Oh Yeah, I Also Went to New York City

Two days after we got back from Nicaragua, I left for New York City for a conference/long weekend.  It was kind of crazy, going from vacation in a developing nation to work/vacation in the biggest city in the United States.  Hello, culture shock!

I hadn't been to New York since 2003 (way too long!) and it was just as amazing as I remembered.  The first thing I did was (metaphorically) kiss the ground because there was a grid, an effing grid that made sense and had a north/south orientation and it was just so. easy. to get around and not get horribly lost.  If you had told me when I left Chicago that I would miss the organized, orderly grid so much I would have looked at you like you were crazy.  After dinner the first night, I probably walked two miles in a big giant square, just soaking in the sights and sounds of being in a real city again (sorry Pittsburgh, you don't feel like a real "big city" to me and your downtown is weird and scary). 

D grew up in Stamford, Connecticut and used to go into the city all the time with his mom when he was a kid.  Because his memories of New York stemmed from his childhood, he had some unusual requests as far as what he wanted to do while we were there.  First up was a stop at Grand Central Station, because they used to ride the train in to the city.  It's beautiful, of course, so I didn't mind at all.  That ceiling is insane.  We also spent a good five hours at the Museum of Natural History, which reminded me a lot of the Field Museum in Chicago.  I loved it.

 

In true booknerd fashion, I wanted to go to the public library (and not just because that's where Carrie and Mr. Big almost got married--don't even get me started on all the goofy girls who were there for that reason, not because they liked books or ever read anything).  We walked by there on the first night we were both in the city, and they were having some kind of event and you couldn't go inside.  There was a press tent so we assumed there were famous people there, but we didn't recognize anyone.  Not that either of us are very with it when it comes to current celebrities or anything, but still.  Then I looked past the tent up to the steps of the library and who did I see but Matthew Broderick, clear as day, talking to this woman in black.  D looked at him and said "Ferris Bueller got old!" 

We took some pictures of beautiful Bryant Park and then headed to this little hole-in-the-wall sushi place that was pretty amazing.  Thank goodness for yelp, amiright?

After dinner we had a nightcap in a tiny little bar near Times Square, and then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the last day of my conference/first day of proper sightseeing.