Woke up this morning around 7:30am and rocked the laptop for about an hour until AB woke up. We met up with Mike and Khalil and went to breakfast. We stopped at Benash first, but bolted upon discovering that a breakfast omelet cost $24. We ended up at Cafe Metro, which was fantastic. I had a sausage, jalapeno and feta omelet with a side of potatoes and two slices of buttered toast.

We went to the Hilton to set up our display, which took about 20 minutes. We peeped the Google and Microsoft booths, which look to be monstrous and are about 8x the size of our own. I’m really looking forward to the tradeshow, as I love conventions and have very fond memories of attending nursery (the plant kind) conventions with my grandfather as a child.

AB and I split up from Mike and Khalil and set off in search of a tour bus. We end up on the CitySight bus because of economics; it was $50 cheaper than the rest of them and seemed to hit all the major high points, so we hopped on. The first place we stopped was the Empire State Building. We checked out the Victoria’s Secret store, which was gigantic, and I bought a pretzel from one of the street vendors. There was a pretty cool street fair going on, but we wanted to get to the Empire before it got too crowded, so we headed down there. We’d planned on going to the top, but visibility was pretty bad today, so we opted to stay on the ground. I take a bunch of pictures of the world-famous lobby and we get back on the bus for the rest of the tour.

Our next stop is Ground Zero. I stood by the fence surrounding the area and am just amazed at how massive the hole is. I took a lot of pictures, and I’ll put them up on my Flickr account for you to see at some point. We walk around the entire zone, stopping in the World Financial Center and then going into the WTC Memorial display. Going through the entire display took about 30 minutes, and it was quite sobering. Reading all the notes from wives and husbands who lost spouses and seeing pieces of the airplanes and firefighter suits was a shocking experience and really brought back the memories of that day six years ago.

After leaving the memorial area, we get back on the bus and travel back to Times Square, where we get out and walk back to the Wellington where we are staying. I stop at Starbucks on the way back and get a Pumpkin Spice frap, take a few more pictures of Times Square, and then head into the hotel.

I rock the laptop for a few hours, killing time until the AdTech party starts. We find out that the rest of our guys are at JFK and will be heading to the hotel soon, so we opt to wait for them to go to the party. At some point, we are informed that the party is actually lame and that no one else is going, and I decide to go scrounge up something to eat. I end up at a deli across the street from the hotel, where I pick up a grilled chicken/balsamic vinegar/roasted pepper wrap, some Maui Onion chips and a bottle of Guava juice and make my way back to the hotel. New York City is lovely at night, and we’re only two blocks from Times Square, so I can see all the ads lighting up the night.

I get back to the Wellington, eat my grub, and get ready for bed.