One of the down sides of not bringing my laptop was that I took less pictures (because I felt like I was on a picture budget) and also that I didn't blog about what I did each day - as a consequence it was hard for me to remember all of what I did... Below is as close as I can remember what I did in NYC. This is a kinda long post, so if you don't want to hear my ramblings - STOP READING NOW!

I might blog about some of the more interesting things later, but for now I wanted to get this into my blog so that I would remember more of the details...

Day 1 (Fri, 12/26)

Arrived early at the airport because of the "Orange Alert" status. Flew through security, ended up having several hours to kill. Watched Pirates of the Caribbean on the DVD player to kill time. The flight into JFK was pleasant. We finished watching Pirates, and watched most of Tommy Boy before we lost power on the DVD player. We got into the hotel around 10pm and checked in. The W in Times Square is a typical W hotel - over styled, funky, and way over priced, but we still liked it. The rooms were amazingly small, and if we leaned out just right we could see a small sliver of Times Square, including the Virgin sign.

Before we headed to NY we had called up our friends, the Gunderson's (John & Sarah), who live in Baltimore. You see, the excuse we were using to head over to the east coast was to visit them before they moved back to the west coast. We called them up to see if we could stop off in Baltimore and visit with them after our trip to New York, and it turns out they were going to be in NY at the same time we were! Weird. So, when we got into town we gave them a ring and setup a meeting time for the next day.

We then decided to head out and get some food, so we figured we would ask the concierge for a recommendation. When we got into the lobby we found that the concierge was otherwise occupied with another couple, so we waited. We got a couple drinks from the bar, our first taste of the cost of NYC, 2 drinks = $23, ouch. After finishing our drinks, and having the couple ahead of us look like they were planning out the next week of adventures, we decided to strike out into Times Square and find some food on our own.

My first reaction to Times Square was "Blech!". Everything was a chain restaurant; Olive Garden, TGI Fridays, McDonald's, Tad's Steak House, etc. We walked around the block, and finally gave us and went to Chevy's since Megan at least hadn't been to one of those before. After a monster margarita and some mediocre southwest food, we headed back to the hotel, it was close to midnight.

You see, I set out a goal of staying out until midnight or later every night we were in New York.

Day 2 (Sat, 12/27)

Saturday we had tickets to The Producers. Unfortunately we found out after we bought the tickets that three days later Mathew Broderick and Nathan Lane were returning, but these things happen. Anyway, we started the day by walking up Seventh Ave, checking out the David Letterman studio, and having breakfast at the Stardust Dinner - mediocre food, but the wait staff sang Broadway songs, so it was lots of fun!

After breakfast (well, more like lunch) we took the subway down to Whitehall and jumped on the Stanton Island Ferry, which is the recommended way to see the Statue of Liberty. It turns out that you can't go up in the statue anymore, so the Stanton Island Ferry gets your close enough for pictures with the added benefit of being free and quicker than going directly to Ellis Island. Once we finished the round trip we walked up through Battery Park, saw ground zero, walked through Tribeca, and finally hit Canal street - the home of design clothing knock-offs.

Here is where we began to experience the weird time effect in New York. Everything seems to be close and should take very little time, but time seems to slip away from you - fast! By the time we had finished at Canal street it was after 5pm. Weird. We jetted back to the hotel, changed into our nicer theater clothes, and went downstairs for a recommendation for dinner.

We ended up going to a Irish pub right off Broadway (on 42nd or 44th?). It was great. I ordered a "Lemon Drop made with Raspberry Stoli" for Megan and the bartenders responded with (in a thick Irish accent) "Don't be starting that crap now". After several attempts we got something that didn't remotely resemble the drink she wanted - however my Guinness came out great!

The Producers first act was OK, the second act was hilarious. I've heard that Nathan Lane and Mathew Broderick make the show much much better - we both enjoyed the show, but it paled in comparison to Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserable - maybe it's unfair to compare comedy to drama in this case?

