Brooklyn Bridge.
Nasdaq/JVC signs.
Empire State Building.
King Kong building.
Brett’s apartment view.
Brett’s apartment rooftop gondolas.

From the Met: Picaso, Manet, Monet, and more.

Impossible:

Tear down a building in 1915. Rebuilding one wall in 1924. Yup, they did that.

I spent some time in Brett’s lounge chair hoping my back would decrompress. I took the opportunity to look up the High Line, the Empire State Building, the MoMA, the Natural History Museum, Chinatown, and some on the Canal St counterfeit goods scene.

I finally got out of the house, after having some more pizza for breakfast. I think I got to the Empire State buliding at like 2:30. I took some pictures, got a pass, went up, took lots of pictures of each direction.

North:

South:

West:

East:

Top of the Empire St. Building. (It costs $18 more to go up ten floors to that viewing deck. No thanks.)

I think the Rock is better, but the Empire State building has more character and inspires much more fear of like, uh, I’m going to die in this 60 year old elevator.

I made wy way over to the High Line next. This park is maintained on what used to be a freight train line. Instead of letting the city tear out the tracks down by the meatpacking, some residents took up a fund, and started a park. I really liked it, though walking the 8 blocks was a bit much on my back. There were benches, chairs, and really quiet locations. It seemed perfect for the people I saw reading books and looking at the city. I saw what I believe was a Gehry building on the water too. And most weird, the benches and viewing gallery designed to see the city streets.

When I descended from the High Line, I was in the Meatpacking District. Or at least, I’m pretty sure. I was. Next stop was the Chelsea Market. Then I looked at my watch. We had plans to get free drinks at 6PM in the east village, and I wanted to get to Chinatown, and it was like 5:15 already. A cab dropped me off on Canal and Broadway. I walked in an out of maybe 20 stores, seeing a lot of Omega watches, but nothing with a crown. I saw a lot of purses which were clearly knock offs, but for which the “new” brand had a certificate of Patent ownership on the wall. I got some cash, and then I hit paygold. A woman mumbled to me “you want watch, rolex….” “purses?” “Handbags”. I asked her how much, and she said follow me. Three blocks later, tucked down a side street, behind a vendor cart, I was passed off to another woman. She showed me like 15 watches from “Breitan” or something. They were HUGE, and not what I was looking for. I asked for Rolex, and she took out two, black and silver. I asked price, she said 75. I got her to 55, and then counted out cash, i had only “50″ when I counted it out and she threw a fit, and then took it. Great. So I got myself a toy.

At this point, I realized there were like 15 women around the whole area working on cohoots. And none of them spoke much at all for English. The young girl who convinced me to get a fake Tiffany’s bracelet had probably the best english of them, and it was still something I’d consider abysmal, but she could carry a little bit of a conversation.

The real fun though, was getting a handbag. One of the other women around me came up with a tabloid sided sheet with pictures and numbers on it. It was a catalog of purses from a certain manufacturer. I would point at a picture, and she would bark back a number. Finally, I agreed on a model and price with her, and she said ok. She got on her cell phone, barked out a few commands, and said “couple minutes”. I stood around looking at the sidwalk vendor. The women were continuously looking at me a laughing. it was like being a cute boy in a school yard. Finally, the dude next to me laughed at my confusion and said “you look like a cop”. Ten minutes later (and the tiffany’s girl), I saw a biker ride up, smack a black bag into her chest, and ride off without stopping. She quickly passed the bag to me. Inspection showed it to be reasonable, though not perfect. And like 2 minutes later, one of the trackers, on her cell phone, started barking, and everyone scattered. They all quickly left the corner, and moved down the street. Either cops were coming, or something. Still quite a trip. Next time, I’ve got to figure out a way into those back rooms that I read and heard about.

