Priya Visits the Big Apple

So I wanted to start this post with the reason it was even possible. Aaron. He was invited to speak at an Audio Engineering Society Conference in NY about AVB technology. Here is the bio his boss wrote up for him. I had a few tears run down my cheeks the first time I read it. I am so proud of him and grateful for the many opportunities Harman has given him.

Aaron Gelter is a senior engineer for Harman International’s Corporate Technology Group. Aaron has been involved with AVB for many years and was responsible for the first known examples of Media Clock Recovery from an AVB stream, Harman’s pro audio AVB NIC, the world’s first AVB camera, etc.

Aaron graduated from Utah State University in 2008 with a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. His publications include "New Simulation and Test Results for IEEE 802.1AS Timing Performance", which won Best Paper at the 2009 IEEE Symposium on Precision Clock Synchronization. He has also submitted several AVB-related patent applications.

He spoke on his panel and felt good about it afterwards. He also enjoyed attending many of the different presentations about his passion, audio engineering.

Now to the trip stuff: We flew out on the red eye knowing it would be miserable, but it was the best option. Priya was the only baby on the flight and you would have thought I was bringing a bomb onto the plane with all of the dirty looks I got. Honestly I was more annoyed with the woman who was only one seat away from Priya and me who seemed to have tuberculous with all the hacking she was doing. Not that there was any reason to be annoyed with Priya. She was an angel and slept the majority of the way. When we landed and got off the plane people were passing us thanking her for being so good. There were many prayers said over the matter since she is the best screamer we know. I held her the entire flight because once she was asleep I didn't dare pass her off so I wasn't able to sleep. Because of our flight schedule and hotel check in time there were 6 hours where we had no place to land. Priya got her first train and subway ride that morning on the way to the hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right in the center of Time Square. We were hoping they'd take our luggage so I would at least be able to go somewhere. To our delight they searched for a while and found us a fresh clean room and let us check in at 8 a.m. no extra charge!!! I wanted to kiss the man at the front desk I was that excited! Aaron standing right next to me was the only thing that kept my lips in line.

Look at her exhausted eyes even though she slept for the entire 5 hour flight she normally get's 10-12 hours of sleep each night. This was taken right as we put her down after being held for 8 hours straight.

And this is when the joy and relief set in. You can see her Dad behind her. He also got very little sleep. He realized how likely it was he'd fall asleep on that bed so he jumped up, got ready for the conference and kissed us goodbye.

I made Priya a bottle which she fed herself while I was in and out of wakefulness. Then we cuddled up and slept for 4 hours. Marriott beds are heavenly, especially after the red eye.

I woke up and looked out our window and it really hit me, "You're in New York Meg! Holy *#%^!" This is the view from our window and if that building with the green roof were yellow I would have been asking the door man for George & Hundlee's autographs. We had a great view of the harbor.

This guy was up on this roof working out of the window the entire time we were there! I hope he made good money because I kid you not, he was up there working constantly.

After we woke up I let the girl play for a bit and I freshened up. She found the complimentary pen and had fun. oops! We took a little walk through Times Square to Walgreens for the baby supplies I didn't want to pack along. Priya loved being out in the city. She was saying "Hi" left and right. She never complained like she often does in her stroller from being bored. She was plenty stimulated. Wouldn't it be interesting to see NY from the height of about my knee? You'd see a lot of feet.

We met up with Aaron a little later to head to Ground Zero. It was a pretty simple plan: meet at the corner of 42nd and Penn. Well it didn't go as well as we'd hoped. I stopped to call Aaron once I thought I was in the right place and while I was on the phone realized there were some shady gentlemen around me. Not 2 minutes later a well dressed businessman showed up and a drug deal went down right in front of me. It was all I could do to not pee my pants. I rushed off trying not to make eye contact and headed to where Aaron was, across the street. Then we were on the same corner on the phone trying to find each other. Lots of people. Once we were ready to leave we were 30 minutes behind schedule and panicked we wouldn't make it into for our scheduled visit. We figured we try anyway, no use in not trying after coming all that way. We arrived, they checked our tickets and we were allowed to get in line. We looked at the tickets more closely and they allow you to be up to 30 minutes tardy. We barely made it in time! There was lots of security and waiting to get in but it was worth the wait.

Waiting, that's the new Freedom Tower behind us.

Wiggle worm had to be passed back and forth because our arms would get tired. The weather got kind of nasty while we were waiting, windy and it started to snow, but nothing terrible. Aaron was so excited by the Freedom Tower, it's going to be an awesome building!

Bundled up and not loving the stroller.

A better view of the Freedom Tower from inside the memorial.

Waiting to enter the memorial was hustled and busy but as soon as we entered it felt reverent. It was breathtaking.

