Philadelphia. Day 4. Monday. Where do the donuts fit in?
We woke up this morning and went upstairs for a last breakfast at Jean Georges. We got there around 9AM and were practically the only other people there. Really amazing how this hotel seems to clear out during the week.
We got a great table and ordered too much food. We shared brioche french toast, which was crispy on the outside but so soft and buttery on the inside, and was served with delicious caramelized apple slices. I had eggs and toast and all of the jam. Tzvi had a dosa, which is an Indian buckwheat and lentil crepe that had eggs and cheese inside, which were basically baked into the crepe. It was huge, and Tzvi said very good.
After breakfast we changed and then went to spend our last couple of hours lounging at the pool. Again it was pretty empty. We read and relaxed and swam a little before going back to the room to finish packing up. We checked out around 1 PM and then embarked on our Michael Solomonov food tour.
We had the house car, a small Tesla SUV, drive us to Sansom street, where Solomonov has four restaurants. The Tesla was cool and had doors that opened up instead of out. Tzvi asked the drive whether there was any practical reason you needed doors to open up. He didn’t have an answer. He did say he enjoyed driving the car though.
We started our tour at Merkaz, the newest restaurant, which serves sandwiches, but no falafel or humus. Tzvi got a sabich sandwich and a side of sweet potato babaganush (which had no eggplant and didnt taste like babaganush).
Next we walked a few blocks to Goldie, which serves just falafel and salads and fries, but no humus. We also got a tehina coffee milkshake, which was outrageous. Goldie is the only one of the restaurants that is kosher.
We walked another block to Dizengoff, where they serve humus, but no falafel. We had humus with braised kale. I sat in the restaurant sneaking falafel balls out of the Goldie bag to dip in my humus.
Finally we crossed the street to Federal Donuts, which is the only restaurant that doesn’t fit the Israeli theme, but serves fantastic donuts. At Federal Donuts, they saw us with our bags and said, “you look like you’re on a tour.” We asked where the donuts fit into Solomonov’s Israeli food empire, and they basically said, “they don’t. They’re just good donuts.” We ordered a coffee cardamom donut and a salted caramel, as well as a cookies and cream donut that was fried to order. They also gave us a cinnamon sugar fried-to-order donut on the house. Not much else to say except that everything we had was really good, and all of the restaurants are really nice and well designed.
We walked back to the hotel, picked up our car and luggage, and then we were off. We drove straight home and made it two and a half hours.
It was a great babymoon and exactly what we wanted and needed. We were really able to relax and with the indoor pool we didn’t need to worry about the weather. A big thank you to my parents for watching Hallie. And now the blog goes on hiatus as we have our second child and never travel again.
Philadelphia. Day 3. Sunday. Who Goes From a Pony Country to a Non-Pony Country?
Another great night’s sleep (minus your normal bout of pregnancy insomnia and multiple trips to pee), another pleasant morning wake up.
We got up around 8:30 and got out pretty quickly. It’s amazing how quick you can get out the door when you don’t need to get a toddler ready. It was another beautiful day so we didn’t even bring coats for us. Thanks global warming!
We walked about ten minutes to our first stop of the day for breakfast at K’far, an all-day Israeli cafe from Chef Michael Solomonov (who is famous for his cookbook Zahav, and restaurant of the same name, which Tzvi has always wanted to eat at, but unfortunately we won’t be dining there on this trip as we planned too late and it was totally booked). We ordered breakfast and took seats at the bar; not because there weren’t tables, just because the bar was nice. We both got lattes, but Tzvi’s was a yemenite latte with cinnamon and cardamom, which he enjoyed but said was a little too sweet. We also shared a potato boreka, chocolate rugelach and chocolate babka. I had an avocado kubaneh toast which was delicious, due mostly to the fact that they slather the bottom of the bread in butter and salt and then toast it on a griddle. Tzvi had a zahtar Jerusalem bagel with eggs and cheese, which reminded me of being back in the old city.
