We finally did something that we hadn't been able to do for the past six years - we went on a trip to New York City, for fun!
NYC had been off limits for me for a few years, due to posttraumatic stress issues after cancer, having been treated in at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. My treatment and care were all top notch, but it definitely left a mark on me, and this just isn't a place that I could go for a few years. That's all solidly in the past now, and my wife and kids had all wanted to go for awhile. We finally made it, and had a fantastic time.
We drove up super early on Saturday morning, leaving Maryland at 6am, and started off at the famous Soup Nazi, then swung through Central Park and the MET, and met my testicular cancer survivor "twin brother", Jason for dinner. On Sunday, we saw the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Ground Zero in the morning, and then the ladies went shopping while the boys went to check out the USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Museum. That was a lot of New York crammed into two days, so we were pretty pooped after that, but still managed to walk down to Times Square Sunday night, before leaving Monday morning.
Full album link below, or for a few quickies, keep scrolling.
My travel kit as of late has been my Canon 7D Mark II, Tokina 12-28mm f/4 ultra-wide lens, a Canon 18-135mm IS STM lens all-purpose zoom, and then my trusty Canon 24mm f/2.8 pancake lens. You won't miss a shot with this combo, although it does lack the sexiness and "pop" that you can get with a full-frame camera. Try taking food photos with a full-frame camera though. The depth of field becomes so thin that it's just ridiculous, and the full-frame cameras tend to not have a pop-up flash either. I'm big on fill flash, and hate having to mess around with clunky external flashes, so just stick with the APS-C format cameras for travel.
Soup Man!
The MET
Of course we swung by Laduree's for macaroons!
Dinner with my testicular cancer survivor virtual twin, Jason.
It was great to see the Statue of Liberty again. I hadn't been here since I was around my kids age, but who knew that tickets to go up into the crown sell out 4 months in advance now?? Times change thanks to the Internet!
I'd never seen Ground Zero before. Powerful is all I can say. We didn't go into the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Will save that for another trip when our kids are a bit older, and regretfully come to understand what terrorism is.
Brooklyn Bridge Selfie
The USS Intrepid
We of course did a bit of foodie stuff. Totto Ramen, OMG!!! This was actually Totto Ramen "Next Door" because there was a huge wait at Totto Ramen, but could get right in here. It was amazing! You can't beat food in NYC
Times Square of course!
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