I saw our firm's beautiful offices in LA, took a walk to get some tacos, saw the downtown area and generally marveled at the urban sprawl. For dinner I headed to Birdie G's in Santa Monica with two law school friends living in the area that I hadn't seen in so long, Katie and Marie.
Check out the essay that I found (which my dad has saved after all these years) which I wrote when I was 15! I am still hoping to unearth copies of my other essays, in particular the one that I wrote when I was around 11 or 12, after my trip to Morocco with my mom. That was such a formative experience for me.
I then took a red eye flight out of LAX to Chicago, where I had a nice hotel room at the Langham and was busy with meetings and social events for the rest of the week. While it was cold, I was blessed with some amazing sunny days and genuinely got to enjoy some great dinners and views at Gibson's and Prime and Provisions. I also caught up with three law school classmates and college friends while in town, one of whom I probably haven't seen since 2008.
I flew out of Chicago on Friday night, and enjoyed spending the weekend with my family. I hung out with my parents and grandma at home in Long Island, went for a nice walk where we admired the cherry blossoms, and chilled. Then on Sunday morning we headed into the city, to have a nice lunch at abc kitchen, to celebrate my mom's 72nd birthday. We enjoyed a really nice stroll through Madison Square Park and Eataly, before hopping on the LIRR to eat dinner in Flushing. My sister and I then headed back into the city, and my parents home.
I stayed at the Times EDITION this time, which I didn’t really mind given how little time I was spending in the room, but it was too small and too close to Times Square. I did enjoy their breakfast spread.
Then, during the week in New York, aside from a quick trip mid-week to Dallas, I was in New York to meet with clients, associates in the office, and managed to squeeze in a presentation as well. Work aside, I managed to see not just two former colleagues of mine, Amy and Jenny, at breakfast at the Refinery, but also my friend Jodie who has just moved to NY from HK (we enjoyed a delicious meal at Marea), a former college acquaintance for a quick lunch at Rockefeller Center (whom I haven't seen in nearly 2 decades) and two of my college friends and roomates, Ali and Adrienne,
over a lovely Italian dinner in the East Village at Via Della Pace. 
I wrapped up the trip with a catch up breakfast with my sister in the West Village, at Jack's Wife Freda, then a long walk back to my hotel. Then it was to the airport (harrowing traffic to JFK) where I determined I really, really really need to get TSA precheck, and then...outward bound to my babies!
So long, USA, it has been nice. See you in July!
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