Dating in the City

Found a great place for a date-- I'll have to remember it for the future.

It's the rooftop bar at the Peninsula Hotel, called the "Pen-Top Bar & Terrace." Drinks are pricey (read: go elsewhere for the drinks and order sparkling water here), but man, what a view!!! It's 23 stories above street level, so you've got a nearly 360° bird's eye view of Midtown Manhattan, all lit up at night. The night I went there with a date, we couldn't have asked for better weather-- late September, still warm, and not a cloud in sight.

The only drawback this night was the plethora of helicopters flying back and forth all over Midtown: both the Iranian president and Bush were in town, at hotels just a few blocks away from the Peninsula. The helicopters quartering the skies were likely part of a very heavy police detail for them both, as well as some from the media!

[On a side note, I'm kind-of glad I don't live on the East side of Manhattan anymore. Any time a head of state or international VIP visits NYC, they tend to stay on the east side near the U.N. building... which fouls up subway and street traffic for about 10 street blocks and 2 avenue blocks in any direction. That encompasses Grand Central Station (42nd St. at Park Ave.), a big transfer point and one of the busiest stations in the subway system. Trying to get around when all traffic is diverted around that station takes forever!]