Back in DC

Our business trip to New York originally included a stop in Philadelphia to meet with one of our key suppliers.  However, some last-minute changes resulted in them travelling up to New York to meet us.  As a result, we found ourselves with 48 hours to spare while waiting for our transfer flights to Nuremberg.

On a whim Garry and I decided to hire a car and drive to Washington DC for a whirlwind tour.  We left New York about 9:30pm and eventually reached our hotel shortly before 2am.  Garry can now boast of driving through Manhattan at night.  Getting out of the city proved relatively easy. Likewise, Washington DC was equally easy to navigate.

DC was bitterly cold…! After a lazy morning resting from our late-night arrival, we took a walking tour through the Mall.  Our route started at the Lincoln Memorial before finishing with an afternoon at the recently opened National Museum of African American History and Culture.  Along the way, we visited the new Martin Luther King Jr memorial.

Garry and I were last in Washington DC in 2005.  We visited the city while on our way to start our expat adventures in London.  It was wonderful to see visit again.  Washington DC really is a timeless destination.  In many respects it looks no different to my first visit, or this third visit decades later. 

The inauguration of Donald Trump had happened the week before our visit. (We'd watched him depart the White House for the Capitol Building ceremony just prior to boarding a flight from LA to NYC). As a result, many parts of the city were still in the throes of returning to normal.  The massive inauguration platform was still standing in front of the Capitol Building, protest marchers were still crowding the local streets and temporary fencing and media towers were still blocking streets around the White House.

The African American History Museum was a fascinating venue.  I learned a lot about the early slave trading economy and was appalled by the barbaric practices of the slave traders. The museum does a superb job of tracing African American history from its infamous beginning to the history-making inauguration of Barack Obama.  One of the venue’s most memorable places is its room of reflection.  A circular curtain of water falls from the centre of the room while the surrounding walls carry quotes from some the nation’s most celebrated African Americans.

Our final day in the city was spent revisiting the Air & Space Museum, plus a few hours shopping for a winter wardrobe to keep us warm in Nuremberg.  We then retraced our steps back to New York and on to JFK Airport for an evening flight to Europe. For me, the highlight of this airport transfer was another opportunity to drive over the graceful Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Filling in time between meetings

Garry and I have just completed a business trip to New York.  It’s been almost five years since I was last there and even longer for Garry.  We scheduled our visit to the Big Apple as part of a stopover while en route to the annual toy fair in Nuremberg.  The two suppliers we caught up here weren’t going to be in Germany so we did well to kill two birds with one stone.

Garry was excited to finally see New York in winter.  He was praying for snow while we were there but the best we got was freezing rain.  He was rather miffed when the city subsequently experienced one its biggest snowstorms in more than a decade less shortly after our visit.

In between meetings we also managed to see a few of New York’s famous sights.  We spent Saturday afternoon visiting the Statue of Liberty.  I took my parents out to Liberty Island in 2012 but Garry had never been out there.  We picked a good day to go as the crowds weren’t too bad and the weather was relatively mild on the island.  

We then finished our afternoon with a stroll through the High Line park.  This is clever location.  The park is built over the derelict structure of an abandoned elevated railway.  It weaves its way for more than a dozen blocks along the west side of Manhattan.  It even passes through the middle of several high rise buildings.

We also booked pre-breakfast tour of the new 9/11 Memorial Museum.  This is a private tour conducted before the venue opens to the public.  For almost an hour seven of us, plus a guide, had the entire place to ourselves.  It was very special to experience this poignant place without the bustle of a crowd.

The museum is very well done.  It strikes the perfect balance between recording history and capturing story of individual lives impacted by this tragic event.  We found it very moving.  For me it added another dimension to the events I’d witnessed live on TV from a Hong Kong hotel room all those years ago. 

Perhaps the most extraordinary artifacts are the impact zone pillars.  These mark the location where the hijacked aircraft hit each of the twin towers.  It was astonishing to think that these pillars were ultimately identified from within the mound of debris that smothered the site to a depth of 15 metres or more. However, one of the most spine-chilling images in the museum is that of a lone woman waving for help from the gaping hole that surrounded these mangled pillars.  She did not survive.

During the weekend, Garry and I found time to catch a train up to Greenwich, Connecticut to join my former Text 100 CEO and her family for dinner on Saturday evening. Aedhmar and I haven't seen each other for several years. I was touched that three of her adult children came home especially to see me. It was also my first opportunity to see the amazing renovation Aedhmar has completed since my last visit in 2012. Let's just say we ate too much, drank too much, and enjoyed an unscheduled sleepover on one of her sofas.

Garry and I were also entertained by our suppliers.  Their generosity allowed us to enjoy dinner one evening at a fantastic restaurant and take in a Broadway show.  We saw Josh Groban perform in the Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 at the Imperial Theatre.  We had seats on the stage itself which meant we found ourselves immersed in the drama itself.  It was a wonderful experience.