Sporting NYC

I've always said NYC is a tale of two cities, depending on what season it is. During the summer there is a ton to do, and many things to randomly discover while strolling from one place to the next. However, the Winter is all about hustling from one place to the next, and finding something cozy to do (or eat) indoors. An event at Madison Square Garden qualifies, and the long Thanksgiving weekend was punctuated by an evening trip to the city to see a hockey game at MSG. Beforehand we hit some Mexican food with some friends near Times Square. Of course, being near such a tourist trap meant the food at Toloache was pretty expensive, but wow it was quite good! Afterwards we headed to MSG to root for Cornell against BU in their annual hockey clash.

MSG is a pretty cool place to see a game, and it was great to get into the old Cornell chants. Shouting "RED!" during the national anthem has been programed into me for a few years now! Cornell dominated the scoring early, and it was great to stick it to the BU fans after a power-play goal made the score 3-1. However, many mistakes and a couple of fluke goals by BU ended the game in a 3-3 tie. OH well.....

On the way back to Grand Central for our train (not touching NYC traffic during holiday season!), we noticed a new installation in Bryant Park. It's a free skating rink and craft village, similar to the craft village near Columbus Circle this time of year. There were a lot of people there, and it was pretty cool to see something new to do in the Winter in NYC (though pretty corporate looking). I guess Winter still does hold some surprises in the city!