One Sweet World

Friday, April 8, 2011

New York City

Last week we were swept away to yet another physics conference, this time in New York City. (Well, one of us was 'swept', the other worked diligently to prepare a poster presentation...) See?? Grad school isn't so bad.

I took way too many pictures (as usual) and we did a lot, so I'll keep the narratives to a minimum. This will mostly be a photographic recap of the trip with a smattering of explanatory captions.

Day 1.

My Priceline acquisition: the Radisson Lexington Hotel

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Rockefeller Center

Bryant Park

New York Public Library

Show at the Comedy Cellar (This was a great night, and something we'd probably do a couple times a week if we lived here. We saw Jim Norton, Aziz Ansari, Tom Papa, Chris Rock (unexpectedly) and a few others. I was hoping we'd get extra lucky and get a visit from Louis CK, but, alas..)

Day 2.
Shake Shack

Times Square

Street art

(Front row at) The Late Show with David Letterman (guests: Regis Philbin, Snoop Dogg, comedian Andy Kindler)

The floor of the Ed Sullivan Theatre. No pictures!

Bed bugs, rats!

Day 3.
I wandered in the morning and we met up for lunch. Amazingly, I had all of Paley Park (smack in the middle of Midtown) all to myself for coffee and breakfast.

Gray's Papaya (a dangerously delicious hot dog joint that came highly recommended by a former NYer friend as well as a few foodie guides.) $1.50 each.

Tom's Restaurant (aka Monk's)

Columbia University grandeur

Yeah I did.

Day 4.

Conference duties engaged C most of this day, so I hit a few neighborhoods (and stores) that I was dying to see - Madison Ave., SoHo, Union Square area, etc.

Late night dinner and show at The Jazz Standard (Notable players in the SF Jazz Collective octet - Mark Turner - tenor sax, Stefan Harris - vibes, Robin Eubanks - trombone (bro of Kevin Eubanks of The Tonight Show))

Day 5.

United Nations

Grand Central Terminal

Chinatown/Little Italy

Brooklyn Bridge

Street art in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Day 6.
American Museum of Natural History

Zabar's for lunch

Central Park

Metropolitan Museum of Art (for a bathroom break..)

A Guggenheim walk-by

Dean and Deluca (where we ran into a spandex-clad Tom Brokaw)

Day 7.

Ground zero

Financial District (ran into a commercial taping)

Stock Exchange

Charging Bull (I didn't want to fight the crowds for a decent picture. This guy gets a lot of action...on both ends...)

Chelsea Market

Highline Park (This was COOL - an old elevated freight railroad track transformed into a public park)
http://www.thehighline.org/

Intrepid aircraft carrier

Until next time ~~Gray's Papaya~~ New York...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Into the cold

Greetings from the land of bitter cold, and snow. beautiful snow...

Saturday, January 8, 2011

It's a California Christmas

First things first. Certain someones have expressed certain disapprovals of certain blog designs, so I have decided to change my background template and colors, hopefully making it easier to view. Feedback is welcomed.

Onward!

Christmas happened in California! C and I spent the holidays apart, which is never ideal, but seemed to be the best compromise for us this year. I spent the week off with the fam in SoCal and C did the same in Wash state.

We packed the week full, starting with a giant Christmas Eve dinner and our traditional walk around the Naples canal.

photo source here

The day itself was decadent in every way. Mimosas in hand, we opened presents and ate brunch all morning, tried out the new Wii game, and saw a movie (True Grit. see it.) that evening.

photo by Francis/Christina

The next day was dedicated to watching my sister and soon-to-be bro-in-law get crazy at 13,000 feet. We headed out to Perris Valley on a beautiful morning...

...did some observing...

...then watched these beautiful people...

...do some jumping.

Later in the week Francis, Allie and I hit the slopes at Mountain High.

And we rounded out the week by watching Phoebe playing some solid (VARSITY) defense in the Excalibur tournament.

photo by Francis/Christina

Of course, there were far more adventures than I was able to capture - dog walks, park excursions, beach time, hot tubbing, shopping, cocktails, dancing, and top-notch cuisine - to mention a few. It was a grand old time and the perfect end to the year.