After purchasing my Folex, it was off to Karaoke Rock Band at the Village Pour House. We found on the internet that they had two free wells from 6-7, so Brett and Carly and I were going to meet there. I showed up at like 6:30. Carly at 6:45. Carlys boyfriend at 7:20. Brett at 7:50. Apparently after getting off work early, he went home and worked…. late. Dude is dedicated. Oh, and bad news, Karaoke was called off (we later learned it was the host’s birthday), and no free drinks.

We all needed dinner, and there was no reason to stick around in a sports bar. So off too….

Brooklyn.

Seriously, my student employee went the week before me, and for a full week, and she didnt even make it there. I made it there every day. (And still didnt get Brooklyn 4 Life! grr!).

We stopped on our way through Williamsburg at two places. First, a Bagel shop. Carly and Jeffry encouraged me to take bagels home. I was concerned about space, so I ended up not buying any. Brett did, and I brought home and ate while traveling, a “French Toast Bagel”. Thats pretty rad.

Second stop was the Bedford Cheese Shop. A whole corner store dedicated to sweet cheese. And it smells wonderful. The owner is apparently a character, and each cheese is tagged with cool little descriptive signs with stories. I took a picture just because they were cool. After getting the good picture of a bunch of them, I found a cheese from Oregon (Rogue), and of course, had to get a picture of that as well.

Clickable link for an image size you can actually read.

Dinner at “Sea” was pretty cool. I got a chicken breast which arrived at the table on fire. Dancing blue flames announced my “Volcano” chicken. This venue was apparently in a Sex in the City episode, and I rather want to find it now! But the best part of the venue was the bathrooms. This was the most unique bathroom I had ever seen. I wish I had caught a better picture of it. But here is the best description I can muster. The bathroom for both sexes is one front corner of the store. It is separated from the bar by a long chain of bead wall. Like straight out of a 70’s dorm room. Its also completely see through. From the bar, one has a view in to the “sink”, which is four taps arranged around a circular trench, much like old men’s urinals. Behind this on the wall are two Dyson air blades, and the giant mirror. Looking in to the mirror while drying your hands, you see the bar, and the people on the bar watching you! The “stalls” are “pods”. Basically, four foot diameter rooms, enclosed with rounded thick wooden doors. Inside the bathroom pods are steel toilets (like in a rest stop or public park), along with a car audio TV (6.5″). The car stereo is playing a video from cameras positioned outside the bar, so if one were sitting, it would be showing you what is going on outside on the sidewalk.

After dinner, and a group picture, we headed towards the subway. But one more stop, the Bedford Liquor store. At dinner I was introduced to Absolut Brooklyn. This unique liquor is a combination of red apple (Big Apple anyone?) and ginger (to spice things up like Brooklyn). Apparently according to the bottle the mixture was designed by Spike Lee himself. And part of the proceeds of the bottle go to a Brooklyn charity. Anyways, against smarter judgement, I acquired and brought home a bottle.

A quick trip on the L line took us back to 34th street, and a walk home. I packed and prepared to get up in a measly 5 hours. Yeah, that was gonna suck. One day (still) up at 5:30 and the next getting up at 5:30.

I spent some time in the morning Google mapping the city, looking at options, and finding foursquare targets (Apple stores). I also did a bunch of reading of reviews about the Letterman Show: how tapings worked, what to know, when to go, how to dress, who would be on the show.

I walked down the “Avenue of the Americas” to Radio City hall, and then headed into the Observation entrance of the Rockefeller Center. I was about 30 minutes early for my planned time, so I went for a walk. There is like an entire city under the Rockefeller! There’s a subway station, like 50 restaurants, an outdoor courtyard, retail shopping… It was incredible. I got lost down there till a little later than I had intended, but I’m glad I did.

