NYC vs Irene

Graffiti artist with a sense of humor

My company holds a competition every year during our TechEd conference for consultants to present new applications.  I've presented a few and won an iPad a few years ago.  It has become so popular that they decided to hold a midyear competition in New York City.  I submitted an application that I developed at my current client and it was accepted.  They put us up in a really nice place in Soho called Crosby Street Hotel.

A few days before my flight out of Orange County the weather reports started coming in about Hurricane Irene.  It was tracking up the east coast and it could become the first hurricane to hit the state since 1903.  This could make for an interesting weekend.

I landed at JFK for the first time - previous trips to the city brought me through LaGuardia.  I hopped the Airtrain and then took the subway into Manhattan.  I've never really taken the subway before (except north and south along Broadway).  I didn't use a map and it was surprisingly easy, despite the cobweb of lines on the subway map.  I guess they make it easy to get into the city from the airport.  When I got to the hotel I met up with some colleagues and went out to dinner at Raoul's, a really nice French restaurant.

The best part about this whole weekend was that we only had events scheduled for Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were all free for us to wander around New York.  I was on a project for 3 months on Long Island but never got a chance to see anything since I only ventured into the city after work.  I visited back in 2001 right before Christmas for a UK basketball game (the best game I've ever seen in person even though we lost).

Washington Park

I didn't end up winning the $1000 prize but I did get something almost as good - 2 extra nights in the city.  On Friday afternoon the hurricane was bearing down on us and Delta preemptively canceled all flights on Sunday.  Delta couldn't get me anything until Tuesday afternoon.  Fine by me!  We went out on Friday night and then walked around the city on Saturday until the storm started to roll in.  I explored NYU and Washington Park (location of a really good movie called August Rush) and took some photos.

On Saturday afternoon the subways shut down and the taxis stopped running.  I checked out the World Trade site before the clouds opened up.  We bought a bunch of snacks (and drinks) since we really didn't know how bad the storm was going to get.  The hotel even went out and got a bunch of board games to keep us occupied.

The storm came through overnight but in the end it just rained a lot, not too much to worry about.  On Sunday I met up with my elementary/middle/high school friend Toa, owner of Thai Orchid Cafe, for a few drinks and catching up.  She just happened to be in New York for a little vacation - thanks to Facebook for helping us realize that we were both there at the same time.

Doing important thangs

On the way back, my coworker Cody and his wife Melissa and I were walking down Broadway when a limo pulled up.  The driver got out and dropped people off, and I joked to Cody that this was our taxi back to the hotel.  The driver heard me and offered us a lift.  $60 for a half hour loop around the city seems kind of steep, but the taxis were all charging $10 per person for the emergency hurricane rate.  Since it was only $10 more, we went for it.  Totally random.

On Monday I met up with another friend - this one from Sydney.  Milan is a musician that I met and saw perform a few times.  She was in New York for vacation and was looking to do some sightseeing.  We went to Rockafeller Center to check out the view of the city and maybe get tickets for the NBC studio tour.  While we were in the lobby, a girl came up to us and offered us tickets to Jimmy Fallon's rehearsal monologue for Late Night.  It was pretty funny... Jimmy tried out 2 or 3 different jokes on the same topic and he made notes on which ones got the best reaction.

Later in the afternoon Milan and I went to the to Top of the Rock to get a view of the city from above.  I definitely recommend it - you get great pictures of the Empire State Building and Central Park.  We met back up with Cody and Melissa along with Martyn, another BOA consultant, for dinner at The Capital Grille in Midtown.

On Monday night I stayed at an apartment owned by my company's founders along with Cody, Melissa and Martyn.  It's a 3 bedroom place in Soho and Kiefer Sutherland supposedly lives a few floors above them.  On Tuesday I flew back to Orange County, with Milan promising to hang out again when she comes back through LA on her way back to Sydney.

There's still a lot I want to see in the city.  The Empire State Building (from the inside), the MOMA, the UN, the World Trade Memorial, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, the list goes on...