Philly/NYC

Last weekend Beth traveled with the Dayton Women's Basketball team to Philly for their game against Drexel. Fortunately, I found a plane ticket for under $150 to meet her there. We hung out in Philly Friday night and then went to NYC Saturday afternoon after the wbb game.

Friday night in Philly was pretty great. Kate (who used to work at Dayton) picked me up at the airport in a car from Philly Car Share (a great idea) and we went to meet up with Beth at the hotel bar. After having a few drinks there, we went next door to a recommended "dive" bar called Midtown Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge. We were served by a guy named Tom who told us that he used to be involved in off-shore betting!! He's probably in with the mob. We stayed out until something around 3 a.m. and talked to John, an ex-firefighter who now works for the department of labor and hit on Kate the entire time (especially once he found out Beth and I were more than friends).

Thanks to the kindness of Carolyn and Andy Langford, we were able to stay at their nice Brooklyn apartment while we toured NYC! (your gift certificate is coming soon!)

Fortunately we got to see everything on my itinerary (yes, you read that correctly). We saw all the windows at Saks, Lord & Taylor and Macy's. The only normal ones this year were the Lord & Taylor ones. The other ones might have been better if I had been on some illegal drugs at the time...

We also got to eat some famous Grimaldi's pizza, which i highly recommend, both for the taste and the atmosphere. I would say it's a close race between their pizza and John's on Bleecker.

Of course we also had to go see the big tree in Rockefeller Center. Beth made me feel bad this time, though, as she made me come to the realization that they cut down a huge tree every year for this which is actually really depressing. We need all the trees we can get these days.

Finally, we saw the snowflakes on the side of the Saks Fifth Avenue building (every so often they have a little "show" of the snowflakes to the tune of carol of the bells). Everyone was teasing me about this both before and after we saw them, but at least most New Yorkers appreciate them I think.