NYC

Welcome to New York City
November 15-17, 2004
(click here to get to the pics at the bottom of this page, bypassing the story)

Here is the official link to NASDAQ along with the picture

So, many of you know that I went to New York City (my first time there, mind you) to represent the company I work for, Ventana Medical Systems, to ring the bell (buzzer) for the opening of the NASDAQ. But, that’s by far only a portion of what I got to see and do while in New York. I’m going to detail it out with some pictures.

Day 1 (November 15th, 2004):

I had to get up at 3am to make the early flight. This sucked. Our flight was a little delayed from Tucson (Damn military planes) and we had to hustle to get to our connecting flight in Houston 2 hours later. Just enough time meaning not enough time to get a bite to eat. So, Houston to Newark, we fly in a big-ass 767. Well, not yet anyway. There were some technical problems that the mechanics were trying to ‘figure’ out. After about 30 minutes of this, the pilot comes on and says the he is shutting the plane down for a couple of minutes. He does so and after a few minutes, he starts it back up. Everything checked out; problem solved. I didn’t realize that jets needed to be rebooted as well. Back to the 767. It was roomy for the remaining 3 hour flight to Newark. I watched a movie (Bourne Supremacy), though action movies can mess with you, especially if there is turbulence. There was also a crappy lunch that tasted so good because I was so hungry. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t feed that crap to my dogs.

The landing was also something to mention. The pilot, I’m assuming, was one of those tough-guys (maybe previously a bull-rider or a quilter) because he didn’t set the jet down gently or straight. He wanted to let everyone know that we had arrived and this was his jet and he’d land anyway he pleased, and as soon as we stop, we better get our shit and get the hell off of his jet. So, back to the approach. The jet is not steady and the shifting from side to side, like the pilot was trying to get control. Hmmm. Starting to worry a little. The shifting ceased about 2 seconds before we touched down. Touch down, my ass! The back end slammed into the ground, the lights flickered like crazy, and people all around me had the look of “holy shit, we’re gonna die!” in their eyes. I might’ve had this look as well, but my primary focus was to control the crap in my bowels from entering into my pants. After the slam, the jet shifted from side to side because (I’m taking a wild guess here) we didn’t come in straight. Now, I understand why the airlines have you wear seatbelts. I would’ve been thrown into the next aisle if I wasn’t wearing one. But, thank god for the seatbelt and its pressure on my mid-section, making it even harder to keep my pants crap-free. So, the cowboy pilot finally gets the plane under control and slows it down real fast. I wonder if his pants were free of crap after that one. Usually, when you exit the jet after flying, the pilot (captain) says goodbye and all that. Not this guy. No where to be seen. What a cowardly fucker.

So, we get off the plane, get our bags, and find our shuttle van. From Newark, we drove through the Lincoln tunnel (goes under the Hudson River) to get to Manhattan. Traffic was fricken crazy. We dropped our stuff off and almost immediately we went to dinner at a Brazilian style restaurant, which was excellent. If you don’t know what this means, basically you pay one price for the salad bar and the main course. The main course consists of over 15 types of meat, delivered to your table and sliced from skewers directly onto your plate. I could go into more detail, but just trust me that if you have an opportunity to go to a Brazilian-style restaurant, do it. Oh yea, and don’t fill up on the salad bar, even though there is some really good stuff on it.

From the restaurant, we walked to Times Square to see where we’d be the next morning in NASDAQ. Times Square was cool. Lot’s of little shops. I got Starbucks. There are a lot of Starbucks in NYC, literally within a block of each other. We even saw one across the street from another. NYC is just so alive. We walked around Times Square a little more, but then went back to the hotel so we could be ready for the next day, which was starting to fill up with stuff to do. On our way back, we saw Rockefeller Center (by accident) and the big ass Christmas tree.

