The Big Apple

Among other reasons, the NYC Marathon was a "destination marathon" for me. I love big cities and therefore love NY, so I used the marathon as an excuse to visit it for a weekend.

Cindy and my mom were planning to join Erin and myself for the trip but at the last minute my mom couldn't make it. Lucky for us we found found a friend that was able to take the 4 day trip on 48 hours of notice; Ron.

We arrived at midnight on Thursday and met Erin's friend Rebecca from New Jersey for breakfast on Friday before hitting the city. We ate at The Pancake House in a nice suburb. Rebecca warned that the pancakes were large so I ordered a normal serving of regular pancakes. You could choose 4 regular sized pancakes or 2 "lumberjack size." When I said I wanted the lumberjack size the waitress gave me the "are you crazy" look so I assumed I did something wrong. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE PANCAKES!

They cost $4.95

On Friday we went to the top of the Empire State Building for some great views of Manhattan.

Looking south towards downtown Manhattan

Peering through the grating for a better look.

I even had an artistic moment when a pigeon landed in front of me.

A look at midtown Manhattan's huge skyscraper zone with the Hudson river behind.

We then walked to Rockefeller Center.

Next was times square.

We saw a bunch of black suits in the middle of times square, but it turned out to be just a boring company going public. We were hoping to see someone famous.

Friday night we went to the Broadway show Curtains starring David Hyde-Pierce (Niles from Frasier). It was excellent. Broadway shows always seem to be really good.

On Saturday we focused on downtown Manhattan. First we walked around the financial district.

Next we walked to ground zero. It is still just a hole but we saw some freshly poured foundation and they seemed to be working hard on it so hopefully the new building will be in place soon.Finally, we took the Staten Island Ferry ride for some great views of the NY City skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

We also walked through Chinatown and had a great pasta dinner in Little Italy in the evening.

Other authentic New York City moments from the weekend:

• Overheard a "forget about it"
• Saw a delivery truck driver arguing with a traffic cop about what he could and couldn't do, meanwhile he was blocking an entire 1-way street for at least 5 consecutive lights and cars were lined up for 4 blocks (honking like crazy of course)
• Hot dogs and pretzels from street vendors
• Long subway rides all over the place
• Almost getting hit by a cab