December in NYC

December is a super-popular (read: expensive) time to be in New York. Lots of tourists come into the city to do their Christmas shopping and see the holiday decorations that all the big department stores (Macys, Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdales) put in their store windows. I had a business trip to NY scheduled for the last week of November/first week of December so I was lucky enough to be able to see some of these sights.

On Wednesday, November 29th was the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Since this tree came from Connecticut I thought it would be fun to check it out (funny how I'm slowly starting to think of myself as from CT). Unfortunately the rest of Manhattan had the same idea! I have never been in such dense crowds - it was nuts. The NYPD had to shut down access to Rockefeller Plaza as well as many of the neighbouring streets for safety reasons - there were simply too many people inside and if they allowed more people in, it would only get worse. When I arrived, they were no longer allowing anymore people in to see the tree, just out. It was sad to see the disappointment in little kids' faces when their parents told them that they couldn't see the tree. But I suppose that's better than children getting trampled on by the crowds.

After my tree-viewing attempt I decided to head out and grab some dinner. My friend who lives in the city recommended a few restaurants to me, and the one I tried that night was Sushi Samba, a Latin American-Brazilian-Japanese restaurant. Its claim to fame I suppose was that it was mentioned on one episode of Sex in the City. While the food was good, I don't really get the whole fusion cuisine thing. I mean, there are so many great styles of cooking - does combining several together really make things taste better? I guess I'm just traditional - I like authentic Japanese, Indian, Greek, {fill in the blank} food they way they were meant to be.

On Thursday night Christopher came into town to meet me and we spent the rest of the weekend doing touristy things in the city. We went to FAO Schwarz, saw the coolest model railroad at Citigroup Center, checked out Rockefeller Center & the holiday decorations in all the stores, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had cheesecake at Juniors & shared a giant Reuben at the Carnegie Deli, saw AvenueQ and watched the Raptors beat the Knicks at MSG! The whole weekend was super fun - the weather was unseasonably mild so walking around town was very pleasant. It only rained a tiny bit on Friday afternoon.

We were in NY in August and it was really hot - December is definitely a more enjoyable time of year to visit the city!