Back From the Big Apple

I'm back from 5 days in New York City. It was kind of a vacation of opportunity. A friend was going up there and suggested I meet up there and hang out.


Here is a list of things I did while there:

1) Saw a real live New Yorker yell at our cab driver, who parked right in front of a bus stop just before the bus was pulling up.

2) Visited the American Museum of Natural History. We were there several hours, and barely put a dent in the place. Highlights: the human origins exhibit and the big-ass dinosaur bones in the rotunda.

3) After walking through Central Park we went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We'd just gotten in the day before, and I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I was pretty much dead on my feet at this point. And I felt bad only giving a few seconds to each Picasso or Dali I saw. I'd like to go back and spend some more time here.

4) Ate a Papaya Dog. I wasn't that impressed.

5) Went on a boat tour around Manhattan. Saw the Statue of Liberty while it snowed. That was cool. Saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Yankee Stadium, and all sorts of other stuff.

6) Saw the musical In the Heights, which won the Tony for Best Musical last year. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but it was entertaining, if cheesy. It was free (my friend won tickets in a raffle), so I can't complain.

7) Saw a real live sewer rat while waiting for a subway.

8) Just before leaving town, I got to eat at a Yoshinoya, which took me back to my days in Japan. I used to eat at that place at least once a week when I lived in Japan.

New York is of course massively crowded, noisy, and expensive. If you're at all claustrophobic or mildly autistic, this isn't the place for you. I wouldn't want to live there for any length of time, but it's a pretty cool place to visit.