It wasn’t the month we hoped it would be but like everything in our lives we made the best of it and came out the other side ready for whatever is next.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

It’s hard to even describe July of 2022. It was a month when Jenn and I were going to take our first “real” vacation since September of 2021 when we went to the Maldives. We both boarded different planes, mine a Virgin Atlantic flight from JFK and Jenn a British Airways flight from Newark both headed to London. The flights over for both of us were perfect, and we arrived within minutes of each other. We grabbed our bags and I took the airport train to get to Jenn and we took an Uber after a long wait to our hotel, South Place.

I’ll include my full day one write-up at the bottom of this post (with pictures) but needless to say, our first day in London was a dream, we had beautiful weather and walked nearly 25,000 steps. Being back in the place I proposed in 2008 was a dream come true. But that ended on the second day when Jenn started to develop a rash. We thought it might just be the sheets or lotion that she used at the hotel and went about our second day In London keeping an eye on it. We took a COVID test (negative), grabbed some creams at a nearby pharmacy, and went about our day. We had tickets to go see Back to the Future: The Musical and grabbed some burgers ahead of it. The musical wasn’t great but we made up for it that evening with a divine Michelin dinner at an Indian restaurant called Jamavar. During dinner, the rash started to really bother Jenn and we rushed back to the hotel, used the stuff we got from the pharmacy, and hoped for a better day.

Unfortunately by July 4th (Monday), the rash got even worse and after another negative COVID test, we got Jenn into urgent care. The doctor thought she might have gotten bitten and got some heavy-duty steroids. Jenn started to rally a bit with the medicine and a relatively clean bill of health so we went to dinner at a really cool Sri-Lankan restaurant called Paradise. We had some delicious tapas but by the end, Jenn started to feel worse again so we skipped going to see My Fair Lady and went back to our hotel. We knew at this point the trip that we had planned to Paris (for work), Milan, Florence, and St Moritz were not going to happen and we were able to change Jenn’s flight for $25 to a flight the first thing out the next morning. That evening Jenn was feeling even worse and so just to make sure it wasn’t the hotel room Jenn took an Uber to the Hyatt Place at Heathrow and spent the night there.

I went to work on July 5 while Jenn flew home. Luckily unlike her flight from Paris in April, it was on time and by the time she got home that day she was feeling incredibly bad and took another COVID test, this time she was positive, and the rash had gotten a lot worse over the flight to the point where she was having trouble seeing out of her eyes and Face ID on her phone didn’t recognize her. She was immediately prescribed Paxalovid and her COVID journey began.

I stayed behind in London for another day and then on July 6 with a stranger sitting next to me instead of Jenn I took an early Eurostar to Paris to work out of that office for the rest of the week. Jenn’s worst day of COVID was the day I got into Paris so while she wasn’t feeling well I kept her company the entire day as I walked around Paris and worked. Outside of work I had some great walks and dinners alone in Paris. I went to Les Tables d’Augustin a beautiful little 20-seat restaurant where you are surprised by their tasting menu. By far the highlight of my trip was eating at Contraste. Similar to my train over I had a seat open across from me that I wish Jenn was in, but she was nice enough to keep me company the entire time. Paris isn’t the same without Jenn.

By the time I made it to my flight on July 9 after moving my flight up two weeks, Jenn was just starting to feel better. My flight on Air France home was perfect and I arrived back ready to take care of Jenn. But two days later wouldn’t you know it I tested positive for COVID even if Jenn and I tried to mask and stay apart. I guess there’s just nothing in this world that will keep us apart. Jenn’s symptoms were completely gone at this point and mine were very mild. My flu early in the year was way worse. But that meant for the next week we were confined to home, watching movies and TV, and taking care of Frasier.

To celebrate our clean bills of health a week later we had an incredible dinner at Kochi, a one-Michelin star Korean restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. We got to watch them cook our entire meal from our chef’s counter seats and enjoyed a phenomenal ten-course meal. It was a nice mix of fish and different meat that made for an incredible meal. After canceling our vacation I think we were both desperate for some nice nights out and to enjoy feeling good again.

