I promised a full report on my trip and here it is. I divided into 3 sections because it's very long - so if you want to read the best part (the part about New York City) skip to "The City" section.
The Trip Out
Last Thursday (03/06) late in the afternoon, the manager of the project I am working on asked if I'd attend the technical conference they were having next week at the IBM site in Hawthorne, NY. I have wanted to go to the research site since I started on the project almost 2 years ago, so of course I said yes. After some quick travel planning (and getting hotel recommendations from the people that had been there before) I was all set to get on a plane out of Rochester on Monday, at noon.
My friend Wayne graciously drove me to the airport at around 10:45 on Monday. Even though they tell you to be there an hour before the flight, in Rochester it never takes that long to do anything, and so I was sitting at the gate at 11. Fortunately, one of the other guys going to the conference was taking the same outgoing flights as me and so we discussed some work issues (since technically we were doing all this during work time on Monday). Finally we took off, to Chicago for about a 45-minute flight. We arrived, found the next gate, and had plenty of time to eat lunch and hang out until the next flight (the gate was two down from where we landed), to Westchester County airport. Both Rochester and Westchester are small airports, meaning small planes, but after flying out of Rochester so many times I was used to it (and it was incredibly convenient for this kind of trip). In Chicago, I had a nice bagel sandwich for lunch, and found a Starbucks (how can you NOT find one in an airport) and read my book until the next flight.
The next flight took off on time and landed early, so by 6:00pm Eastern DST, I had my luggage, my rental car (a Ford Mustang, which was actually way less cool than it sounds), and was off to find my hotel. The hotel I chose was the Courtyard Mariott in Tarrytown, NY - a suburb in Westchester county. As I was driving on the freeway from the airport, I was thinking this looked a lot like Rochester, or Bloomington, or Roseville, or any of the other Twin Cities suburbs (I guess I was expecting skyscrapers right away!). I checked in at the hotel, and then went to find dinner and explore the area. I found the Westchester Fashion Mall, and ate dinner there and wandered around. By 9:00, most everything was closed (again, like Rochester!) so I headed back, drove by the IBM site to make sure I knew how to get there, and went to bed.
Tuesday, I got up, had breakfast at the hotel (the breakfasts were wonderful - there was a buffet and also many specialty omlettes and sandwiches), tried to get some coffee in the lobby - disappointedly found it was empty, and headed to the IBM Hawthorne Site (Watson Research Center). It is about 5 miles away, and only one major left turn that you have to make, so it took about 10 minutes to get there total. I got in, and fortunately met someone in the lobby that I knew (at least from talking on the phone before) and followed him to the conference room. The presentations the first day were very good, and I learned a lot - as well as getting to meet and talk with so many of the people that I had worked with for 2 years on the phone and over e-mail. It was really great to see these people in person and talk about things - I don't know that there will ever be a true replacement for face-to-face contact. The Hawthorne site cafeteria was great too - far better than our Rochester one - I had 3 different fantastic salads for lunch the 3 days I was there, and they served Starbucks coffee all day long. At the end of the day, they provided the conference room with refreshments and gave us all time to just walk around and talk with each other. I left about 6:00pm, but that's kind of normal work hours out there.
The City
(see the map below this section for all the places I went)
Tuesday night though, was the best part of the trip. Philippe, one of the guys I have worked with since the very beginning of my time on the project offered to go into the city with me - he lived in Manhattan for a long time himself - and show me around. Of course I jumped at the chance to have someone who knew what they were doing go with me - I was planning to just take the train
in myself and wander around in the "easy" areas, but this was much better. With him along, we decided to drive in north Manhattan and then park and take the subway to the rest of the places (I would never have attempted driving on my own). I drove down I-87 and crossed the 3rd Avenue bridge, onto 2nd Ave in Manhattan, to about 86th Street, where we found a parking garage (I, Paul Bye, DROVE A CAR in Manhattan!!!!). Hopped on the subway at 86th Street (a 24-hour pass is $7.50, which seemed like the easiest choice).
The New York subway system, contrary to older movies and things you might s
ee growing up, is very nice, very clean, and very efficient. We were to Grand Central in no time, and from there, a short walk along 42nd to Times Square. Times Square is as bright and overpowering as it looks on TV and in movies - they have street lights, which are totally not necessary. I did make a comment that all the big TVs USED to seem a lot cooler back when they weren't everywhere - now you see them in every sports stadium, billboards, etc. But it was still really neat. Philippe took an obligatory Times Square tourist picture of me with the big screens in the background. We then headed down Broadway, and stopped briefly to look at the Empire State Building (didn't go inside, just took some pictures).
