September 6-10, 2024 - HR conference for Brian - Albany NY

I'm writing this on day 3 of the 4 days we are in Albany.  If anything exciting happens tonight I can revise this as needed.

We've been to Albany just a few times before and only once before on an overnight stay downtown.  Thankfully, we're enjoying our visit more this time than in the past.  When we stayed before (just as a sleepover stop on the way home from Vermont) everything seemed dirty and old and we had a really disappointing expensive meal that left us unsatisfied.

This trip started on Friday after a shortened work day.  I dropped Brian off at work in the morning, headed into Rochester to replace a part on a server and do some other tasks at our factory and then headed home to finish trip prep.  We were on the road by about 3:30 pm and the drive to Albany was super easy and seemed shorter than we remembered.  We checked into our room at the Hilton Albany. I chose a room at the end of the shorter of the 2 hallways in the hotel.  This turned out to be a good move since these end rooms only border 1 other guest room and there is no foot traffic going by or making noise since it's at the end of the hall.

We walked around the Empire State plaza which is also called Rockefeller Plaza because it was named after governor Nelson A. Rockefeller but that name could be confused with NYC's more famous Rockefeller Center.  The plaza is an amazing area and the backstory on how the state cleared 98 acres of neighborhoods to make it in the 1960's is very interesting.  The main part of the plaza is a large rectangular elevated and flat promenade with a reflecting pond in the middle.  There are 4 similarly styled towers on one side of the plaza and the tallest and most unusually style building, the Corning Tower, on the other.  I struggled to find a photo that came close to presenting how imposing the buildings feel from the promenade.  The 4 buildings on the left (only 3 are seen in this photo) are unimaginatively called Agency Building 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

The Corning building in particular, on the right side of the photo above, looks impossibly tall because unlike the other buildings, it stands completely alone with no other towers on either side of it.  Seen at the far end of the photo is the NY capital building itself.  Behind the photographer is the NY state Museum which is a FANTASTIC free museum worthy of a 3 hour visit itself.  It features exhibits that cover every subject imaginable including human rights, NY history, NY gemstones and a very moving 9/11 exhibit.  It was dark when we walked the plaza and the expanse of open space and the large buildings combined with an almost complete lack of human activity on a cool Saturday night gave the whole experience a really unique feel.

One thing that is striking to me from this visit to Albany is that Albany feels like a capital city full stop.  Not a city that happens to be a capital like Sacramento or Boston or Salem (OR).  The city is dominated with state office buildings even far outside the downtime core.  It feels more like DC than a typical US city in that the monuments and capital stuff utterly dominate the skyline and downtown.  Everything we've seen downtown has been meticulously clean and there were multiple people out sweeping the sidewalks and streets this morning.  What is somewhat lacking is a sense of life.  The downtown area has been very sleepy over the weekend and even now on Monday it's pretty quiet.  I imagine the comings and goings of the legislature and governor etc. have a big impact on how lively downtown feels on any given day.

One feeling we haven't been able to shake is that Albany isn't a dining destination.  We ate dinner last night at 'City Beer Hall' because it was near our hotel. The food was adequate but not great, our server was snippy and the bill was shocking.  I had a half rack of ribs, Brian had a half chicken and I had a single can of hard cider, Brian has a soft drink.  The total was 72 dollars before tip.  What a rip-off.  The hotel restaurant isn't even open on weekends but we had 1 cocktail each and 1 desert each for 54 dollars pre-tip at the end of our day.  Ugh.  When we go to NYC, the lodging seems completely unreasonably priced but the food is usually really good.  Here, the hotel was very modestly priced but like our previous visit, the food is neither great nor a great deal.  Friday night we walked to a cheesecake shop and got 2 slices of cheesecake to go.  It was ok but nothing special.  We also waited in a line for a popular bagel shop in suburbia but neither of us enjoyed our food, it was a pain to get and we had to eat in the car since the shop has no tables.

Hopefully tonight we'll get in at least one notable walk in, perhaps to the newly completed Albany Skyway.