Greetings from NYC

Ah -- a remote post -- from the Admiral's Club at LGA. I'm looking out over the runway and beyond, across the river to the NYC skyline, on a gorgeous late December afternoon. It's cold outside, but with the blue skies and bright sunshine -- it's lovely to be here. For a few days. D2 and I flew up Christmas Day and learned something: one should ALWAYS travel on Christmas Day. MIA was great -- no massive crowds -- and though our flight was filled, there was a laid back aspect to the trip. We checked in to our Midtown Hotel, and started walking around. We probably logged 50 miles over 3 days -- layered up againt the cold. Christmas night we met Becky, the Ds good friend from Gainesville, who now lives here working event planning. We went to a delicious Szechuan restaurant for the traditional Jewish Christmas meal. The food was terrific. Afterwards, we walked Becky to her apartment on 34th street, and she showed us the converted one bedroom. She las a lovely view of the Chrysler Building -- and pays 3 times what the place would cost in Miami. Fortunately, neither of my Ds gets the living in NYC thing... The following day we had a lovely reunion with my old friends Mark and Rita and their boy Joe. They took the train in from LI, and we saw the Rockefeller Center tree, and had a great lunch while boring the kids with tales of our Long Island childhoods. D2 and Joe were good sports, and actually enjoyed the stories. That night, D2 and I saw "Book of Mormon" -- for me the second time. D2 thoroughly enjoyed it -- and we topped off the experience with a late dinner at Sardis. And then, despite the weather -- we walked home. Big mistake. The freezing rain fell , and soaked and froze us. It took D2 a full hour to regain feeling in her legs. But it confirmed that we really are warm weather folks. The heat in the Miami summer is uncomfortable; NYC winters are painful. Yesterday we walked north, towards the Natural History museum, but stopped a block short and entered the NYC History museum. They had a great exhibition about the City during WW II -- my parents' heyday. We enjoyed and learned. In the evening we went to the Lincoln Center multiplex and saw, appropriately, Lincoln. The tickets were $14 each, and we had to sit in front. Again --NYC is just too, well, too much in many ways. We skipped dinner, as our earlier breakfast at Norma's - $90 for the two of us -- was a day filling affair. Today we went to a diner and had the real Greek experience, and then walked to meet Dr. Eric, Dana, and Jenn and Josh. We took photos at THE Tree, and said goodbye. Now it's back to the warmth, and the end of 2012. D1 is en route to Indiana for New Years with Joel and his fine, literally, family. Wifey is decamped to Atlanta, where she and her best friend Edna are solving the issues for many... NYC is the greatest city in the world, and I love my visits. But I think I'll be staying in the 305...