I recently traveled to New York City to speak at a conference and had a full day to wander around and see the sights. It turned out that I only took photos with my iphone, so they were already online, but I will post a few notable ones here.

This is one of my favorite buildings in New York, the Flatiron Building. It sits where 23rd Street, 5th Avenue and Broadway comes together, creating a small triangle of real estate. One of the things that has changed in the area is the creation of public spaces where Broadway used to have three lanes of traffic. It now has one and there is a place with tables and umbrellas, planters and large rocks. It is nice spot to sit and rest after a long walk. New York is a walking city and they really seem to understand creating public spaces for sitting.

In the shadow of the Flatiron Building is Madison Square Park. Years ago, this was run down, dirty park, largely populated with homeless and drunks. Today it features a large grassy meadow with public sculptures, a playground, a dog park, tables and chairs for sitting (in addition to the ubiquitous park benches), and the best part of all, one of NYC’s trendiest burger place, The Shake Shack. While I did not eat anything at the Shake Shack, I did wait in line for a little while. Even their website acknowledges the line by displaying a live web cam view of it.

In addition to lots of walking around, I also dropped by my old agency to say hi. I worked there nearly 20 years ago, but as holiday cards transitioned to LinkedIn, I have remained in touch with my old boss, who is one of the agency principals now. It wasn’t that hard for her and her brother to wrestle control from their dad and uncle as they advanced in years.

But it was odd to see my old desk. I had to take a picture of it of course.

So after my friend, Kipp, arrived, we picked a place for dinner and started walking. One of the advantages of using review sites in NYC is there are lots of reviews. Just pick a type of food (Italian) and a neighborhood (Greenwich Village), and check out the results with the best ratings. We chose a place called Lupa Osteria Romana. It was opened by Mario Batali and crew in 1999, and is modeled after a traditional Roman trattoria, providing classic Roman cuisine in a festive atmosphere. Since we did not go to their website before eating there, I just discover this. I also found they are on Twitter and Facebook, but not very engaged. I had a raw tuna “cooked in vinegar” seviche-style with cannelini beans and red onion. We shared a fettuccine dish with chicken and pork. I had Saltimbocca for my entree. Everything was delicious, but the best dish was the crispy duck “agrodolce” that Kipp had. It had been prepared confite style, and then roasted. It was super tender and very tasty. I also had a glass of the Vermentino Colli di Luni Giacomelli 2006. It was drier than the NC one we reviewed from Raffaldini.

Next it was off to Little Italy to find cannoli. That night the Feast of San Genero was going on, but we still managed to find Ferrara’s. We got regular and chocolate covered cannoli. It was a long walk back to our hotel, but it was a nice night, so it wasn’t too bad. Well, except I was really wiped out from all the walking.

The next day was the conference and a flight home. We walked around some, but no notable sites or pictures. Here’s a link to all my photos on Flickr.

For the kids’ Spring Break this year, we went to Florida and had a jam-packed week. We were busy, but with plenty of time to relax. Our schedule included swimming, a kids museum called the Imaginarium, an amusement park, a little bit of shopping, a boat ride to the beach, mini-golf, lots of eating, Passover Seder and the kids’ favorite activity: riding in the golf cart.

Peter in a hurricane simulator with 45 mph winds, which is really a tropical storm simulator.


Grace with her head in an alligator’s mouth. She does look a little nervous.


Laughing on the Dragon Coaster. The kids rode this 10 times.


Grace on the beach with a bucket and shovel.

Here’s a link to all my photos from the trip.

Here are Peter and Grace on our first night in Florida.

Upon arriving in Florida, the first thing Peter and Grace did after lunch was go to the pool.

We have packed and we are leaving for the airport shortly. The kids and I had a great time in Florida with Grammie and Grandpa Bob. Lots of fun activities including the pool, the beach, a boat ride, the circus, mini-golf, sneaker shopping on Black Friday, and lots of good food. Looking forward to our return to Southwest Florida for Spring Break.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

We traveled to Florida for our Thanksgiving break. Our plane arrived at lunchtime, so after a bite of lunch, the kids hit the pool.

Here’s a shot from 7:30 this morning on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It is traditionally known as the busiest travel day of the year, although this year’s predictions were that airline travel would be down about 10% from last year.

Thanks to Trina for this photo of my kids and their mom’s family getting ready to leave on their Alaska cruise. Note the matching t-shirts.

Grace reaches for a shark

We finished up our trip to the beach with some time at the hotel pool and a trip to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Check out the pictures from the whole trip, or just start with the ones from the aquarium.

When we got home, I asked the kids some questions about their favorite things from the trip. I had hoped that they would spend some time and draw pictures or create multi-media projects using pictures and video, but in the end they just wrote the answers to the questions.

Favorite Activity:
Grace: the beach
Peter: playing in the waves

Favorite Meal:
Grace: calamari
Peter: Michael’s Seafood Restaurant

Favorite Thing They Saw:
Grace: devil rays
Peter: Grace going under the waves

Most Unusual Thing They Saw:
Grace: sand digger shells
Peter: heat lightning

Favorite Sea Creature:
Grace: shark
Peter: pet fish

As we start our last day at the beach, here are a couple of photos from yesterday’s fun. Grace, in describing her trip to the beach, said she is having lots and lots and lots of fun. Can’t get a better endorsement from a 7 year old.

A dip in the hotel pool

Peter, chinposing, waiting for dinner

And even on vacation, on the Carolina Beach boardwalk, I managed to find an abandoned building.

Here’s a link to the growing set of photos from this vacation.