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Following the Beatles to Abbey Road + Other British Treats

Sunday, Sept 18, 2016 – Day 5 of London

<—Previously, we avoided imprisonment at the Tower of London

We only had one thing planned on Sunday, and that was the walking tour with London Walks called Magical Mystery Tour, which obviously represents the Beatles! Yep, it was Beatles time. But that wasn’t until 11am, so we were able to sleep in quite a bit, which was nice. We then headed a block or so from the hotel to a Cote Patisserie for breakfast, and it was wonderful. French, and we no longer cared about making it British. :-).

The Magical Mystery Tour London Walk

This is the route we would walk throughout central London during this tour

Another cool thing after going back to the room was realizing the meetup point was the Tottenham Court Road station, which was walking distance and one we’d been to many times. SoHo is a great place to be. We met there and immediately saw a few cute guys also in the group, and all was well. There was one who looked so much like Liam Hemsworth, but cuter. Hard to believe, but yes. There was also a hot guy that looked a bit like David Schwimmer, but way hotter. Anyway, so the tour! We immediately learned that we had been staying and walking amongst music history while being based in our SoHo hotel. We learned that as the tour first went back to SoHo Park as that’s where Paul McCartney’s music offices are. HOLY SHIT. Then around the corner from our hotel is Trident Studios, where a large part of the 60s and 70s music was recorded, including a big part of the White Album, David Bowie’s awesome stuff, Queen, Elton John, Carly Simon, Genesis….etc. Lots of awesomeness.

The tour then took us over to the Palladium where Beatlemania was born, Carnaby Street where the Swinging 60s epicenter was, Savile Row and where the previous Apple HQ was and also the site of the last Beatles performance on its Rooftop, as well as the alley area that has both the hottest club where Keith Moon asked to be in the Beatles along with the art gallery where John met Yoko. CRAZY.

Off to Abbey Road!!!!!!!

But the absolute best was yet to come, as we all then took the Jubilee line a few stops north to St John’s Wood, which is the closest Tube stop to Abbey Road!!!!!

Yep, we ended the tour at Abbey Road Studios, which of course is where most of the Beatles output was recorded as well as the location of the crosswalk best seen in the Abbey Road album cover.  So yeah, after the tour ended there, we all took pictures on the crosswalk.  Larry & I got a few good pictures solo, but I finally asked someone if they could take our picture together on the crosswalk and it turned out fantastically.   Yay!  We then went into the gift shop at Abbey Road and ended up buying most souvenirs there that we’d bought the entire trip.  It was a magical place and a great gift shop.

Tea Time!

Once ready to leave, we then returned back into London. Larry had noticed a restaurant that indicated it had afternoon tea on our walk to the Tube station, and that was one thing I’d wanted to do. So we had filed that away and so came back to it, having afternoon tea! The tea was very good, but there’s a lot to it that I’m not sure about. Finger sandwiches really weren’t to my liking and most of the cakes were not something I’d like. But happily, there was also chocolate cake and a glass of prosecco. I’m glad to have done it. May not need to do it again, although the tea was great.

Strolling to Buckingham Palace and into the Churchill War Rooms

It was a great break though. At this point, with it being our last full day in London, we only had a limited time left to do stuff. So we decided to do a swoop of Buckingham Palace, St James Palace and end it with the Imperial War Rooms. We tried to walk by the St James Palace and see the Palace Guard you can take pictures with, but the entire place was fenced off. FEH. We did stop by outside Buckingham Palace for pictures (no inside visits), then to the Queen’s Gift shop off to the side of the Palace to pick up Oliver!! We have a new Corgi puppy now. Ralphie will be pleased, I’m sure. After that, we walked through the park until we got to the War Rooms museum. It is amazing. I went there back in 2002 and remember it a little, but kind of get it confused with the Imperial War Museum, I think. So it was a lot of fun and it’s very informative of a museum. I really do want to get some WW2 books into my collection and read about it more – Churchill is such an amazing figure. There really were some ‘right people, right time, right place’ situations. It’s hard to believe.

Back through Trafalgar Square to get some Indian food at Kishoom

After that, as we were there until it closed, we walked back through town, through Trafalgar Square, and then Larry navigated us to Dishoom, a fantastic Indian restaurant in London. There was a line outside, and it’s worth it. We probably had to wait an hour or so, but again, so worth it. The first stop after getting out of the line outside was downstairs to the bar, where we did chat with a solo black woman from Bermuda. That wasn’t too long though as we then had our table back on the main level. The food was amazing, the wait staff were so helpful, there was a super hot waiter that wasn’t ours but biceps for days, and was a wonderful way to wipe out the memory of the disappointing Ippudo. Larry was happy!!!

