Various: And the Rest

2026 kept going. A day trip to West Palm Beach on the Brightline in January, no overnight, just meetings and back.

I was in Atlanta for one night in February, the Four Seasons Atlanta, for a friend's charity gala. The event was well-organized, the cause was important, and the Four Seasons did what Four Seasons does: everything worked, the room was perfect, the bar knew what it was doing. I flew in and flew out the next morning.

Iris came to Miami to visit in February and saw the ring in person for the first time. She held G's hand, studied it, and said "he did well" which from Iris is the highest praise available. She sat at our kitchen table asking about the proposal in that direct, measured way she has, getting every detail in order, and then made tea as if the conversation required a formal conclusion.

G went to Toronto in March and stayed at the Park Hyatt Toronto, which is her favorite hotel in the city. She went for a few days of meetings and friend time and came back with photos of the Yorkville neighborhood in early spring and a coat she bought at a shop on Bloor Street that she said was "on sale" in a way that made me not ask the original price.

I did one more quick NYC trip in March, one night at the Ly New York Hotel in the Garment District. Work. In and out. The Ly is a newer boutique hotel that's clean and modern and has that mid-range Manhattan thing where the room is small but everything in it is well-designed. I had dinner at a Korean place on 32nd Street that a friend recommended and the budae jjigae (army stew, a bubbling pot of ramen, spam, cheese, kimchi, and hot dogs that sounds terrible and is incredible) was the highlight of a 24-hour trip.