The City That Never Sleeps, Indeed

Two weekends ago I met Kelsey and our friends the Meyers in The Big Apple. They say it's the city that never sleeps, and I felt like I didn't either. It was, of course, a busy time with so much to do, but I think most of it was the jet lag and ambitious red eye travel itinerary that did me in. Believe me when I tell you that I was T-I-R-E-D when I got back to LA. And maybe a little grumpy when I was in NY.

But it was worth it because it was a great time with great people in a great place. The weather couldn't have been much more perfect - warm, but not so warm that the subway smelled too bad, blue skies with fluffy white clouds - which made all of the outdoor sightseeing we did even more enjoyable. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan, took the elevator to the observation deck atop 30 Rock, rode a ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands, explored Central Park - the greatest park in America - and walked, walked, walked, walked around the city.

Besides walking, the other great thing to do in NYC is eat. And eat we did. We had the best pizza you'll ever find at Grimaldi's (eating ice cream while waiting in line), what some people called the world's best nachos - congratulations! You did it! - overpriced drinks at the hotel lounge, greasy burgers behind a curtain in a fancy schmancy hotel, a 5-star meal at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain, and all the cured meats you could ever need at the famous Carnegie Deli.

What an awesome time we had, and I can't wait to go back again. Thanks to the Meyers for meeting us there, you made it that much more enjoyable. Here's a few pics, but you can see them all here.

world's best pizza at Grimaldi's

Brooklyn Bridge

hotel view

pond in Central Park

top of 30 Rock

Liberty Island

the "Woody Allen" at Carnegie Deli

the 'ol stompin' grounds of Columbia

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

As last year was such a rollicking good time, I couldn't resist going back to Walton again this your for Independence Day. And it seems to work really well in getting all us out-of-towners together at once since it's about halfway from Christmas. Now, spending the 4th in SoCal with beaches and sun and so much to do is great and all, don't get me wrong, but something about north central Indiana just seems so appropriate for the holiday. Backyards, BBQs, room for your own fireworks display... or maybe just the unbearable humidity. Maybe all of them.

And as far as the independent spirit, it's hard to beat a small town parade. Particularly one whose tractors outnumber the population.

John Deere train

johnny goes marching

Little Riley has officially entered the baseball portion of his life. Given more than two seconds of down time, he will without fail suggest someone go pitch to him (he's not real keen on fielding yet). I expect this phase to pass in 35 years or so when his hamstrings tighten up and he's sore for a week after playing a few innings.

keeps the power diamond intact

I actually decided to pitch in (kinda) with all the delicious food this year. It was more of a selfish experiment than an attempt to pitch in, but let's not split hairs. I decided to try grinding my own hamburger. And after learning it takes about 20 minutes per pound to grind the stuff, I think if I ever do it again it will be in limited quantity. Burgers weren't too bad - a little dry and lean - but thankfully we had about 80 pounds of BBQ from Gary.

grindin'

finished product

The men folk decided to up the ante a little from last year fireworks-wise. I'm not sure if it was because we were doing them at the Johnsons out of town or if we had to move them because we bought so many. It's a whole chicken and egg thing. Then again, maybe we just got a little carried away at the store. Whatever the reason it was worth it as it was awesome, even if it went a little late for some people.

the stash

the stash in action

But all the above considered, the best part is being around family and those I love. And it's not even close. Miss you all.

More pics.


And a video of Riley.

Riley Jumps In The Pool - II from Ryan Tuttle on Vimeo.

Again! Again!

When I sat down to write this post, the first thing I did was look back at my last post. Funny enough, this post is about nearly the exact same subject. Simply replace Kelsey's winter recess with Kelsey's spring break, and voila! So this could be taken to mean that either a) my whole life revolves around my girlfriend now or b) my girlfriend takes up so much of my time that I rarely get to blog. The answer is actually none of the above. In actuality, I am writing fewer posts in attempt to shrink time. By writing the same number of posts in two months time that used to be polished off in a week, I am projecting the 6-8 weeks between dates to the mere matter of a few days. And this works because, as we all know, my life truly revolves around my blog. Did any of that make sense? No? Good.

With the undeniable similarity if these two trips I thought it only appropriate that we took a do-over jaunt to Santa Barbara. (In truth I only set up our trip there to provide the witty blog intro you read above.) If you recall, the New Year's trip there did not turn out so well, what with me vomiting violently and all. The plan was to take a couple nice hikes I researched that week, then head in to town for dinner and a night on the town. The "night on the town" part being surprise tickets to see Zac Brown Band in concert. My plan was to just happen along the concert after dinner and smoothly pull the tickets out of my pocket, but I ruined all that, naturally, by forgetting the tickets in the hotel room when we left for dinner. Whoops. While unimpressed with my execution of it, I believe she did appreciate the sentiment.

hiking through the flowers

hanging out in Gaviota wind caves

cave with an ocean view

zac brown band

Although I may lack executive skill, the planning of these things should undoubtedly be left to me, as Kelsey's only suggestion during the trip was a side trip to the Old Dutch town of Solvang. It took us 90 minutes and two ice cream cones to recognize it for the tourist trap that it is.

Dutch Town

The remainder of Kelsey's visit seemed to revolve mostly around eating unhealthy foods (probably my fault), but we did take a lot of walks (Kelsey's influence). Among the places we feasted were: world's best donuts at Randy's, the perfect meal at Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles, burgers, ice cream sandwiches and friends at Umami Burger, trays of delicious raw fish at Club Sushi, and incredible piles of flapjacks at the Original Pancake House. But best of all, Chef Kelsey cooked a delicious dinner one night, proving that she is an excellent cook and that my oven works.

top chef

Kelsey, please come back any time, as much as you like. Just give me a few hours notice so I can pick up all my dirty laundry.