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel through our wonderful SoHo neighborhood. We were done with bars and food at that point and it was time to go back and relax. Yay! Sleepy time and a nice and great end to a wonderful trip.

Monday, Sept 19, 2016 – Going Home

Feb 2020: I’m writing this from waayyy in the future, a very sad future, but I want to put up as much Larry stuff as I can, and to close off my Travelogue open-ended pictures, as I got lazy.  

I don’t know how I managed to miss posting our going-home pictures, but here we are.  Happily I did write some notes down for that last day, so here they are to explain things:

This morning, it was time to finally pack and get ourselves ready for the journey home.  We did get our shit organized first before grabbing some breakfast at this place called Princi, which seemed like an Italian joint of some sort with some super hot rough trade that Larry immediately loved.    Can’t blame him.  But then it was time to finalize and go.  So we checked out.  Sadly, but okay honestly.

It was an amazing honeymoon and vacation, and I know both Larry & I are going to have interesting returns to work,  but I think we’re both ready to go home.

We made our way by foot to Oxford Circus Station to then take the Bakerloo line to Paddington Station, which is where you take the Heathrow Express train.  We first turned in our Oyster cards at the Tourist office so we could get our 5 pound refundable amount back, so yay.  Then it was off to the train, which we just made.  At the airport, it was awesome to still have business class privileges and then check in via express, which we did and avoided the riff raff as we then spent the time until boarding in the Admiral’s Club lounge.  Yes, it’s awesome.

Once on the plane, we’ve watched some Bryan Cranston films that are fantastic:  All the Way (an LBJ biopic of his first year in office) and Trumbo (about Dalton Trumbo, a blacklisted screenwriter).  Good movies!  And now I’m watching The Meddler, with Susan Sarandon.  It’s okay.  Got about 4 more hours left to go until we land.  Here’s hoping we can somehow recover from the jet lag.

Honeymoon Picture Pages:

Off to Scottsdale! Oh, More Pics too…

So for the rest of the week, I’m going to be in Scottsdale, AZ for a work event.  I just looked at the temperatures for the week – a jacket will not be necessary.  This weather reminds me why I’m in no rush to live in Arizona or to ever move back to Las Vegas.

So to get these photos out while they still are fresh in my head, here are the rest of the pics from this past week back East!

May 28, 2015 – LAX when on my way to Newark

This was the beginning of my journey.  It was also the beginning of a very shitty set of flights, leading to me getting very little sleep.  I have complained before about this fact.  Anyway, for my flight from LAX, I actually had to take a shuttle bus from the American Airlines terminal over to the American Eagle satellite terminal.  This bus gives you a tarmac-level view of the airport and it’s kinda cool!

May 30, 2015 – Larry’s Actual Birthday while also Jake’s 6th Birthday Party

There was a big family event happening on Larry’s actual birthday, so we celebrated Larry’s the night before and after.  We headed over to his cousin’s amazing house where a very nice barbecue was being held, and it was a perfect chance to catch up with a lot of his family I normally don’t see all that much.  I love them all and it was a blast.

My pics (including our morning walk with Fran):

Jon’s pics:

May 31, 2015 – Seeing the Mad Men exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens

There is an AMAZING exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image all about the show Mad Men.  There are costumes, props, writers’ notes, etc all in an exhibition celebrating the show.  Incredibly and most impressively, the sets for Don’s office in the SC&P building as well as the old Draper kitchen were re-assembled here.  You can walk into them up to a point and it’s amazing.  All the little details you remember are in place too, like ashtrays, record players, and family knick-knacks.  A truly fascinating exhibit for a splendid show.

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the exhibit.  Feh!  But I did get some of the museum’s exterior as well as the drive to Queens from Ft Lee and back.  A must see though if you get the chance (it’s there until September of this year!).

June 3, 2015 – Visiting Alyssa, Jon & Stacey in New Jersey

June 1 & 2 were mostly focused around work.  I went to Boston on the 1st (up AND back) and it was exhausting.  Then i went into the city for work on the 2nd, getting back that night for Fran’s birthday dinner at a great Italian restaurant, which was a lot of fun.

But on the 3rd, it was the day when Fran & Larry were going to pick Stacey up from daycare.  So while they did that, I worked from Jon & Alyssa’s house.  Once they got back to the house, we then went to dinner – again, lots of good food and drink while getting to spend some extra time with Jon & Alyssa, which we don’t get to do all that often.

