A very cold New York City

I'm here for work and play. Have an information session and a wedding reception to attend. My two brothers decided to tag along and I've been playing tour guide. Stayed in the Midtown East area, pretty nice. Aside from the rain on the first day and the last night, it was pretty doable weather. Staying at the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel. Nice enough, slightly rough at the edges. I was surprised that the Front Desk refused my request for Double Beds, shrug. When I got home, I realized that I also had a "formal" upgrade request and the hotel didn't even bother accommodate despite having the rooms for it. I have to say that NY hotels are pretty cold, I guess I'm not baller enough for them. The rooms were nicely furnished, cozy is what New Yorkers would term the size of the room. Although the entire time we were there, the tv feed was staticky. :O I was surprised to be invited to a wedding reception inside a Radison. Without fail, my friend choose the nicest Radison ever with one of the nicest looking banquet chinese restaurants inside the hotel. He looks really tired.... :D I was even more tired eating the 10 course feast he put us through. A nice touch that I haven't seen at Chinese weddings was the dancing dragon inside the restaurant. For such a tight layout, the people did pretty well in negotiating the space they had.

Had pizza at Patsy's at the request of getting authentic NY pizza from my brother. Compared to Lombardi's and John's, I like Patsy's the most. I've told my NY friend I have to go to Grimaldi's next for comparison purposes. Went to the Met for the first time, that was cool. I was able to introduce my brother to my other NY favorites - bagels. I'm sure I can reliably get good bagels from any bagel making shop in Manhattan but I favor David's off the L line on 1st Ave. Also, my most favorite McDonald's in the continental US sits on Times Square across the street from the Hilton Times Square. I quote "a gangsta McDonald's", they are the only location that make mini doughnuts - plain, cinnamon sugar, and powdered. Better tasting and cheaper than Hostess.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the Northwest

Image
So, it seems Hyatt has somehow targeted me for promotions. I received an offer to stay in Seattle, a two night stay for the price of one, in one of their two new properties. It was a great offer and I scheduled a vacation to snowboard and visit family. After landing into Sea-Tac Airport on United Airlines . I found one thing interesting at Sea-Tac,thus airport is very family oriented. Usually, in women's restrooms you'll find vending dispensers for feminine products or over the counter medicine. In this airport, you won't find either but you will find diapers! :) I was able to priceline a rental car from National and picked out a Hyundai Santa Fe. National allows you to pick a car in a category rather than assigning you one and I can see why people like it. A very smooth ride, I'm impressed with the improvements Hyundai has in its car line up. Not too gas guzzly for a SUV (achieved an average of 22 mph over 700 miles), I found the car very comfortable with enough a...
Read more

Chicago

Image
Headed out to Chicago on United . On this particular trip, I did a scenic layover to trigger extra flight miles to work my way towards lifetime platinum status. Although it is still a long way and with the way the economy is heading, I’m sure work travel will become nonexistent like it was during the pandemic. After debating and looking for the best rates in Chicago, I opted to stay at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Chicago Downtown/Magnificent Mile  Hotel. I enjoyed my stay and the room layout. For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures but the website has good shots. I did like the location within the city and it was easy to navigate around the area for dining purposes. It was also pretty easy to catch public transportation as my work event was at the McCormack Place Convention Center. Dining Stan's Donuts - I find it ironic that the independent donut shop in Westwood, California became a Chicago donut chain. After learning that the Chicago owner was a fan of Stan’s Donut in Ca...
Read more

Bali

Image
 My international trip of the year is to Bali, Indonesia! For this trip, I had to really think through how I was going to get to Indonesia and in what ways. So I ended up on two itineraries, one with United and the other with Singapore Airlines . There is no real easy way to Indonesia, most flights from the US will force you to layover somewhere. I was traveling with family on this trip and they opted to fly Eva Airways (even getting the Hello Kitty plane). Airline On this trip, we splurged to get onto Polaris Business Class on United from the US to Singapore and offset the cost with using points on Singapore Airlines Business Class from Singapore to Bali. Because of the Polaris flight, I was able to spend some time at the Polaris Lounge in San Francisco International Airport. Compared to the Los Angeles International Airport Polaris Lounge, I find the SFO location appealing because of the bartenders. The Asian gentleman that works there has probably worked there for decades. I alw...
Read more