Business in NYC

This week has been long. I started the week off in the office on Monday, then Tuesday through Friday I was in New York City. The purpose was for a 2-day meeting with my Verizon client. We discussed some good stuff - information overload, but good. Most of my time was spent in meetings and hanging with the client, but I did get to sneak away for a little bit to be a tourist in NYC.

My only tourist thing on Tuesday was taking a picture from the taxi as we crossed over the bridge towards downtown. And dinner (with the client) near our hotel, the Sheraton Tribeca. Dinner was quite tasty at a cute Italian restaurant called Pepolino - we sat outside, ahh warm weather.

Wednesday was all client even breakfast and dinner. Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant called Dos Caminos. I have to say, the prickly pear margarita was darn tasty. It made my day better. And we took a small walk to Washington Park. It had a fake Arc de Triumphe and a cool fountain (if you look, you can see the Empire State Buildling between the arch). Check out the photo.

Luckily, Thursday the meetings ended early and we were freeeee. I grabed my co-worker, James, and made him walk around town with me. We walked from our hotel down to Ground Zero. Unfortunately, you had to pre-purchase tickets to see it, but we peeked in through the fence and got glimpses. It's amazing to stop and think about that day - where you were, what you felt, being there gave me shivers. But, the new towers that are being built look gorgeous and will be great addition to the NYC skyline someday.

 

We pasted by Saint Pauls, but unfortunately they closed the gates on our faces. Yes, seriously, they closed right when we were walking in. The nerve. I put my camera through the fence to try to get some pictures of the old gravestones. I hear they date back to 1700s even. Could have been cool. Ahh well, next time.

 

Then, we walked to Battery Park. Here we saw the glorious Statue of Liberty off in the distance. She seems so small from land. We didn't have enough time to take a ferry over, so we just admired from afar. On the way, we also admired the cool old buildings...

 

Our dinner (because you want to know all about the food, I know) was at Saxon and Parole. We enjoyed cocktails, tasty entrees, and dessert. This was the first time I truly had a "deconstructed" dish. When it arrived, I was like, "uhh, we got the fruit tart...." It was basically a dish with splotches of custard and crust sticking out of each glob. Then fruit was scattered around. I was doubtful, but it was delicious. I think this was my favorite dish of the week. (Sorry, no picture. I didn't think to take one, silly me).

Not wanting to miss a chance to see as much of NYC as possible, we ended the evening with a quick trip to Times Square. As we stepped out of the taxi, it was suddenly daylight again (or so it seemed) because of all the lights. Crazy. Branding overload. 

 

Friday was wrapped up with one last meeting. Then I grabbed a taxi and rushed to meet good friends James and Melissa for lunch. Yes, a random meet-up in NY. We had a great meal together at ABC Kitchen - so posh and hip. It was really great to see them and wish we lived closer. Sigh.

I hurried back to the hotel, and my coworkers and I grabbed a taxi and headed back to JFK. A great week of work and fun, but now I'm ready to sleep-in. Business travel is exhausting!