One of the highlights post-COVID was Jenn deciding that we should take a road-trip to Yale. I really should go with Jenn’s ideas more often. Even though it was blistering hot we drove out to Yale for the first time and walked the campus with Frasier. Its a stunning campus and there’s always something inspiring about being on a prestigious campus like Yale. It makes me want to read Shakespeare or dive deep into a biography on Grant.

We closed out the month getting back into our normal routines. We enjoyed a really nice dinner at Altro Paradiso. Jenn had a few weeks in a row where she was pulling 10-12 hour days and so I surprised her with a 60-minute massage at The Peninsula. It probably didn’t solve the fact that she’s working too hard but at least she was able to enjoy the last Sunday of July. It wasn’t the month we wanted or hoped for but we made the best of it. Let’s hope August is even better and we can actually go on our trip this time!

TV WE WATCHED

Given that we canceled our trip and were stuck home with COVID we watched a lot of TV this month. We started and finished the first season of The Bear and it seems like everyone enjoyed it more than we did. I continue to love For All Mankind which in its third season continues to be a ton of fun to see its growth in both ambition and quality. Jenn would be very mad if I didn’t include the penultimate season of Stranger Things which she watches with bated breath and I usually take a nap.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I read three great books this month. The best of them was Rules of Civility by Amor Towles a book that takes place in 1930 New York City and was brimming with swagger and beautiful writing. I think A Gentleman in Moscow is still my favorite of his work but this was quite good. Happy-Go-Lucky is yet another great David Sedaris book, at this point I’ll buy anything he puts out. And Upgrade by Blake Crouch was the good/entertaining summer read that I was looking for post-COVID.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

There’s zero chance I’ll be able to cover all the movies. I watched this month, the majority of which was while I was sick at home with COVID or flying to and from Europe. The highlights this month was Cha Cha Real Smooth a fun romantic comedy that had me getting emotional on the plane. Everything, Everywhere All At Once I have a feeling might be Jenn’s favorite movie of the year, it was quite the adventure and way different than I thought. My favorite movie of the month was RRR a crazy 3-hour operatic action movie that I cannot wait to watch again.

THEATER WE SAW

I’m going to just skip Back to the Future The Musical which was just bad and go straight to the one great show we saw this month, The Kite Runner. I loved the book so much, it’s the book that I think was responsible for getting me into reading post-college. Seeing this story come alive on stage was a dream, and along with beautiful sets and great acting, I was moved to tears by the end of it as was much of the audience.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

I didn’t include the iPhone/iPad games I’ve been playing which kept me busy on the planes/trains but I did continue with my normal repitoir of games this month, nothing too exciting.

2022 GOAL TRACKING

Goal #1: Read 35 Books: I've read 18 books and am on track to hit my goal.

Goal #2: Keep Weight Under 140: I've yet to go over 140lbs

Goal #3: 12 Monthly Recaps: 7 for 12.

Day 1 - The Walking Tour (July 2, 2022)

With how much traveling both Jenn and I have been doing for work, the only way the two of us were going to be able to get away this year was to extend some of these excursions. For this trip, we built on the back of my work trip to London and Paris to hit the big four, England, France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Although my trip was delayed a couple of days (originally planning to leave on June 29) due to a COVID exposure at work, we ended up leaving at the same time from New York to London. Jenn went out on British Airways out of Newark at 7:55 AM while I went out of JFK at 8:05 AM. We ended up arriving at Heathrow within minutes of each other and after grabbing our bags I met Jenn in Terminal 5 to take an Uber to our hotel, South Place. The drive was long, and our driver regaled us with tales of being a driver in London and his dream of buying an electric Mercedes. At one point he may or may not have fallen asleep and asked if we could roll down the windows and then show us how fast his car could go. It was quite the drive-in.

By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was a little after 10:30 PM and everything around had shut down. We went into a few pubs and restaurants but none were still serving dinner so we ended up getting KFC, a poor decision but at least we went to bed with food in our bellies.

