Episode 49: September, October, & November 2009
Highlights of the months:
• US Open in New York City;
• West Coast road trip along Pacific Highway 101;
• Fall colors and adventures in Michigan;
• Neal’s business trips around the country;
• University of Michigan vs. Purdue at the Big House;
• Sheorey parents visit for Thanksgiving;
• Christmas festivities begin;
• Start of vacation in Australia.
Life has been so busy lately that we have had no time to sit and write an update on all our happenings…hence, the release of this mega edition. September started with a three-day weekend in New York City where we were lucky enough to get tickets to the US Open tennis tournament. We arrived late Friday night, just in time for a drink and relaxed dinner. The following morning, we took the train to the U.S. National Tennis Center, which is located in Queens, New York. The stadium was fantastic, and our seats could not have been better – Center Court, about half-way up, and almost even with the net. The first match featured Lleyton Hewitt (an Aussie) versus Roger Federer (from Switzerland). I was torn as to which country to root for, so we split it. Neal rooted for Federer and I backed Hewitt. Neal won but it was a great match nonetheless. The second match of the day saw a young American newcomer, Melanie Oudin, beat the favorite, Maria Sharipova, in three intense sets. The look on Melanie’s face when she realized she’d won match point was priceless. It was clearly the biggest match of her career to-date. The third match of the day was another upset – Andy Roddick was beat by John Isner in five sets, with the last set decided by a close tiebreaker. Given that day matches went so long, the night matches did not get started until well past 8 pm, and although we had tickets to stay through the night, we decided we had our fill and headed back to Manhattan for a great dinner of Cuban food.
Sunday was spent shopping through SOHO and lower Manhattan. We were also able to catch up with one of Neal’s good friends from business school, Chris, who joined us for lunch at our favorite Aussie place, the Tuck Shop, and a stroll through the surrounding neighborhood. Chris works in one of the major investment banks in New York and so we got to share horror stories about the year with him and how we have all felt the effects of the economy on our respective industries. Talking to Chris was a great way for us to put things in perspective. As tough as the year has been on us, it has been much tougher for people in the financial services industry where mass layoffs have left many people unemployed for months at a time. After a great afternoon catching up with Chris, we headed back to our hotel in Times Square and then headed out that evening to our favorite Greek café, Kefi, for dinner.
Monday we took a relaxing walk through Central Park, stopping only to play the big piano at the toy shop, FAO Schwartz, and to lay under the sun for an hour or so before heading back to the airport for our flight home.
Later in September, our friends who recently moved to Germany, Patty and Michel, came back to town. It was a bittersweet visit for us, as this trip the end of our cat babysitting duties, and we had to say farewell to Duke. The cat was clearly not nearly as traumatized as we had hoped. Neal was neutral, promptly cleaning up any remnants of his stay. I, on the other hand, am still in mourning and cry at the sight of any ginger-colored animal…
Our next adventure was a ten-day road trip along the U.S. west coast, beginning in San Francisco, California and ending north in Portland, Oregon. We arrived at San Francisco airport and rented what was probably the most obnoxious yellow-orange convertible Ford Mustang. From the moment we saw it, it was clear that we would not have any issues locating our car in any parking lot during the trip. With all safety aspects covered, we hit the road, headed south to our first stop, Half Moon Bay. After a nice lunch there, we drove further south to the quaint, ocean-side town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, which is located at the bottom of the famous Monterey Peninsula (where the famous Pebble Beach golf course is located). We stayed that night in Carmel at a fabulous little bed and breakfast called The Tickled Pink Inn and had dinner at the restaurant Pacific’s Edge, which overlooked the Pacific Ocean – or that is what we were told…the fog was so thick we could see nothing but clouds out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The following morning the fog had cleared, and we could confirm the view was as spectacular as all the reviews promised. After a breakfast overlooking the ocean, we headed north, back to San Francisco. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge, stopping in the gorgeous town of Sausalito for lunch and a stroll around. From there, our drove took us inland to our next stop for the night, the beautiful wine region of Sonoma/Napa Valley. The wine region is breathtaking, with beautifully manicured vineyards covering rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Naturally, we sampled some of the region’s offerings and neither the wine nor the food disappointed. We stayed the night in Santa Rosa and cruised the wine region the next day, hiking in the hills to get a look at the scenery and tasting a few wines. After looking around a bit more, we got back in the car and drove to our next destination, Eureka, which is located just south of the famous Redwood National Forest. After staying the night in Eureka, we drove into the forest for what was the highlight of the trip. Not only does the road wind along the beautiful, jagged coastline, but the forest itself features the most amazing trees. Redwoods are the tallest and one of the most massive tree species on Earth – the trunks of the trees are literally large enough that you can drive through them! The forest had plenty of places where we could stop and hike through the forests and get up close to the trees to appreciate how large they are. Some of the trees had trunks that are 3-4 meters (10-12 feet) in diameter. Each corner of the winding road offered a view more gorgeous than the last and we must have taken at least a hundred photos of the Pacific Ocean during that small stretch alone.
