Takin' a float at the 'Boat

The second half of our week in Colorado was spent in Steamboat Springs, where we took part in all of the fantastic festivities surrounding the wedding of Andrea (Erik's cousin) and Steve (Erik's new favorite cousin-in-law).  A quick recap. . .

Wednesday

 - Steve, Andrea, and Erik cause general discomfort at the county courthouse by asking too many questions about the Colorado 'first-cousins-can-marry' law.

 - The wedding party causes general discomfort at the local hot springs by wandering around (in the pitch dark) asking "are you nude?"

Thursday

 - The combined families at the wedding set a new Routt County record for volume of margaritas consumed before noon on a weekday.

 - Approximately forty wedding guests float down the Yampa River on tubes, while Christine (mother of the bride) opts to go freestyle after losing her tube thirteen seconds into the ride.

 - The combined families continue to pursue Routt County records for liver damage at Sunpies.  (I guess we got that Olympic spirit!)

Friday

 - The various men at the wedding who actually manage to wake up on Friday morning play something that looks approximately like golf at Steamboat Golf Club.

 - Due to a bit of sprinkles (read: deluge) and a light breeze (read: gale-force) and a touch of lightning (we saw Benjamin Franklin), the wedding rehearsal that was supposed to occur on top of Thunderhead Mountain takes place at the bottom of Thunderhead Mountain.  Why, again, do they call it Thunderhead Mountain?

 - The combined families continue to set Routt County records for alcohol and barbecue consumption at the Steamboat Smokehouse and Steamboat Yacht Club.

Don't worry - not ours!

Nastia Liukin has nothing on Erik!

Fake-reverend Erik playing fake-drunk reverend Erik.

Cascade Falls - Indian Peaks Wilderness

We've still got lots of blogging to do about our trip to Colorado before we can move back to NYC stuff. . .

The day before we drove west to Steamboat for cousin Andrea's wedding festivities, we went hiking in Indian Peaks Wilderness.  This particular hike, from Monarch Lake to Cascade Falls and back, is a favorite of the Simpson clan.  Katy and I have made the hike together at least three times, and she complains less every time!

To the relief of the three of you who read this, we'll let the pictures do the talking. . .

Will someone please honk a horn up here?

Katy and I recently returned from a wonderful week in Colorado. We spent the first half of the week at the Simpson family cabin, followed by four fun-filled days of festivities in Steamboat for my cousin Andrea's wedding.

The first night spent at the cabin - situated on the north shore of Lake Granby in Grand County, Colorado - was rather unsettling. Do you know how hard it is to sleep without the comforting sounds of cars whooshing by? Horns honking at all hours? Reggaeton music blasting from the building across the street? Do you know how annoying it is to wake up to the barely audible sound of a hummingbird flying overhead? I mean, seriously, can someone just make some freakin' noise up here???

Oh, and don't get us started on all of the open space and lack of crowds. I mean, everywhere we went, there were open fields, big lakes, and uninhabited forests! The grocery stores had friendly checkers and no lines. When we did (finally!) see a person, they said things like "hello!" and "How ya doin'?" and other creepy things like that. And they smiled. Weirdos.

Please don't even mention the prices. Seriously. Four seventy-five for a double cheeseburger? Get real. Those things should cost twelve bucks. Everyone knows that. Three bucks for a pint of beer?? Must be fake beer. Twenty bucks to rent a canoe for two hours? I mean, seriously, I can rent a two-foot remote-controlled sailboat for four times that in the park back home! Four dollars for a gallon of gas? I can get two sticks of butter for that!!

Well, since I'm already on this rant, I'll go ahead and say this. . .fresh air is *so* 19th century. No wonder the people up in the mountains are so weird. They don't get their daily allotment of carbon monoxide, and they've probably never known the joys of smelling a city coated in dog urine on a warm, humid day!

Despite all of these things, we managed to have some fun. We scampered up the hills and rock outcroppings across from the cabin. We sat out on the deck and enjoyed the beautiful view, the peace and serenity, and the sounds of nature. I played a round of golf at the local course with Katy as my caddie. We paddled a canoe around Grand Lake. We played cards. We had hamburgers and beers at the Lariat Saloon. . .which is probably the best place ever. We had ice cream cones. We played horseshoes. In the words of Tony the Tiger, it was Grrreat!