On the way to the elevators, the walls of the “museum” are lined with historical facts and information about the center, its builder, and the transformation it had upon the city. An online reviewer had suggested that since you can’t go back to this, to be sure to take the time to read it. So I did, like 30 minutes, reading every word carefully. That context helps I think, realizing what the building is. The top of the rock is spectacular. As previously discussed, the real beauty of NYC is not at ground level, but rather, as far away from it as possible. The observation decks on the top of the rock are at the like 107/108/109 floor, or so. Either way, 100 stores in the air gives one a pretty sweet view. I took some pictures which I attempted and am still working on putting into a panorama. The watermarked one gives the best idea. I think I’ll have to start investing in large picture frames at the rate which I accumulate digital pictures.

This is a full, like 8MB huge, image of the above pano.

Also really entertaining… the glass ceiling in the elevator up and down, lets you watch the change in elevation, floor by floor.

After the top of the rock, I walked over to 5th Avenue. I saw the center of the Rockefeller center, and got an idea where the tree would be if it were December. But nothing could have prepared me for 5th Avenue. Joy of Joys this street was packed with beautiful people. And stores. Hundreds and hundreds of stores. And not junk, each store was a main brand, or a designer. Everyone was walking around with large bags advertising Sergio someone, or Steve Madden, or any one of a laundry list of other designers. And I had my little 5×10 bag carrying my pictures from the top of the rock. I must admit, I went in the Apple store looking for something to buy, just so I’d have a colored bag that was branded, instead of a cheap clear bag that everyone knew what I was carrying. I just don’t like being that definitively identified as a tourist. The store was really small, and packed with people, for being on the corner of 5th Ave. But a landmark none the less.

Fifth Avenue to the South end of the park. Then I walked along Central Park south, looking at the Ritz, the Plaza, the Trump towers, and lines of chauffeurs in nice cars. I can see however, the appeal of living on the park, with a view of something not made of concrete. I passed over towards Broadway, seeing the Julliard School, and then went up to the 67th St Apple store (2/3 accomplished).

I passed the Barnes and Noble, thinking about how I bet bookstores were popular. The headline of the article the next day’s paper “Bookstore to close doors’. At this point, my legs were getting a little tired, and I wimped into a cab for a ride home. In the cab, I went past the Lincoln center, and kicked myself for not thinking to walk the like 8 blocks out of my way it would have been.

I offloaded a few hundred pictures from the camera, and waited for Brett. I watched the Christina Applegate Letterman Show from 8/25 to bone up on my recollection of the show, incase any quiz questions came up. We had to get tickets by 4:30, so I figured we’d meet at his house and then go up to the theatre. Well, at 3:50, he IM’d me that he was still in the office for another ten minutes, and would meet me there. At this point, I was fairly certain that he would flake, and I’d be seeing the not funny old man myself! I caught a cab up to the theatre, spent about 5-10 minutes waiting, and then about 4:24 or so, he showed up.

We collected our tickets, got marked “RED”, and then told to come back at 5:15.

Outside the door, Brett asked what to do, I proposed drinks. So we ran over to a small (gay?) bar in Hells Kitchen called Vnyl. Heavy pour pina collada for 5 bucks was a steal of a deal. The bar itself was trendy in front, modern. But in back, the tables were all mosaic tile work. And the bathrooms, single occupancy were labeled famous people “Cher”, “Elvis”… I used Elvis, and on the wall was a giant like 5ft tall with 1CM tile mosaic of his head. If I’d had more time I’d have taken pictures of the table tops too, which were all original and different.

A quick strut back to the theatre took us past the side/back entrance. We saw a town car pull up, and the crowd of 10/15 paparazzi yells, “WILL!” “WILL!”. We recognized him as the dude from Arrested Development. More thinking and Google gave us “Will Arnet”, who was GOB on Arrested Development. We had thought we were there for the Friday taping, because the Internet says normally Friday is recorded Monday. But turned out wrong, we were doing Thursday, and Friday would be a re-run. We got taken in to the theatre after like 30 minutes waiting and getting prepared by the silly ushers. Then into the theatre fairly quickly. Two seats over, some younger ~21 or so kid pulled out a camera and took a picture. Thirty seconds later, he was being escorted out by security. No pictures! His friends were informed that he would not be coming back, and asked if they wanted to leave with him, to which they promptly refused. He was the deviant, and they weren’t going to suffer for it. 10 minutes of standup by some audience pleasing comedian, and then a 2-minute Dave appearance. Then the music started, the band came in, and crap, we are taping already! No warning, they just started.