After breakfast we Ubered to the historic center of the city to the Jewish museum where we had 10 AM tickets for the last day of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg exhibit, titled “Notorious RBG.” Unfortunately they didn’t let us take photos inside the exhibit. The exhibit was very well done and went through RBG’s whole life (so far) and had features on each of her biggest cases that she litigated and presided over. It’s the first museum exhibit about her, which made me wonder, is it weird to have an exhibit on her before she’s dead? After the exhibit we quickly went through the rest of the museum as we weren’t in the mood to read through three floors of Jewish history. We did spend some time in the last room though. I don’t know what the point of the room was, but they were playing clips of Seinfeld, SNL and Fiddler on the Roof.
After the museum we walked several blocks to Shane Confectionary, the oldest continuously operated candy store in America. It was very cute and we bought a few things. They have an ice cream store right down the block, but we were just too full. After that we took an Uber to Rittenhouse Square where we walked around and shopped a bit, and then got lunch at a bagel shop called Spread Bagelry. I don’t get why people rave about Montreal style bagels. They’re just not as good as regular bagels (sorry, Jessica).
After lunch we Ubered back to the hotel, changed into bathing suits, and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. It was much quieter than the previous day. I think a lot of people must come for the weekend, but then go home so they can go to work and school on Monday. We read and swam and I even took a little nap. It was glorious.
Eventually we went upstairs and got ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was at a vegan restuatant called Vedge. The restaurant is in the gay neighborhood of Philly, which is actually called the Gayborhood. The restaurant is located inside two historic townhouses, and you really feel like you’re eating in an old house. The place has been around for a while and from everything we read online, is regarded as not just the best vegan restaurant in Philly, but one of the best restaurants in the city. I have to say, from my limited Philly dining experience, I agree. Everything was amazing. It was one of the few times where I looked at a menu and actually wanted to order everything (except the eggplant and mushrooms). We started by getting mocktails/cocktails, and then they brought an amuse bouche of cauliflower-mustard soup.
Here are the descriptions of the rest of the dishes we ordered (taken from their menu):
STUFFED AVOCADO: romesco, pickled cauliflower, “fried rice,” black salt
RUTABAGA FONDUE: today’s soft pretzel, yesterday’s pickle, charred onion
SMOKED POTATO CREPE: buckwheat, turnip béchamel, horseradish
GRILLED BROCCOLINI: charred onion dashi, cipollini, tofu tamago
WOOD ROASTED CARROT: pumpernickel, crushed garbanzos, carrot mustard, carrot kraut
SSAMJANG TOFU: edamame puree, burnt miso, cucumber, sea beans, toasted nori
Everything was so good. Tzvi said the most interesting thing was the carrot, which kind of tasted like deli. Tzvi also thought the garbanzo puree on pumpernickel toast tasted exactly like whitefish on a bagel (I think he’s wrong). I actually didn’t LOVE that dish. But everything else was phenomenal. We don’t know how they do it. And every dish wasn’t just delicious, it was stunning.
Service was also really great. Every time they brought out another dish the waiter told us what it was and then said “no peanuts or hazelnuts.” Tzvi liked that. Very reassuring.
Unfortunately I have to say the only weak part of the meal was dessert. There wasn’t really much on the menu that wowed us. We ordered the sticky toffee pudding, which was the only thing that really interested us. I will say that it was fantastic, especially considering there was no dairy. It came with a cardamom ice cream, and halfway through eating it Tzvi stopped and said, “Oh, wow, and there’s no dairy in this.” So yeah, it was so good we forgot it wasn’t dairy. (Apparently a lot of stuff, including their ice cream, uses a blend of both soy milk and almond milk, though I don’t know what benefit you get from using both (Sarah, you can let us know).)
After that we called an Uber and went back to the hotel. We were stuffed and exhausted but we took a bath because we couldn’t let that go to waste. Then we got into bed to watch TV, except Tzvi quickly passed out watching the Wedding Singer. I then spoke to my mom for an hour getting the day’s news.
Great day.
Philadelphia. Day 2. Saturday. It was a lot of beets.
We woke up around 8:30 and laid in bed for a while. Don’t tell Hallie, but it was pretty nice not having her climb on top of us at 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning.
We got up, got dressed, and made it to breakfast around 9:00 AM. Breakfast was at Jean Georges. Again we got a great a table with a great view. I had a blueberry bowl with “jungle peanut butter” (sorry Tzvi) and fresh and dried fruits. Tzvi had baked eggs with cheese and broccoli. We also had a croissant and lots of good toast and jams. Delicious breakfast. On the way back up I picked up some free coffee and a free coffee cake muffin, because why not.
