June 14, 2010
Well, we made it home. Yesterday we spent the day unpacking and getting ready for regular life again. The trip was a lot of fun.
I scheduled my first final for the semester for 8 July. It’s the Web Site Design class. I was hoping to take it this month, but the first opening was July. I’m hoping to quickly get that class and my other class, Databases, out of the way quickly and add another 6 or so credits (making a total of 18). If I can do that, I can get it so I might be able to get school done in just shy of a year. Otherwise it’s as much as 2 years from now.
It’s really nice to be driving the motorcycle again instead of taking the sub. Though all that walking was nice. Helped counteract the three or so lunches and two dinners most days. Unfortunately it seems to have gotten cold again. I swear it was around 70 when I left and now it’s back in the 50s. Darn weather.
I didn’t get any school or programming done on vacation like I wanted to. I underestimated how much time we could spend doing things and staying busy exploring. I didn’t think anyone else would be quite so outgoing.
Today I’m hanging flyers around work for the blood drive I’ve scheduled for 1 July from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm. If any of you are interested and can make it, I can schedule you an appointment. Walk ins are welcome if you’re unsure. It’ll be in the building across the street from Clark Planetarium on the first floor. 90 South 400 West. You’ll be saving lives and get treats for donating!
June 12, 2010
Well, we’re packing up and heading out. I took pictures of some of the house. Some rooms still had people sleeping, so I didn’t get them. We’re cleaning up the house a bit and packing. We need to catch the plane at 1:45 today. It has been a lot of fun and really a lot of exercise and more than enough eating to make up for it.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook.
June 11, 2010
We got dressed up a bit and wandered around NY with the basic plan of a nice restaurant and a carriage ride. And a comedy show we got tickets for from some guy when originally trying to buy some broadway tickets at TKTS. We had to leave before we’d make it through the line so we’d be on time for burgers with the group. Since we were leaving so early, everyone wanted to go back to TKTS and see about getting broadway tickets. They had Phantom Of The Opera for 40% off; making it still way to expensive (in my opinion. I didn’t like it, everyone else loved it). While waiting in line for tickets, some guy handed us a flier for 10% off a French restaurant down the street that had a good deal on a 2 course meal before the show. It was really good food. After the show, we went to the comedy club thing. It was pretty good. Most of it was funny. After that, we went back to the house around midnight and a few of us played a little bit of Boggle then went to bed.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook.
June 11, 2010
We are getting ready for a nice dinner and a carriage ride through central park. I just got a fedora.
June 11, 2010
Today we are headed off to go look at Tiffany’s and Wall Street. Then probably a couple of lunches. Today we are going to have hamburgers at the house and play the paper game. Then a few of us are going on a carriage ride in Central Park and a dinner at some nice restaurant. Right now we are riding the subway to start the day now the breakfast is over. We had French toast and omelets.
Update: For the rest of the day, we went around Wall Street, saw some historical things there. We looked around Tiffany’s. They had a beautifully decorated store. Then we went to Times Square again to see about getting broadway tickets at TKTS, but they didn’t open until 3. So we went around finding a fedora for me and a gift for Jason and KJ to give Adrian. We wasted more time by going to a really great Pizza place where we started lunch with a wonderful chocolate mouse cake and finished it with a large sausage pizza. TKTS had a really long line and we needed to be back for burgers, so we didn’t stay and get tickets. We did check out the Hershey store. That was disappointingly small.
Pictures are here (not yet). Also on MobileMe and Facebook
June 10, 2010
We started out by me making crepes for the group. Tip: Don’t make crepes for 12 hungry people. It’s a lot of crepes. Then the King Tut exhibit. We watched the 3D movie and then the coat check girl dropped my camera a few feet onto tile. Then we had first lunch Ruby Foo and had a great Bento box dessert and amazing sushi. After that we went to FAO Shwarz and the Apple store. That is a huge toy store (both are actually). Then off to second lunch at Grimaldi’s Pizza. Wonderful pizza. Completely packed. Still fast though. Then we went to Chinatown and are currently waiting for third lunch at Congee Village. This is a VERY Chineese restaurant. Not he typical americanfied version.
June 9, 2010
Well, it’s the third day here in NY. It has been incredibly busy. We seem to barely ever stop walking and seeing things. I just realized I haven’t taken pictures of the place we’re staying, so I’ll do that when I’m less lazy and go get my camera. Right now, I’m trying to get pictures uploaded, caught up on my reading, get my devices up to date, etc, etc. Doesn’t seem anyone is up and about yet. Seems I wake up at about 6:40 no matter what time zone I’m in and it’s not a work day. Maybe I’ll go start making some sort of breakfast for everyone.
June 8, 2010
We had breakfast and headed off to start our day. We started out by going to the Natural History Museum. A few of us saw a pretty disappointing planetarium show. Did you know mass is what makes things? After that we walked through Central Park to get to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art. There we found a hot dog stand in front before going in. That was a lot more fun and had beautiful paintings and artifacts. After that, we walked over to the Guggenheim Museum. That place is full of odd “art” I don’t understand. We didn’t stay long. We had dinner at this amazing Italian restaurant voted best in Little Italy by Zagat. Some of us went to the Empire State Building. There we watched a show WAY more disapointing than the planitarium. The NY Sky Ride is normally $36/ticket, but we have the New York Pass so it was included. I probably would have been upset if I had paid $36 for that show. You sit on a shaky seat and watch a 15 year old blurry video of NY with 20 year old special effects. But we were wasting time anyway, so it did its purpose. We were waiting for it to be closer to sunset when we went up. After that, it was off to second dinner. We were going to go to Al La Turka, but weren’t sure it was there anymore and ended up at a fantastic Indian place called Nirvana. The food was wonderful. We made it back to the house a bit after 11.
Here is a map of our walk. The gaps are subway and when I forgot to turn it back on after getting off the subway. Also off in buildings where we did most our walking.
Pictures are on MobileMe and Facebook. The connection isn’t good enough here to put them on this site. I’ll put them on when I get home.
June 7, 2010
We wandered a lot of miles today. I forgot to use a tracking app to be able to map out all the places we walked. I’ll try to remember tomorrow. We went to see the World Trade Center and the Memorial Preview. On the way we saw a really old church and after we went to an even older one. We went to a great pizza place for lunch. Then we walked to get desert from a place Jake’s friend recommended (Ferraras Bakery and Cafe). It was amazing. We had assorted flavors of gelato and other deserts. On the way there, we got side tracked and walked half way across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. After desert, we were going to go to a great Italian restaurant for dinner, but decided to come back to the house instead.
Pictures are here. Also on MobileMe and Facebook.
NOTE: Currently all pictures are on MobileMe and Facebook, but not here. Only a partial set made it to this site. I’ll finish uploading them here when I have better internet access at home.
June 7, 2010
We got on a plane at about midnight (it was very late boarding) and made it to New York at 6:10 am EST. Then we went from air train to train to subway and got to the brown stone mansion we’re staying at for the week. It is pretty nice. It has about four floors with a couple rooms per floor. It has an elevator to help with all the floors. While waiting for the lady to come and open the place, we walked around and found breakfast at 5th Avenue Deli. They made up sandwiches fresh to order. Then a while later the lady came and we I just finished getting cleaned up and ready for the day. Suzy is taking a nap, but the rest of us are getting ready to go see ground zero, a church, and maybe go to a restaurant by the ocean. I’ve taken some pictures. I’ll try to get pictures posted every day at least once. I’m letting my legs rest or I’d post them now. The camera is a couple flights up and I’m too lazy to go back and get it.
