Fun in the Sun… July 2015

I honestly thought July was a slow month until I started putting together this recap. Holy cow, a lot happened.

The month began with a trip to visit my grandpa in Florida (plus a stop at the Royal Scoop, naturally).

I spent most of July hopping around Connecticut. Here are a few photos, mostly snapped on my iPhone so pardon the lack of DSLR quality.

The sky put on a colorful show after a rainstorm one evening in downtown Wallingford:

For someone who grew up mere miles from New Haven, I haven’t spent nearly enough time exploring here. I’m trying to fix that by taking long walks and visiting new coffee shops. Here’s a shot from the Yale campus two days ago:

I took a leisurely drive along the coastline towards Guilford; this photo was snapped in Stoney Creek near the Thimble Islands.

Many more photos to come in future posts on the Connecticut shoreline and New Haven!

And I got to spend time with my awesome cousin and her family — we went for a scenic hike near their home. Here are the photo highlights…

Cousins!

So great to spend time with these guys.

I squeezed in lots of visits with Grandma:

In fact, July 29th marked this special lady’s 97th birthday. What a milestone! I’ll have a bonus post tomorrow with photos from her birthday party; in the meantime, here are the highlights:

My favorite week of the month was spent at summer camp in Sharon, CT.

In case you missed it, you can check out my summer camp recap here. So many memories were made this week and I was lucky to be a part of it.

I also made it out to Cape Cod for four days while my parents were there on vacation. Each day contained a few fun activities like biking, kayaking, grilling, or lounging on the beach. I’ll do a separate post on that soon.

And of course I got to New York City to see theater — I’ll have a recap next week on the eight shows I saw in July. Some were outstanding.

Here are some miscellaneous posts from my time in the city… we’ll start with Central Park:

Best surprise ever — my friend Kelley found out she would be in NYC for work. It made my month to see her! We only had one night to hang out but it was the best. We walked around Central Park, the High Line, and grabbed dinner in Chelsea.

View from Kelley’s hotel room:

Peeping on Hamilton the musical… do you have your tickets yet? Get on it!

(I have a ticket for December… and I might go sooner if I can afford it.)

Speaking of Broadway, I snapped this photo at The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. Great production.

Sunny day at Lincoln Center after a matinee of The King and I.

Editing photos (story of my life) in Central Park…

I caught the new Annie Baker play John at the Signature Theatre. The Signature has a program for playwrights called Residency Five — a commitment to produce three world premiere plays per playwright over the course of five years. This is HUGE for the nine artists in the program: Annie Baker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Martha Clarke, Will Eno, Katori Hall, Quiara Algeria Hudes, Lisa Kron, Kenneth Lonergan, and Regina Taylor. Even for these established writers, there are many unknowns involved in playwriting so this commitment by the Signature is a big deal.

Meals in NYC… sushi from somewhere I can’t recall, turkey club with fries at The Grey Dog, chicken teriyaki salad with a side of gyoza at Glaze, and a sushi bowl at Uma Temakeria. (Glaze is my new favorite lunch spot in midtown.)