After breakfast we changed and made our way to the spa for our 10:45 AM couples massage. The relaxation room at the spa is great. They have those zero gravity chairs and then water, tea, dried fruits, and chocolate. Before the massage they asked if there was anything that was bothering me. I told them, “well, I’m pregnant, so everything.” They had a pregnancy pillow which was nice, but I was never really on my stomach (like I was at the Four Seasons Orlando). Also, she wouldn’t go that hard because she said she wasn’t allowed. It was a good massage, but I’m looking forward to a post pregnancy massage. Tzvi said his was fantastic, though.
After the massage we lounged around, read and swam for several hours until we were hungry. Then we changed and went to JG SkyHigh (the Jean Georges bar upstairs) for lunch. We shared green chickpea hummus with pita and crudite. I had a broccoli and kale salad, and Tzvi had an escarole and apple salad with a beer vinegar dressing. They also gave us really good bread. After lunch we changed back into our bathing suits and went back to the pool. When we got back (around 3) we found the scene wildly different from when we left it. Since we’d left, at least six kids had gotten into the pool. We took back our same seats and sat reading for a while. I was pretty engrossed in my book, and when I next looked up there were a dozen kids in the pool all splashing and jumping and screaming. They just kept coming. I don’t know from where. Somehow it was still a very relaxing afternoon, though they were a little annoying. As our friend from Los Angleles once wisely said “it’s starting to feel like a Denny’s in here.”
Around 5 o’clock we went back to the room to shower and dress to go out. Shabbos ended at 5:40, and we got an Uber and headed to the movies. We had bought tickets to see Knives Out at an AMC about 10 minutes from the hotel. It may not have been the best neighborhood, but the theater was nice and the movie was really fun.
After the movie we took an Uber and had a late dinner at Parc Brasserie in Rittenhouse Square. The restaurant is a French style bistro that’s apparently been around for a long time. It was kind of like a massive and lively French Roast. We weren’t super hungry so I had a beet avocado salad and Tzvi ordered trout almondine. My salad was good, but it was a lot of beets. Like a whole lot of beets. I thought it would be a salad that had beets. It was beets that had some avocado. They also had great bread, although we had to ask for it more than a few times. At one point a waiter dropped a glass and it broke. There was no glass anywhere near us and the whole event was barely noticeable, but they were very apologetic and brought us a basket of complimentary gougieres, which would’ve been really nice if gougieres weren’t Gruyere cheese puffs. Tzvi ate them though and said they were delicious. We spent a while chatting with the waiter who dropped the glass, who wasn’t even our waiter. He was one of 5 children, all apparently with strong personalities. I think when you’re pregnant people like to give you more information about themselves and their family because, you know, you’re creating family. He was nice. For dessert we shared a creme brulle and Pot De Crème with chocolate cremeux, coffee anglaise, flourless chocolate cake, and Tahitian vanilla foam. Both were delicious.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel, watched some TV and fell asleep.
Philadelphia. Day 1. Friday. Our 60th Floor Beach Vacation.
Well, it’s only been about a week since we got back from our last trip, so it’s time to go on our next one!
As a little bit of background, we’re supposed to be in Charleston, SC this weekend. We had flights, hotels and restaurants all booked and were really looking forward to a four night babymoon, just the two of us. We really wanted a beach vacation, but chose Charleston because we didn’t want to leave the country. And then last Thursday my doctor told me I shouldn’t be flying or going too far away anymore. So Tzvi quickly sprung into action cancelling the whole Charleston trip and looking for somewhere else to go that's no more than 2 hours away. After a little online research, he decided Philadelphia was the right place to go instead.
You’re probably thinking that Philly doesn’t sound like the replacement for a romantic and relaxing weekend away, and it’s certainly no beach vacation. Well, read on.
We got in the road around noon and drove straight to Philadelphia without stopping. The ride was only about 2 hours and pretty easy.
