We drove out of the New England fall into almost summer-like weather in NYC. Chelsea’s sister Kiki is going to college at Barnard, and we planned to get to New York in time for the Barnard “Family Weekend” when Kiki and Chelsea’s mom Shelley would be in town. We also learned that Jon, Seth’s friend from school in Wyoming and now a med student at Columbia, was finishing a major test the day we were rolling into town, so we made plans to celebrate with him and his med school friends as well.
We had a bit of a whirlwind weekend exploring Manhattan and catching up with Chelsea’s family and Jon. When we got into town, Kiki gave us a brief tour of Barnard, and we had lunch with Chelsea’s family at Absolute Bagels on the Upper Westside (thanks again for the recommendation, Adam!). Seth is going to apply to the Teacher’s College at Columbia, so we also took the opportunity to wander around the main campus across the street from Barnard and let Seth look at the building that he may be cloistered inside for the next two years. In the evening, we went for a run through Central Park, and Shelley treated us and Kiki to a delicious dinner a couple blocks from Barnard. We then took the subway for Seth’s first trip to Times Square, ate the famous Junior’s Cheesecake for dessert (again, thanks so much mom!), and caught up with Jon to see what Columbia med school and living in near-Harlem is like.
Manhattan in the evening.
We spent the next day with Chelsea’s family. After checking out the Hungarian bakery near Barnard and Columbia for breakfast, we again got on the subway to visit different neighborhoods and requisite NYC attractions. Our highlights were the Chelsea Market (where there is a super good taco stand, an incredible spice counter, and a pretty sweet bookstore), the Highline (old, raised train tracks that have been converted to a ritzy garden / artwalk), Wall Street, and of course the Statue of Liberty. We had a great time in New York with Shelley, Kiki, and Jon, but once Shelley headed home to Seattle and Kiki and Jon retreated back to their classes we re-packed the car and continued south to Washington D.C.
In D.C., we planned to visit with one of Chelsea’s friends and with some of Seth’s family. We spent our first night with Megan, Chelsea’s friend from high school. Megan went to college at American University, and now works for the National Defense University. She introduced us to her roommates, showed us around her house in the Noma neighborhood, and we spent a long time catching up on everything that’s happened to all of us in the last couple years. We were able to walk around the city, tour the monuments, and get some great camp food inspiration from Seth’s favorite restaurant in D.C, the cafeteria at the Native American Smithsonian museum the next day, before driving to the suburbs to see Seth’s cousin Bob, his wife Katie, and their 9 month old baby Jack.
Jack practicing his skills.
Bob, Katie, and Jack were wonderful hosts – and were incredibly flexible / supportive of our last-minute decision to spend the week cramming to take the GRE at one of the testing locations in downtown D.C. We holed up for the week, and eventually signed up for the GRE. We took the test on Saturday, Seth took the Praxis (a teaching school exam) on Sunday, and once we got our scores it was time for a huge sigh of relief. We celebrated by going to the Dogfish Head brew pub near Bob and Katie’s apartment, which makes some of our favorite beer. Before going to the brew pub, we’d only had Dogfish Head beer sparingly in Seattle, so the dinner and beer on tap was a huge treat. We then went back into the city to spend more time hanging with Megan before leaving the city and getting back to camping at the New River Gorge.
Seth being a tourist.
As we were leaving D.C., though, Seth caught one of the worst colds either of us have ever seen (maybe because of the crazy stress from cramming for two fairly critical tests?). Instead of getting right back to climbing at the New, we spend another couple days in a hotel while Seth slowly died a thousand horrible deaths of fever and sickness. We watched a lot of TV of varying quality, and then watched super rainy weather roll into the New. Even once Seth felt well enough to climb, we were limited to a few “dry” (read: still very, very wet) areas. Additionally, the route grades at the New are notoriously stiff, so after our time off climbing in NYC and D.C., Seth’s sickness, and the rain, we got our butts kicked pretty hard.
View of the Gorge.
Despite our health, weather, and fitness setbacks, we enjoyed the New. The river gorge is absolutely beautiful, and we thought the climbing was super fun, with very compact sandstone forming sheer walls with small feet and limited hold options. Chelsea really enjoyed Finder’s Keepers, a 12+ classic at the Cirque on the Endless Wall. One of the friends that we’ve since met at the Red calls this wall the “Sendless Wall,” which made us laugh pretty hard given our experience. Seth loved Rico Suave, which is sold as “the best 5.10 in the New,” and a sick handcrack he found around the corner at the Rico Suave Buttress. In town, we particularly enjoyed Fayetteville’s Secret Sandwich Society, a lunch/dinner restaurant near the entrance to town that makes delicious homemade soup, chips, sandwiches (of course), burgers, and a veggie-burger salad that Chelsea is psyched to replicate as soon as we get to a place with a real kitchen.
As the weather continued to clear and our week in the New wrapped up, we got back in the car and headed on to the famous Red – post coming soon!