It was very sureal to be there and to remember the many people killed in the 911 attacks.

The names glowing in the night is what got me. These people are real, they had families, some of their families were there weeping as they placed flowers on their names. I'm glad we ended up there at twilight, it was beautiful. When we finished we started talking about food. We knew we wanted Pizza, but it was late enough we didn't feel like going into Brooklyn to the place we had picked out so we talked with some police officers and read some reviews and headed back uptown to the #2 pizza joint for NY City not far from our hotel: JOHN's Pizzeria. As we got off the subway it was like we'd made the right choice because as we came up the stairs there is was right in front of us. The reviews didn't lie, the pizza was amazing!

We sat right next to one of their 3 brick ovens. The place was really dark and my picture is even darker, but yeah that's what that is.

It used to be a church and one of the main walls is etched with a mural of Manhattan.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. These were taken right in front of our hotel.

{I had no way of seeing the back of my head so this is what I resorted to.}

After a decent night's sleep (Priya wasn't a huge fan of the hotel crib), Aaron went to the conference to present and I stayed in until after morning nap. My attitude about the trip wasn't "MUST SEE EVERYTHING!" That's impossible and I knew it just wouldn't happen with Priya along. So instead I looked at the trip as something different, a chance to have some one-on-one with Priya and an adventure with my husband. The sights I got to see were a bonus and spending the morning in a chair looking out the window while holding my sleeping baby girl, well that's a golden moment folks!

After nap Priya and I geared up for a long walk and some exploration. We headed for High Line Park, a kind of local secret Aaron's Uncle & Aunt told us about before our trip. It was as lovely as they described it. On the walk across town, which was over 20 blocks, I was amazed by how I'd be on one street and feel completely safe then I'd turn the corner and be terrified. I was proud of myself for navigating the city and actually finding the park.

The park is on an old raised rail road track that runs through the city. This is why we didn't bother renting a car.

I thought it was an excellent way to enjoy some of the architecture of the area. I really love the older brick buildings and marvel at their age and history.

You can see the tracks in this photo.

All one building. I wish I could have researched these magnificent buildings more; their original purpose, how old they are, how their purpose has changed over time. So neat!

Down this Urban Canyon and under that walkway I spotted Lady Liberty. First time I've laid eyes on her. I thought I should take a picture from that spot. The next photo is zoomed in as far as possible to prove to you that I'm telling the truth.

Priya was an Angel. We walked through the park at the same time as this darling couple. They must have been expecting their first because the woman would just go all gooey every time she saw Priya. Then her husband would wrap his arms around her and they'd gaze at our Priya. It was cute and we bumped into each other on and off for 2 hours.

We finished were we started and by that point she was fast a sleep. When we first arrived I sat down indian style on this bench and sat Priya right in front of me to feed her. Well this is right by one of two entrances to the park and she got oodles of attention.

I just thought this was so beautiful. This was an art studio. Aaron wasn't far from us and I had him walk through the park with us on our way up to Chelsey's Market. The market was such a fun and busy place.

Priya was in awe of these fantastic cupcakes, so were we. We went into this bakery and had some of the yummiest cookies.

The poor girl had such a long and very busy day that she just crashed. She slept the entire trip back uptown.

We decided to go to Stardust Diner for dinner. It was a bit of a wait and we were so annoyed with the lack of organization and chaos on our empty tummies, but we got over it once we were seated. Thanks for the tip, Teresa! They had to be breaking some sort of occupancy code, the people next to us had to move their tables for us to be seated and we were shoulder to shoulder. Good thing we ended up next to friendly people.

Stardust staff is made up of aspiring Broadway performers and they're good! It was our way of seeing a musical even though we had the baby along.

Go figure, Priya got her second wind at the diner. The place was rockin' and SO loud.

Yeah, she was pretty much dancing on my head.

The food was good and the energy was even better. The oreo shake really hit the spot!

She wasn't thrilled about being bundled up again.

We wondered in and out of the stores on Time Square before calling it a night.

When we got up to the room Lynnie had fallen asleep and when we laid her down she didn't move a muscle. LOL. It was sad to wake her for a bath. Aaron snuck across the street to Junior's and came back with a slice of NY Cheesecake. It was so good, until we found a hair in it. We finished it trying to pretend the incident hadn't occured. I felt like Rachael and Joey in Friends eating the cheesecake off of the floor. It was just that good. We let Priya have the tiniest of nibbles, it was her vacation as well. Of course she loved it!

The next day we had to change hotels and ended up in Rockefeller Plaza. This is on the way over and Aaron really wanted a photo of him with Radio City in it.

He was excited.

I was in love with the flowers on every corner.