Our first stop was for a late lunch at Pizzeria Vetri in the center of the city. Amazingly we found parking easily only a block from the restaurant. The restaurant is one of a few around Philly, and owned by a chef who also has a well known Italian restaurant in Philly that Tzvi wanted to eat at except the only menu option was a $165/pp tasting menu that we weren’t up for. So we settled for trying his pizza. It was late, so the place was mostly deserted. We shared a margarita pizza pie that Tzvi got with half eggplant. The pizza was great. Good crust. We also shared an order of fried Brussels sprouts that were served on top of a delicious mustard sauce.
After lunch we walked on Walnut Street for about a half hour, picking up coffees at a place called Elixr Coffee, and then buying ties at the Tie Bar, a store that has NYC locations, except Tzvi only seems to shop there when we’re in other cities.
From there we drove a few blocks to our hotel and checked in. We’re staying at the new (only about a year old) Four Seasons Philadelphia, located inside the Comcast Center, the tallest building in the city. We were led into a small lobby and into an elevator, and then made the 45 second ride up to the 60th floor lobby!
I don’t know what to say except that the hotel is stunning. Every aspect of the hotel has been meticulously designed. We checked in and were led to our 55th floor (!) room. The room was gorgeous with huge windows looking north. They had also left us a plate of “fruit sushi”, which was really cute.
Shabbos was about to start so we changed into bathing suits and went up to the indoor pool on the 57th floor, where we watched the sun set and then sat reading and relaxing and for a couple of hours.
Around 730 we went back to our room and got dressed for dinner, then headed up to the 60th floor for dinner at Jean Georges (the hotel restaurant). It’s quite unfortunate that it was shabbos because the restaurant and every aspect of our dinner was stunning, and we have no photos of it. We even got a great table in a secluded corner that was facing out a window. It was really gorgeous.
Here are a couple of photos that we took before shabbos though:
For our meal we ordered a bunch of the dishes on the vegetarian menu and shared things. Our courses were as follows:
CARAFLEX CABBAGE, celeriac dashi glaze, white truffle
BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP, wild mushrooms, chive
CRISPY FRIED BABY ARTICHOKES, remoulade sauce, blood organge, mint
HONEYNUT SQUASH AGNOLOTTI, amaretti, crumble, balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese
ROASTED SALMON, spices, fennel, coconut lime infusion, herbs
ORCHARD caramelized apple, whipped crème fraîche, green apple sorbet
CITRUS Layers of cake and cream, hazelnut chocolate on the side, in a sugar orange shell
Everything was delicious. It was so nice to sit and enjoy the view and just talk without phones or any distractions.
After dinner we went back to our room and passed out, exhausted.
Great day.
Los Angeles. Day 11. Wednesday. At last, we come to the end.
Well, the trip has finally come to an end.
We woke up this morning around 7:30, finished packing, and then met Tzvi’s parents and Hallie at Factors. We had a quick but tasty breakfast, after which Hallie of course wanted to ride the rides again. Then we went back to the hotel, got our bags, said goodbye to the Kaplans, called an Uber and headed to Long Beach.
Hallie has grown so much on this trip. After we got in the car Hallie noticed that there was a tablet-like device hanging on the back of the seat in front of her (like taxi TV in NYC cabs), and asked the driver, “Excuse me, does this tablet have videos?” She’s so grown up.
We made it to Long Beach airport and thanks to pre-check, security was super quick. Good thing we got to the gate so early for our thirty minute delay! And there’s really nothing at Long Beach airport. It’s great because it’s small and easy, but there’s nothing good to do or eat there.
By the way, I should mention that we chose to fly out of Long Beach, while my parents were taking a flight at the same time from LAX, because we wanted to save my parents $300, and we figured we’d be fine alone because wed’ have Ofek… Well, the flight was fine - a little turbulent - and Hallie slept for a nice chunk of it. We made it to JFK and found my parents and Babi at baggage claim, where we heard that Babi kept getting up to go to the bathroom during the heavy turbulence.
And that’s all. We were pretty worried going into this trip that it would be a shitshow, and I think I can safely say that it was in fact a shitshow, although mostly not for any of the reasons we were expecting. And even with all the sickness and hospital visits, we had a great time celebrating with everyone and wish Austin and Rachel a lifetime of happiness.
What a trip.
Los Angeles. Day 10. Tuesday. Welcome to the 20s.