From there, headed down 6th Ave to 23rd Street, then 2 blocks over to 8th Ave, which is basically the beginning of the "Chelsea" district (pronounced "Chelsey" like Chelsey Clinton - thank you Richard for correcting me and making sure I didn't sound like a tourist :). We stopped and ate dinner at a little diner called Vynl, the theme being "vinyl" records, so all the menus were record album covers, and the decor was record/music related (including a set of "Menudo" dolls behind our table - everyone remember the 5 minutes that "Menudo" was popular?).
After dinner and a little more wandering in Chelsea, headed east on 14th St to Union Square,
which is the beginning of the Greenwich Village district. One thing I should mention that I noticed in all this walking is that there is literally a Starbucks every 2 blocks - we joke about that here (and in the Mall of America there's a Caribou everywhere you turn) but it is really true in Manhattan - and they're all busy - try doing a google search for Manhattan and then Starbucks, you can barely see the map. By the time we got to Union Square, it was late enough on a "school night" that we decided to get on the subway and head back to 86th Street to the car and drive back. Sometime I hope to get back and see some more (Chinatown, Soho, financial district, ground zero), but it was a great taste of what New York City is like.
During the subway and car rides, I got some education about New York City. For those that don't know, New York City is divided into 5 "boroughs" - The Bronx, Manhattan (which is the "official" New York City at least as far as the post office is concerned), Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Long Island is NOT part of New York City (which I didn't know) and the northern parts (e.g. Yonkers) are suburbs. Each borough is divided into smaller neighborhoods or districts - so in Manhattan, Chelsea and Greenwich Village are districts. I won't claim to understand the whole structure of the city government or anything like that, but it makes you see why being Mayor of New York City (10 milllion or so people) is such a big deal. There are two major airports - LaGuardia and JFK. The subway system that runs through much of the city (mainly north-south) and a train system that goes further out for people coming from the suburbs, Connecticut, and New Jersey. As far as the roads, I learned (and saw) that Manhattan is basically a grid, with the east-west blocks being approximately 3x as long as the north-south blocks. All the roads (with a few exceptions of the main roads) are one-way. There are expressways and freeways that run all the way around the edge of Manhattan Island. This makes it VERY easy to find your way around - either walking, driving (not PARKING), or using the subway system.
I also learned what the cost of living is like. The prices of things in the city (food, clothes, etc.) are probably slightly higher than the midwest, but the main difference in cost is where you live, and if you have a car, where you park. An example is an apartment in Upper East Manhattan - ~350 sq ft, is about $2000/month to rent, and to park in a garage there is about $350/month. As you get closer to the middle, the apartments and condos get into the multi-millions. Of course many people can live without having a car and use public transportation, so if you factor that in, it isn't quite as disparate as it sounds (think of how much you pay in car payments, insurance, gas). Still quite a different world from Rochester MN.
View Larger Map
The Conference and the Trip Home
Wednesday I got to the IBM site a little bit early to set up for a presentation that I was doing with another colleague, which went very well (it was kind of nice being first in the day so that I could enjoy the rest of the presentations without thinking about mine). Lunch at the cafeteria, more Starbucks coffee in the afternoon, and then it was off to a special IBM-paid-for conference dinner in North Salem, NY at John-Michael's restaurant. The restaurant was an old New England-style house, cozy atmosphere with a fireplace, and the service and the food were excellent. The best part, again, was getting to talk face-to-face with so many of the people I had worked with for so long on the phone and over e-mail - even though we all talked a lot about work, it was still great to get to do that.
Thursday was the last day of the conference, and already I had to pack up and get checked out as I had a late afternoon flight. While I was excited to get back home and see E
rin, I was certainly glad for the time I got to spend in New York at the Hawthorne site. There were some really interesting presentations Thursday about some "up-and-coming" technologies and projects going on, and some more opportunity to talk with the people there. At 3:00, the conference was over, and I had to hop in the car and get back to the Westchester airport to catch my flight (it was at 4:50pm so really I had plenty of time, but always like to be early in case there are problems). Flight was again on time, 1.5 hours to Chicago, about 2 hours in Chicago to eat dinner and grab a decaf Honey Latte at Starbucks (had to try one!) and then 45 minutes to Rochester arriving at 9:30pm. Erin was there to pick me up and we headed home.
In almost 11 years, I've traveled twice for work, and while I'm not really big on traveling, this was definitely a very worthwhile, productive, and enjoyable trip for me, and I am glad I had the opportunity to do it.