More pics.

The Real L.A.

Coming back to LA after Christmas this year, I had a lot more than I left with, good and bad. Bad being that my bag was ten pounds over weight which meant a $90 fee (on top of the normal checking fee), and good being Kelsey came along with me for a visit. Ma and Pa Brown were generous enough to include airfare as part of Kelsey's Christmas gift. So she got to spend a week or so of her winter break out here with me.

Kelsey had been here before, and was less than impressed. Actually, other than a few insulting monikers, the only thing she seemed to remember about L. A. was the awful traffic. Clearly it was up to me to defend the honor of Southern California. In short introduce her to "Ryan's L. A."

An integral part of "Ryan's L. A." is, of course, Ryan's peeps. Justin and Jill met us for dinner one night (though I can't remember where), and then we came back to my place and all played on our iPhones. Come to find out the three of them also do the YMCA while I'm in the bathroom.

i don't know; it's what they do i guess

For New Year's Eve, we met Matt and Beth up in Santa Barbara. I drove us up through Malibu and along the coast, arriving in town a little early to walk around State St. and enjoy the afternoon. We met Matt and Beth at our hotel, just across the street from the beach. We all chatted for a while (I seem to recall everyone was picking on me) then retired the rooms to change in preparation for the evening festivities. The plan was to have dinner at the steakhouse in the resort, then head downtown to ring in the new year. Dinner was an excellent 4-course prix fixe (steak was fantastic, though I won't order the meringue again). The four of us hopped a cab, and the cabbie dropped us at his recommended watering hole, Joe's Cafe. We sidled up to the bar to grab a round. It was there we met the coaches for New Zealand's Under-20 rugby team who proceeded to bug us the rest of the night. Still we had a ball and with much effort found a cab to take us back after midnight.

revelers at joe's cafe, santa barbara

...Which is right when things took a turn for the worse. The stomach flu had raged through my family and Kelsey the week before. I had been lucky enough to avoid during my visit home. Apparently, only just that long as I began vomiting immediately upon arriving back at the hotel. As this thing goes, I continued to vomit for the next 24 hours, including the 2-hour drive back to LA (Kelsey drove admirably if a little nervous). She also sat patiently with me that day as we loafed around my apartment, me just moaning on the couch or dry heaving in the bathroom (sorry, no pics from that day). Some vacation, eh, Kels? And sorry I had to cancel the camping, I'll make it up to you.

But the next morning I was fine again, so we went out for a BIG breakfast at The Ketle (I think I still managed to eat less than Kelsey, evn though I was starving from not eating the previous day) and took a walk around Manhattan Beach. Then I took us for a drive around the becahes and cliffs of Palos Verdes and down to San Pedro to kick around the parks (Pt. Fermin and Korean Bell). Then stopped home to grab some sodas and root beers and up north to one of my favorite spots, Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Park. It's a pretty, green park in the middle of an oil and industrial area, an oasis of sorts, and has a spectacular view of downtown L.A. and the Hollywood Hills. The view that day was spectacularly clear as recent rains had washed away the particulate layer that hovers over the city. We just layed around for a couple hours, talking and goofing off with the cameras. All that goofing off really worked up our appetites, fortunately it was just a short drive to Father's Office 2 from there for the world's best burger (seriously).

manhattan beach pier (and kelsey)

picnicking at hahn srp (downtown in background)

again (hollywood in back)

life-altering burger

From there the days all run together for me, but I do remember seeing Avatar in IMAX 3D (Kelsey's a huge nerd), meeting the work group for lunch at Rinaldi's, dinner at El Tarasco with Gwen, and spending an afternoon walking around Laguna Beach. So, yeah, pretty great visit. Can't wait to do it again in about two weeks.

laguna beach

playing in the sand

As always, more pics.

Late To the Party

As most of you reading this know, I am generally on the cutting edge of fashion / style / music / action sports... the list goes on and on. Well it turns out I've been ignoring a gem of a barbecue restaurant in my back yard. (Not really my back yard. I don't have a back yard. It's an expression that means in close proximity to oneself. Get with it, people. Do I really have to explain everything?) The shame of it all, is that I love love love barbeque. And I haven't been getting something I really desire. I think we all can agree that is a tragedy.

The name of the place is Pinkie's in Hermosa Beach. My pal Gwennie invited me out for a BBQ and beer pairing dinner last week. (Gwen has a connection with the ownership. Her boooooyfriiiiieeeend - drag it out like that, it's more fun - is a member of one of the three families involved, if I understand it correctly.) They had a rep from Stone Brewing- one of my favorites - come in to explain the beer and pairings, and we had four courses of beer and excellent food. The main course was beef brisket, which happens to be a personal favorite of mine. Let me tell you, I was blown away. And those of you that know me, realize I am a pretty picky person. It was sooooo good. Really excellent. Unfortunately it is as yet not a part of the full time menu. I think I really went on and on about how good the brisket was to the point of annoying several people. I'm pretty Steve gave me a tour of the kitchen just so I would shut up. But I'm not even sorry because that was fun.

The brisket. I heart you.

Me: falling in love.

The hush puppies were excellent as well. Very unique. They were made with a very fine corn flour and were really quite sweet as opposed to the spicy, herby ones to which I am accustomed. It was a really fun night hanging out with Gwen and Tom and the gang and enjoying delicious food. Thanks to Pinkie's for putting this on and Gwen for the invite. See you next time! And if you're in the area, get down to Pinkie's sometime.

Tom, Gwen, & Co.