Today was a nice day.
Tzvi woke up early to do some work, but he had mostly wrapped up all of his big year-end projects. We made it out around 9:30 and headed to Verve Coffee on Melrose, where we got great lattes and delicious avocado toast. We sat for a bit and then drove down to Robertson where we walked from Kitson store to Kitson store. At the regular Kitson store Hallie wanted a very impracticable bag. We told her she could have one thing, but she had to look at Kitson kids first. At Kitson kids she found a fuzzy unicorn sleep mask, which was probably even more impractical than the bag (considering she’d never wear a sleep mask to sleep), but cheaper, and she reallllly wanted it, so she got it. She really wanted it to wear as a head band, which looked ridiculous, but very cute.
Around noon we met Tzvi’s friend Benjy at Toast (yup, back again). His wife was working, but he brought his 2 year old son, who fell asleep in the stroller on the walk from the car to the restaurant. Lunch was good again. I had eggs, again. Tzvi had chillaquilles. I dont even think he knows what he ate. Benjy had a veggie burger and Hallie kept asking for some of his fries. It was nice to catch up, and just as we were finishing Benjy’s kid woke up, but was pretty cranky, so that was the end of lunch.
We next drove over to The Grove and walked around for a bit. It was a beautiful day and I had been waiting to walk around The Grove, but I was just too tired. Hallie fell asleep in the stroller and Tzvi miraculously transferred her back to the car, although she woke up when we tried to get her from the car to the hotel room.
We tried to do some packing and then got Hallie ready to go to Mark and Sherry’s to spend the night. Before going we made a visit to Babi, who was in a room across the hall from my parents eating chicken and watching Fox News. Around 5:30 Tzvi drove Hallie to the Kaplans and dropped her off. Daniel, my colleague from JNF, came over to visit and we talked for a bit. He’s actually related to Rachel, so really, we’re all just family. Then at 7:00 PM I left with my mother to go to Dry Bar to get our hair done for the New Years Eve sheva bracha party.
Hallie pulled a screw out of the elevator. No wonder it never worked.
Given the 1920s theme for the party, both my mom and I asked for the “old fashioned” which is like an old Hollywood glam hairstyle. I’ll say mine turned out great, and I’ll leave it at that. My stylist took almost an hour and half to do my hair and was making sure every single wave was in line with the others. It was pretty impressive, but by the end I was losing it. I watched the ball drop on my phone at 9. My mom Ubered back to the hotel without me because she didn’t want to wait, so I went back alone. I quickly changed and we headed to the Sheva Bracha.
It was at an event space called Moory’s Fireplace that used to be a grocery store called Moory’s Finer Foods. The decor was very cute. They made it look kind of like a speakeasy and had a big screen playing The Great Gatsby, which neither of us saw. There was food, dancing, and general merriment. New Years feels pretty fake in LA. It’s like, it already happened on the east coast. I don’t know, it’s weird.
At 3 AM eastern standard time they did a one-minute to midnight countdown and then everyone said Happy New Year and Tzvi got sparkling rose for all of us, by which I mean him and my parents.
We got back to the hotel around 1 AM and went to bed.
Happy New Year!
Los Angeles. Day 9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
TZVI: Today was the worst day. I woke up way too early and started to work. It was too noisy to work in the lobby, so I asked if there was a quiet place I could work. The front desk woman told me I could rent out a ballroom if I wanted. Thanks. Helpful. So I sat in the hallway where it was a little quieter. At one point I heard a banging noise come from the elevator, followed by the sound of the help buzzer, followed by people yelling “Help!” A maintenance man walked by and I told him I thought people were trapped in the elevator. He said he knew. Then I saw the firefighters. After that the other elevator stopped working as well, so I had to walk down 7 flights to get Steph a yogurt from breakfast.