Will Arnet was funny. The camera blocked our view of everything but his legs, but we got to watch on monitors. Dave’s monologue was awfully similar to the one I had just heard that morning. I’m waiting to compare how similar the bug bed jokes and such are in the two episodes. The morning session had been with Jessica Alba, and I was kinda up set with Brett that we got stuck with an ugly dude, and could have seen the beautiful woman! But the second act made up for it. A comedian doing stand up. No clue his name. But hilarious. His humor was directly targeted at us, as he is a 27 y/o while male. And jokes about dating 20 year olds resonated well with personal experiences. I think the best part about going to the show was being able to finally hear the songs the band plays. The commercials always involve the band starting, and then obviously being cut out. The band was pretty good. Really positive experience, and the price was very much right.

I snuck this one picture of the set, as proof, as we were herded out. I may be able to clean it up, but for now, you get the same ugly picture I’ve looked at. The band on the left, Dave’s desk on the right.

After Dave we headed down to China town. Brett wanted to introduce me to pickle shots, but we ended up with appetizers at the Singapore Cafe instead. And I got a brief tour of Canal St. Apparently they sell a lot of fake/cheap stuff there.

After snacks, we jumped on an antique subway train over to south Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Several people mentioned this “neighborhood’ of Williamsburg as being ‘hip’ and reminding them of Eugene. The backyard patio bar we were at certainly did, though the streets filled with steel grated doors and graffiti were making me question the comparison to home.

I dropped Brett off at home about 11:30. On the way out, the other night doorman, Kiro, who I’d also met the night before, offered some advise. When in Greenwich, head over to “Club Love” for some true underground music and club environs. Kiro is big into the music scene, loving techno and dnb and such. I met my college friend Adam for drinks in Greenwich Village. I saw some NYU buildings, which I’m not certain exactly which they were, I think Adam told me they were the NYU law school buildings. We experienced some live music, and talked for a while. Oh, and got solicited like 4 times by some streetwalkers trying to sell us weed. Now that reminded me of home!

Adam took off somewhere about 2. I took off walking around Greenwich. At some point, I ended up on a dark street, with only one entrance, that to Club Love. A stringent door guardian with a card scanner surprised me. The drinks were in cheap plastic cups, but the drinks were not the attraction. Four DJ’s were spinning music in the club. Three guys were trading back and forth on the main floor, which a young girl spun in the back bar. The club was the first time I’ve seen little “pods” too. The seating lounges can best be described this way. They were like modern clean and fancy seating with fake rock walls, and TVs and I just didn’t get how this fit together with this whole underground music scene. But the music was great. Kiro was dead on the money about the quality of the establishment, and I was happy I’d chosen to try and see a part of the city I wouldn’t have had an opportunity to with Brett.

Getting home from the club should have been easy. Take 8th to 37th, walk two avenues, be home. Except somehow I ended up going away from home, zig zagging, and meandering around looking for pizza. Heck, I found a cab driver at one point, asked for a ride, he said where, I said pizza, and he said “I don’t know pizza” while driving off. Really dude? Couldn’t have given me a ride? So I got home at like 4:45 or something, and George helped me order a pizza. It showed up about 5:15, and by 6, I was in bed, regretting the choice of pizza, but happy with my travels. I was severely disappointed in my one attempt at New York pizza. I got a Margherita pizza from what I think was called Ray’s pizza, the only joint I could find answering their phones at 5am.

City that never sleeps…. looks pretty dead to me!

Until the morning….

