NYC

I have a very special wife.

One of the things I love to do (and don't do very often) is plan a surprise for Ruth. I used to surprise her with special things more often when we were dating - of course. When you're dating you're trying to show the other person that you're worth spending time with, that you think of gifts and plan trips ahead of time because you care for the other person. Then you get married and you stop "dating". I vowed to never stop dating Ruth. I haven't been very succesful in the last few years. It's hard to plan surprises that cost money when you share a bank account.

Especially a surprise trip to New York.



I sometimes still can't get it right. Like for instance, planning a trip to New York in the middle of winter, right after a blizzard. That said, we still had a great time. We loved the city and would love to go back. The first part of our little adventure was figuring out the subway system.




The break dancing guys had nothing to do with figuring out the subway, they were just down there, so I took a picture. We figured that every city should have subways that run thorugh the entire city. I don't know how anyone could live without them. Buses are dumb. Subways - cool.

But this is what we had to do every time we prepared to step outside...



Bundle up! It's freezing! It actually warmed up a little over the week and made the walking a little more pleasant. But we couldn't wait to get back to the "warmer climate" of Seattle. Bring on the rain! It's better then blowing snow!



The thing we enjoyed most was the beautiful architecture.








We took the ferry to Stanton Island and back. The was the free way to see the statue of liberty!

Ruth took that last one. Nice shootin!

Ah yes, Dunkin Donuts on Wall St. The other thing we were dissapointed in was the lack of espresso. Starbucks was literally the only option. Dunkin Donuts was ok, some of the capaccino in Little Italy was pretty good, but there were no decent, home grown, espresso stands anywhere. These signs kind of cracked us up...

It was like starbucks for dummies, "did you know you can customize your drink? One shot, two shot, three shot". Why don't they mention four shots? I've had that before. It should be an option.

Ground zero. The freedom tower is in processes.

And then there was our hotel.

It was a hip little place just down the street from the Time/Warner building and CNN. The room was tiny (150 sq ft) but it was still amzingly comfortable to crash at the end of a long day of walking.

We missed a lot of pictures. Both times we were in Time Square, Grand Central station, and at the top of the Rockafeller building were 'no camera' days. It wasn't easy to bring along all the time.

All in all it was a blast...

...of cold wind. Looking forward to a summertime follow up. And for the record - Dunkin Donuts just taste like Tim Horton's donuts. Nothing special there. But the italian food is a whole other experience.