We're back.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Phew. Had a day to recover and we're still zoned. Off to work today. Soon you will hear about our insane trip, and perhaps see some of our 2000 pictures (no exaggeration).

It's really good to be home.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Welcome Back!

[Mousey Girl]

Welcome home!!! I can't wait to see the pics!!

[Moonliner]

I hope you did not come home to a house-a-fire....

[mousepod]

You have been missed here at LoT. Start reading - and commenting - there are too many threads that are bereft of CP and GD...

WELCOME BACK!

[innerSpaceman]

Wow, you survived the east coast.



Oh, um, we've kinda gone all Armegeddon while you were out.

[Tom]

And not a moment too soon. You leave and the whole place starts going to hell...

[Kevy Baby]

Welcome back Kotter

[blueerica]

Welcome back!! You've been missed!

[€uroMeinke]

Welcome Back!

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Welcome home, CP and GD! The bunny must be very happy to see you, as are all of us. :)

[RStar]

Yes, welcome home! I hope it was a nice trip!


Looking forward to seeing some of the pictures. Take it easy out there, after breathing East Coast air, and comming home to thick chunky smoked flavored air.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

It's good to have the Happy Haunts back!

[JWBear]

Welcome back!

[cirquelover]

Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

[Nephythys]

Welcome back- I noticed some voices were missing :)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Who are all you people?

[Not Afraid]

Scoundrel misses Buns but is happy to have water back in the bathroom.

[Gemini Cricket]

The bunny! OMG. I forgot about watching the bunny. Holy crap.
Anyone have a black bunny I could buy?


Oh, wait. Lisa's watching the bunny.
*Whew*

:D



It's funny, initially I was going to watch the little rabbit. And then it was decided that Lisa was going to watch her. But I was still in the mindset that I shouldn't forget about bunnysitting. So one day while they were gone I was like, "Sh!t! Their bunny!" and then after a couple of seconds I was like, "Oh yeah, that plan changed."
*Whew!*

[Not Afraid]

HA! Buns stayed with us. She took over our bathroom and seems to be happy. The best part was seeing her interact with the cats. She got along with everyone except Aleister. They would have little stand-offs with Buns charging Aleister. GD says it's because they showed up wearing the same coat.

[BarTopDancer]

Welcome home!

[katiesue]

Welcome back, can't wait to hear all about it.

[libraryvixen]

Welcome home!

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Welcome home, you guys! Missed you muchly.

[Disneyphile]

Welcome back! Can't wait to see your pics! :)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Well, we've still got a LONG way to go before we manage to pare down our obscene amount of photos into a tolerable sized album, so I'll just post a summary of highlights.

Chicago
* Started day 1 in Oak Park, site of Frank Lloyd Wright's first home and studio, as well as having the largest collection of existing Wright-designe homes. The walking tour of the neighborhood and the guided tour of the home and studio were stellar, and we couldn't have asked for a better day. I will be harboring unrealistic desires to live in that neighborhood for a long time.
* Our hotel was in the water tower district, just a block away from the Hancock. So night one we had dinner at the Drake Bros., whcih was having a steak sale, buy 1 steak, get a second for $.01. Weird, but I wasn't going to argue. Then we went to the Hancock observatory for a night view of the city. I can't stress how weird it is to not see a hill or a mountain anywhere.
* Museum of Contemporary Art had a wonderful exhibit of rock and roll/post-punk art from late 60's on. Great stuff, well put together. The one installation that stuck with me was a room whose floor was tiled with vintage vinyl (White Album, Tommy, etc.). It felt so...wrong to be walking on them. And then there was the group of school kids who walked in with their docent, looked at the floor and said, "CD's!" :eek:
*River North gallery district. I could spend a month there alone. Galleries and stores full of interest and intrigue, whether I liked the individual art or not.
* Deep dish stuffed pizza = fantastic. (Gino's East, if anyone would like to know)
* Oh what a beautiful racket the El makes!
* Caught a Second City show that was hillariously brilliant.
* Museum of Science and Industry - surreal to finally be in the coal mine as described by both of our parents our whole lives. Creepy to be on the top floor with informative computer displays about basic sciences that literally have not been updated since 1985. A video of Julia Childs making "Primordial Soup." Yikes.
* Wrigley. There wouldn't have been a game to attend even if I had gotten tickets, but we did at least have to walk around the Field. It's beautiful, next trip will definitely be during the season.

