It was Saint Patrick's weekend and the start of our spring breaks, so Suzanne and I decided to spend a few days in New York getting a break from our daily lives. Sarah was on the phone and so hardly noticed. Claire seemed ok with the idea. Jane was happy to finish her book as Jess burned a CD ROM and Suzanne read the newspaper. Meanwhile, Meredith and Ben were playing indoor balloon volleyball over the chairs as Benjamin got revved up for a slam.

Next thing, we knew, we were in New York looking at the Ernst and Young building and Suzanne was conversing with the old Jewish tailor who represented the garment industry. Along the way to the hotel, we passed these people buying green hats and this mall based on Toys R Us which is apparently not doing a good business.

We got to the hotel and took this white picture of the room followed by this picture of the blue lights behind the bed (no wonder they won the Interiors Magazine award!) and these pictures of the view -- across and down. This was the view from the door into our bedroom and these were the waters they left for us. Not to mention, the picture on the living room wall and the sink in the bathroom with the samples of lotions, potions, notions.

We left the hotel to walk to the theater and got close enough to see the reviews.

After the play, we went to Suzan Glazer's apartment for some hors d'ouveres which caused Suzanne to put on her Saint Patrick's green to match the napkins and the famous Irish gefilte fish balls and the champagne bottle that we all signed. After a few group pictures we headed to the restaurant where picture taking was not possible except for these obligatory photos of the signs in the bathroom

Sunday morning, we woke up and headed over to the TKTS booth where the statue of George M. Cohan inspired Red forgot his last name to tell us that he was the most famous scalper, written up in the Washington Post, and that we would be lucky to get tickets to anything but Proof -- which was the show we wanted. While we waited in line, New York's finest came by to pick up garbage in front of Times Square while we caught this philosophy from Rob Lowe and watched the umbrella room man head to work. The Coca Cola sign stood guard as did Father Duffy and the McDonald's promised veggie burgers but we didn't check them out.

Once we had the tickets, we walked past the Allen Iverson shirt to Gustavino's, the lunch restaurant where they greeted us with these rolls as we pondered the menu. Suzanne seemed happy especially once her Bloody Mary arrived to the amusement of the waitress who had never thought that someone might want to take pictures of the smoked salmon with caviar sandwich and French toast that she brought us. The coffee tasted good from the silver serving piece and creamer. We passed on dessert but I did want to record the trough in the men's room which is fairly unique in my life. We recorded the 59th Street Bridge which made us feel groovy and marched on. On the way back across town, we saw the church with the Irish flag (what could be more appropriate on March 17) and this man who proposed to save us. Down the street was the marquee for the play but we had to stop at Medieval Times before we could enter.

Dinner Sunday night was at Hongwei, a unique eating experience with their drink menu We began with porridge accompanied by this Korean beer and followed by ginseng salad. At this point in the meal, the neighbors offered to take our picture, so I took theirs. They seemed amused that we would take pictures of our food but what could you expect from a group of epidemiologists. Back to eating, the next course was stuffed persimmons with vegetable cake that was delicious (according to Suzanne). The next appetizer was pancakes with assorted vegetables and sauce (a la moo shu ... ). Then came the grilled tofu and steamboat soup fit for an emperor with walnut and dried cherries in it. The main courses were grilled root (or something) and stuffed portabello accompanied by kim che served both spiced (on the right) and unspiced and multigrain rice. This sign in the bathroom described the meal ( eating is holy ) and then there was the collection sign.

On the way back to the hotel, we walked past the set for the Today show and decided not to come back to see Al Roker the next morning. The skaters were active as we headed onward. This sign told the story of New York and of our weekend together as Suzanne tried to find the Algonquin and this billboard offered an opinion about HP + Compaq.

The next morning, we went to the train station and recorded this harsh sign while I missed the signage in my camera view while recording the bridge plate and then getting the signage right.