With love,

Katy and Erik

Look closely for the streak of white (next to sign) -- that's the golf ball.

Ode to the Mountain Pine Beetle

Oh, mountain pine beetle

the ignoble Dendroctonus ponderosae

which killeth every one

of the noble Pinus ponderosa

Poor ponderosa pine.

Oh, mountain pine beetle

the trees you kill

the forests you clear

were living beings too. . .

but you've really improved the view!

Oh, mountain pine beetle

your path of destruction

has left trees dead

and hillsides brown. . .

but you really brought my golf score down!

Oh, mountain pine beetle

nothing can stop you

not cold nor heat

nor mountains steep. . .

but you've sure made firewood cheap!

Okay, despite the foregoing, we haven't totally flipped our lid up here.  We don't sing or dance on subway cars or anything like that.  Well, not often, anyways.

Katy and I recently spent four days at the Simpson family cabin in Grand County, Colorado.  (Thanks, dad & Aunt Debi, by the way!)  Every moment spent there was wonderful, as always, but it was heartbreaking to see the destruction being caused by the mountain pine beetle.

For those of you who don't frequent the mountains of Colorado, the past few years have seen a plague of these beetles, which, according to one article I read, will likely kill every Ponderosa pine tree in the state of Colorado when all is said and done.  That's sad, both because it's by far the predominant tree in Grand County and because it was my elementary school mascot. . .yep, a tree was our mascot.  Go trees!

And, while the mountain pine beetle is certainly no joking matter, given what it has done to the scenery and the danger it causes by leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of standing firewood, it really did improve the view from the rock overlooks on the hillsides across from the cabin.  And, I'm certain it shaved about ten strokes off my round at the Grand Lake Golf Course, which was formerly a dense forest peppered with little strips of fairway, but now looks and plays like a links course.

We'll post more about our trip to Colorado a bit later, but this is a start. . .

With love,

Katy and Erik

Bagels, Bed, Bath, Beyond, and Beanbags

Last Sunday, we put on our tourist hats and headed downtown.  We checked out the Brooklyn Bridge (built from 1870 - 1883!), the South Street Seaport at Pier 17, and Battery Park.  While we were down that way, we saw the four waterfalls which comprise Olafur Eliasson's latest bit of installation art, on display until October.  In all honesty, the waterfalls are a bit underwhelming, but still cool.

Also while we were down there, we checked out the "Playing the Building" exhibit by David Byrne, famous for founding the Talking Heads.  Basically, Mr. Byrne has taken an old ferry terminal building and turned the entire thing into an instrument, controlled by a single console organ keyboard situated in the middle of the open room.  The concept itself is rather interesting, though the music it puts out is reminiscent of a horror flick.

Friday evening, we finally managed to see a free outdoor concert that *didn't* get rained out!  We saw Alvin and the Sound Merchants at Bryant Park, along with our friends Joel and Kelly.  After the concert, we headed down to Cosmic Cantina near Union Square for a couple beers, followed by a couple more beers at our friendly neighborhood pub - the Banshee - followed by sleep.

Saturday was a spectacular day - bright blue sky, low humidity, perfect temperature.  We started off with two hours of breakfast, coffee, and reading at Gotham Coffeehouse.  We continued with four hours of sunning and reading at Central Park. Then, after a great dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant on the west side, we finished off the day with an awesome concert - "She and Him" playing at Terminal 5.

Let me tell you about "She and Him". . .

Him: M. Ward.  (M stands for Matt, not Montgomery as I originally guessed.)  We got turned on to M. Ward's music about two years ago.  Spectacular guitar player with a cool, smoky voice.

She: Zooey Deschanel.  We (okay, I) got turned on to her in 2003, when she co-starred with Will Ferrell in "Elf".  If you saw the movie, you certainly remember she and Will Ferrell singing 'Baby, it's Cold Outside' in the mall bathroom, and you know that she has a really cool voice.

Fast forward to April of this year, when we saw in one of the NY daily newspapers that "She" and "Him" had started performing together.  Great stuff.  Their music has a very retro, 60's feel (old folks, correct me if I'm off by a decade or two), but it sounds new, due in part to his creative guitar work and her very unique voice.

So, anyways, the concert was just great.  Oh yeah, we should also mention that one of the opening acts, a North Carolina band called "The Rosebuds", was also very good.