And that's just the quick highlights. With the caveat that I have no idea how I'd survive winter, that's a city I could live in.

I'm glad we did Chicago first as a warm up to New York. I hadn't been to NY for about 15 years, so I couldn't trust my memory 100%, but it was may impression that Chicago was far less dense in terms of the hustle and bustle of people traffic. Boy was I right, which gives Chicago a leg up in my book. I adore visiting Manhattan and its nonstop manic energy, but would prefer the relative calm of Chicago for long term living.

Anyway....

New York
* Lucked out big time with weather. First two days were positively gorgeous, sunny, and warm. Later in the week it got cloudy and muggy, but didn't rain as the weather reports kept threatening until a small bit on Friday.
* Liberty and Ellis, powerful as ever. We didn't figure out the song and dance about reserving a time slot to get into the base to see the museum or climb to her foot, but whatever. Just being on the island is experience enough and I think I just would have been pining for the days of the crown visits anyway. As descendants of the very people from whom come the mythos of that statue and that island, it's feels very personal to be there. And, even accounting for the extra-positive spin that was surly put on the information, it's nice to learn that for all of the exhaustion and confusion that the immigrants surely went through, the process was (at least until quotas came around) weighted on the side of helping rather than turning away as many people as they could.
* Oh that the Great Park might have even a fraction of what Central Park has.
* The Met, awesome as ever, but bloody hell do I hate the layout. We got so lost in there. By the time we got there, we had long since given up on trying to take it easy, it's just not in us. Too much to see and do to slow down and take our time. But the Met definitely put us over the top on the exhaustion scale. But oh so worth it. I'll let the photos (eventually) speak to the highlights there.
* MOMA/Gougenheim. We just can't get enough moderm/contemporary art. It fuels us and the whole time all we could think was, "Why don't we go to museums at home more?!" MOMA has an awesome design/product exhibit with every type of commercial design you can think of. Furniture, cars, typography (Helvetica's 40 years old!), a print out of a ca. 1995 IBM DRAM chip layout. Drool.
* Food. Got a great slice of pizza (Marco Polo pizza, SE corner of 92nd and Madison, near the Goug), corned beef and cheesecake at Lindy's, great meal and drink at Opia (second floor lounge/restaurant at 57th and Lex), and an otherwise perfect filet at "Above" in the Times Square Hilton that for reasons beyond me had some sort of mayonnaise sauce on it. Hooray food.
* Broadway. Spring Awakening was really fun. Issues with the last act being loose and rushed, and they short-shrifted the gay side plot leaving it at pure comic relief instead of challenging the audience. But the music is great, the performers were energetic and really talented. And my Young Frankenstein review is elsewhere.
* Empire State building kinda sucked. Not only was it cloudy, but the staff was surly, over-directing us when we didn't need it and failing to help us when we did, rudely yelling at us for going the "wrong way" when the "wrong way" meant going straight for an elevator instead of listening to a stupid sales pitch for stupid blue-screened photos. Much better experiences at Hancock and Sears Tower in Chicago.
* Driving. Never drive in Manhattan. Especially after spending 4 days as a pedestrian where traffic lights are lovely decoration to be largely ignored, not a good habit to be in behind the wheel. More stress than I needed.
* Ghostland Observatory at Webster Hall was outstanding. Brutally awesome stage presence, stellar venue. So glad we did it.

Gah, this was supposed to be a quick summary! I haven't even gotten into our Detroit and Boston side trips!! But that's a pretty good overview. I'm highly satisfied. Taking for granted the few bits of poor logistical planning we did regarding the overall travel schedule, I don't think I'd have changed a thing. There is of course a laundry list of things we never got to, but those are easily filed under "next time".

Oh, and on a final note, on the last day, taking the train from Boston back to NY, we FINALLY got to see fall colors, which were late in coming to everywhere else we'd been. Just...wow.