The first part of our day was a tour of Brett’s apartment building. Turns out they have a sweet rooftop deck. It also has a great view of the city.

More reasonably large size here

We headed off to the Times Square, as it was one of the few identified goals. We walked through it, down Broadway. Lots of building, lots of tourists, nothing memorable to see. I guess at night with lights it’s more interesting, but really, for being this quintessential part of the city, it was kind of boring.

As we kept walking up the square, I saw the Ed Sullivan theatre. That’s where they film the David Letterman Late Show.

The door was open, and I looked in. I saw the doors open, and a sign said the ticket office was open. Inside, a nice girl with a clipboard asked if I wanted to sign up for a ticket lottery for filming to occur Monday through Wednesday. I said why not, and signed up. Oh, and signed Brett up as my quest. From what I’d heard online, getting tickets to the late night TV shows is really hard, so I was shocked that they had a lottery. Brett finally came inside to see what was taking so long, and the girl explained the situation to him, and wished me a pleasant trip to New York.

Walking north, we headed towards the Park. We stopped for some pictures in Century square (I think).

The Time Warner building offset the entrance to the park, which was pretty neat. And the art. Everywhere there is art.

A quick jot on the subway, and we were on the Upper East Side. I think its really cool that every subway station has a tile mosaic indicating the name of the station.

It was time for breakfast, and Zabars was the choice. The goal was to get bagels; the menu had bagels and smoked salmon. And yet, standing in line, I found breakfast, Cheese Blintz’s! With pure hand made apple cider on top. Fantastic. Though, in hindsight, I should have perhaps taken this opportunity to get pastrami.

Next up, the park. We walked through Central Park from one side to the other. Really, I was surprised at how much the grass is blocked off, and how much open area there is. The entire park is a real marvel of planning, since construction would have paved and towered over the entire space, I’m sure. Interesting thing I learned too, the park has areas which people use to suntan on hot days. I thought people just like tanned on their roofs and patios and fire escapes. I never considered that they would take “a day at the park” just to lie out. Hmm, what else, oh yeah, why is there a statue of an old King of Poland in the middle of the park?

The castle was beautiful.

Next stop, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the MET). A 20$ donation is “recommended’, though apparently you don’t have to pay anything to enter? 20 it is. And a pin to clip on to your clothes to show that you paid? I wish the woman at the payment counter had been nice enough to notify me how to put it on.

I spent about 2 hours touring the MET. Which is probably about 1/100th of the time you need to really see everything. But I did get to see a large quantity of European art. Oh, and spend some time in the “big name’ section, taking pictures with work by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Manet, and Rafael.

Walking through the MET, my phone went off, with an Unknown phone number. I answered it, to be informed that I had won the lottery. And by that, the lottery to see David Letterman. I had the option to go to either of the Monday tapings. Due to Brett’s work schedule, we picked the evening taping. The voice on the phone told us to show up between 3:30 and 4:30 to pick up our tickets.

The rooftop of the MET is an outdoor cafe. Before leaving the MET, Brett took me up there. Coolest thing I’ve seen on a roof top yet, an installed piece out of bamboo. It was like the tree fort at Disneyland, but was done with all bamboo and rope, and wasn’t secured, and the ramps could be walked on up to a high of 40 feet above the roof. We wanted to tour it, but it was full for several hours, and not quite worth that much of my precious 72 hours in NYC. Sunday, it was about 95* on the roof, and frozen daiquiris were fantastic.

I took a panoramic photo of the view from the top, which is beautiful. New York is for the most part, really ugly on the streets, but from above, the buildings, the landscape, the skyscrapers; it comes together into a beautiful composition.

18,000×5,000 pixel image from the top of the MET.

After the MET, we went south. Brett has discovered that from IKEA you can see the Statue of Liberty. Oh, and he’s mildly obsessed with Swedish meatballs.

