Dear Classmates: Here I am back in school.  This is my 650-word illustrated report.

Carolyn and Peter

With food and gifts in the car and our betta fish in a mason jar, we first headed to Richmond, Virginia, where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Emily, Peter, Carolyn, Carolyn’s family, Penny the Chihuahua, Bink the Parrot, and Nimoy the Chameleon.

All we needed was a cat on a Roomba.

Ding!

Our family tradition is to open gifts on Christmas Eve.  To liven things up a bit during the opening ceremonies, I had gift-wrapped a dinner bell and put it in my own stocking, so that I could open it and delight the audience with my Hector Salamanca routine (from Breaking Bad).

My family wasn’t sure what to think.

Our next stop was New Haven, Connecticut, to spend New Year’s Eve with my brother-in-law and his family.  After visiting my niece (the top salesperson in December at the green-living luxury apartment tower where she works), Robert suggested we visit the Yale Art Gallery.  It is moderately-sized but diverse, and well worth a three-hour tour.

My favorite pieces were the Cezanne landscape at left and Hopper’s “Rooms by the Sea” below. Hopper painted the kind of scenes that I like to photograph. Only he did it better.

The Phipps-King Gathering

Hopper – Rooms by the Sea

We drove from New Haven to New York City on New Year’s Day. That evening we walked over to the Park Avenue Tavern near Grand Central Terminal for drinks and dinner.

Park Avenue Tavern, NYC

The tavern is an inviting place with good food, good drinks and friendly service — like a hometown restaurant but with a Manhattan view. I had coffee afterwards and noted how the mug felt “just right” in my hand, so I asked if I could buy one. The owner arrived at our table with a new mug at no charge. He was maybe half my age and came from Richmond, Virginia (of all places!) — we had a nice chat.

My Yo! Mr. White! Hat

We were in NYC to see “Dutch Masters” at the Frick House, featuring “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Vermeer. It was blazing cold that day and we stood outside in line for 80 minutes. My wife had decided to wear open-toed shoes and I had to buy a hat to replace the one I left behind in our parked-away car. While we didn’t have to choose between Vermeer and frostbite, it was a close call.

Bloom’s Deli on Lex

What is New York without a deli lunch? We went to Bloom’s on Lexington twice, once for a midday sandwich and again the next day for a late-morning brunch. I love New York City for its food as much as for its art. I am lucky to live in a world where there is a New York City and to have the wherewithal to experience it.

While in New York, we also visited the Whitney where we saw a Robert Indiana exhibition, a floor full of performance art from the 1970s (? and !) and several more works by Hopper. The snowstorm forced us to cancel our dinner at Aquagrill (one of our favorites) and so we enjoyed a delicious pizza in our hotel room, from Giuseppe’s on Lexington. On the night before we left, we did have a memorable anniversary dinner at Rossini’s, your traditional white-tablecloth, waitstaff-in-jackets Italian restaurant. It may be a cliche, but they treated us like family on our first visit. There is no place like New York.

That is the end of my report. The end.