east coast hopping, part I

In the spirit of catching up, I wanted to post about my East Coast adventures this past month! Both places I'd never been, both places I'm not really racing to get back to, but both places were great experiences.

It started with New York - can you believe I'd never been?! My longtime high school friend Jason was getting married in Jersey, so I extended the trip through the weekend for a little extra sightseeing and working out of our NY office (always good to get in some face-time with the people you talk to on the phone). First off, the wedding was insanely beautiful. David Tutera could've popped out behind the curtains and I wouldn't have been shocked at all (WE-watchers, you know what I'm talking about). I didn't capture the incredible smorgasbord of food, but I did get a few shots of other things:

Ice sculpture at the beer bar = winning

Ice sculptures at the (1 of 2) sushi bars = double winning

Enchanted forest on our table

This was truly the blowout of the century. Instead of having wedding cake, they had a whole room filled with different desserts (bad time to have given this up for Lent...bad time). Outside the bus was a candy truck filled with all sorts of other awesome things I wouldn't let myself look at. The chuppah at the ceremony was seriously like a secret garden filled with hydrangea, roses, and individually backlit orchid blossoms. Unreal! I'm so glad I got to experience such an incredible shindig!

Outside of that, I got to do a lot of sightseeing and city navigating. Some takeaways:

1) Ah, diversity. If only my gym were on the streets of NY, right?! The ethnic mix was fascinating. I got into a conversation with an 85-year-old Polish immigrant on the subway that involved a "when I was on the boat" portion of the story. Love it.

2) I teared up seeing the Statue of Liberty from approximately 72,000 feet away. It's just, seeing something iconic, it's hard not to think about what that must have represented to so many oppressed people. Cue the music...

3) I was all about the subway system until I saw the rats (dead and alive). I'm not the prissiest person in the world but SICK.
4) And finally, this place is Chicago on crack. Oh my lord, the drivers, the filth, the congestion. I'm not all too interested in going back, unless I get to spend some time in Central Park and see a Broadway show. I definitely see how people can live there and "own it" sort of, but as a visitor, it mostly just made me happy to call Chicago home.

Next up, East Coast Hopping, Part II: Miami!