Surprise!

For my birthday, I decided to fly home to surprise my parents (my sister helped me with the planning). I arrived in New York City early Friday morning and caught the subway to Grand Central Station, walked two blocks and met up with my friend Paul from Connecticut. We spent the day in NYC - kayaking in the Hudson River (photos to come), walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, and engaging in conversations with certifiable nutcases from Manhattan at a street fair on the lower west side.

After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, we arrived a block from the Brooklyn Marriott, where I will be staying next weekend before flying back to Buenos Aires. I wanted to check it out since I have never stayed there yet. So, we take the escalator up the entrance to a fairly ornate lobby area and Paul said, "That's Mark Green." Well Mark Green is a legend in NYC - he ran for Mayor against Bloomberg (and lost) and ran for pretty much every other elected office (and lost those too). He was only successful winning the office of Public Advocate (which he is now running for again this year). I had to get a photo with him and he was very accomodating.

After spending the night in NYC, I headed back to Connecticut - surprising my parents (again, a future blog posting) before heading to a cocktail hour gathering of friends and former colleagues at Down the Hatch.

Above are some photos from this weekend - with Mark Green, at the Brooklyn Bridge and at Down the Hatch. The last photo is courtesy of my mother who felt obliged to remind me what I looked like at two years of age (thankfully there was color photography then!).