It's difficult to believe that we've been together for an entire year, but New York City was intended, in part, to celebrate 365 days of mutual survival (Survival!, more like 365 of bliss). Technically, it was 363 since the actual date didn't come until the following Monday, but sometimes you just have to fudge a little on these things to make them work out as they should and call it close enough.
So, to celebrate, we went out to dinner at a small French restuarant in Midtown called Chat Noir the evening of our arrival, wandered about Manhattan, and finished off with Wicked (I bought tickets for the wrong weekend and Carlton graciously got us new ones for the proper weekend. Luckily I was able to sell the "wrong" ones online and ended up making a $1.70 profit!) on Broadway before catching out train back to Batimore. It was a surprisingly quick trip, although it really didn't feel as short as it probably was, and though we didn't get everything in we wanted to, we managed to do quite a bit nonetheless. (One good aspect of the trip being short was that I had sprained my foot the week prior so I couldn't walk around too much anyway).
After dinner, we wandered around Rockefeller Center before calling it a night. (I like to think the cast of 30 Rock was in there as we walk by) As it turned out, our timing was just about right (I'd suggested going to the Empire State Building at night for something a little different) since it started drizzling on our way back to the hotel and, though we didn't realize it until much later when we ventured out for late night snacks, it was raining quite heavily outside.
Our first little trip on arriving was to head down to Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, and the other buildings in the area. Personally, this has always been a fun experience for me since, after all, it's the New York Stock Exchange, but for some reason Jorie didn't really feel compelled to have her picture taken in front of the building (shocking and disappointing, I know).
On Sunday, we headed to Midtown to see the Empire State Building. Since Jorie's last trip to New York was on the cheap, we had to do fill in at least a few of the tourist gaps, and if you're going there with me, this is almost certain to be one of them. Fortunately, we were somehow right on time since the lines were relatively short and the wait to go up was nothing like what either of us had seen before (which was good, since I'm the most impatient person in the world!). After originally questioning whether or not she should being her camera, she managed to take, of, I'd guess thirty pictures from the top of the building alone? We also had the good fortunate of having our picture taken by someone on top.
This is one of Jorie's pictures from the camera that almost got left behind. Pretty good, isn't it? However, since I'm an architectural engineer, there is a bit of trivia to be had about this photo. The Flatiron Building, the triangular shaped building in the left foreground, used to be the tallest building in New York City.
The buildings of Midtown Mantattan seen through Jorie's artistic perspective.
Another picture, looking north, of the Manhattan skyline. You can actually see the building I worked in during my stay in New York, but Jorie's tired to hearing about it, so I won't repeat. However, it's my opinion that I warned her fairly about what she was getting into by going to New York with me. (ha, ha)
Of course, no visit to New York City is complete without the Empire State Building (in my mind, still the greatest building ever constructed). Jorie took about twenty pictures of the building after we went up, mostly to try to get the perfect one for an idea I have for my place in Salt Lake City. It will be nice to get it put up, but the better part was going to Macy's down the street afterwards and getting ice cream to eat outside on a section of Broadway where tables were set up near a park.