June 4, 2015 – Thursday in NYC

Thursday is the new Friday, as always, when it comes to going out in NYC.  Larry and I went into the city on the bus together that day, but while I went to work, he met up with Treva and had some adventures over by the new Whitney museum, which pictures you can see included in this collection.  I met up with Larry after work and then we headed over to Gramercy Park Hotel to have a drink (or three) with our awesome pal, Amy, who we met back in 2011 on our first Med cruise.  So much fun.   Larry & I then headed to dinner at Pigalle, the scene of our first date nearly 7 years ago.  Where’d the time go????

June 5, 2015 – Morgan Library with Stuart & Treva

Friday night we met up with Treva & Stuart to close out our time back east in a proper fashion.  It’s always necessary to see these guys as they’re also the best.  The meeting point was at the Morgan Library, which was truly J.P. Morgan’s stand-alone library that he had built for himself.  It’s fascinatingly over the top.  The museum has some modern additions that make it quite a stunning space, as you’ll see in the pics.  Of course the old-school libraries are stunning in quite a majestic way too.  A Lincoln exhibit was there but it was fairly mobbed so I didn’t see all the writings there, but a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation I did see so that was cool.

After the museum we ate a fun taco place in the Murray Hill area (I think) and then grabbed dessert at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.  The options for eating in NYC are endless and it’s wonderful.

June 6, 2015 – Going Home

Well, it was finally time to head home.  Honestly, I was more than ready for our own bed again!  I got back to LA first as we had booked our flights separately.  I ended up getting through a majority of a book that Nicki highly recommended, Ready Player One.  It’s realllly good and of course because it deals heavily in 1980’s pop culture and videogames, I’m totally invested.  It’s also a very fun story in and of itself, but the sheen of the 80s on it definitely makes it more interesting.

And the pictures are now caught up!  I’ll need to get some thoughts together on the movies I’ve seen over the past few weeks that I’ve neglected to write about, Pitch Perfect 2 and San Andreas.  Maybe tomorrow from Arizona!

Back From the City

It had been about 14 months since I had lost gone to New York City, but that dry spell has ended after this week!  I went back there for some additional training for my job and I have to say I definitely enjoy getting trained in NYC rather than in the Atlanta airport vicinity.   But that’s just me.   I’m very appreciative of this week’s training as I got an increased visibility into just what it is I can expect to be doing and I got to learn some valuable skills that I want to keep perfecting, especially in the Spotfire and Tableau realms.  I also met some great people who were also going through this session – networking, networking, networking!  The also fantastic part of this week was that Larry was also back in NYC with me, but he was here for his own job.  There’s also some hopeful news coming from there and which I hope to report on very soon.  Fingers crossed.

The time spent there certainly wasn’t a vacation although there was time in the evening to at least get out a little.  Walking around New York during the morning and evening rush hours was invigorating, and I got to recognize that even though I thought I was a fast-walker, Los Angeles speeds don’t compare at all to the NYC walking pace.  I was once one of their number, but you do chill a bit back here on the west coast.

Anyway, I took some pictures, of course, while back.  I revisited the United Nations (exterior, at least), finally got in and saw the Daily Planet globe, braved Grand Central Terminal, and of course the views of the PwC building in Midtown Manhattan.  So there’s pictures of those things, but not much more as it was damn cold while we were there.  Well, Larry is still there until tomorrow night, and apparently it snowed today.  I’m happy to be enjoying the 70-80 degree temps here.

Monday, March 16, 2015 – First Day back

16-Mar-2015 18:01, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 50
16-Mar-2015 18:01, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64
16-Mar-2015 18:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 50
 
16-Mar-2015 18:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 50
16-Mar-2015 18:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 320
A few of my favorite places
A few of my favorite places16-Mar-2015 18:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 50
 
16-Mar-2015 18:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 40
16-Mar-2015 18:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 125
16-Mar-2015 18:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 160
 
Los Angeles!
Los Angeles!16-Mar-2015 18:04, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.042 sec, ISO 250
My hotel for the week on the east side of 42nd St
My hotel for the week on the east side of 42nd St16-Mar-2015 18:06, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32
The lit-up Chrysler Building just down the street
The lit-up Chrysler Building just down the street16-Mar-2015 19:50, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 320
 
16-Mar-2015 19:50, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400
It's such a fantastic skyline component
It's such a fantastic skyline component16-Mar-2015 19:53, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 640
16-Mar-2015 20:06, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.067 sec, ISO 400
 

Oh Blue Smoke, how I missed thee.

