My first trip to The Big Apple was the result of a work trip sometime in the early 2000’s. You would think with my archive of pictures I would have at least one from that trip – but I do not. I know why – it was before cell phones. Yes there was a time before cell phones with cameras. Oh some people had them at that time but I was not one of them. Anyways we were working in Edison, New Jersey and it felt like we traveled to our sales office there for many weeks in a row.  One week we decided to stay over on the weekend. I was so clueless I did not even realize how close Edison was to New York City. To be honest I really was generally unaware and not concerned about going to another city for a visit. My co worker suggested that our work team should stay in NYC for the night. I said OK, not really realizing what I was going to experience.  It was Saturday and we caught the train in Edison and road it up into the city. As we came closer the train went underground into the darkness until we arrived at the station. We had arrived at Penn Station. My recollection is that we then existed the train and it felt like we were 5 stories under street level as we worked our way up and up to the street. The station seemed huge. When we walked through the doors onto the sidewalk, I was not prepared for the sheer, staggering size of the buildings, I mean skyscrapers in front of me. and in every direction I turned. My clearest memory of this moment is that I literally had to look straight up to see the sky. I loved it. I also did not realize we would be standing right next to Madison Square Garden. I’m a big fan of music and just being there by that iconic arena was exciting.   We had a great weekend but I do not remember really seeing all that much.  The Arizona Diamond Backs were in town playing and the whole team came up the escalator at our hotel .  Playing for them at the time was the pitcher Randy Johnson – that guy is so tall.  Anyways….