Katie visits DC!

Last weekend, Katie called me at about noon on Friday and asked if I thought she should visit DC for the weekend, to which I said, “of course!” So she got a bus ticket for a few hours later and was in DC by that evening.

We spent most of the weekend doing work – Katie had a bunch of drawings that she needed to do for class, and I was working on final edits for The Space Report 2010 for work.

We did have some fun, though. On Saturday, Jeff, Katie, and I met up with Stephanie and a friend of hers. We intended to go to a photography exhibition, but the line was about two blocks long, so we gave up on that.

Instead, we went to Ping Pong Dim Sum for cocktails. I had the lychee and roses martini (officially one of my favorite drinks) while Katie had the “Ping Pong” which was also very good.

We had a late dinner at Oyamel, a restaurant that does Mexican tapas. Since there were five of us, we had the opportunity to try lots of different things. The mussels and the quilacoche were both very good, as were the tacos. The guacamole is good, but I’m not sure it lives up to its $13 price-tag. Overall, dinner was very good, though.

On Sunday, Katie and I went for coffee and oatmeal at Starbucks (I had a coupon) and on a short walk to get cupcakes from “Hello Cupcake” in Dupont Circle. It was a beautiful day, so it was nice to get out a bit.

Katie headed back to the greyhound station and was back in NYC later that evening.

Katie's Apartment

My little sister, Katie, and her boyfriend, Tom, just moved to New York City from Minnesota. They drove up over MLK Day weekend, found an apartment, and moved in within a week. Jeff and I decided to make the trip up to NYC this past weekend to visit and see their new place.

They have an apartment in a great neighborhood on the upper east side - at 78th St. and 2nd Ave, they have tons of restaurants, bars, and pubs within just a few blocks. There are multiple little grocery stores, cleaners, and other nice neighborhood shops for all the little things they need. Central Park is only about 4 blocks away - and the Metropolitan Museum of Art only about 8 blocks - definitely a spot I want to visit during a future trip. And since it's only three blocs from the metro (the number 6 train!), it's pretty easy for them to get anywhere in the city quickly. I meant to take more pictures of the neighborhood, but it was freezing cold and I didn't want to take off my gloves, so those will have to wait til next time.

Luckily, I did remember to at least take pictures of the inside of the apartment. Katie and Tom are still planning to paint, so they haven't decorated and haven't bought much furniture yet, but you can still get an idea of the layout. Generally, everything is in a line:

Bathroom->Kitchen->Living Room->Bedroom

So if the doors are open, you can see all the way from one end of the house to the other. This is one taken while standing in the door of the bathroom looking out.

Here's the Bathroom.

Here's the Kitchen. (The door into the apartment opens into the kitchen)

This is the Living Room.

I wanted to get a picture of Katie's 'Manhattan Balcony' (i.e. fire escape), but couldn't get the right angle on it. It's right outside the livingroom windows, though.

And the Bedroom.

It's a very cute apartment, and was perfect for having visitors (like us)!