Phew, okay, I'm done, I swear.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I was hoping you'd post it so I wouldn't have to. :D

[Kevy Baby]

Susan and I were leaving New York (from a much shorter visit) just as you were arriving. It is funny how many of our experiences paralleled yours. If yu don't mind me piggy-backing on your thread:

New York
* Lucked out big time with weather. First two days were positively gorgeous, sunny, and warm. Later in the week it got cloudy and muggy, but didn't rain as the weather reports kept threatening until a small bit on Friday.The weather was amazing while we were there. cool, crisp fall air.
* Liberty and Ellis, powerful as ever. We didn't figure out the song and dance about reserving a time slot to get into the base to see the museum or climb to her foot, but whatever. Just being on the island is experience enough and I think I just would have been pining for the days of the crown visits anyway. As descendants of the very people from whom come the mythos of that statue and that island, it's feels very personal to be there. And, even accounting for the extra-positive spin that was surly put on the information, it's nice to learn that for all of the exhaustion and confusion that the immigrants surely went through, the process was (at least until quotas came around) weighted on the side of helping rather than turning away as many people as they could.We actually made the rezzies to go in the base. With that privilege, we also received the honor of waiting in another 1-1/2 hour line for a second security check (after the initial hour wait to get onto the boat. For what we got to see, it was NOT worth the extra wait. Because of the additional wait, we did not get to see Ellis (for which I am now disappointed), and we ended up missing our Sunday matinée for Avenue Q (though they did honor our tickets for the evening performance).
* Oh that the Great Park might have even a fraction of what Central Park has.I never understood the fuss about Central Park until I walked through it.
* The Met, awesome as ever, but bloody hell do I hate the layout. We got so lost in there. By the time we got there, we had long since given up on trying to take it easy, it's just not in us. Too much to see and do to slow down and take our time. But the Met definitely put us over the top on the exhaustion scale. But oh so worth it. I'll let the photos (eventually) speak to the highlights there.I agree on the layout - especially with the one large section closed for remodeling. But I could easily spend a couple of (full) days in that museum!
* Food. Got a great slice of pizza (Marco Polo pizza, SE corner of 92nd and Madison, near the Goug), corned beef and cheesecake at Lindy's, great meal and drink at Opia (second floor lounge/restaurant at 57th and Lex), and an otherwise perfect filet at "Above" in the Times Square Hilton that for reasons beyond me had some sort of mayonnaise sauce on it. Hooray food.OMG, the food! Whether it is the bagel and coffee at the diner across from our hotel to the wonderful steak at Bond 45 (food always tastes a little better when someone else pays for it) to the AMAZING BBQ at Virgils (44th at Broadway - just off of Times Square) and even the pretzels from the street vendors - Manhattan is all about the food.
* BroadwayI loved Avenue Q. And I am always amazed at how small the theatres are in NY. Also on our list of contenders were Spamalot and The Putnam County 25th Annual Spelling Bee. And while we were there, we also thought Xanadu might be fun!

By the end of our two days there, I was finally starting to get the hang of the subway.

And after we left, I really had a strong desire to live there for a year or so. I think one winter would be all I could handle. But there is so much to experience there, I think I would need a year to experience it all.

Sorry for the highjack!

[Prudence]

If you want to do the base of the statute with less fuss, you have to be in the first group of the day.

[Stan4dSteph]

Sthe AMAZING BBQ at Virgils (44th at Broadway - just off of Times Square)Love Virgil's! You know you're getting serious when your napkin is actually a hand towel.

You might want to try Blue Smoke next time. There's a bit of a BBQ war between the two. Blue Smoke is more KC style.

[Kevy Baby]

Love Virgil's! You know you're getting serious when your napkin is actually a hand towel.

You might want to try Blue Smoke next time. There's a bit of a BBQ war between the two. Blue Smoke is more KC style.I am a huge fan of the dry rub ribs at Virgils. It had been 14 years since my last visit, so there was no way I was going to miss it!

[NirvanaMan]

Welcome back. You both have a nice ass grab waiting for ya next time I see you.

[Gemini Cricket]

Sayyy, I had surly service at the Empire State Building, too.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Sayyy, I had surly service at the Empire State Building, too.
At least they weren't as combative as the airport employees at JFK when we left. In the span of 20 minutes we witnessed 4 arguments. 2 between employees and customers, and 2 between airport employees themselves! And the place wasn't even busy, there were like 10 people checking bags and going through to security. I shudder to imagine it when they're under actual stress.