Day 3 (Sun, 12/28)

John & Sarah were doing a walking tour of Rockefeller center, so we met up with them around 11-ish and I went with them to attempt to ice skate in Central Park while Megan went shopping on 5th Ave. Everything in NY has a line, and the lines are always really really long. The ice skating line was estimated to be 1.5 hours or longer. We bailed. We figured we would head down to the Empire State Building and go up in it. We took a quick subway ride, then walked a few blocks. On the way we stopped and looked at the Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor's window displays. By the time we got to the building it had taken us something like 3 hours to get there - more of that NY time-eating-machine.

We figured out a place to eat - a highly recommended place called "Lupa's" in Greenwich, so we headed cross town. After tromping around Greenwich for a while, we got to Lupa's only to find that at 4:45pm there was a line to put your name on the list to get into the restaurant (they wouldn't even let you put your name on the list until 5 or 5:30). We went across the street to another italian joint and had some great food (I think the place was called Rocco's).

Day 4 (Mon, 12/29)

Because we had been thwarted on skating on Sunday, we figured we would hit it first thing in the morning. Of course, everyone else had the same idea. This time we braved the hour wait and finally got on the ice. Fun was had by all. A couple hours later John, Sarah, and I headed uptown to meet up with Megan at the American Museum of Natural History. I felt I was oozing with culture!

That night we had tickets to a comedy show at Caroline's on Broadway near Times Square. The by-now familiar NY time-eating-machine had managed to consume almost all the remaining time until the show, so we rushed back to Times Square, got a quick bite at a pizza joint and went to the show. Aisha Tyler was headline-ing, and the show was pretty funny.

Day 5 (Tue, 12/30)

We woke up early (6am) to rush down to the NBC studio to try and get in the crowd for the Today show (like geeks). The place was packed. We managed to hang around for a while, but quickly lost interest after they did their first exterior shot and we heard it would be 30 minutes before the next (we where way in the back also). We walked over to the NBC studios to get tickets for the tour, walking past the huge line of people for Conan O'Brian tickets, only to discover that the tours where booked until 6pm that night.

Walked around town a bit more, headed back to the hotel.

We finally got some time with the concierge. First a dinner recommendation - the Antique Garage in SoHo. I wanted to go by the B&H Photo store which was at 34th and 9th (which I mistakenly thought was in the Lower East Side, which in fact was in the Lower West Side). Jonathan (the concierge) then proceeded to talk us out of going to Times Square to celebrate the new year. He basically described it something like this: "You show up around 6pm to get a spot, at which point you will not be able to move again until 12:15am. You are stuck elbow to rib, with no bathrooms, food, beer, or beverage of any kind. The beer is prohibited by law, and the beverages are prohibited by the lack of bathrooms."

We started walking to camera store, when I realized that it was actually on the west side instead of the east side. We decided to punt on the camera store and just head into SoHo. We took a cab to what looked like a pretty run down neighborhood at 6pm or so. Walked around a bit, and then finally went to dinner. The place was pretty cool - a converted garage full of antiques. The food was served at a very leisurely pace with an amazingly accommodating waitstaff. Great food, ok wine, great service.

Day 6 (Wed, 12/31)

First thing in the morning we headed down to the Empire State Building. At 8:30am the line was already 90 minutes long. Punt. Walked over to Macy's to discover that it didn't open until 10am, so we walked over to B&H Photo, the mecca of photographic equipment. I bought a great 35 prime lens (F/2) and then we walked back to Macy's. Shopped for clothes for that night.

Yes, that's right - I didn't tell you about the place we were going for New Year's Eve. Jonathan told us about this great club we could go to - "Spirit". This place was going to be awesome, a bottle table (where we would get a bottle of Champagne for the two of us), Dirty Vegas performing live, and an "A-List" celebrity (who he wouldn't name, but we guessed was Madonna). We figured we needed to bump up our wardrobe before going there.

We met up with John and Sarah for lunch in Little Italy. Back to the hotel and some time to sleep and rest up for the night of partying.