After seeing the forest, we continued our drive across the California-Oregon border. Once we passed the border, we took the inland route to Grant’s Pass, Oregon for the night. The next day, we drove the remainder of the trip to Portland, stopping briefly in Salem for lunch and a walk around the town. We spent the last couple of days of our trip in Portland. While there, we toured the city and, of course, did some shopping. We even supported a local theater troop by seeing their performance of the musical, Company.
October saw me grounded in Michigan while Neal worked on Dow’s earnings release. While he was busy with that, we managed a few adventures:
• The few days Neal was in town, we took a lot of walks, admiring the spectacular changing of the colors on all the trees which never ceases to amaze us.
• Neal became the proud owner of a new car, a Nissan Rogue (the baby sister of the Murano). Neal’s friends have now nicknamed the car the “Palin.” (For those who do not know the reference, Sarah Palin ran for Vice President during the last U.S. election and, though she lost, she has been in the news recently when she released a book called “Going Rogue.”).
• We watched the local hot air balloon festival which was a very impressive sight to witness. At least fifty hot air balloons lit up the sky with synchronized fire bursts.
• One of our colleagues, who is a native of India, opened his home for a Diwali celebration. Authentic Indian catering and beautifully colored sarees transported us to a different country with great company for the evening.
• I went on very well organized road trip with some friends to Ann Arbor where we saw a football match between the University of Michigan and Purdue. Unfortunately, this happened to fall on one of the weekends when Neal needed to be in the office, so he and our friend, Bob, missed out. That did not stop the remaining six of us from going. Our friends, Ed and Michelle, hooked us up, hiring a van, and more importantly, a driver who drove us around the entire day. The two-hour drive to Ann Arbor was filled with breakfast, champagne, coconut muffins, and a whole lot of laughs. The game itself was great. The University of Michigan football stadium, known as the Big House, is impressive (it holds over 100,000 people every game) and offers great acoustics because of its layout. Unfortunately, Michigan lost the game. After the game, we found our driver, who took us into Ann Arbor for a long dinner and then drove us back to Midland.
• My girlfriend, Stephanie, hosted a weekend wellness retreat at her house, which was a lot of fun. Stephanie also hosted her mum during October, and I was delighted to finally get to share a few cilantro margaritas with her after hearing so much about her.
• Fresh off the wellness retreat, I rediscovered my love of craft projects while Neal was busy trying to raise Dow’s stock price. My girlfriend, Anne, and I thought we were very creative by replicating a yoga statue made out of tree branches that we had seen in an art gallery. I also made photo frames for my mum and sisters and finished knitting two scarves that, admittedly, I had started months ago.
November brought some travel for Neal, who had to take a few trips to New York and Boston for different investor events. When he was not traveling, we were gearing up for the holiday season. One of the notable celebrations we went to was a fundraiser called Festival of the Trees. The fundraiser was clever – you paid to get into an auditorium where there was a sea of trees, each decorated with different sponsors’ products. You would admire all the trees and purchase raffle tickets to put in boxes beneath the trees you liked the most. If your raffle ticket was drawn, you would win the tree and all its trimmings. There were trees decorated with Tonka trucks, Barbie dolls, hair products, nightwear, theater tickets – you name it! One of my favorites was a tree dedicated to breast cancer awareness which was decorated with all sorts of pink things – from kitchen mixers to t-shirts. It was a fun day admiring all the creativity. We followed that up by stopping for some local warm apple cider at one of the apple farms nearby.
Later in the month, I began my vacation to Australia to see my family and attend the wedding of my very dear girlfriend, Andrea. (More about the trip will be coming in the next edition of the blog.) Neal did not leave at the same time as me as he still needed to organize some investor events at the end of November before his year could officially be called done. During the two weeks that I was in Australia before him, he had a total of seven days at home, four of which were spent with his parents who made a Thanksgiving visit to Midland. Neal’s parents had a relaxing time in Michigan, with a little shopping, a lot of eating, and catching up with one another.
And that is how we ended November. As busy as these three months were, the month of December was just as action-packed, with a trip to Australia, a wedding, and holidays. Stay tuned for more adventures!
Until then, take care.