Forgot to relate the most bizarre occurrence of the entire trip. On Tuesday we went to the Met where we had lunch on the rooftop cafe/sculpture garden. There I spotted a dude who was a dead ringer for Ned "Kingsley Zissou" Plimpton. Bright orange beanie, light blue shirt, looked kinda like Owen Wilson (or at least enough so in that outfit).

But that's not the bizarre part. Flash forward to Friday, attempting to drive through Manhattan, somewhere near Canal and Centre street, I notice a six foot tall bicycle (not one of those old-timey ones with the one big wheel, just a modern bike modified to be really tall) pull into the oncoming left turn lane. I look up at the rider...and see a bright orange beanie and an Owen-Wilson-like face! :eek: w....t....f?!

On a side note, what the hell are you supposed to do on one of those crazy things if you have to stop?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

To add to the story - GD and I were very stressed trying to drive around. There was this great moment where the tension clouds parted. Both of us just looked at the guy on the bicycle, looked at each other, and said, "It's him. The Zissou guy we saw earlier. Weird." If he hadn't been wearing the beanie again we would have never noticed.

[innerSpaceman]

what ever in the world impulsed you to attempt driving in Manhattan?



yes, you recognize the sheer madness now, but what could have possessed you?!?

[Ghoulish Delight]

what ever in the world impulsed you to attempt driving in Manhattan?It was not my first choice, but we altered our travel plans at the last minute to accommodate the Ghostland Observaotry show on Friday which left us checked out of our hotel all day with nowhere to put our bags and needing to have a rental car ready for late-night departure.

It honestly wouldn't have been so bad had I done the driving at the beginning of the week. But I could literally feel my thought processes being slowed considerably by having to retrain myself to look at traffic signals first. It very difficult to simultaneously concentrate on figuring out whether any given pedestrian was actually going to walk in front of me or if he was just going to get as close as possible to the lane so as to save that extra millisecond of walking time once I passed. Either type of pedestrian was always a possibility and they are completely indistinguishable in manner until the moment that they either stop or keep going.

[Kevy Baby]

It was not my first choice, but we altered our travel plans at the last minute to accommodate the Ghostland Observaotry show on Friday which left us checked out of our hotel all day with nowhere to put our bags and needing to have a rental car ready for late-night departure.For future reference, you can usually leave your bags at the hotel, even after you have checked out. Susan and I have done that on both of our excursions.

Actually, on our first trip (14 years ago), we actually were able to leave our luggage at a hotel in Manhattan for the day that we weren't even staying at!

I just make sure to tip the bellman well!

[innerSpaceman]

Also for future reference, you have to drive in Manhattan for years to learn the collective body language of NYC pedestrian intentions.

[Ghoulish Delight]

For future reference, you can usually leave your bags at the hotel, even after you have checked out. Susan and I have done that on both of our excursions.

Actually, on our first trip (14 years ago), we actually were able to leave our luggage at a hotel in Manhattan for the day that we weren't even staying at!

I just make sure to tip the bellman well!This wasn't a standard hotel, it's a converted brownstone. And we needed the car anyway, so it's all the same.

[Ghoulish Delight]

OMG, we did it. Sorted through the photos, resized them, uploaded them, even captioned them.

We cut it down to a total of fewer than 500. Okay, that's still a lot of photos, but did we mention we started with 2000? So there.

Anyway...

Chicago (http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=album&var1=Chicago+-+Oct+2007/&var2=0)
Detroit (http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=album&var1=Detroit+-+Oct+2007/&var2=0)
New York (http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=album&var1=New+York+-+Oct++2007/&var2=0)
Boston (http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=album&var1=Boston+-+Oct+2007/&var2=0)

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Credit where it's due - GD did most of the work, as I've been busy with other things (and he can work on it at work, too).

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

Great pics - what a great adventure!

[Kevy Baby]

Cool pix - thanks for sharing.

It was funny looking at some of the Met, Central Park, Times Square, and Statue of Liberty shots and realizing that we were there just a couple of days before you.

