks or uppity wine snobs, but to my surprise this place was full of parents and grandparents, and nice staff. Who knew that wine bars could have nice servers? Anyway, we had a sweet cheese plate with unpronounceable Italian cheeses and figs, with bread and olive oil, and I enjoyed a Lambrusco in a traditional bowl. Yea, I'm traditional. (Note my concentration on not spilling a drop)

Third was an Irish pub. Enough said.

Last was a place Molly had eaten with her parents. Baraonda. She said it was great, I disliked it immensely (Hipsters, loud house music, Euro trash), but I've been told that before 10pm it is very good food, and quite nice. One bad experience should not ruin something, but it did for me. That is what was so fun about the evening though, lots of different experience, and we never even left the one block.