We ended up in the cab way too early, and we got dropped off in what looked like a tough area - abandoned warehouses, etc. Actually the area was Chelsea, but it still looked pretty beaten up. The club was behind a door with nor markings, just a bouncer outside. Later we found out from a local that the rule in New York is the worse the exterior looks, the more upscale the place is. When we went inside we lined up behind an elderly couple and their grandson - so much for the exclusive party.

After we got in, the place actually was pretty cool. 3 floors, with a dining room, "mind and body therapy room" (with massage, meditation, etc.), dance floor, and VIP level with bottle tables (where you order full bottles of liquor and make the drinks yourself). We got a buffet dinner of excellent food (but only one buffet table for a large number of guests) and where seated at a long bar full of other "couples" (if you had 4+ people you got a table to yourself).

We really enjoyed sitting at the couples bar. We chatted with a bunch of other couples, and met some really interesting people. We ended up hanging out with a young couple from the Isle of Man, she owned a sandwich shop and he was a plumber. We drank, hung out on the dance floor, talked a lot, and generally had a good time.

Day 7 (Thur, 1/1)

After checking out we hopped in a cab to Penn Station (which is right under Madison Square Garden) and waited for our train. The trian ride was enjoyable. I always like train rides, they seem more comfortable and casual than a plane ride. None of this multiple hours waiting in the station, you bring your luggage onto the train yourself, and you don't need a seatbelt to be fastened at all times.

John picked us up at the train station and took up back to their row house in the Locust Point area of Baltimore. Their dog Ginger hates me (well, basically hates everyone that isn't John or Sarah), but eventually calmed down. Their house was great, if not compact. These row houses are pretty cool, many dating back 50+ years they have been remodeled over time and have these odd narrow and tall proportions. Very functional.

We basically vegg'd out on the couch watching crappy TV. Exactly what we needed. Dinner was turkey cooked by John himself.

Day 8 (Fri, 1/2)

Friday we headed out and saw the sites of Baltimore. It's not much of a touristy town, but we got to see Fort McKinley which is what Francis Key Scott watched while he came up with the idea for the Star Spangled Banner, and some other historical stuff. Lunch was at an awesome pizza place - Brick Oven Pizza - in Fells Point. We tried to go to the aquarium, but they sold out (huh!?). Finally we went to Nacho Mama's for dinner. The wait was going to be 90 minutes, so we walked around the square and hit "2129" which is a kitch shop. The woman was running the cash register off an iMac, a first that I had seen. We chatted for a while about why she chose the Mac, and about the business. Nacho Mama's was absolutely fabulous, and they had a bar beer - National Bohemian, or Nati-Boh's for short.

Day 9 (Sat, 1/3)

Day-o-travel. Left the house at 5:45am eastern, arrived at our house 4:00pm pacific... tired. Read mail, read blogs, wrote blogs, sifted through digital pics.

Observations (yeah duh, revelations)...

• New York is huge. We only spent time in Manhattan, and even then we felt Manhattan was huge. The scale of everything was massive. Going to B&H Photo's big store is a great example - almost a quarter city block of photography, video, and audio equipment. Next time we go to New York I think I'll want to stay out of midtown, and instead stay in one of the other areas and explore it more thoroughly.
• There are a lot of people in New York. Everything has a line. Everything has a wait.

Books read...

(more later on these, maybe...)

• Forever: A Novel - A man is granted immortality as long as he stays in Manhattan. Overall a good book, except for the final couple pages. Probably the part I enjoyed most about the book was the notion of the man needing to truly live his live to live forever - he needed to always be learning and challenging himself or he would slip into a kind of stupor.
• The DaVinci Code - Seems you can't throw a dead cat without hitting this book these days, so I felt I should read it. I got totally enthralled with the story and read straight through it while traveling on Day 9. I'd like to understand how much of the book was fiction, obviously the book is fiction, but it is at least loosely based on some facts (like the Mona Lisa is a real painting!)...