Home again!

OK, we're back! Had a lack of updates there, as we didn't have much time to catch our breath on the road back from NY. 3000+ miles later though, we're back safe and sound. Here's how the rest of the trip shaped up!

Day 4

We got up early on Day 4, Labor Day, to check out the Empire State Building. It was pretty neat to ride up in the elevator, and check out views of the city. Even though we were there before it opened though, it got busy tremendously quickly, so we didn't spend a ton of time on the 86th floor observatory.

Here's one picture we took, looking south toward Wall Street and the Financial District. Hard to imagine that the World Trade Center buildings were almost twice the size of the tallest buildings in the picture. What a sight that must have been!



After about 20 minutes up top, we headed back down and caught the subway back over to Brooklyn. Met up with some friends at a local breakfast place, then headed back into the city to go check out Central Park.

My friend Evan decided to join us. He's a guy I met through my involvement on a poker discussion forum online, and we've met in person a few times before in Vegas. Nice kid, and I say kid because he's in college still, and was born in 1985. Talk about someone who will make Jamie and I feel old. He's also a NY native though, and did his best to act as a tour guide when we checked out Central Park.

An added bonus was that he could be our photographer - here's Jamie and I on one of the lawns, with a piece of the city in the background.



Central Park was a lot of fun to walk around, although tiring. The park is just so huge, it's hard to see all of it in one morning.

We eventually started walking back down toward our hotel, for a quick pit stop before meeting up with Mike to go to Morimoto. We met up with Mike down at Union Station, which is sort of in the southern part of Manhattan. While there, we watched some guys put on a break-dancing show. Here's a few of them in action!



Afterward we made the long walk to Morimoto. Here's a picture from out front. Not much to see, but we didn't take any pictures inside, I guess that's frowned upon.



We had a great time at the restaurant, and they really treated us well. Mike has a tough job, and it was fun to watch other people do it up close! Plus, Jamie and I certainly exercised our taste buds, being a sushi restaurant and all. Jamie even had some shrimp that's basically still twitching, it's so fresh. What an adventurer!

Stuffed, we retreated back to the hotel.

Day 5

Woke up in the morning, and grabbed a quick breakfast at a local place by the hotel. That's one thing about NYC - you don't have to walk far to find food!

From there, we headed to the American Museum of Natural History. It was sort of a disappointment overall - big, hard to navigate, and a lot of displays that would require a lot of reading. And no audio tour, like the other museums.

Seeing the dinosaurs was pretty neat though. Here I am, with friend:



Afterward, we met up with Mike at our hotel, before heading to Rockefeller Plaza to see a taping of Conan O'Brien's Late night show. The taping was really great - fun for me to be in a studio environment, and fun for Mike to see them put on the show up close. It's really a well oiled machine, and we had a blast.

After Conan, we headed to Spice Market, Mike's other restaurant. We gorged ourselves again, and headed back to the hotel. Mike drove his car into town, he said his goodbyes (to the car, but to us as well), and we got ready to head out the next morning.

Rest of the trip

Some short updates here. Overall the drive was great. Long, of course, but what's 3,000 miles trapped in a car between husband and wife? I don't think we learned anything about our driving that we didn't know before - Jamie drives like the speed limit isn't applicable to her, and I wait until I'm close enough to smell the other driver's deodorant before I get in the left lane to pass someone.

We did spend one day in Chicago, and stayed with my sister Paula and her husband Robert, along with our nephew John and niece Jacqueline. Quite the active crew! John is 4, and Jacqueline is 2, so we had a lot of fun watching them in action. John joined Jamie and I on a boat tour of downtown Chicago, and had a good time. Here they are, checking out the water before takeoff!



After leaving Chicago, we spent a night in scenic Mitchell, South Dakota (town slogan - not really that scenic!). From there, we headed to Sheridan, WY, to stay with the Armstrong's there. On the way, we decided to get REALLY crazy, and detour to Mount Rushmore.

This was our only bad luck of the trip - fog. We didn't want to pay the $8 to park and wait around to see if we could see anything, so we went around the corner, and found a partial view of George only.

You can sort of see his head, profile view, in the background.



The fog did blow away enough for me to snap this picture later on.



After stopping in Wyoming and Spokane, we finally dragged ourselves back home yesterday. A bit tired, but energized after such a fun time. Thanks to everyone we stayed with, and we'll be back with a recap of a big birthday party this coming weekend!

NY Day 2 and 3 report!

Whew! After two busy days, we're back in our hotel room catching our breath. It's been a lot of fun so far, and we're only half done!

Here's how the last two days went.

Day Two - Saturday

We got up, grabbed some breakfast, and then headed out to check out the museums. We pre-purchased tickets through Costco, with their City Pass that they sell. Since it includes tickets for many of the museums and attractions, you don't have to wait in line for tickets when you get there - which is a big deal considering how long some of the lines can be.

