New York City

I went to New York City for the second time in November, 2010, for work. We had two days of intensive meetings and very little free time. However, I did my best with the little time I had and hit some highlights.

On Monday night, my country music counterpart, Chitquita, and I walked to Central Park and enjoyed the fall colors. The season was just past peak, so still gorgeous. We leaned on the railing and watched kids ice skating. I enjoyed the little glimpses of the city from the park, skyscrapers towering over the red and yellow trees.

We then walked to Rockefeller Center and saw the gigantic Christmas tree adorned in scaffolding. It was to be lit two days after we left the city. We also ran into Radio City Music Hall, which already had its Christmas decorations up.

We took a cab to Battery Park at the southern tip of the island and enjoyed the Statue of Liberty from afar. Seeing her lit up at night lifted the spirits. On the way back, we drove past Ground Zero and Times Square.

We ate at Gigino’s in Wagner Park. I had a pasta dish with broccoli and chicken, and a rosé wine. It was a touch bland, but good.

Tuesday was filled with HR meetings. We ended the day at Amsterdam Billiards in Manhattan’s East Side. We played pool, beer pong, and ping pong. My team won second place, no thanks to me and my horrible basement game skills. If there had been foosball, I could have helped, but alas, no such luck.

On Wednesday, we finished a round of meetings and went to the Museum of Modern Art. I was happy to get in free just for being a Sony employee. I was thrilled to see Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night in person. I don’t care how cliché it is; I love that painting.

We saw Picassos, Pollocks, Dalis, Matisses, and gigantic Monets. We then used the car service to head to the airport and make the flight home, exhausted.

It was a great glimpse of the Big Apple.

Philadelphia: Eastern State Penitentiary

We went to tour Eastern State Penitentiary to enjoy the stark, Gothic architecture of the world’s first true penitentiary, a prison designed to inspire true regret in convicts. Famous prisoners include Al Capone and Slick Willie Sutton. It stands in ruin today, its castle-like towers and turrets hiding a crumbling interior. The broken down cell blocks and assorted debris made it all the more spooky.

The gargoyles are fake, added for the October haunted house they hold here. Apparently it's one of the scariest haunted attractions in the US. I believe it.

This is one of my favorite shots from the whole trip.

The view from the catwalk.

The present-day Philadelphia skyline is jarring from inside the walls.

We took the audio tour, narrated by Steve Buscemi. It was well done. Otherwise we would have never known that a petty horse theif would have had to spend years in solitary confinement in those vaulted, sky-lit cells. It would have been extremely hard time to serve.

Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area, Fall Hollow, Keg Springs, and Amber Falls

On October 23, 2010, we went hiking with friends at Devil’s Backbone State Natural Area near Hohenwald. It was an unseasonably hot day, with temperatures climbing to near 80 degrees, but the fall foliage was at near-peak for Tennessee autumn. The trail was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, so each step filled the air with loud crunching sounds. We took the 3-mile moderate loop and stopped to take pictures every thirty seconds or so. I quickly learned to cheat by using a photo filter on my camera to enhance the fall colors.

Once we finished the loop, we drove a couple miles to Fall Hollow, where we took the steep trail down about a quarter mile or so and enjoyed the small waterfalls.

Afterward, we felt hungry, so we drove into Hohenwald and ate at Junkyard Dog Steakhouse. I got the chicken parmesan, which was a disappointment; everyone else got steak and loved it.  

We then drove to Keg Springs Winery, where we encountered a black pony in the middle of the road, regarding us serenely. Desira and I got out of the car and shooed him back toward the pasture. When we got up to the winery building, we informed them that their pony was out, and they waved their hands nonchalantly. “He always stays out,” one woman drawled. “It’s fine.” This annoyed me. He could have been hit on the road.

We did a tasting; the wines were all decent. We bought a blackberry wine, a peach wine, and the Crusade, a semi-sweet red which, due to its Concord origins, reminded me of my favorite wine on the planet, the Highland Manor Sunset red table wine. We didn’t deign to stop and listen to the live bluegrass music out on the patio.

Now slightly buzzing from all the wine we’d tasted, we headed out to Amber Falls Winery. This place had an immediately classier feel. The tasting room was packed with people. We tried all the semi-drys and the sweets, and ended up purchasing the three-grape red Ruby Trillium, the dark rosé Cottage Rose, and the spicy red Piquant Rouge, which is a limited edition with flavors of pepper. We hung around while the entertainment on their patio played Celtic violin, but as it degenerated into bluegrass, we left.

Filled with wine and food, with three and a half miles of moderate to strenuous hiking behind us, everyone but the driver nodded off on the hour and a half drive back home.

Philadelphia: Radicchio Café

For lunch on our penultimate day in Philadelphia, we brought a bottle of Chaddsford Sangri-La Sangria to the Radicchio Café. This was our first experience bringing our own bottle to a BYOB restaurant. We sat outside and popped our bottle of wine while we ate an appetizer of Focaccia Caprese, which was a divine twist on tricolore salad by adding focaccia and prosciutto. The wine was a bold, sweet red with a robust fragrance of cloves.

The breeze had the merest autumn bite in it, but the wine warmed us up as we soaked in the feel of the city. All too soon, our meals arrived. I had the Linguine Pomodoro, which was excellent after I added some crushed red pepper. He had the Paccheri Bolognese, which he said was terrific.

We finished the wine and headed off to our next destination. It was a quiet moment in the shade breaking up the bustling of a hectic day.

Philadelphia: Christ Church and Christ Church Burial Ground

On our first day in Philadelphia, we landed, parked, ate, and headed straight for Christ Church. Christ Church, founded in 1695, is called “The Nation's Church” due to the famous Revolutionary-era leaders who worshiped here, including George Washington, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. It is the first parish of the Anglican Church in Pennsylvania and is also the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church.

Here we are sitting in the pew that Washington and Adams shared.

We got a brief tour by a gentleman who was very proud of the living history: the pulpit, the baptismal font that had been in use for at least a century, the pews where famous people sat and not-so-famous people still sit every Sunday. He informed us that walking on a grave inside a church is a way to honor the memory of the deceased.

Golden mid-afternoon sunshine poured through the original lead glass windows, dappled by the leaves of the old sycamore in the courtyard.

We then walked a couple blocks to the 291-year-old Christ Church Burial Ground. This cemetery is the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Me at Franklin's grave:

Other famous and interesting people who were buried here can be found here.

The high brick walls blocked out the hubbub of downtown Philadelphia and encouraged a reverent silence as we walked among the graves, crunching fallen leaves.