Friday, November 15, 2024

Amtrak to NYC, and Day 1

Geoff dropped us off at the metro at 11:30am, I forget sometimes how fast it takes to get downtown so we were there with plenty of time to kill. And I've said it before, I kind of can't believe we live this close to these things.

Doug had never taken Amtrak, so he was kind of impressed, the ride was smooth, seats comfy. And we were in NYC in less than 4 hours. I haven't been to Penn Station since 2017 I think, and Doug hasn't been since college. Let's just say they have done an amazing job cleaning it up. My last visit, everything was drywall, pressboard, construction lighting with exposed bulbs strung together providing very little actual light, weird pathways to cattle herd people through construction. Now it looks like a major city transportation center. 

Doug got a Metro card (I bought one a couple weeks back) and we made our way up to 50th St, walked to our hotel, with Doug dragging his wheelie suitcase and me with my 20 pound backpack. 

The hotel is pretty nice, Doug wins points for picking this one. We're on the 16th floor, facing south with Times Square to our East and Hell's Kitchen to the west. Took this picture through the glass and it's funny to see the fuzzy lights and the what looks like ominous clouds!

We dumped our stuff off, and headed out to find something to eat. Initially, Doug wanted to go to Brooklyn to a couple breweries and to a Turkish restaurant he'd scoped out, but ... we're here, in Manhattan, it's dinner time, and it'll take at least a half hour to get to where he was thinking. And he had his second thoughts too, so Brooklyn for Saturday!

I really needed a snack. I didn't eat before leaving because I didn't want to have to use the bathroom on the train, iykyk. So I was pretty hungry once we got here. 

There is pizza every three feet here. Thank God. 9th avenue has a ton of good restaurants, and I thought we were going. 

I've had better pizza, but compared to DC area pizza, this was the best pizza I've had in years. It was funny, Geoff texted me while we were waiting for our slices, and asked if we'd picked a place for dinner. "I hear the pizza is pretty good over there," which I'm actually not sure if he was being sarcastic or if he was being genuinely sweet and naive? Hard to tell if you're not sitting with him and can see his face. So I took a picture and sent it to him. 


We walked up and down 9th avenue, "Hell's Kitchen" as it is known. Much less helly than when I remembered being here in the past. We ended up standing in front of a Turkish restaurant, and while we were looking things over, the hostess came out to encourage us to come in. 

We weren't quite sold on this place, but, she was open and inviting and kind. And we needed a meal. 

And it was an excellent meal. Attentive service, explaining how "no, this is Turkish we do it very different than Greek" but really, those are ... falafel and grape leaves. I mean. Okay. We even had dessert because she brought over the items to show them to us, and I was confused, but. Yeah. Dessert. And there were no regrets. 

Back to the hotel, exhausted. We slept with the shades up, which we never do, because the view was just so cool.

I'll do a separate post for Saturday rather than just piling on here. But have some pictures. 

Digits below. Check those steps out, baby.




Friday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 4 measurable walks: 9 min/.4 miles, 31 min /(no mileage tracked but 1820 steps), 17 min /.58 miles, 13 min/.45 miles; 1400+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 151
5pm: 171
9:30pm: 280
2am: 160 

food:
coffee/water
11am: several slices of turkey
5:30pm: metformin (forgot to take before leaving the house) 1 slice of pizza
7pm: Turkish food: houlma, falafel, a chicken dish with grilled chunks of chicken on a spinach bed w/yogurt and rice; some sort of almond flan like thing, some sort of wheat wrapped pistachio thing, a piece of turkish delight, tea; 2 turkish pilsners
9pm: Metformin+Jardiance

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