Can you believe it’s 2010?
Tyler and I rang in the New Year with a group of friends last night in downtown Grand Rapids, MI.
In the afternoon we drove to Grand Rapids from the lake shore. Our first stop was the clothing store A.K. Rikks to pick up our Christmas presents (Tyler wanted to wear his new jeans and new shirt for NYE). After that we drove to the gym only to find that it had closed super early for the NYE. We were more than unhappy, especially considering we hadn’t seen any signs the previous days indicating an early closing time…bummer.
Since we had a lot of time to spare we drove to a restaurant called Old Chicago. We started off with unphotographed beers – I had Sam Adam’s Winter Lager (not terrible, but not my top of beer).
Old Chicago has a fun thing called the World Beer Tour, where you drink 110 beers (not all in one night obviously) and get prizes along the way, and your name on a huge plaque at the end. Tyler is on his 58th beer, I’m on my 22nd.
We were pretty hungry so we also got an order of Cheesy Bread to hold ourselves over until dinner, again no picture, but very delicious!
Around 7:30, we drove to downtown Grand Rapids to meet five of our friends at San Chez, a Spanish tapas bistro.
Rather than ordering regular drinks we split a pitcher of sangria made with cava (well we actually split about 4 pitchers). Our last pitcher was sangria made with white wine – Tyler and I both preferred the white wine sangria over the red, but we are big fans of white wine, so it makes sense.
We decided to get the most variety possible, so we split a number of different tapas, and an order of the gran paella between the table. Here’s my tastes of the different tapas, and my plate of paella (only times the paella plate by 3…hehe).
Warm Bread with San Chez's Homemade Oil
Fideos: Tortellini, garlic, manchego, roasted red peppers, oregano, sherry vinaigrette.
Empanadas: Five-onion-garlic potato mash, alioli, salsa.
Fritos de Arroz: Bacon-shrimp-saffron rice fritters, herb alioli.
Seta Rellena: Portabella mushroom, spinach, manchego, roasted red pepper, tomato vinaigrette.
Queso de Cabra: Baked goat cheese, tomato sauce, garlic toast.
Gran Paella: Alioli saffron rice casserole with Oman lobster tails, shrimp, calamares, mussels, crawfish, cod, chorizo, chicken tenderloin, tomato, pimientos, and peas.
With all those different dishes, dinner lasted until well after 10pm.
After we paid our bill, we walked down Ionia Street trying to find a bar we could get into. We walked by a few with super long lines and expensive covers ($40!), until we got to Ritz Coney, where there was no line, $2 cover, and an open table! We went in and got some drinks – I got a white russian (a very strong white russian).
The table we nabbed was next to a wall covered in chalkboards. Tyler put his artistic abilities to the test with the chalk, this is what resulted…
No, I didn’t tell him to write that…Isn’t he cute!
At 11:50 we decided we wanted to see the ball drop in downtown, so we literally ran the 5 or so blocks to the park where they put the ball up, and got there just in time to see the ball midair!
The ball drop - or at least the last part of it haha!
Tyler and I shared a very cold kiss and joined in on the excitement with all the other revelers.
After the excitement wore off (and the cold set in) we walked back to Ritz Coney, where we found a member of our party who we had lost en-route to the ball drop. Then we headed to another bar, McFadden’s, where we stayed for the rest of the night.
I stopped drinking so that I could drive Tyler and I home, but still had a great time hanging out and dancing with friends.
Around 1:45, the rest of the group headed out. Tyler and I stayed so he could finish his drink, then I drove us to his parents house, where we hit the sack.
I’m so glad we got to ring in the New Year with good friends and good food!
We were both super tired when we woke up this morning. We ate a light brunch (I had Oikos and cereal) and then spent the early part of the day and the afternoon working on the groom’s part of the wedding guest list with Tyler’s parents.
Around 5, we drove back to the lake shore. It had snowed at least an inch since Thursday afternoon, so we couldn’t get up the steep driveway. Instead we parked at the bottom, and Tyler got out my parent’s snow blower, while I went inside and made dinner (he’s really racking up the brownie points these days!)
We sat down to an easy dinner of creamy penne pasta with chicken and vegetables and garlic bread. We’ve spent the rest of the evening organizing some of our stuff and watching some of the Bowl games. We’ll be heading to bed soon.
I hope you had a wonderful and safe time celebrating the New Year!
Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?
If so what are some of your resolutions for 2010?
My resolution is to be as healthy as possible, and also as happy as possible. Not too worry and stress as much
Great meals and I’m glad you had a good NYE!!!
<3 jess
xoxo
Sounds like you rang in the New Year with a bang! That’s so great you’ve been able to spend lots of time with your fiance too. Yay for a great new year!! And my resolution is keeping positive vibes throughout the year.
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