Jim spent the day with Mike and Rique while I was at worrrrrk. I got to pop in and say hi for a few minutes before Jimbo and I headed to Dupont. We had a most lovely dinner with Ariel and Jeff at Otello. This restaurant definitely reminded Ariel and me of Mama Santa's back in CLE, and from what I hear, the chocolate cake was DELICIOUS!
Thursday spending total: $0.00 (YAY!!!)
Friday, July 6
Now the real fun begins!!! I ran into work for a few hours to hear a speaker discuss the federal budget. While most of the WISE gang fell asleep, I disturbingly found this presentation to be interesting.
I bolted out of 1828 L Street just before noon and made my way to Union Station. I met up with Jim, and we rode the Amtrak Acela (finally!!!) to New York City! We got off at Penn Station and rode the subway to 42nd Street/Times Square. Check out the view from our hotel:
We spent some time recovering and studying maps before heading out to Free Friday Nights at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). We had super timing and entered the queue to get into the museum right before the line exploded. The highlight of our visit was getting to see Van Gogh's Starry Night:
(I have never been in an art museum before that allowed its patrons to take photos. This confuses me on several levels: were things always this way at MoMA, or did John Q. Public wear the museum administration into allowing cameras? Does exposure to flash damage paintings? What about copyright infringement?)
Anyway, Jim and I also got to see several Picassos and a great deal of contemporary sculpture, including Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. I really thought that there would be some Degas ballerinas around, but apparently these are a little bit too old to be considered contemporary.
We walked around Midtown Manhattan more after MoMA closed at 8:
We went right past St. Patrick's Cathedral:
Finally, we made it to Rockefeller Center:
We got drinks at the Rink Bar before heading over to the Sea Grill for dinner. We split a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle, Eroica, Columbia Valley 2005 Riesling (spelled out here for future reference), which per Jim, was the best wine he had ever had. (I must say the same.) I got the most amazing shrimp coctail EVER, with shrimp literally the length of my hand; Jim and I also enjoyed fantastically delicious salmon!
Here's a picture of the RCA Building after dark:
We had a perfect evening:
I snapped some more photos of Times Square/Broadway on the way home:
Friday spending total: $22.00 (I convinced Jim to let me pay for one round of drinks)
Saturday, July 7
We started our day off by walking around Times Square a bit more:
Here you can see the Empire State Building:
We got our picture in a fun old yellow car outside of the Kimberly Hotel:
We eventually reached our destination, Ess-a-Bagel and ate yummy corned beef bagel sandwiches.
After lunch, we got on the subway and headed to the Bronx. I managed to snag some Yankees tickets earlier in the week! We showed up at 2 for a 3:55pm game and were confused as to why SO MANY PEOPLE were already at the stadium. Here, it was the 61st Annual Old-Timers' Day, specifically honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1977 World Championship team:
Tons of former Yankee greats were in attendance, including Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, and Don Mattingly. This Old-Timers' game was much more fun to watch than the Congressional Baseball Game:
This picture is to document that we did, indeed, go to THE Yankee Stadium:
The Yankees took on the Angels in an extreme pitchers' duel. Roger Clemens faced John Lackey; the game was tied 1 to 1 after nine quick innings (total time: 2 hours and 15 minutes).
But, but, but the game was TIED 1 to 1. Hello extra innings. Neither team had any desire to score...we sat, and sat, and sat in Yankee Stadium. I got bored and took this cool cloud photo:
I also took another shot of the playing field:
FINALLY, in the top of the 13th inning, the Angels scored a run on a double error. The Yankees almost came back in the bottom of the inning (runner on third with one out), but the team from Los Angeles prevailed 2 to 1. The Yankees were sloppy defensively and had a total of five errors:
To make a long story short, Jim and I sat on our butts at Yankee Stadium from 2pm until 8pm:
After the never-ending baseball game, we ventured to Grand Central Terminal to meet Steph:
The three of us wandered around Manhattan some more and got dinner at Rocky's, a quaint Italian restaurant. Steph went back to Queens, and we went home for the night.
Saturday spending total: $22.23 (MetroCard and assorted food)
Sunday, July 8
Jim and I had to leave New York all too soon. We caught the 11am DC-bound Greyhound at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and were back at GWU by 4. We had just enough time to unpack/repack and get Jim on his way to Austin. We got dinner at Reagan and hung out until Jim absolutely had to go through security. (The airport was EMPTY for a Sunday night. We were shocked!)
After Jim left, I poked around in a few airport stores and took the Metro to Chinatown. (On a random side note, did you know that Kate Spade makes stationery? Soooooo cute, PLEASE keep me away or I will spend my life savings!) I caught late night mass at St. Mary, Mother of God:
I walked home, and that was about it for the evening.
Sunday spending total: $5.00 (bagel, OJ, and Sunday New York Times)
