New York, New York

"New York, New York" was the theme of the Dance Factory's big show on Saturday.  On Monday we experienced the city ourselves.

We took NJ Transit to Penn Station and then walked 1 1/2 miles to the Hilton Manhattan East.  One of my favorite moments in New York is emerging from the train station and feeling the excitement of  the city--so many people and languges, noisy taxi horns, the immense buildings surrounding us.

Thanks to our being Hilton Gold members, we were upgraded to a large room by NY standards on the 14th floor with a slice of a view--and offered a free breakfast. Actually the whole booking was free with my 70,000 Hilton points (representing a lot of groceries!).  We put our feet up for a bit and then walked to 100 Park Avenue where Dan works at Sidewalk Labs.  Dan had given the front desk our names so we were given passes to swipe to enter the building.

Dan showing Jim traffic flow in El Paso

It was great fun to see Dan's set up and to meet his colleagues who had such good things to say about our Dan!  His boss, a former deputy mayor under Mayor Bloomberg, said that they were lucky to be able to hire Dan.  Of course, they were!

The view from Dan's apartment

We made a plan to meet at 7 for dinner in Williamsburg.  We walked to the East River Ferry and had a scenic ride before getting off at North Williamsburg right at Dan's apartment building. Dan biked from work and met us in the lobby.  After admiring his new furniture, and enjoying his view, we walked to Aurora, a pretty upscale Italian restaurant where Jim played it safe with chicken, I had a crab and zucchini dish over linguini and Dan had a rabbit ragu over rigatoni.  We ate outside in the middle of a lot of greenery and lights.

Before Dan left for his next engagment, at 10 pm, he contacted Uber and got us a ride.  We were picked up in six minutes, watching the progress of our car on his app as we waiited.  Dan paid for the ride with his app and off we went back to Manhattan enjoying the bright lights of the city as we crossed the Willlaimsburg Bridge.

After almost 18,000 steps, my hip hurt and besides that,,  I was thinking about Dan on his bike in the late evening on Brooklyn streets. It's a good thing we are not usually aware of his adventures. My motherly concern is still there!  Eventually sleep overtook me after a very good day.