Saturday, March 31, 2012

Back Home

With the loss in Madison Square Garden Husky basketball is officially over for the season. In some ways it's nice to have the season behind us. We do a lot of basketball between January and March. With basketball ending we have actually become fond of attending baseball games at the UW this season.


We have been to three games which is more than I've ever attended in a season. We made a donation to the athletic department of the UW this year and were given a couple of passes to the new baseball clubhouse. It's really nice to watch the games out of the cold and wind. That's the main reason we have not attended more games until now.



We had a great time in New York. Kind of a quick trip in which we both worked on Monday, flew it on a redeye and arrived Tuesday morning, three quick days in New York and left early enough Friday morning to work part of the day! We will be exhausted by this evening. Fortunately we had enough frequently flyer miles to fly first class round trip which made the overnight flight much more tolerable!

As we have been doing lately while traveling we rented a condo as opposed to staying at a hotel. I've become quite fond of traveling this way. There is something about staying in a neighborhood in an apt, house or condo that provides a different perspective that we really enjoy. We have done this in New York once before (stayed in Brooklyn and would not do that again), San Francisco in the Castro, West Hollywood and now the Central Park condo pictured below.


We realized last time we were here that when traveling to New York you really need to stay in Manhattan. I saw this on the subway and thought it was hilarious and oh so true!


Twice we have stayed over in Brooklyn (last time we were here and when I ran in the New York Marathon) and the three other times that I can think of that we were in New York we have been in Manhattan. I really wanted to stay near Central Park for the running it offers.


I've ran in Central Park several times before but we have never stayed so close that I could run entirely in the park as opposed to spending a great deal of time running to just get to the park. I had two good days of running, 7.5 miles one day and 8.5 the next. The first day I ran the entire perimeter of the park which has been my list of runs that I've wanted to do. I love running with the GPS and then having a map of my run.


Kinda geeky but fun. The second run was on the trails throughout the park. I've never explored the entire park like that before. It was a great way to get a feel for the entire park and the different neighborhoods that surround it. The condo was in a beautiful old building right across the street from the the entrance from where the carriage rides originate.


The unit we stayed in was on the 16th floor and although it did not have a park view it was quite nice. It was small, 560 sq. ft. but it had everything we needed.



I loved being in a building with a doorman. I did of have to open the door once! Everyone from the doorman to the concierge were very helpful.

I found myself wondering what it would be like to live in the building and have the park at my disposal. As I often do while running I cooked up a new idea for our retirement. I've written about hiking the Appalachian Trail which I want to do early in our retirement while we are still young enough to do it! When I was younger I use to dream about living in a different city for a year or so and move on to the next. Well that's not going to happen so the idea I cooked up (and Kent thinks is a good idea) is to take an entire year and travel to 12 different cities, six of Kent's choice and six of mine and stay for a month in each location in a rented condo/house and get a feel for living there. Although I'm not nearly close to selecting my final cities, New York, Paris, London, Sydney, Berlin, Bali, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, St. Thomas, and Florence all jump right out! Ironically that's exactly 12 so I'll have to get Kent to select at least half of the ones above to get all my top choices in! Any suggestions? Its a good thing we are savers!

On our final saying New York we traveled to the area around NYU.








I wanted a new shirt from NYU and to the Village to visit Gym Sports Bar. We discovered it Gym in LA and when we realized there was one in NY we had to track it down. Great crowd!


We found a great Italian place for dinner and ended the evening with the play Other Desert Cities.


If I were to rate this trip on a scale from 1-10, I'd have to give it no less than a solid 9. Had the Huskies won it may well have been a 10!

Later and happy travels -

Jim


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Thursday, March 29, 2012

NY Condo

Time to say goodbye to our Central Park condo. Until next time!





























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Gym

Depending on the friend my name is spelled in the following ways:

Jim - work
Gem - girlfriends
Gym - sports friends!

So here is to my sports friends - direct from NYC!




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What did we come here for?

It's hard to believe that we came here for basketball - I'm not sure when we would have fit it in! We were on the go every minute yesterday. Following our runs in Central Park we headed out to lunch in Bryant Park. They have the best delis here in New York. We have discovered a couple near the park that we really like. The weather has been nice enough to sit out and eat in the park everyday. Today we had lunch in Central Park. We had tickets yesterday to see Spiderman the play in the afternoon which was very good.




