Pre-PDC Trip Impressions So Far

I'm sorry again for not letting you know in advance - Dina (my significant other) and I went on a trip to the US last Wednesday.  We arrived in New York last Wednesday and spent the last week wandering around Manhattan's museums, restaurants and other attractions.

I'm not going to tell you about the standard attractions in exasperating detail, but I figure that a recommendation for some inexpensive breakfasts and lunches won't do any harm.  Basically, we built our dining itinerary around the Frommers' guide recommendations, with minor alterations here and there.  Bear in mind that we stayed on East 80th Street (cross 3rd Avenue) so often enough we explored the Upper East Side more than other parts of the island.  Here's what we had:

• Day 1 - Tal Bagels for breakfast (moderate), Celeste (Italian - good) for lunch, Haagen Dazs for dessert (amazing as always)
• Day 2 - Breakfast at Bubby's (eggs and pancakes - amazing), Grimaldi's (pizza - amazing) for lunch, Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory for dessert (Haagen Dazs is better)
• Day 3 - Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien (tartines, sharing platters - very good), lunch at EJ's Luncheonette (disappointing!), evening drinks at Gael Pub (so-so)
• Day 4 - Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, a few chocolates at Godiva Chocolatier (very good), lunch in Chinatown - Joe's Shanghai (good, but compared to what we ate in China it wasn't amazing)
• Day 5 - Murray's Bagels for breakfast (awesome!), lunch at Blue Smoke (barbeques - amazing)
• Day 6 - Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien (a clear winner), lunch at the Afghan Kebab House (there are several so don't get mixed up - this one is really good), yet another Haagen Dazs for dessert
• Day 7 - Breakfast at Bubby's (again), lunch at Beekman Pub (burgers and club sandwiches - very good)

Another small tip that I owe to Noam Sheffer: If you don't have a US mobile number, you should definitely consider buying an at&t SIM with the unlimited data plan for just another $20.  It's more than worth it when you navigate your way around Manhattan's streets using Google Maps, simultaneously checking out dining recommendations, reading restaurant menus and reviews, and tracking your way across subway stops.

What's next?  Well, I'm writing this from the plane that's taking us to Chicago, where we will stay for 5 more days.  Finally, we will continue to San Francisco and spend most of the time in that area until the PDC starts on October 26 (if you're there, say hi!).

After the PDC you can expect me (and other bloggers, I'm sure) to tell you all about the new exciting Microsoft technology that I currently can't discuss publicly.  Let's just say there's a lot of it for everybody - distributed systems architects, business application developers, C# language fans, native (C++) linguists, mobile applications developers and many others.  Let's just say that Oslo, C# 4.0, C++0x, Visual Studio 10, .NET Framework 4.0, Windows 7, Windows Mobile 7 and lots of other stuff should provide enough blogging material for years to come...  I should start allocating blocks in my schedule for the entire month of November just to try blogging a few lines about each new announcement and technology of the 160GB swag that will be given away at the PDC!