I was really hoping that today would be a lighter working day so that I could spend some time with Steph and Hallie. It didn’t turn out that way though. Steph and Hallie and Lisa and Sheldon went to eat lunch at Toast (my favorite restaurant) around 11:30. I said I would join them if I could, but the emails just kept flooding in and I never got out of the hotel. I was pretty miserable, and pretty hungry because I hadn’t really eaten anything at that point. Then around 2:30 PM I finally finished working and decided I could go with Steph to Century City Mall and get something to eat there and at least have a nice time walking around (Hallie was with the babysitter). Except when I went to look for an Epi Pen, I couldn’t find one. I knew there was one in the diaper bag with the babysitter, and one in a little black pouch that I kept a few random things in. The pouch was missing. I looked everywhere for it. I turned over the entire hotel room twice and went through every suitcase. Aside from the epi pen, the pouch had $100 cash and some credit cards. By the time I gave up looking it was 3:30 and Steph had already laid down to take a nap. What a miserable waste of a day.
STEPH: Today was the best day. We woke up but missed breakfast. Thankfully Tzvi got me a yogurt before they closed it. We got dressed and went to Toast for brunch. Toast is the best. I had eggs and we got a side of the coffee cake crusted french toast, which is always amazing.
After lunch we did some shopping in the store attached to Toast and got some really cute stuff for Hallie. Then I Ubered back to the hotel, where Tzvi was throwing a fit about something. I laid down and took a nap, which was glorious.
TZVI: Around 4' o’clock Hallie came back with the babysitter and I left Steph sleeping in the room. I decided I could still salvage the day by taking Hallie to the mall, so we drove over to Century City and walked around for an hour or so. At first Hallie and I thought we’d be fine without a stroller, so we walked the really long distance from the car to the elevator, took the elevator to the wrong floor, walked downs some stairs, and then took a different route back through the parking lot back to the car to get the stroller when we realized we’d made a mistake, all with Hallie on my shoulders. We got hot chocolate from a pop-up shop in the winter wonderland in the middle of the mall, bought macarons for Steph and for Rachel (who loves macarons) and then bought socks at the Happy Socks store. It was fun.
STEPH: Around 6 o’clock I woke up from my nap. We got Hallie bathed and ready for dinner, and then sent her off with Sherry and Mark to go to dinner, while we went to a sheva bracha at someone’s house in Beverlywood. The house was at the end of a culdesac and set about one flight of stairs below street level. It was one of the nicest houses we’ve ever been in. It was super modern, all glass, with the highest-end everything. The backyard had an infinity pool overlooking Century City. It was pretty amazing.
The sheva bracha was very nice. They had BBQ type food set up outside, and tables set up inside. All of the food was good.
TZVI: They had little sliders with pastrami that Steph kept taking in hopes of getting one without pastrami, and then kept piling them onto my plate when it turned out that every single one of them had pastrami. Good sliders though.
STEPH: There was also good dessert. After the sheva bracha we went back to the hotel. Tzvi’s parents were texting us that they were stuck in the lobby because the elevators weren’t working, but by the time we got back they were working and they had made it up to my parents room (they couldn’t go to our room because our room wasn’t wheelchair accessible). We collected Hallie, said goodnight, and went to bed.
Oh, and in case you thought we forgot about her, Babi comes home from the hospital tomorrow.
Los Angeles. Day 8. The Main Event.
Happy Wedding Day Austin and Rachel!
We got up and immediately started getting ready. Tzvi took hallie to breakfast at Factors Deli on Pico across from the hotel.
TZVI: We had passed Factors on Shabbos and Hallie really wanted to ride all of the rides outside, so I promised to take her back Sunday for them. We met my father and had breakfast - silver dollar pancakes for Hal and lox and eggs for me. Factors is the place where my parents used to take me all the time for pancakes when I was three, so it was kind of surreal, in a life coming full circle kind of way, to be sitting there with my father and Hallie doing the same thing. After breakfast Hallie rode all of the rides multiple times. They were kind of old and dirty and probably haven’t been used since I was a kid, but she loved them.
STEPH: My makeup started at 9:45 in my parents room and we were basically there until 12:15. A lady named Ziva did our makeup and we got the whole story about how he was a ba’al teshuva, etc. Austin was in and out and was saying something about watching football. I’m not sure what time he left to the hall with my dad and Avery. The whole time this woman named Faigy was with us. She was kind of like our chaperone from the wedding planner, except she disappeared once we got to the actual hotel. Hallie also got her hair done which was so cute. Our goal was to leave the hotel by 12:45, and I think we got out by 1 or 1:15, but not before sending Tzvi to get some food and drinks from the Coffee Bean.