Tuesday, March 17

Monday’s training was in one of the basement conference rooms, but Tuesday’s was on the 7th floor and hence we were afforded a bit of a view!  After training, I went to visit the exterior of the United Nations, as now that I’d built it in LEGO, I felt like I knew it.  I really loved taking a tour of the UN shortly before leaving NYC in 2010 – highly recommend it to anyone!  For dinner, I was on my own so I wandered to Grand Central’s restaurant concourse in the lower level and treated myself to Shake Shack.  Honestly, it wasn’t as good as I had remembered – maybe I’m truly an In-N-Out man?

17-Mar-2015 08:54, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 50
St Patty's day was slightly rainy in the morning
St Patty's day was slightly rainy in the morning17-Mar-2015 08:54, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 64
As you'll see, plenty of people took today off to drink regardless of rain or time of day
As you'll see, plenty of people took today off to drink regardless of rain or time of day17-Mar-2015 11:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 32
 
Yep - loud too
Yep - loud too17-Mar-2015 11:02, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 50
Lots and lots of celebration
Lots and lots of celebration17-Mar-2015 11:03, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 32
17-Mar-2015 11:12, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
 
The pwc logo awaits thee!
The pwc logo awaits thee!17-Mar-2015 15:11, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 32
17-Mar-2015 16:53, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
Grand Central feels like a special place and time within Midtown
Grand Central feels like a special place and time within Midtown17-Mar-2015 16:54, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
 
17-Mar-2015 16:54, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
The UN!
The UN!17-Mar-2015 17:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
17-Mar-2015 17:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
 
Bridges in the distance!
Bridges in the distance!17-Mar-2015 17:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
17-Mar-2015 17:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
17-Mar-2015 17:53, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
 

Wednesday, March 18

Back in the basement that day, but I did want to see what the PwC building actually looked like from the outside.  It’s kind of the midst of everything in Midtown so you really can’t see it and then all of a sudden, you’re there and walking into the very spacious white lobby.  It’s a very nice building – and then Osman took me to lunch in the cafeteria and I got very jealous because the LA office does NOT have such luxuries!  🙂

18-Mar-2015 08:47, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
18-Mar-2015 08:47, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 32
18-Mar-2015 08:47, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 32
 

Thursday, March 19

And finally, the last day of training.  This day, we were on the 21st (!!!) floor and the view was stunning from the conference room’s windows.  Stunning.  You got a singular view of the Chrysler Building and a nice overhead view of Grand Central.  You could also see the thin sliver of what will be the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere as it keeps building higher, 432 Park.  We could see the construction elevators going up and down and you could NOT pay me to go on that.  Nope, not at all going to happen.

My flight was leaving that evening after the training as that was what we had been told to schedule, but damn, if there is a next time doing this, I will have to rethink it all.  You see, trying to leave Manhattan towards JFK at 4pm, which is early-ish, is a horrible idea.  Normally, the ride can take about an hour or so, even with traffic.  But this ride?  It took me just under 2 hours.  Luckily, I had made the command decision to cut out a touch early as my flight was at 6:45pm and I realized, I can’t leave at 4:30pm and hope to make my flight.  Sure enough, that 2-hour cab ride meant I got there with just less than an hour to get checked in and to the gate.  I ended up arriving at the gate and being nearly the last to check in.  That’s cutting it close.  I made the flight though (one of the new American Airlines jets with some tricked-out business and first class sections and Hobie wants that now, please), decided to watch Moneyball as I hadn’t seen it (I know!) on the entertainment system and now I’m back.

Flying a lot is exhausting.  But I actually will have a Sunday this weekend and I am fucking thrilled.  Larry will be back by then and I won’t be flying out and all will be nice in the world.

Grand Central from our 21st floor perch
Grand Central from our 21st floor perch19-Mar-2015 08:55, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 32
The Chrysler Building was right there!
The Chrysler Building was right there!19-Mar-2015 10:09, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
MetLife (former Pan Am) building too
MetLife (former Pan Am) building too19-Mar-2015 10:09, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
 
432 Park in the distance - it may look not that imposing from this angle, but it's realllly far away
432 Park in the distance - it may look not that imposing from this angle, but it's realllly far away19-Mar-2015 10:09, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 10:09, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 10:09, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
 
19-Mar-2015 12:22, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 12:22, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
Thanks, Google Auto-Awesome
Thanks, Google Auto-Awesome19-Mar-2015 12:22, Apple iPhone 6, 4.15mm
 
19-Mar-2015 12:24, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 12:24, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 12:49, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
 
19-Mar-2015 12:49, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 12:50, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32
19-Mar-2015 12:52, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32
 

Back Home!