First up was the Museum of Modern Art. We spent about 3 hours there, including lunch in the cafe. Modern art is...well....interesting. One "exhibit", for example, consisted of an empty room, with the lights on a timer to go on and off every five seconds. And, that was it. I guess that's art? Some guy is laughing his way to the bank with that one.

Next up, we sloshed through the rain to the subway, and made it up to 86th street station, and sloshed again to the Guggenheim.

This was a pretty cool place. The main exhibit going on was a feature on an architect, Zaha Hadid. The exhibit wraps around the continuous ramp on the inside of the Guggenheim. See our self portrait from inside below!



You couldn't take pictures of the exhibits, so this one will have to do!

After the Guggenheim, we took the subway back down to our hotel, and rested up (and dried off), before heading out to see Wicked.

The Gershwin Theatre is basically about 9 blocks down the street from our hotel. Which sounded like a great idea to walk too, since it was only sprinkling. Famous last thoughts there - a couple blocks into the journey it started to pour rain big time, and both of us got pretty wet before getting into the dry theatre. Even our $5 street purchased umbrellas didn't help!

The show was really great - quite the twist on what you know from the Wizard of Oz!

After the show, we took the subway into Brooklyn, and met a few of my friends at a bar called Barcade - which is a combination arcade and bar - pure genius! We enjoyed some drinks, and played a few of the old arcade games from a long time ago. It was a lot of fun, and we were pretty tired by the time we made it back to the hotel.

Day three - Sunday

Day three started bright-and-not-so-early, after our late Saturday night. We headed out around 11, and went down to Madison Square Park - home of NY favorite burger place Shake Shack. That's where we finally met up with Mike. After grabbing a burger and shake, it was time to head to Yankee Stadium!

It was a much better day for the weather this time - check out this shot from the stadium:



We stuck around until the 8th inning or so - Yanks ahead 5-1 - before leaving a bit early to beat the traffic. Snapped a few photos, and we were off. Here's Mike and I in front of the house that Ruth built!



Next up, we took the subway down all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge - a long ride that took about 40 minutes or so.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge is just something you have to do if you come to NY. Great views of the city, and a real sense of history crossing a bridge that was completed in 1875! It's a long span, but we had fun walking across and took a bunch of great photos. Here's Jamie and I on the bridge.



Jamie and Mike on the bridge:



We finished up the day under the Brooklyn Bridge at Grimaldi's - the acclaimed "best pizza in NY" restaurant. We split an excellent pizza, and then were off to see Mike's apartment in Brooklyn. Checked it out, then Jamie and I headed back to the hotel.

So here we are, with two days in NY remaining. We're tired, but re-energizing for our packed agenda (as I glance over, I see Jamie is asleep watching TV right now).

Monday will be the Empire State Building, Central Park, and then dinner at Morimoto. Then Tuesday we'll hit the Natural History Museum, and then catch the taping of Conan O'Brien's show. More reports to come!

Newwww Yorrrkkkk, New York

That's right, start spreading the news!

After a long layoff, we're back with some new adventures. In celebration of our 5th anniversary, Jamie and I arrived in New York yesterday morning, after taking the red-eye from Seattle Thursday night.

We arrived, tired, and had a car service take us to our hotel The Benjamin. The hotel is very nice, and the service is excellent! And being located on Lexington and 50th, it has a great location as well.

We even had our first start sighting shortly after arriving. We got into the elevator to come down from our room, and one of the fellow riders was none other than tennis champion Martina Navatralova! The US Open is going on right now, so we're guessing she's in town for that.

After grabbing some breakfast, I took a nap at the hotel while Jamie got a massage. Then it was off to Pier 83, for the Circle Line cruise. The Circle Line cruises are boat tours of the harbor, and a great way to see the city from all sides of the island. We went on a two-hour tour (I've heard of bad things from three-hour tours), and loved seeing the massive size of the city from a number of different views. Here are a few pictures!



One of the massive spans of the Brooklyn Bridge. Amazing to think about how many years it took workers to construct this - and by hand basically!



This was some statue we came across in the harbor. It had it's own island, so it must be important for some reason. Maybe we'll find out more during the rest of our trip.

(very cool to see up close, and the island was packed with tourists)



The tall building in the middle is the Empire State Building. We'll be touring that later in the trip, and will include more pictures.



Another city view - and this is just a small chunk of the city! It's really an amazing place, and we're having a blast so far.

Today our plans include visits to the American Natural History Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. Then we're catching a broadway show tonight, Wicked. Should be an action packed day!

Maybe we'll even include a picture or two of us in the next entry. :-)