Jared Takes Manhattan

This is Jared writing:

With my job at Novell covering the Mid-Atlantic states, I get to travel to pretty cool places once or twice a quarter.  My last trip I went to Manhattan to visit a partner with 2 of my coworkers and friends, Kit Revell and Greg Barnes.

We knew it wasn't going to be a busy, normal event or seeing customers.  We had to work one day for about 5 hours.  We got there a day before and stayed a day later.  The first evening the 3 of us got there was fast paced and busy.  I got wicked car sick from the taxi driver at JFK to Manhattan.

Our hotel was 2 blocks from Times Square so we were close to all the must see items.  We went to the top of the Empire State Building.

I couldn't get over the amount of people around there.  It was neat seeing all the sights I have only seen on TV and the movies.  We walked by 30 Rock Plaza,

Radio City Music Hall, Times Square, David Letterman's place.

We went to a nice Italian place on the edge of Times Square on the first night for dinner. There were pizza places on every corner with their $1 slice of pizza.  I was sad, we only stopped once for 2 slices.  The other food we had was much better.  The next day after sleeping in until 10am, we walked to our partners office pretty high up a tower in the middle of the fashion district.  It was fun to see these young girls and guys walking around in clothes that no one in their right mind would ever wear.  They have to show off somehow.  We "worked" that afternoon and all of us and the employees at the partner went to this cool outdoor bar/restaurant in Bryant Park and loaded up on appetizers I would have never been able to afford otherwise.  We walked more that night again and did a corner of Central Park at night, just to say we did it.  This is a cool, old cemetery.

The last day we were there we went to the 9/11 Memorial. What a beautiful and sad place.

We then went through Wall Street and to Battery Park to catch a ferry to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Cool places as well and constantly under construction.

Our last event was lunch in a amazing steakhouse.  It was the first JP Morgan bank from the turn of the century and the walls were covered in the vault doors and safety deposit boxes.  It really makes you realize how real and old it was when you see bullet dents in the metal walls next to our table.

Me and the guys were glad that our wives and family we not with us as the speed and lack of overall time spent at each location of have driven them mad.  Kids would have been such a stress and with so many people and noises, that would have been a bad idea.  I cant wait to be able to go back with Jenny one day and the kids after they are 14.

This is Jenny writing:

It sucks when Jared is gone because I end up doing everything myself.  At the same time, it's also easier because I can let some stuff go because there is no one looking at me or in my house.   Here's what went on at home:

Dirty Dishes

 Hungry cats

 The kids made a giant spiderweb out of yarn.

We went to play and eat ice cream with the Barnes' since their dad was in NYC, too.

We survived.