And somehow, I totally missed the musical instruments at the Met - where were they?

[Ghoulish Delight]

And somehow, I totally missed the musical instruments at the Met - where were they?Hahahah, I couldn't have told you if we were standing in the museum with a map in our hands. The layout of that place completely confounded me. Umm, upstairs somewhere, I believe above the arms and armor.

[Kevy Baby]

How true. I think the Egypt thing was off to the right and I think the arms and armor were back towards the left - lower level if I recall correctly.

And I think the roof was at the top.

[Snowflake]

Oh boy, those pics at the Met & Central Park make me want to go back to NY, soon! I love NY. Kevy, you're right, the Egyptian Wing is to the right upon entering, and it's an all day thing in itself. I also love the American Glass stuff, too. It's a fabulous museum as is the Guggenheim, duh.

Your pics from SF in 2006 are fun too!

All good stuff!

[DreadPirateRoberts]

This is my favorite picture so far. It came out fantastic!

http://www.jenniegreg.com/Gallery/main.php?cmd=image&var1=Chicago+-+Oct+2007%2F053.jpg&var2=0_0

[lashbear]

Blue screen photos - We need to stamp out these eyesores before everywhere has them.

We got harassed during our Alcatraz trip "Just stop here, sir, we're taking photos of all our passengers... " Not these passengers, you're not, sister. Oh, also at Hearst Castle on exiting the tour.

Makes these places of beauty seem really cheap and ugly to a tourist, I gotta tell you.

Avenue Q - OMG, I hate you !!!! :p I'd give my right.. er, well, I'd really like to see this.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I should be sleeping right now but instead, I had to make myself completely homesick by going through all the NY photos. Oh, the memories.

Great photos! And what looks to have been a most wonderful trip. :)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh boy, those pics at the Met & Central Park make me want to go back to NY, soon! I love NY. Kevy, you're right, the Egyptian Wing is to the right upon entering, and it's an all day thing in itself. I also love the American Glass stuff, too. It's a fabulous museum as is the Guggenheim, duh.The American wing is undergoing a major remodel, so they've closed off most of the gallery space. They must also be working on the storage space as well because in the space that's remaining open, they have what appear to be miles of storage shelves with just tons and tons of stuff, unlabled except with catalog number and then some reference computers which appeared to be the collection database. So a whole row of silver, then a whole row of glass. And not just an example of this glass and example of that glass, but whole sets, 12 of the same glass, then a stack of the same plates, etc. It was pretty awesome.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Bloody hell. I made the mistake of updating the photo album software that's hosting these photos. The new version is failing to display the captions we so carefully entered. The data is there but it's not being shown. :mad:

[Snowflake]

I tried downloading the software which I thought was cool looking and it baffled me completely!:blush:

[Ghoulish Delight]

The creator isn't a native English speaker, so his instructions aren't always completely clear. If you'd like help setting it up I'd be happy to assist. Once it's up and running on your site, it's pretty easy to work with.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Wow, that's disappointing. The guy basically said, "It'd be possible to make a script to automatically port existing captions into the new format...but that'd take too much time so forget it." I otherwise love his product, and can't complain too loudly as it's free, but to make an upgrade that makes hours of my own input from previous versions obsolete is pretty lazy. If you're doing a new install of the new version, there's no issue, but I have had to revert back to the old version and will have to stick with it unless he decides to make a proper upgrade tool.

Aaanyway, crisis over, gallery back to normal.

[Alex]

Is there a strong user base? If so keep an eye out for other people creating that porting script.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Is there a strong user base? If so keep an eye out for other people creating that porting script.There does seem to be a decently large user base, enough that there's a pretty active forum. But I seem to be the only one mentioning this particular issue. It may be that I'm one of the few who's actually bothered to make use of the captioning feature so no one really cares.

[Strangler Lewis]

The creator isn't a native English speaker . . . .

He is in my religion, pal.

[Alex]

Wrong thread.

[Snowflake]

The creator isn't a native English speaker, so his instructions aren't always completely clear. If you'd like help setting it up I'd be happy to assist. Once it's up and running on your site, it's pretty easy to work with.

I'd like that! I have my meager set of Mexico photos I'd like to get up somewhere, someday!