New York to Tokyo to Bangkok to Taipei

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Not a whole lot to say here. Lost of flying, overnight at a hotel in Bangkok (was actually quite nice), some more flying.

Delta's in-flight entertainment was pretty great. Got to watch the entire first season of Silicon Valley, which I really enjoyed. Also watched a couple movies, including Neighbors. Grace and I attempted to sync our movies, which was surprisingly difficult. Mine seemed to play back about 5% faster. Weird. Like old computer games that are tied directly to the processor speed and therefore completely flip out on new machines. Also got about halfway through The Grand Budapest Hotel (as per my sister's recommendation), but didn't get to finish it. Unfortunate, as I was really enjoying it.

No real impressions of Bangkok. Cab from airport to hotel, sleep, breakfast at hotel, cab from hotel to airport. I'm sure we'll be back.

We flew EVA Air (Taiwanese airline) to Taipei. Apparently they are rather strict with luggage allowance and with our four suitcases at 50 lbs each we were way over. The overage fees were $15/kg. We were more than 40kg over the limit. So, yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Luckily, the Bangkok airport has a place you can leave luggage for about $3 per suitcase per day. It seems to be well run and trustworthy. Would recommend.

We managed to snag Exit Row seats (thanks to Grace's dad for calling EVA on our behalf; they technically have English speaking agents, but it can be hit or miss), but the seats were still... Taiwan-sized. Not the most comfortable, but the flight from Bangkok wasn't too long.

Departing New York

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We left New York on September 13. Our flight wasn't until early afternoon, so we were all able to go out to brunch. We went to a place called Bubby's. It was quite good. I'm also about 95% sure we saw Jake Gyllenhaal there. He seemed much more Donnie Darko than End of Watch in person. Maybe I'm biased.

We got some strangers to take a group picture after brunch.

Last day in New York

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Grace's work ran a bit late, so we didn't end up playing tourist for that long today. We visited the American Museum of Natural History. Natural history museums tend to get hilariously dated pretty quickly, and this was no exception. Still, there were some interesting highlights. One of the pieces of jewelry displayed was basically an exact copy of Grace's engagement ring, except about 28 times larger. A testament to her taste, if not our wealth. I learned lots of facts about minerals, all of which I have now forgotten (so, a lot like my semester of geology).

The highlight of the day was hanging out with my family. We got to walk along the waterfront with my sister and nephew on our way to meeting my brother-in-law for dinner. Toddlers walk pretty slowly and are easily distracted, so this took quite some time, but it was a lot of fun. And we got a ton of pictures.

Opposite the restaurant was the Irish Hunger Memorial. Very pretty; the pictures below don't really do it justice. Dinner was great, but the best moment was from just before: right in the middle of the entrance to the restaurant (as soon as you could hear the music they were playing), my nephew started an impromptu dance party of one. Luckily, people didn't seem to mind as they skirted past.

9/11 in New York: Munching, Museums, Memorials

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So our hotel was very close to the World Trade Center. Very, very close. While I was showering, the fire alarm went off. On September 11th. It was a test. Who tests the fire alarm system in a hotel in that location on that day?

Anyway, after getting ready I left to meet my friend (DP hereafter) for lunch in the Upper West Side. I've never seen as many on duty police officers in one place at one time before. Around our hotel and the neighborhood in general there were easily two per block. Every block. Pretty strange to see, but not that surprising.

DP and I decided to wait for Grace to finish work, so killed the time by grabbing a beer. A nearby bar seemed appealing in that it was implicitly vouched for by the two dozen firefighters there. We didn't take into account that this made us by far the least important customers. Oh well.

Once Grace arrived we set off in search of lunch. Ended up deciding on Jacob's Pickles. The website bills it as "a new American craft experience," which probably tells you everything you need to know: hip to the point of satire (of course you'll be drinking out of mason jars). Shamefully, this is pretty much right up my alley, despite not liking pickles much. I got draft root beer, something featuring fried chicken and deliciousness in equal amounts, and we all split a bunch of pickled veggies of various types. The pickles were tasty but formidable in quantity. It's hard to eat a whole lot of pickles.

I wasn't kidding.

I wasn't kidding.

After lunch, DP had to attend to some chemistry, so Grace and I went on our way to the Museum of Modern Art. It was awesome; I wish we could have spent more time there. I generally think taking pictures of existing art can be a bit silly (as I assume it's better documented elsewhere), but I snapped a few from our trip.

The MoMA gift shop is almost as awesome as the museum itself. We did indeed exit through it. The rest of the evening was hanging out with family. Got to catch a glimpse of a 9/11 memorial, though.

Hard to see from this angle, but there are actually two separate beams of light.

Hard to see from this angle, but there are actually two separate beams of light.