Today was a big day.  After a big bagel breakfast, we bounded to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy bulk bath bar soap.  Then, on our way back, we burst into a furniture store that sells beanbags.  So, in celebration of four months of living in NYC, we came home with a big bulky beanbag built for two!  (Four months *is* the beanbag anniversary, right?)  For the few of you that have seen our apartment, this thing is slightly larger than our couch, which makes it slightly smaller than our entire living room.  Sweet.

With love,

Katy and Erik

The Pics of the Litter

We had high hopes for this post, but alas. . .

This was going to be a really great post.  We were going to talk about the free New York Philharmonic concert on Governor's Island!  We were going to talk about another free concert in Madison Square Park!  We were going to talk about taking a train up the Hudson River valley and seeing all the cool little towns along the way!  We were going to add heroic tales including princes and princesses and sword-fights and magic forests!  

Free New York Philharmonic concert on Governor's Island?  Rained out.

Free concert in Madison Square Park?  Rained out.

Train trip up the Hudson?  Oddly, the weather was actually *too* nice that weekend, so we never made it farther than Central Park.

Heroic tale of princes, princesses, sword-fights, and magic forests?  It's already been done.  Read "The Princess Bride."

So, you might ask, what *do* we have to talk about?  Well, we might mention playing thirty or so games of cribbage spread over a few rainy days.  We might tell you about our walk up the East River to Carl Schurz Park and the Gracie Mansion.  We could tell you about three consecutive, crushing wins by the Duke Club of NY softball team.  We might tell you about Erik's trip to Chicago, a going-away party at Jadis on the Lower East Side, or even our trip down to Pier 17.  We could tell you of our amazing display of frisbee prowess in the park.  And, if we really wanted to put you to sleep, we could tell you about all the wonderful food we've had recently --- terribly good Mexican at Rosa's, unbelievably good cupcakes and coffee cake  at Two Little Red Hen's, or some handmade pasta and sauce from Agata & Valentina.  

But we're not going to tell you about any of that.  So there.

With love,

Katy and Erik

Fun with Explosives!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Today brought a gray, drizzly day here in the city, but that didn't stop our friends at Macy's from rolling out thirty minutes of controlled explosives. Although there was no way to capture it with the camera, the coolest part about this fireworks show is that there are actually three separate shows, each precisely in unison with the others. From our vantage point, we could see two of the shows clearly, and they were timed within milliseconds. Pretty incredible.

From our apartment, we just walked two blocks over to the East River and staked out a spot along the railing. Once there, we made two new friends, Cheddar (an adorable Boston Terrier) and his owner, Jess.

Enjoy the photos.

With love,

Katy and Erik

A Big Apple-achia Wednesday!

Welcome back to Katy and Erik's award-winning blog. We're glad you're here.

Living here in Asphaltopolis, there's a few things that we don't have much of. Grass is one of them. Outside of Central Park, you have to search far and wide for grass, and when you find it, you're either in Connecticut or you just gave a guy forty bucks in a dark alley, and that wasn't the kind of grass you were looking for anyways.

Another thing we don't have much of is bluegrass. . .you know, the kind with fiddles and banjos and genetically-less-diverse mountain folk?

So, imagine our surprise Wednesday night when we found both at the same time! Real live grass and real live bluegrass in the same place. Every Wednesday evening during the Summer, the Madison Square Park Conservancy puts on a free concert in the park. This week, they brought in some Appalachian flavor, as Cherryholmes took the stage.

Cherryholmes is a really talented bluegrass band. They are also a family band --- father, mother, two sons, and two daughters. As the father joked, the fact that they spend 300 days a year together in a 45-foot bus might explain why all of their songs are murder-ballads. The father, I should mention, has a beard that makes Uncle Hunter look prepubescent.

New York City sent out a great crowd on a perfect evening. For a bunch of New Yorkers listening to 90 minutes of twang-twang music, they were pretty into it. On the other hand, every one of the father's hillbilly-twinged jokes fell flat. Nice effort, though.

For dinner that night, we paid a visit to the NYC version of Cosmic Cantina, one of our old college hangouts in Durham, North Carolina. Just as we remembered, the burritos were great, but there were two notable differences. On the plus side, the NYC Cosmic has homemade, organic tortillas. On the down side, our old $6 Constance burrito is apparently made with three gallons of unleaded. . .

Love to all,

Katy and Erik