It's gotten such bad press that we were skeptical but took a chance and really enjoyed both the music and the technical aspects of the show! Peter Parker was cute too so that was a bonus!




We had just enough time to head to dinner at Toloache for dinner where we overate on Fruita Guacamole, chips, lobster tacos, and marg's! And these were just our appetizers! We love that place!












The highlight of the evening was seeing Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield.








Andrew is most known for his role in Social Network. He will also play the lead in the new Spiderman movie.




We were in the third row from the stage in the center so we had great seats. I've never seen the play - it was especially nice to see it with such a terrific cast.
Today I started the day with an 8.5 mile run through Central Park today as opposed to yesterday. It is such a beautiful place to run. I retraced some of my steps from when I ran the New York Marathon as the marathon ends in the park.
Today we are hanging low - we are headed to a spots bar called Gyms that we originally discovered in LA and then a play called Other Desert Cities.




I've been wanting to see it for awhile. I spotted it when we were here at Christmas.
Better get going - I've got a lot to do before heading home tomorrow!
Later -
Jim
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Central Park Run

Well the Huskies lost last night which is always a bummer but the season has to come to an end sometime. The great thing about traveling to an away game is the trip is NEVER a bust based on wether or not the team wins or loses. It's of course a bonus if they win but we always make the best of it and have a great time. What's not to love about New York City! In addition to getting to run in Central Park we are taking in a couple of plays today and eating dinner and have marg's at Toloache - our favorite Mexican restaurant in the city!

We rented a condo that is directly across the street from Central Park. We made this choice because I wanted to make the most of running in the park. So run I did. Here is a map of this mornings run.


Plus I found a few facts about the park that I thought were interesting that I thought I'd pass on.

How big is Central Park?

843 acres or 6% of Manhattan's total acreage, including:
150 acres in 7 waterbodies
250 acres of lawns
136 acres of woodlands

How far is it around the whole of Central Park?

6 miles (2.5 miles north to south from 110th Street to 59th Street and .5 miles east to west from Fifth Avenue to Central Park West).

How far is it around the Reservoir Running Track?

1.58 miles

How far is it around the Great Lawn Oval?

.556 miles

How far is it around the Harlem Meer?

.8 miles

How far is it along the Park Drives?

Starting at Engineer's Gate at 90th St. and Fifth Avenue
Full Loop: 6.1 miles
Upper Loop, taking 102nd St. cutoff: 5.2 miles
Lower Loop, taking 72nd St. cutoff: 1.7 miles
Along the Bridle Path: 4.25 miles
Along all the pedestrian pathways: 58 miles

Here are a few pictures from my run.























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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

NYC

Kent and I are back in New York for the second time in the last 6 months to see the Huskies play at Madison Square Garden. Staying on Central Park Ave. - directly across from the park. Great running tomorrow! Here are a few pictures - more to follow.












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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Welcome to 48!

Kent has joined me in being 48 today! Happy Birthday to my husband!


Your the best and I am a lucky man to have met you!

Jim


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Monday, March 19, 2012

Pre Birthday Dinner

Having Kent's pre-birthday dinner at Benihana.



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Friday, March 16, 2012

UW Basketball

As I previously mentioned the Huskies lost in game one to Oregon State during the PAC - 12 tournament. So no NCAA - on to the NIT. We are at half in their Second game and it's been a good ball game so far. The Dawgs are up 39-32. Still going to be a tough game. Pretty good crowd here tonight unlike Tuesday night.


I like what one of the fans that sit next to us texted is while we were in LA - "time to get excited about the NIT". It's so true! We would love to return to New York and watch them play at Madision Square Garden.

Fingers crossed for a great second half!

Jim

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New iPad

Kent and I have resisted the urge to purchase a new iPad - that is until now! This morning we are in the market for 2 black wi-fi 64G iPads. We arrived in line at 6 am - the Apple store opens at 8 and we are 16 and 17 in line.




Luckily we went to South Center mall and only had to stand outside for a short time before they let us in the mall.






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