New York, New York

I don't really talk about work here on the blog because I'm fairly certain it would bore you all to tears. But apparently this has led a lot of you to think that all we do is travel the world and never go to work. Ha! I wish :) Unfortunately we still have not won the lottery and we are not aware of any trust funds (dare to dream!), so we most definitely have to work to be able to vacation the way we do! And we actually do quite a bit of traveling for work as well - which is how we are able to earn all the Delta Skymiles and Marriott points we need to be able to go on said vacations. Bo is still steadily traveling for his clients, and my work travel has especially picked up over the past six months since the company I work for recently bought the New York Stock Exchange (it still sounds crazy to say that!). I've gone up to New York City several times now and have certainly made the most of it.

My favorite part of being in the big apple was getting to see these ladies!!

When it was finally warm enough outside, Megan and I went for a run on a trail near my hotel that goes right along the Hudson and up to her neighborhood. It's now my regular route whenever I'm up there.

After our run, Megan took me through her neighborhood and we stopped by her apartment. West Village is such a cute area, and of course we had to stop by Magnolia Bakery and get a little dessert before dinner!

Thankfully I also have some really great co-workers to hang out with when we travel, so we did some exploring of our own. The Yankees were in town one week so the auditors took us all to a game one night - it sure is nice to be on the other side of that now! :)  And I will admit we accidentally caught ourselves cheering for the Yankees when one guy hit a homerun. Oops, sorry Braves. The new stadium was pretty nice, though I never went to the old one. Hoping to make it to a Mets game during a future trip, I've heard their stadium is even nicer.

Another night we had dinner at Bobby Van's, which is in the old JP Morgan antique bank vaults. The dining room is lined with bronze deposit boxes and we even got to open up the big vault which was so massive and heavy that it took 2-3 of us just to open the door.

Bobby Van's is right across the street from our office, and it is so pretty all lit up at night!

The office is actually a really old building and we're working on some major renovations - with the exception of the executive floor. The board room is enormous! I was in complete awe.  The ceiling is stained glass, all the trim is real gold, and the clock behind me in the picture below is over 200 years old. I've never seen another board room that comes close in comparison.

A few times I've been able to go down to the trading floor to watch the opening bell. There is a lot of energy on the floor - especially watching Cramer live - though I'm sure it's nothing like it was back in the day, since so much is electronic now. The most exciting day I've seen so far was when the owners and jockey for California Chrome rang the bell in honor of the Belmont Stakes the following weekend. They were all so excited! Sadly they ended up losing the Belmont, so no triple crown - better luck next year.

It sounds a lot more glamorous than it really is, but working on NYSE has definitely been one of the more exciting (and challenging) projects at work lately. I'll be going back next month so those of you in New York City, let me know if you want to hang out!! :)