Urban Canyon and a look of the Chrysler building, my favorite!

Grand Central Station! So incredible to see it restored. It was unreal to me. We went in and bought ourselves tickets to a little town called Cold Springs. The line went up the Hudson River to this quaint town.

We ate at this little Tuscan restaurant. After lunch we went to explore the town. It was like going back in time.

Fall in New York.

We found this church and I was just like, "ba ba really?" Cool!

Aaron peeked inside to see if we could explore, but they were in the middle of service.

Again, I wish I could have researched a little more about these awesome places we were in.

This church was right on the river and dated 1833.

It was so pretty along the river. On the shore just across from here is West Point military academy. The train ride back wasn't enjoyable. It was packed and once we got on everyone stopped moving and there was nowhere to go so we were standing in the isle. A gentleman (a genuine one) gave me a seat because I had Priya. I got talking with the woman next to me who has ridden that train everyday for years and she said she had never seen it that busy.

We were too tired to go out for dinner so we asked the girl at the front desk to recommend her favorite pizza place that would deliver because we were craving it again. It's just SO yummy. Priya could tell we liked it and started crawling after it. We saw he army crawl a little before the trip, but when she was after the pizza she was a maniac. We'd push the pizza away from her and pull her back and the next thing we knew she was in the box.

This is Aaron just being awfully mean with his teasing.

I love my nerdy husband; at both hotels he set up our ROKU so we could stream Netflix when we were in the hotel while Priya would rest. Priya fell fast asleep this night and as we got ready to cuddle in for an episode of "Raising Hope", a new favorite, I looked at Aaron and said, "I want a cupcake. Will you go find me a cupcake?" It was almost 11 and he wasn't sure he could accomplish my request. He tried anyways and he came back with something magical enough to appear on the table at Hogwarts.

Thinking about it even now makes me want to cry because I know I may NEVER taste something so luscious again. :'(

Seriously, devastated here just remembering the flavors. We went back right before we left for our flight and carried a handful home. It's probably for the best we don't have cupcakes like this here. Each of those cupcakes was $3.50 a piece. I'm pretty sure I'd spend a small fortune on them if I had access to them and I'd be overweight.

Our last morning in New York we woke up early and rushed like crazy to make it to the harbor in time for our boat tour.

We snapped pictures as we went around the island.

A better view and from the angle it was meant to greet people.

Brooklyn Bridge is amazing! All of the bridges are.

She didn't sleep well the previous night so she slept through the first half of the tour.

I don't know why but I'm obsessed with the rooftop water tanks. After our tour we had to rush back to our hotel to check out on time. We were so rushed and we weren't sure we'd have enough time to do anything else besides get lunch. I was starting to get upset about not making it to Central Park so once again Aaron was great and he kept up the motivation to get things done quickly in hopes of having enough time to visit the park and we made it!

We picked up some Chapotle and ate in the park. This is where we ate lunch, nice spot right?!

Now I was really excited about being there, but not so much about my picture being taken. Priya got me dirty earlier in the day and I only had a few clean options and there was no time to do my hair so I wore a hat. Needless to say not the most stylish outfit, boarder-line embarrassing.

HeHe, told ya. A cute smile though!

I'm so grateful to Aaron for making it happen. Our trip back to the airport via the subway was awful for multiple reasons and one so disgusting I'll spare you, but we made it. We were very delayed and when we arrived at our terminal the security line was out the door and so I despaired that we weren't going to make our flight. I was especially worried about Aaron who had to wait in the bag check line and then get in the security line. But Priya came to the rescue! Having a baby when flying does have it's perks like getting to go to the front of the line and getting her daddy out of the super long line as well. We weren't in the same row on the way home but close to each other so we passed Priya back and forth over the seats. Awesome, right? Aaron got her to sleep and she slept the entire flight again. It was great to be home and my parents brought Porter to our house so he wouldn't have to be up until midnight waiting for us.

The next morning will be a memory I probably keep forever. We of course went in and kissed our boy in his sleep, but when he woke up that morning was awesome. Aaron and I went in together and Porter just freaked out. He was yelling, clapping, jumping, just completely freaked out with excitement. He couldn't believe we were back! He'd come over and hug me and just stare at me for a second and then kiss me. It was so sweet! When Priya woke up we brought Porter in and she had the complete opposite reaction. She was obviously upset that we were home and that she had to share us again. We thought she would be excited to see Porter but his enthusiasm at seeing her overwhelmed her and she cried. We couldn't help but laugh.

It was a rejuvinating trip and I'm so glad we got to go. However, it's always nice to come home and it's even better to be a complete family.

*I'm hoping to do a post from Porter about his vacation from us. He had just as much fun as us.*