We woke up the next morning (what we are calling Day 1) to the sound of a jackhammer at 8 AM. Fortunately for us, it stopped fifteen minutes later and we ended up sleeping in until a little after ten. We got ready, ironed our clothes, cleaned up the room, and got some coffee at a nearby Starbucks before getting on for our adventure today. From our hotel, we made our way to St. James Park. We knew we needed to get some food but everything in our area was closed for the weekend. We stopped by a couple of places at the start of our walk that was either booked or not appealing but strumbled on a pub called The Inn of Court. There we sat down and grabbed a window seat, got a beer and a glass of white wine, and split some fish and chips. It was the perfect split and pit stop before a lot more walking.

From lunch, we made our way to St. James Park the same spot where I proposed nearly twelve years ago to the day (July 3, 2008). Before we got there we had a beautiful walk along the River Thames with great views of Big Ben and the London Eye. We ended up walking right past Big Ben and to St. James Park where we did everything we could to find the bench where I proposed. We made our way through one side of the park before stopping at Buckingham Palace and taking some photos and making our way back through the other side of the park. Sure enough towards the end of our walk, we found it, the exact bench and spot I proposed. We took some of the same pictures we did twelve years ago and reminisced on that day and many days since then. Still easily the best decision I ever made.

We sat on the bench for a good twenty minutes before the birds and ducks started to overwhelm us and we began the long walk back to our hotel. We didn't make it far before running straight into a giant and beautiful Pride parade. It was massive with rainbow flags flying from every corner. Unfortunately, it blocked our direct route back so we made some diversions and stopped at both Jo Malone to get Jenn a travel perfume and Starbucks to get Jenn a new London mug. Our last stop before our hotel was at Paul to grab a coffee and a much-needed rest on our feet. By the time we got back to our hotel a little before 5 PM, we had walked over 20,000 steps and 8 miles.

By the time we got back to our hotel we only had an hour to rest our feet before we were back out for dinner. Jenn changed into a beautiful black dress and from there we took the tube from Moorgate to our restaurant tonight, the one-Michelin star, Portland. I cannot begin to describe how much nicer the tube is than the NYC subway. From the beautiful station to the nearly flawless subway car the experience in London versus New York is not even close. We arrived at Great Portland Street station where we walked for ten minutes to the restaurant.

We sat down and started with two glasses of champagne and a delicious gazpacho as a welcome from the chef. We chose to go with their 3-course meal and added on two starters, a parmesan & mushroom macaron and treacle cured Iron age pork belly, pig fat brioche & chive aioli. Both were stunners of dishes but for me, the highlight might have been the bread with a hollandaise dipping sauce that blew my mind. I’m not sure I could physically put any more of it on my bread without being kicked out of the restaurant.

For our starter, Jenn went with the highland beef tartare, squid ink crumpet, Keen’s cheddar, egg yolk & seaweed and I had the devon crab, shellfish mayonnaise, strawberry, peas & lardo. Jenn’s pick won this round and was so jam-packed and full of flavor that it was almost a bit overwhelming. My dish was good but the shellfish made the dish a bit fishier than I would have preferred.

Our main dishes arrived a little over an hour after we sat down along with a beautiful glass of Merlot for Jenn. I had the portland hogget (lamb), confit shoulder, goat’s curd, courgette, tomato, anchovy & olive, while Jenn had the Cod, nettle risotto, smoked mussels, clams, gooseberry & grape. We were both winners on this course with two of the best dishes we’ve had in a while. The flavors on both plates were spectacular and the balance of each plate was exceptional.

We closed out dinner with two exquisite desserts. Jenn had the brown butter & almond cake, Cornish strawberry, yogurt, meringue & basil and I had the dark chocolate tart, cherry ice cream & toasted buckwheat. Both were the perfect way to close out our first of hopefully many great dinners this trip. We left a little before 9 PM and took the underground back to our hotel and closed out the night watching old episodes of Schitt’s creek before calling it a night and getting ready for another day great day in London tomorrow.