New York

Just got back from a super-quick, last-minute business trip to NY.

Observations:

1. Herm Edwards was on my flight on the way there. Paul Splittorff was on my flight on the way back.

2. Our flight path took us to the southwest corner of Manhattan, then we turned north, looped all the way around the city, made a U-turn, and landed at LaGuardia. The skyline views were stunning--first the Statue of Liberty, then lower Manhattan with all the skyscrapers, then Central Park, then the Bronx and new/old Yankee Stadiums, then around the other side of the island to land.

3. I am so glad I'm not a business traveler for a living. If I had to eat every night at the Ruby Tuesday bar with all the other road warriors, listening to the d-bag salesmen hitting on the women half their age as they talk about all their business conquests/fish tales, I just might off myself.

4. This is a public elementary school. The picture doesn't even do it justice.

It was built in 1935 with a bonafide 4-lane bowling alley in the basement. It requires manual ball return and pinsetting (i.e. a pinboy). You can't even find a bowling alley where you keep score manually any more.

I also came across some survival water circa 1962. Cuban Missile Crisis, anyone?

New York Hotel$

Thanks to Midwest Airlines' fare sale (ends 1/13/09!), we were looking at potential vacation destinations. New York was at the top of the list, since she had never been there and I have done 3 day trips for work (never staying overnight in Manhattan).

The good news? Round-trip airfare is $228 per person!

The bad? We can't find a hotel we'd feel good about for under $200, and that's before taxes/fees. Even Hotwire is coming in that high for 2.5-star properties on the nights we'd be there, which is more or less Hampton-Inn-level lodging. And we don't even get to see the name of the hotel and have to pay in advance if we go that route. The other option is to stay in Queens or Brooklyn near the airports, but that doesn't save all that much and...really, what fun is that?

We can afford the trip, but it begs the question: if we're going to drop $2000 just to get there and have a place to sleep, should we not spend slightly more and sit on a beach and eat/drink all we want? Or, perhaps, go to San Francisco and basically eat a great free meal every single night for what we'd be saving on hotel? Ditto Seattle/Vancouver?

Or is New York really that damn much fun?