New York, New York!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Anthony's company just sent him to attend a Speech Technology conference in New York City this past weekend, and I decided to tag along. We left early Sunday morning on a train to start our 4 day "vacation."

Though rain was predicted for almost our whole trip, it ended up being sunny and hot for most of it. Sunday was spent just meandering around the city, through Central Park and along 5th Avenue. Central Park was way awesome! I expected it to just be trees and paths, but there was a lot going on. There was a concert, a very awesome playground, complete with fountains for the kids to splash in. We spent a lot of time in there, just sweating and enjoying the sites. :) We popped out of the park on 5th Ave, and I had been hoping to go in some of the glamorous shops, but apparently high fashion takes Sundays off. We did end up going into FAO Schwartz, which was way fun; we even saw a Big Piano show!

Monday started the conference for Anthony. After he got out, we went to the deli made famous by Meg Ryan in 'When Harry Met Sally.' We walked around the city some more, but the heat made it hard to actually commit to doing anything. We dined at Peter Luger's for dinner, a very highly rated steakhouse. The highlight of this meal was Anthony's Bacon Appetizer. For an appetizer, you can order a slice of bacon -- not just any bacon, this slice was probably a full half inch thick and as long as the plate it was served on! He was in heaven!

Tuesday was the day it finally rained. Happily, it was also Anthony's busiest day at the conference so I just holed up in the hotel until he was done. We darted out to see a movie before heading to Carmine's for dinner. Carmine's is another highly -rated restaurant, serving family style Italian food. Of course we ordered way too much food, but it was sooo good!

Wednesday was sunny again, and our last day to actually get stuff done. We started the day by heading over to the old WTC site. Ground Zero is no longer there/ visible as construction was under way for the memorial opening 9/11/2011, but there was a memorial site indoors nearby, with pictures and stories and artifacts from the attack. I had last been there just a few days before 9/11/01, and it was crazy to think that was a full 10 years ago. We saw several kids there that weren't even born when it happened, and it's just so sobering to remember where I was that day.

After that, we decided to pay the exorbitant fee to go up the Empire State Building. It was worth it, I think, and the views were crazy. It was a clear sunny day so I could see out to other states even! I can't say NYC is for me, though, seeing nothing but buildings and skyscrapers is just kind of sobering.

For dinner, we chose a diner that had singing waitstaff!! The waiters would take turns singing and dancing to oldies and show tunes, and they really hammed it up. It was a lot of fun to watch, though the food was definitely not as high-quality as all the restaurants Anthony had picked out. :)

After that, I packed up to board my late-night bus back to Boston while Anthony finished out one more day. All in all, it was a pretty good trip. The weather cooperated, even if it was a little hot some days, and that was my first time in NYC during the summer, so it was fun to really walk around and enjoy what the city had to offer. Between that and our San Francisco trip and some houseguests, I am definitely looking forward to getting back to our routine life for awhile though!