But I digress. Heading to the South Sea Port on the subway, we passed the Staton Island and Governors’ Island ferries, and a pier with Helicopter service that I swear I’ve seen in a movie, to get to the Pier with the Brooklyn water taxis, which are free on the weekend.

We took a “water taxi”. Fancy word for a ferry. Ok, maybe its small, but its still a ferry.

IKEA was IKEA. But it does have a cool view from the restaurant out on to the water and the Statue.

Brett got his meatballs, and I refilled my water bottle. We took a city bus through Red Hook (where IKEA is)… I got to see real life projects, and normal folks who worked Sunday shifts.

Next stop? Coney Island! I’ve seen pictures of it, and heard about it on CSI and Seinfeld. And they have a big roller coaster. So when it was proposed, I was strongly in favor. Coney Island is … undoubtedly a fun place. But it reminds me of a small carnival you run into at the county fair, like on the last day of the fair where everything is dirty. Except as far as I know, nothing every leaves Coney Island, its there all year long.

The big roller coaster is called the Cyclone, and it’s an old fashioned wooden coaster. Heck yes. I convinced Brett to ride it, saying that I was going to make him do things that were different, because I was doing something new by coming to see him. So we bought tickets, for 8 dollars, for this ride. It lasts about… oh 2 minutes. And dear god does it hurt. It bounces off the track, the padding is beat down, and I’m fairly certain it is how I blew out my lower back. But we did it! And that’s good enough in my book. Though I’d be hesitant to recommend it to anyone but the most die-hard wooden coaster fan.

The beach was pretty, the Ferris wheel was way cool, and the boardwalk was fantastic. We walked up to Brighton Beach, watching people of all nationalities and age and sex wander about. Reminded me of the west coast and the paths near LA’s beaches. Except that the people weren’t smiling In fact that was a general weird thing, aside from one impromptu dance party, everyone on the boardwalk looked unhappy.

Brighton Beach was curious. Its like, little Russia. Fur shops, Jewelry shops, and signs and produce and stuff, all labeled in Cyrillic.

Subway back into town allowed me to see the Brooklyn Bridge at night, from reasonably close. I had half a mind to try and walk across it, but the opportunity did not present itself. Maybe next time.

At the end of the day, and about 11PM, Brett wanted to get to sleep for work the next morning… the pedometer he was carrying said 12.5 miles. Yeah, eat your heart out. I think we did 3-4 on Saturday night, but don’t remember the exact number. But wow, 12.5 miles walking in one day. Brett went to sleep, and I went outside to make a phone call or two. Three hours later, Id made one hour of phone calls, and spent two hours learning everything there was to know about George, Brett’s nighttime doorman from Romania, who is a glass blower, and trained in Tiffany glass restoration, and built the existing ceiling in the Russian Tea Room. Yeah, a lot about him.

I caught a cab to Brett’s house, west Midtown. At 10:30, I finally met up with him, and go to see his house. Immediately, it was off to the races. We walked over to the east village. I saw Macys landmark store, which is incredibly large, though I was underwhelmed by the Window displays. I was picturing them being something amazing, but I thought they were simple and quite limited.

The special of the night at the Smith was a Rib eye steak. I had the steak (and it was good). Brett had the Chicken Pot Pie. Going back again, I’d get the pie. It was huge, and looked fantastic. After dinner we wandered around the village a little, and I saw: Heritage Square, Penn Station, and large quantities of people. Most entertaining thing was the head shop where a display case outside the store offered 24″ water pipes (bongs!) on sale 2 for 1. I mean really, who needs TWO of these large things?

See one of my largest problems was that neither Brett nor I really had a plan. When asked, “What do you want to see?” my only answer was “I don’t know”. I came up with “Empire State building, Central Park, Times square, a Jewish deli, and the Met.

I told myself all summer that this was my chance. I did not have anything tying me to Eugene for the summer, and I had a lot of spare time off work to use. June went by… July went by… Finally, August came, and I had 6 weeks left before work would automatically deny all my vacation requests.

