Photo-A-Day #2362

Today when I got home from work I spent a little time with Allison and Eva. I napped a bit and then headed to the train station for a trip down to New York. I’m headed down for the Time to Play Holiday Showcase tomorrow and instead of taking the train in the morning of the event I was lucky enough to be asked to come early for a special blogger dinner with some of the team from Time To Play.

The trip down was great, I took the Acela and it was awesome. I had never taken the Acela before and it is so much better than the Northeast Regional. It is faster, less stops and there is free wi-fi. The wi-fi isn’t great but it got me by and let me get a few posts up. I was also able to do some tweeting and Facebook. I caught up with some friends that I haven’t connected with in a while, too. I was even able to meet up with my friend Jodi Grundig, one of the founders of Boston Parent Bloggers. She was on the same train. We found that out because of a post I made to Facebook. So I caught up with her and we chatted for a bit. She was headed to Time to Play as well.

When I arrived in New York I was picked up by a car service and taken to my hotel. Once I got checked in I met up with my friend Chris Lewis from Dad of Divas and my friend Josh Becker from DadStreet. We went over to Mustang Sally’s for a great conversation. I never get a chance to just sit and chat with fellow bloggers because usually when I meet up with other bloggers we are at an event and we end up going from session to session. It was really nice to just relax and talk. It helped me catch my breath after running, running, running all weekend. The transition from work mode to blogger mode was helped as well.

After that we caught up with our friend Adam Cohen of DadaRocks and he walked with us over to Blue Smoke. Adam (@DadaRocks) had another event to go to but we’d try and catch up with him later.

Our dinner mates were Kaylie (@KaylieGrace) and Kelsey (@KT4807) from Litzky. The other bloggers were Josh (@DadStreet) and Chris (@DadofDivas) as well as Robyn (@RobynsWorld), Emily (@ColoradoMom), Felicia (@GoGrahamGo), Mel (@outnumberedmama) and Ellen (@thriftychicmom). We had a large round table and we were all talking and introducing ourselves. It was great to meet everyone who had come in for the event.

Blue Smoke is BBQ joint that has some delicious food. I went and looked at the menu as soon as I learned that that was where we were going to eat and I’d been salivating over it for the past week. I went and ordered some warm BBQ chips with Blue Cheese and Bacon Dip. Chris did the same and we shared those around the table. They were a hit. I am not a fan of BBQ potato chips, however; these were delicious and the dip was amazing.

I also ordered the rib sampler and that was delicious. The cornbread, which many people raved about, was only so-so. Sorry but I found it overly spongy and wasn’t that impressed. I’ve had much better. That did not stop me from having three pieces through because let’s face it, cornbread is awesome. After a great dinner we were on the move again.

During dinner I learned that Emily of http://coloradomoms.com/ was an awesome knitter and she has made a bunch of great things. I showed her stuff that Allison had made and she fell in love. So Allison now has a new friend and fan on Ravelry. Emily went with John and Chris and I over to Stouts for a beer. The place has a ton of beer, no Yuengling though, glad I had some at Mustang Sally’s earlier. We hung there for a while and were awaiting Adam to meet up with us. I however hadn’t slept since 4:30pm on Sunday so I was beat. Chris and I walked back to the hotel and rested up for the day ahead. Time to Play was going to be bust, exciting and draining so we needed some rest.