Well, we survived the trip to New York with Xander. I was attending SES for the week and Tammy and Xander flew out mid-week to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Big Apple. Hotels in Manhattan are ridiculously expensive and small for the most part, but for whatever reason, rooms at the W The Court and W The Tuscany are much larger for about the same price. Whenever I am in New York, I try to stay at one of them.

For this trip, W The Court was our base of operations. I spotted an intriguing buy two nights get one free promo and used it score a suite for the second half of our stay. The mind boggling part was that the suite turned out to be cheaper per night than the normal room. Woot.

The weather was a bit bleak for April: rainy on Thursday, cold all around, and a pretty severe storm tore through the region on Sunday when we flew home. At least we came prepared with plenty of warm clothing.

I have to give a huge shout-out to Yelp for providing great restaurant recommendations. Having a guide that has a “kid friendly” designation for restaurants took the stress out of finding appropriate dining experiences. A couple of great finds:

• Katsuhama (three blocks northwest of Grand Central on E 47th) – It ain’t going to give Maisen Tonkatsu in Tokyo a run for its money, but very good tonkatsu nonetheless.
• Men Kui Tei (just south of Central Park on W 56th) – Mmmm…big, inexpensive bowls of ramen. Perfect for those cold days.
• Petite Abeille (two blocks northwest of Union Square on W 17th) – It’s incorrectly classified on Yelp as French when in reality, it’s Belgian. I have to admit I know not what the difference is, but the food was outstanding and the prices were good. It’s a small place with tables crammed in there, but definitely worth it.
• Ali Baba Restaurant (in Murray Hill near the hotel on E 34th) – Great Turkish food. Order lamb. And lots of it. And then order the baklava. Marvel at the pistachio perfection.
• Daniel’s Bagels (in Murray Hill near the hotel on 3rd Ave) – Outstanding bagels, especially for those who love a little bit of bagel with their cream cheese, look no further.

We hit the major requisite stops during our trip: the Met, the American Museum of Natural History, Rockefeller Plaza, Grand Central, Fifth Avenue window shopping. We had object lessons on the importance of paying attention to express vs. local subway trains. We took in the sights, sounds, and somewhat unfortunately some smells of the city. But enough about me. Most folks who read this blog are looking for Xander! So here’s a quick summary of his first trip to New York…