Albany, New York

As they always say, "Better late than never!"

Robert had a post-doc interview at Albany Medical College in Albany, NY around October 13th and I took the chance to accompany him to see a city I've never seen before.  Lucky for him, I drove all the six hours there so that he could catch up on his reading and review for the interview.

We arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn with an hour or so to spare before his dinner with his potential fellow post-docs.  I was planning to get comfortable at the hotel and do some research into what I wanted to do the next day while Robert was going to be at his day long interview, but shortly after Robert left, he called me and said I was invited to come to dinner, too :)  And so Robert and I and his potential fellow post-docs all went out to dinner.   I don't recall the name of the restaurant we went to, but it had an eclectic vibe and had an in-house brewery.  What I do recall is that I had French Onion soup - one of my favorite soups, ever - and it was very delicious.

The next day while Robert was on his day-long interview at Albany Medical College, I decided to tour a little bit of Albany's Empire State Plaza.  It was raining on and off and some very scary looking clouds were rolling in, but that didn't stop me.  

My first stop was the 42nd floor of the Corning Tower, where I got to see beautiful views of the city below, the Hudson River and the storm rolling in.

Since it was raining, I decided to stay underground and went to see the Great Western Staircase a.k.a the "Million Dollar Staircase" at the Capital Building.  I wasn't sure what to expect and only went there because a lady at one of the information desks said "You should go see the staircase, I hear it is worth a look."  When I first got to it, I was shocked at how architecturally beautiful it was.  I was expecting something made out of gold and rather cheesy... maybe just one flight of some gold covered stairs, but it was so much more than that!  It was stunning and the stairs just kept going up and up until they reached an end underneath a beautiful sky light.  If you ever venture out to Albany, NY, definitely go see the staircase :)

After the staircase, I was dying to get out of the Capital Building.  It was a little warm and humid for an October day, and the Capital Building didn't have any air conditioning.  It looked like the rain stopped and I really wanted to see more of the plaza.

The cool thing about Albany is that they have a FREE New York State Museum chock full of goodies to look at and read about, so that was my next stop!  And it was pretty awesome.  I must've spent a couple of hours in there just looking, reading, snapping some photos.  Before I left, I made sure to see The Carousel.

On my way back to the Hotel to meet Robert, I admired the streets and architecture.

We were leaving that night but before we left we stopped and had some delicious sushi at a restaurant I had noted on my walk back in the rain.

And made one more stop at the Hudson River before we hit the pedal to the metal.

Overall, I really liked Albany and wouldn't have minded if that's where Robert decided to work.  We probably wouldn't have enjoyed the winter as much as we are enjoying it here in Atlanta, GA, but with Montreal & Quebec, Boston, New York City, and the Adirondack Mountains so close by there wouldn't be a shortage of things to do!