Day 2 (November 16th, 2004):

One thing that tripped me out was that business didn’t start at the crack of dawn like I’d always assumed. The NASDAQ didn’t open until 9 or 9:30am. Anyway, we left for NASDAQ (Times Square) in our vans. Yes, it was a business formal event, so I had to wear a suit. ALl in all, NASDAQ was cool, but only a TV studio as the trading is electronic. We're waving and clapping for the cameras and anyone walking by on Times Square. Once this event was over, we went back to our hotel and change into street clothes to begin our self-guided tour. WIth a map in hand, we braved this city. We started with seeing the Chrysler bldg, Grand Central Station and the Daily News where Superman was filmed (The Daily Planet). We then went to the U.N. bldg. and received a tour from an employee. We saw all of the major council rooms, including the Security Council where the President and many of the world's highest ranking officials have given speeches. There were other cool exhibits in the U.N., like debris from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombs. Melted metal chunks etc. It was amazing.

From here we went back to Grand Central Station to ride the subway down to lower Manhattan. We finally figured out the quick pass deal and we were off. We got to Battery Park and happened upon a memorial for the World Trade Center disaster. Facing the memorial, the Upper New York Bay was directly behind which is where the East River and the Hudson River come together before going out into the Atlantic Ocean. The day was a little hazy, so it was difficult to clearly make out the Statue of Liberty. It was basically a silhouette. So, from here we headed towards ground zero. What an amazing experience. It was very sobering (not that we were drinking). Looking at the surrounding buildings, some still had visible damage from the attacks. The pit that remained was free of debris. We stayed here for a while and read a lot of the memorial and information plaques that were posted all around this site.

From Ground Zero, it was starting to get dark. We took a subway to Greenwich village to get dinner. After grabbing a beer in a dive bar, we found a nice Italian restaurant. We were all really tired as we had been walking all day. After a long dinner, we got back on the subway and headed towards the Empire State Building. It was lit up in all blue. We took the tour to the top (as far as the public can go) and hung out on the observation deck of the 86th floor. There is a gift shop inside on this floor. Side note: The elevator ride up was fricken fast. My ears actually popped. Ground floor to the 83rd floor and the another elevator takes you from the 83rd to the 86th floor. After many pictures and some purchased items, it was time to head back to the hotel. It was almost midnight. Instead of the subway, we took a limo. The next day, the group was splitting off. Some wanted to see Central Park and some wanted to see the Statue of Liberty.

Day 3(November 17th, 2004):

Meeting at 7:30am, 4 of us headed towards Grand Central Station again to go see the Statue of Liberty. When we got there it was pretty empty as we were on one of the first tours. The ferry ride out there was pretty cool. We all got a bunch of pictures of the statue from the ferry as well as pictures of lower Manhattan, where Ground Zero, Wall Street, Battery Park and the Brooklyn Bridge (to name a few) are located. As we exited the ferry onto Liberty Island, it was apparent that we would have a pretty free reign as far as the tour. We had to go through some serious security (way worse than an airport). Once inside, our tour started almost immediately. We got an in depth understanding as to how the statue was constructed, delivered and reconstructed. We were able to get up to the observation deck and view inside the statue, but not actually go inside the statue. That's ok because the observation deck had great views. We hung out on Liberty Island for about 2 hours, got some stuff at the gift shop and then jumped on the ferry to go to Ellis Island. There are many tours on Ellis island, but we were running out of time and desparately need to get some food. We took the next ferry back to Battery Park and headed towards Wall Street. We found a nice restaurant and had the best vegatable lasagna I've ever had. Very good. We then decided that we had enough time to hit Central Park before we had to head back to the airport. We took the subway to a block from Central Park and walked the rest. It was pretty amazing seeing this huge park in the middle of the city. We stayed for a little bit, walking by the ice rink, and then had to get back. We bought a few more things from a street vendor and walked back. On our way back, we saw the Trump Tower, The Playboy Headquarters, Radio City Music Hall, and the 5th Avenue shops.

Then, it was into the van, back through the Lincoln tunnel to the Newark airport. THe flight back was 5 hours non-stop to Tucson. Gotta love that.

Pictures (This is a mere sampling)