I love sunrises, but I’m never motivated enough to wake up for them. Thanks to daylight savings and getting up for work extra early because I’m on business, I got to enjoy part of it from my hotel window on the 7th floor. It was beautiful. The sun illuminated the city with its warm glow after a cold night, slowly stretching itself across every inch of every corner of the city. The cold crisp air was mixed with the warm rays, it was the perfect morning. Walking across the parking lot and two small streets was the perfect commute.
Right before we head into work, we would stop by the building next door because it has a small coffee shop. This little pit stop has become our morning ritual. We would go in, grab a cup of joe and head right back out to work. Last month I came to this wonderful city, it snowed, which made carrying coffee in the cold in a busy city more like a movie experience.
When you hear New York, you typically hear about New York City. New York City is great and all, but there’s a city that often gets neglected: Albany, New York. While it’s far from being as lively and exciting as NYC, it’s still a city that has tons of great character. I’m staying in downtown, Albany and am working for the State of New York. The hotel I’m staying at is across from one of New York’s oldest churches, since 1642.
There are tons of other jaw dropping beautiful historic buildings nearby as well. They really just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. They are so ornate around every corner, Greek columns surround each side of the building, structures like things you’d see out of Lord of the Rings (buildings of Mordor, my precious. Not today, maybe I’ll get some pics of it tomorrow). It’s seriously cool if you’re not from the east coast, which I’m seriously not.
Most building I see around Portland are relatively new, streamlined, straight lines, modern, and just borderline boring. The food is still fantastic though, one of the many reasons I love Portland, but that’s for another post for another day.
I went to a small place tonight called Franklin’s Tower. Apparently Babe Ruth used to hang out on the second floor. I had their delicious Pork Tenderloin dinner which was scrumptious. The pork was extremely juicy and flavorful, the mashed potatoes were not overly buttery, and the greens were fresh and crisp. Their beer was very good as well, and being from Portland, one of the largest micro brewer cities in the US, that’s saying something.
I wanted to grab some shots of the nearby university administration building (the one that looks like Minas Morgul) but they turned off the up lights by the time we finished dinner. Maybe some other time.
Tomorrow we’re going to try some cheesecake from Cheesecake Machismo which gets raves all over tripadvisor. I’m looking forward to it even though I’m not a huge fan of sweets. I do love me a good cheesecake, mm Mmmm. I’ll post pics if we do go, they close at 8pm.
