best of 2013

In no particular order, some of my favorite photos from the last year from a bunch of places: Germany, Sardinia, Prague, Paris x 2, Stone Harbor, NYC, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Gran Canaria.

ryan & mariah

Ryan and Mariah got married not quite three weeks ago, and we all celebrated with them two weekends ago! It was really gorgeous fall weather in Stone Harbor for a lot of fun outdoor time: a pizza dinner on Friday on the deck at Stone Harbor Pizza, a lovely midday celebration on Saturday at a huge rented house on 103rd Street with catering from Back Bay Seafood, and a bagel breakfast at my parents' house on Sunday with bagels and coffee from Avalon Coffee Company. My cousins from both sides of the family were in the same place for the first time ever, I got to meet Mariah's parents and a lot of her extended family members, and basically everything about the weekend was delightful. One of our family friends pointed out that the weekend felt like one big happy relaxed reception, which I'm pretty sure was just what Ryan and Mariah were hoping for. And it was great.

Stephen and Gran and I did a little bit of cooking to supplement the catered food, specifically the following things (the eggplant salad in particular was very, very tasty):

+ roasted eggplant and herbed quinoa salad [only change was to roast the eggplant in the oven instead of grilling it, but grilling would be delicious]
+ black bean and roasted cherry tomatoes salad [approx. 1 cup of caramelized onions added]
+ salsa
+ quesadillas: take small corn tortillas, fill with a small amount each of grated pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions, and sauteed green peppers, and cook in a dry frying pan until cheese is melted.
+ gluten-free chocolate nut granola [made with 1/3 cup of coconut oil rather than the 1 cup the recipe calls for]
+ Smitten Kitchen maple walnut granola
+ Nutella-stuffed brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies [we have made these before, and I think they turned out even better this time, which is to say incredibly deadly]

And then we spent the better part of the following week eating leftovers of all of those things plus the catering. Trust me when I say that we suffered.

stone harbor water

  
My dad and I go on a lot of bike rides when we're both in Stone Harbor. When I was there in June, the water on the basins (mostly enclosed areas connected to the Intracoastal Waterway) was incredibly calm and the reflections were stunning.

stone harbor sunrise

Ann came back to Stone Harbor with me toward the end of my 2 1/2 weeks in the U.S. and even though we stayed up late talking, I woke up a little after five a.m. the first morning we were there to a glorious orange sunrise. I debated for a little bit before taking myself down to the beach with my camera -- worth it, of course.

water taxi

Another "Sorry, Stephen": in the scant three hours we had between throwing Stephen on a plane and heading out of the city ourselves, not only did we make it to Times Square, we also rode the water taxi around a good bit of Manhattan. We didn't have time for the whole tour out to the Statue of Liberty, but we did get to ride from 42nd Street on the West Side over to South Street Seaport, my old hangout a few blocks away from my apartment. I hadn't realized quite how badly Hurricane Sandy was still affecting parts of NYC until I got to South Street Seaport and saw that it was all still shuddered upwards of six months later -- though it looks like they've since reopened. Re: water taxi: highly recommended! The Circle Line Cruise is supposed to be excellent as well. Next time I'll take Stephen along and maybe even make it all the way out to the Statue of Liberty, which I've only ever seen from afar.