And I had this pesky travel voucher to utilize as well. I received it when traveling to Saint Louis last year. And it expired in October this year. So I had to do something about that.

August 9th, on a slow afternoon, in between windows imaging tests, I finally got around to calling American Airlines. I found out the unfortunate truth of these little “free” flight vouchers, yeah, require a lot of effort to redeem. Absolutely frustrating. Needless to say, I bought a ticket for a short trip, leaving August 28th, and returning September 1st. Due to the whole east/west thing, I would spend 14 hours traveling there, and 12 hours traveling home.

But if I went… I could get lots of pictures of beautiful things, like this church from 6th Avenue.

I used foursquare heavily in New York. And it keeps a history. So I can keep track of everything I did on my trip. This log is rather helpful in recreating my journey, and knowing exactly the timing of the process.

So heres what I acquired.

Saturday August 28, 2010
6:24 AM Portland International Airport (PDX) 
6:29 AM Alaska Airlines Gate C5
8:59 AM Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
10:27 AM Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
3:33 PM Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) 
9:29 PM LaGuardia Airport (LGA) 
11:50 PM The Smith

Sunday August 29, 2010

11:54 AM Central Park
11:55 AM Zabar’s
2:02 PM Metropolitan Museum of Art
3:50 PM South Street Seaport
3:52 PM Pier 11
4:10 PM IKEA
4:44 PM IKEA Swedish Cafe
5:22 PM MTA Subway - Smith-9th St (F/G)
5:33 PM F Subway in Brooklyn, above ground
6:20 PM Cyclone
7:02 PM Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk
7:10 PM MTA - Avenue J Subway Station (Q/B)
9:16 PM 455 W 37
9:24 PM Big Terrace

Monday August 30, 2010
11:38 AM 455 W 37
12:26 PM Radio City Music Hall
12:34 PM Top of The Rock Observation Deck
2:20 PM Apple Store - 5th Ave
2:49 PM Apple Store -67th St
3:10 PM Sugar Deli
4:06 PM 455 W 37
4:22 PM Ed Sullivan Theatre
4:47 PM Vynl Diner
8:13 PM Singapore cafe
9:20 PM Lodge
9:32 PM Maracuja
1:46 AM Red Lion
4:12 AM 455 W 37

Tuesday August 31, 2010
3:52 PM Empire State Building
5:08 PM High Line Elevated Park
5:18 PM Meatpacking/Village
6:24 PM The Village Pourhouse
8:41 PM New York Muffins
8:46 PM Bedford Cheese Shop
8:57 PM The Bagel Store
9:07 PM SEA Thai Bistro
10:44 PM Bedford Liquor Store

Wednesday September 1, 2010

6:49 AM LaGuardia Airport (LGA) 
8:41 AM 313
10:28 AM ORD Runway
10:33 AM Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) 
1:34 PM Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) 
9:09 PM Wizeman spot

In the days to follow, you will find out about… 6000 words more detail about this trip, including pictures. Thanks to LazyLightning for the idea on how to write up and document a trip. Now if only I had gone to an exotic local with beaches and crystal clear water… oh well, next time.

I took a friday off to get a decent weekend in Seattle. I always rush up there on Saturday morning, and the best case is arrival at noon, and then its like I wasted half of the weekend. So putting all the driving in to Friday makes it a lot nicer. Plus, I got to sleep in. And not go to work!

The drive up was fairly uneventful. Really nice weather. Limited traffic throughout most of the drive. There was an accident at the WA512 which caused i5 north to be stopped for an hour, but alas, it happens. Took about 6 hours to get from my house to Queen Anne.

I followed and drove with this fantastically restored 1960’s Porsche for a while. Guy clearly had it as an enjoyment car, as he and his wife appeared to be out enjoying the weather in their classic.

I crested the hill and headed into downtown Seattle about 5:40. I got this nice view of the city and the stadiums. It was a welcome sight.

