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Back from NYC...where I lucked out on weather and subsequently completely abused my poor feet

Although the Northeast was suffering through what must have felt like rains of unending biblical proportions the week before I arrived, the weather cleared, the sun shone, and I got exactly the peek into that window of about 6 weeks of good weather per year that New York gets that I was hoping for.

Not to say it wasn't a bit wild and windy the first day or two. Because it definitely was. So windy in fact that they had to close off a city block I was walking by because a window had broken way up high on a building under construction, and the glass was being blown down upon the street below.

Being in New York makes me feel like a New Yorker, and that therefore I must shoulder my bag and walk everywhere. Sunday was my play day, and I managed to pack it pretty full. Started with brunch on the Upper West Side at a restaurant called Arte. One of those restaurants that's a few steps down from street level, which always lends a nice, private atmosphere, even in NYC. I brought people from many worlds together, including my cousin and her family:



And my good friends of 10 and 30(!) years respectively, LJ and Joe:



Walked over to Central Park with my cousin, her husband and her toddler...where we ran into crowds of people wrapping up a walk for breast cancer awareness. I left them at the park and walked a good 30 blocks downtown to the tkts booth in Times Square. Perusing the choices, and knowing that a good number of people had recommended The Light in the Piazza as the one must-see show, I bought tickets for it (at only 25%, not 50% off) but I had some time to kill, and I needed to go back to my hotel to see if my room was ready, so I walked the 30 blocks back up to the On the Avenue Hotel on W. 77th St.

The On the Avenue has a European feel...which means small room, dim lights, but undeniably hip feel. I'm not positive I would stay there again. Mostly the space felt very small for a $350 room. And the Upper West Side wasn't terribly convenient for the business part of my trip...although certainly is a great place to hang for pleasure. This was the view from my room:



Perhaps you can tell from the pic how lovely and Indian Summer-ilke the weather was?

After checking in I walked 10 blocks back down to the theatre and enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the theatre (full review coming.) I then walked back up to the hotel and rested for about an hour before joining the VC crowd at their meet-up. A rich full day by any measure.

The conference I was attending was held at the Copacabana nightclub. (Yes, the Copa...and yes they played the song ad nauseum throughout both days.) The Copa is on 34th St. and 11th Avenue, and if you're thinking to yourself "I didn't know anything was out there"...you are absolutely right. Just a crappy location. Not near hotels, public transportation, restaurants...nothin'. It's like they didn't trust that their program was enough to keep us there, so they thought they'd discourage wandering away by putting us in a neighborhood where there's nowhere to wander.

Nonetheless BlogHer buddy Jory and I tortured our feet some more and scheduled our Monday night BlogHer Meet-up at a cool place called La Bottega inside the Maritime Hotel. Apparently the first rule of BlogHer Meet-up is that you can't talk about BlogHer Meet-up, because I neglected to take out my camera and snap even one shot of the 10 or so folks who hung out with us. The Marimie is on 16th St. and 9th Ave., and the outside looks a bit like a big huge cruise ship...given the portholes that stand-in for traditional windows:



We stuck it out until relatively late, especially given the fact that Jory had gotten in at 2AM the night before...and that I was wide awake when she walked in the room.

Tuesday was more conference, but Jory and I both left before it was over (butts can only take so much at my age.) We hooked up with Jory's twin. Yes, you read that right. Julie teaches 3x per week in NYC and had gotten in for the week that evening. We went to a cool Asian/Latin place around the corner from the hotel that I had walked by only about a dozen times since arriving, called Citrus. Quite yummy, I had, in keeping with the multi-culti restaurant style, a quesadilla and a portabella mushroom hand roll. LJ joined us a bit later, and we had a lovely evening.



On Wednesday Jory left earlier than I, so I had a bit of time to hang with a couple of friends. I met Joe again at Starbucks at Columbus Circle (yes I walked, and yes, by now, my ankles were feeling the pavement.) I then met my friend Mary at the cafe upstairs at the Fairway Market. It's an Upper West Side landmark really.

All in all a short, but great trip to NY, and I'd recommend any of the places I went...except I wouldn't host a function at the Copa, Copacabana.

Last little note: I flew JetBlue for the first time. It was cheap, their terminals seem to run very efficiently, the flights both arrived early, having the TV can make the time fly...if you're flying while there's anything good on, and the lack of bad airline food really isn't too upsetting.

Posted: Thu - October 20, 2005 at 05:14 PM       EmailFeedback

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