The Trip Out
Last Thursday (03/06) late in the afternoon, the manager of the project I am working on asked if I'd attend the technical conference they were having next week at the IBM site in Hawthorne, NY. I have wanted to go to the research site since I started on the project almost 2 years ago, so of course I said yes. After some quick travel planning (and getting hotel recommendations from the people that had been there before) I was all set to get on a plane out of Rochester on Monday, at noon.
My friend Wayne graciously drove me to the airport at around 10:45 on Monday. Even though they tell you to be there an hour before the flight, in Rochester it never takes that long to do anything, and so I was sitting at the gate at 11. Fortunately, one of the other guys going to the conference was taking the same outgoing flights as me and so we discussed some work issues (since technically we were doing all this during work time on Monday). Finally we took off, to Chicago for about a 45-minute flight. We arrived, found the next gate, and had plenty of time to eat lunch and hang out until the next flight (the gate was two down from where we landed), to Westchester County airport. Both Rochester and Westchester are small airports, meaning small planes, but after flying out of Rochester so many times I was used to it (and it was incredibly convenient for this kind of trip). In Chicago, I had a nice bagel sandwich for lunch, and found a Starbucks (how can you NOT find one in an airport) and read my book until the next flight.
The next flight took off on time and landed early, so by 6:00pm Eastern DST, I had my luggage, my rental car (a Ford Mustang, which was actually way less cool than it sounds), and was off to find my hotel. The hotel I chose was the Courtyard Mariott in Tarrytown, NY - a suburb in Westchester county. As I was driving on the freeway from the airport, I was thinking this looked a lot like Rochester, or Bloomington, or Roseville, or any of the other Twin Cities suburbs (I guess I was expecting skyscrapers right away!). I checked in at the hotel, and then went to find dinner and explore the area. I found the Westchester Fashion Mall, and ate dinner there and wandered around. By 9:00, most everything was closed (again, like Rochester!) so I headed back, drove by the IBM site to make sure I knew how to get there, and went to bed.
Tuesday, I got up, had breakfast at the hotel (the breakfasts were wonderful - there was a buffet and also many specialty omlettes and sandwiches), tried to get some coffee in the lobby - disappointedly found it was empty, and headed to the IBM Hawthorne Site (Watson Research Center). It is about 5 miles away, and only one major left turn that you have to make, so it took about 10 minutes to get there total. I got in, and fortunately met someone in the lobby that I knew (at least from talking on the phone before) and followed him to the conference room. The presentations the first day were very good, and I learned a lot - as well as getting to meet and talk with so many of the people that I had worked with for 2 years on the phone and over e-mail. It was really great to see these people in person and talk about things - I don't know that there will ever be a true replacement for face-to-face contact. The Hawthorne site cafeteria was great too - far better than our Rochester one - I had 3 different fantastic salads for lunch the 3 days I was there, and they served Starbucks coffee all day long. At the end of the day, they provided the conference room with refreshments and gave us all time to just walk around and talk with each other. I left about 6:00pm, but that's kind of normal work hours out there.
The City
(see the map below this section for all the places I went)
Tuesday night though, was the best part of the trip. Philippe, one of the guys I have worked with since the very beginning of my time on the project offered to go into the city with me - he lived in Manhattan for a long time himself - and show me around. Of course I jumped at the chance to have someone who knew what they were doing go with me - I was planning to just take the train
in myself and wander around in the "easy" areas, but this was much better. With him along, we decided to drive in north Manhattan and then park and take the subway to the rest of the places (I would never have attempted driving on my own). I drove down I-87 and crossed the 3rd Avenue bridge, onto 2nd Ave in Manhattan, to about 86th Street, where we found a parking garage (I, Paul Bye, DROVE A CAR in Manhattan!!!!). Hopped on the subway at 86th Street (a 24-hour pass is $7.50, which seemed like the easiest choice).The New York subway system, contrary to older movies and things you might s
ee growing up, is very nice, very clean, and very efficient. We were to Grand Central in no time, and from there, a short walk along 42nd to Times Square. Times Square is as bright and overpowering as it looks on TV and in movies - they have street lights, which are totally not necessary. I did make a comment that all the big TVs USED to seem a lot cooler back when they weren't everywhere - now you see them in every sports stadium, billboards, etc. But it was still really neat. Philippe took an obligatory Times Square tourist picture of me with the big screens in the background. We then headed down Broadway, and stopped briefly to look at the Empire State Building (didn't go inside, just took some pictures).From there, headed down 6th Ave to 23rd Street, then 2 blocks over to 8th Ave, which is basically the beginning of the "Chelsea" district (pronounced "Chelsey" like Chelsey Clinton - thank you Richard for correcting me and making sure I didn't sound like a tourist :). We stopped and ate dinner at a little diner called Vynl, the theme being "vinyl" records, so all the menus were record album covers, and the decor was record/music related (including a set of "Menudo" dolls behind our table - everyone remember the 5 minutes that "Menudo" was popular?).