I made it back home this afternoon after a nice long six and a half hour flight from Newark.  Early departure though, had the whole row to myself (yay for a very empty flight), got to watch Fiddler on the Roof for the first time and still had 3 hours left to kill.  Larry was amazing and picked me up from LAX and we got back and I commenced a period of vegging as I was exhausted.  EXHAUSTED.

Besides it being an early flight though, I was tired from the whole NYC trip in itself.  The two days of work we did were pretty extensive but very productive.  We also managed to have a lot of fun in the evenings too.  The first night was Ramen as was seen in my previous big post;  the second night was a dinner with many of the people that were involved in the big workout session on Wednesday at a Mexican restaurant called Blue Moon (which may or may not have had a gay manager; ask Joe) and in which I developed a killer headache and our driver managed to get pulled over just a block from our destination; and then this last evening on Thursday….

After work and taking an EC shuttle back to the hotel, Nicki and I went to Blue Smoke and indulged in their fantastic barbeque food, but of course the highlight, for me, was the mac & cheese.  Of course, the bartenders and waiters there are all extremely cute and in some cases, flat out hot.  Yay!  Then we met up with Joe afterwards back in Hell’s Kitchen to enjoy some gay bar fun, first at Industry, which I’d never been to and we only stayed for like a minute, after which we went across the street to Therapy.  Therapy is the bar where Larry & I ended our first date and had our first kiss, and is probably the nicest and classiest of the gay bars in Manhattan.  We were there for Testosterone Thursdays, which is when they put on a strip show.  SWEET.  3 hot guys dancing in rapidly disappearing thongs, a midget in a red full body sheath dancing to Britney, and a ferocious drag queen named Bianca del Rio (soon to be seen in the forthcoming 6th season of Rupaul’s Drag Race) later, I can say I definitely wouldn’t mind returning for more of that!  I think Larry & I will have to explore some of the local offerings too.  Can’t say that the sight of a super hot guy stripping down to almost nothing is a bad thing.  Not. At. All.  So yeah, it was a good night and a great way to end the NYC whirlwind tour.  I’m also stoked to be gone from that cold hellhole – seriously, too fucking cold.

Last Night in NYC, January 30, 2014

Let me just say, I’m so happy to be home and with Larry.  There’s nothing like your own space.

Here are pics I took on the flight home with my iPhone – there are stupid black specks because of something on the lens.  This is why I don’t really prefer taking pics with my phone and rather with my camera, but I just was going with convenience.  That’s the worst.

Flying Home, January 31, 2014

Back in NYC and it is COLD

Nicki, George & I are back in New York. Of course it’s timed to be when a second polar vortex temperature plummet has occurred. It’s ridiculously cold right now. We walked from the hotel to a ramen place over on 51st between 8th and 9th Ave and during that walk, I literally felt my nose go numb. It was cold.

IMG_2663

I really would love to visit this city when it’s not this cold.  But it is what it is, I guess.  Honestly, I think I prefer going and visiting places when it’s cold.  You can at least layer on tons of clothes and hats when it’s cold; when it’s hot, your options are SEVERELY limited and you just have to marinate in the nastiness of a sultry climate.  I don’t miss Biloxi for 3 months in the height of summer and early fall.  Nope, I do not.

Anyway, the flight out this morning was early but luckily there were no delays.  There was a lot of fog, apparently, but not at LAX nor in the west side.  It’s awesome as I was able to get some great shots from iPhone of the view below:

Views of Hollywood and Silver Lake while departing LAX

As we made progress east (I was able to do work periodically via the in-flight wifi; I also watched Rashomon for the very first time, but more on that in another post), it was clear how much colder it was getting.  As can be seen here as we were getting ready to set down in New Jersey / Newark:

Arriving at Newark International

The cold was felt immediately from the point you left the plane and entered the jetway.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, after a nice ride in to the city while the night sky came in, George  & I checked in and immediately went up to the top of the Sanctuary Hotel where the Heaven Rooftop bar is.  Smartly, the bar is enclosed in the winter.  It was nice and a good way to relax after a long flight.

Heaven, at the Sanctuary Hotel:

Nicki was on a different flight and got in an hour or so later.  Once she arrived, it was time for dinner!  This time, we made it to Ippudo Ramen on the west side, which is when we had the crazy cold to walk through.  But it was worth the schlep, as the food was delicious.  I’m just glad that we do have good ramen places back in LA too – I LOVE Ramen Jinya on Ventura near the lot.  Here are some of the pics from tonight…

Dinner at Ippudo West Side, NYC