Friday evening we went out in Queen Anne for dinner. Had a great time. Ryan is a pretty good baby. She was about 6 weeks old, and yet she slept through most of the meal. When she got up, I was able to rock her back to sleep and let Ian and Shannan finish their food. Shannan and I spent a few hours talking and catching up. It’s amazing how quickly time can fly in that mode.

Saturday morning began with a breakfast at Fire Station No. 18 in Ballard.

The Fire Station, originally built for horse-drawn fire engines, is noteworthy for its early sophisticated engineering, brick massing, and architectural style. Station No. 18 was in continuous use for 63 years–longer than any other fire station in Seattle. Historic Seattle, with Eric Anderson as project architect, fully restored the building’s exterior. The interior was rehabilitated jointly between Historic Seattle and the tenant. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Source

Ian’s family is 5th generation “seattle”. His great-grandfather had worked in this firehouse while it was functioning as a carriage drawn fire house. The building is beautiful, having been wonderfully restored. There is even a small part of a fire pole extending from the ceiling, which I suspect is its original location. Oh yeah, and the food? Pancakes made of magic. And covered in fruit. Delicious.

The morning we were there, the Ballard fire department was doing a fundraiser there. When we entered, there were three or four engines and a handful of firemen wandering around. When we came out, no fire people were to be found. Unfortunately, Duncan had his mind set on seeing the firetrucks. Shannan had to explain to him that they were gone.

After breakfast, I got on the road again. I was on my way down to meet up with Jason. Again, perfect driving weather. This is southbound on i5.

Jason and I went “shopping” at an Indian Reservation, the week before fourth of july…. And then went back to a bbq at one of his friends homes. We spent the afternoon talking, eating, playing bolo ball, and catching up.

We were joined by Danelle, his girlfriend, so I got to spend some quality time with both of them.

I drove back to Seattle late at night, in time to catch evil looking skies. Safeco anyone?

The next day was all family. After crepes at home, it was time to wear out Duncan. First came Teeball. Which is really Duncan hits the ball and runs around all the bases. Apparently his dad’s strategy for wearing him out has begun to cause some issues on his T-Ball team, as he doesnt accept getting “out” and always wants to run around all the bases. Oy, what a conundrum.

After baseball, we moved on to golf. There is a driving range/course between Ballard and Queen Anne, in Interbay. Duncan recently received his first “set” of golf clubs, and is learning how to touch balls with them. I can’t quite say hit, because he is more interested in sweeping them off the mat than wacking them, but alas, its cute.

He somehow got it in his head to put the bucket on like a mask and hit the ball at the same time. At least he was being safe!

Ryan joined us for golfing, but was not interested in the balls. Rather, she just wanted to sleep.

Next up, the lake. Something I’d always wanted to do was get out on the water. And Ian had a quick easy solution for this. Electric boat rentals. After packing a quick picnic style lunch, we loaded up and rented a boat. Boat Rentals

Again, Ian used his amazing understanding of Seattle history (and his personal family history) to give us a guided tour of lake union. I got to hear stories of his father taking him boating, his great uncle working on the lighthouse boat that is now housed at the maritime museum, and other stories about UW and the city that made it a special event.

I left late on Sunday night, and made it home in 4 hours.

After the whole weekend, I also got the great news that at 75-80mph, my car averaged 40MPG. Yeah!

I got to go to Autzen’s press boxes (and Phil’s box) as part of the new basketball arena ticketing process.

While there, I snapped a few quick iPhone pictures of the new field, as I thought it was interesting that the “announcement” of the new Pac-10 logo had been one or two days prior, and it was already painted on the field.

Clicking on the panorama will get to a fullsize version of it.

I also snapped a picture from the opposite end of the stadium boxes. I thought it was cool that the boxes are partially separated by glass. I imagine this gives people the feeling of privacy, while also allowing them to see and feel involved with other fans.