After dinner and a little more wandering in Chelsea, headed east on 14th St to Union Square,
which is the beginning of the Greenwich Village district. One thing I should mention that I noticed in all this walking is that there is literally a Starbucks every 2 blocks - we joke about that here (and in the Mall of America there's a Caribou everywhere you turn) but it is really true in Manhattan - and they're all busy - try doing a google search for Manhattan and then Starbucks, you can barely see the map. By the time we got to Union Square, it was late enough on a "school night" that we decided to get on the subway and head back to 86th Street to the car and drive back. Sometime I hope to get back and see some more (Chinatown, Soho, financial district, ground zero), but it was a great taste of what New York City is like.During the subway and car rides, I got some education about New York City. For those that don't know, New York City is divided into 5 "boroughs" - The Bronx, Manhattan (which is the "official" New York City at least as far as the post office is concerned), Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Long Island is NOT part of New York City (which I didn't know) and the northern parts (e.g. Yonkers) are suburbs. Each borough is divided into smaller neighborhoods or districts - so in Manhattan, Chelsea and Greenwich Village are districts. I won't claim to understand the whole structure of the city government or anything like that, but it makes you see why being Mayor of New York City (10 milllion or so people) is such a big deal. There are two major airports - LaGuardia and JFK. The subway system that runs through much of the city (mainly north-south) and a train system that goes further out for people coming from the suburbs, Connecticut, and New Jersey. As far as the roads, I learned (and saw) that Manhattan is basically a grid, with the east-west blocks being approximately 3x as long as the north-south blocks. All the roads (with a few exceptions of the main roads) are one-way. There are expressways and freeways that run all the way around the edge of Manhattan Island. This makes it VERY easy to find your way around - either walking, driving (not PARKING), or using the subway system.
I also learned what the cost of living is like. The prices of things in the city (food, clothes, etc.) are probably slightly higher than the midwest, but the main difference in cost is where you live, and if you have a car, where you park. An example is an apartment in Upper East Manhattan - ~350 sq ft, is about $2000/month to rent, and to park in a garage there is about $350/month. As you get closer to the middle, the apartments and condos get into the multi-millions. Of course many people can live without having a car and use public transportation, so if you factor that in, it isn't quite as disparate as it sounds (think of how much you pay in car payments, insurance, gas). Still quite a different world from Rochester MN.
View Larger Map
The Conference and the Trip Home
Wednesday I got to the IBM site a little bit early to set up for a presentation that I was doing with another colleague, which went very well (it was kind of nice being first in the day so that I could enjoy the rest of the presentations without thinking about mine). Lunch at the cafeteria, more Starbucks coffee in the afternoon, and then it was off to a special IBM-paid-for conference dinner in North Salem, NY at John-Michael's restaurant. The restaurant was an old New England-style house, cozy atmosphere with a fireplace, and the service and the food were excellent. The best part, again, was getting to talk face-to-face with so many of the people I had worked with for so long on the phone and over e-mail - even though we all talked a lot about work, it was still great to get to do that.
Thursday was the last day of the conference, and already I had to pack up and get checked out as I had a late afternoon flight. While I was excited to get back home and see E
rin, I was certainly glad for the time I got to spend in New York at the Hawthorne site. There were some really interesting presentations Thursday about some "up-and-coming" technologies and projects going on, and some more opportunity to talk with the people there. At 3:00, the conference was over, and I had to hop in the car and get back to the Westchester airport to catch my flight (it was at 4:50pm so really I had plenty of time, but always like to be early in case there are problems). Flight was again on time, 1.5 hours to Chicago, about 2 hours in Chicago to eat dinner and grab a decaf Honey Latte at Starbucks (had to try one!) and then 45 minutes to Rochester arriving at 9:30pm. Erin was there to pick me up and we headed home.In almost 11 years, I've traveled twice for work, and while I'm not really big on traveling, this was definitely a very worthwhile, productive, and enjoyable trip for me, and I am glad I had the opportunity to do it.
1 comment:
You are such a Starbucks addict. :) Good post, babe - I'm glad you had a good time.
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