Tuesday, February 13, 2007
big apple!
Sunday evening we caught the train up to New York City, walking the two blocks from Penn Station to our hotel. Monday morning we got up early and walked two blocks to Madison Square Garden. The reason? The 2007 West Minster Kennel Club Dog Show. Wall to wall dogs, wall to wall people looking at dogs. I had fun, and Laura loved it (this was a trip for her, really, but it was still fun, so no complaints. And hey! You can buy a beer at Madison Square Garden for any event. Enjoying a beer while watching seven rings of dogs being judged is a surreal event).
Monday evening we met up with one of her sisters and her sister's husband. We took them to dinner at Josie's East. We had to find a place that offered vegan choices (no meat, no dairy). Luckily, the restaurant also had a lot of other tasty choices, so I was able to get the ginger grilled calamari with pineapple and red pepper salsa, followed by "grilled aquanor salmon, hand-farmed & organically-fed roasted sweet potato mash, grilled asparagus & mango-roasted pepper salsa." Then back to Madison Square Garden for first night judging of breeds.
Today was another day in the big city, followed by a train ride south, watching the snow change to ice along the way. We got back into town round 3:00, but the ride home was not destined to be relaxing. It turned out that the federal government closed up at 2:00 and sent everyone home at once, meaning rush hour was (1) three hours early and (2) not staggered. Thousands of people clogged the streets heading home. After and hour and a half, we finally bailed the main roads and stopped at a good Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. A margarita later, and the tenseness of the drive washed away. After dinner the roads were much more manageable and we made it home without incident. We're secretly hoping the weather will stay ugly enough to cancel work tomorrow, but we had a nice little vacation.
Monday evening we met up with one of her sisters and her sister's husband. We took them to dinner at Josie's East. We had to find a place that offered vegan choices (no meat, no dairy). Luckily, the restaurant also had a lot of other tasty choices, so I was able to get the ginger grilled calamari with pineapple and red pepper salsa, followed by "grilled aquanor salmon, hand-farmed & organically-fed roasted sweet potato mash, grilled asparagus & mango-roasted pepper salsa." Then back to Madison Square Garden for first night judging of breeds.
Today was another day in the big city, followed by a train ride south, watching the snow change to ice along the way. We got back into town round 3:00, but the ride home was not destined to be relaxing. It turned out that the federal government closed up at 2:00 and sent everyone home at once, meaning rush hour was (1) three hours early and (2) not staggered. Thousands of people clogged the streets heading home. After and hour and a half, we finally bailed the main roads and stopped at a good Mexican restaurant for an early dinner. A margarita later, and the tenseness of the drive washed away. After dinner the roads were much more manageable and we made it home without incident. We're secretly hoping the weather will stay ugly enough to cancel work tomorrow, but we had a nice little vacation.
# posted by smacky @ 6:27 PM 