Once we got to the hotel we met Talia (the babysitter) and headed up to room 1710 which was our “getting ready” room. Hallie was very excited about her dress, and then hurt her fingers on the bathroom door, which we saw coming, so Talia took her away to find ice. From the window on the 17th floor we could see Austin and Rachel taking photos.
We went downstairs but didn’t really know where to go or what to do, and Faigy was nowhere to be found. Eventually we met Renata, one of the photographers, who was going to be in charge of most of our family photos. She didn’t speak English that well, but she liked taking photos of Hallie, so that was good. Hallie held up pretty well throughout the photos, so that was good too.
There was no food available to eat at the hall while we were taking photos, though we saw them setting everything up. Tzvi and Gabriella tried to get the sushi makers to give them some sushi, but the man was mean and said no. Actually, he said no as he was eating a plate of sushi. Evil.
We took lots of family photos outside on the lawn. The main photographer kept yelling “Forehead Foreward,” which apparently only Tzvi could figure out how to do, although I still think it looks like he’s diving into something.
My mother had made a list of photos that she wanted to get, but none of the photographers could understand the list so they were both yelling at Tzvi to decipher it for them and tell them what combinations to take, which then led to everyone else yelling at Tzvi to forget about the list. Always gets the blame that husband of mine.
One thing I will give the wedding planner props for - everything at the wedding was incredibly punctual. The schmorg was called to begin at 4:30, and we were actually done with photos by about 4 or 4:15. A lot of people had already arrived by 4:15, but they refused to open any food before 4:30. Tzvi and Gabriella spent the last 15 minutes waiting and staring at the sushi man, but he didn’t budge.
Finally they opened the schmorg and everything was delicious. My favorite thing was butternut squash soup.
TZVI: My favorite thing was the candied bacon. And the veal ribs (actually it was carved veal but I asked the carver to give me the discarded ribs). And the sushi, despite how mean the sushi man was.
STEPH: The whole schmorg hour was blur, running from the bedeken to the tisch to see them break the plates and then back to the bedeken, and then finally it was time to walk down the aisle. Also, I never knew where I had to be, so my mom just kept calling me on my phone and we had to keep running from place to place. I think we made it to everything though!
We all lined up for the chuppah. At first, the wedding planner was telling Karen (Rachel’s mom) that after walking down the aisle everyone had to line up to the right of the chuppah so the band singer (who had a stage of his own) could have the left side all to himself. I think we were all in shock that that request would even be entertained. Everyone said no, so we went right and Rachel’s family went left. Hallie waited with Talia and the flower girls, and then did a beautiful job walking down. We were so proud and she was so cute.
I had the job of emcee. Thankfully it went off mostly without a hitch, except for when I called Rachel’s uncle the “uncle of the groom,” but that is what it said in the script! I was reading! Tzvi did birkat cohanim under the chupah, which was a nice honor. All went smoothly until they started singing Im Eshkacheh and realized they couldn’t find the glass to break. The singer actually asked into the microphone, “anyone have a glass?” Eventually they found something to use. It ends up the glass the planner had left there had rolled under the chupah stage something. I don’t know.
A brief interlude between the chuppah and dinner during which I observed high level rabbinic discussions.
The chuppah was lovely and then we danced them out and headed to the ballroom. I think Rachel and Austin took a few more pictures. During the downtime, people ate their salads and then a lot of people got up to start dancing, just to whatever music was playing.
Finally they came out and the marathon began. It’s all kind of a blur but there was a lot of dancing. For dinner they served a meat that I think was short rib, but who even remembers now. I do remember that it was very good and Tzvi ate two of them. For dessert they opened a separate room and there was a nice buffet with lots of interesting choices. I think instead of a wedding cake they had a tower of macarons. There was also this good passion fruit mousse thing.
Dancing continued after dessert and then at one point they set up a table and started setting up new hot food. At first I thought it was dessert, but it turned out to be latkes and meat.
People were dancing until 1 AM, when they did sheva brachot. I think around 11:30 or midnight Talia took Hallie up to the room that we had gotten ready in and she fell asleep in the bed. We woke her up a little after 1 AM to get into the Uber to go back to the Residence Inn.
Mazal Tov!