I very much admire the writing of Matt Haughey; in particular, his trip logs. For example, this one detailing his trip to Japan was incredible.

There’s been a lot of chatter about where and how to share things amongst my peers recently, and I’ve been thinking about where, how, and why I share things. It seems to me that the best answer available to me — better than a nominally photo-oriented service owned by a jerk — better than a short-form text-based service owned by a truly sadistic monster — better even than a network owned by nobody — is to post it here.^[1]

Call me an old man — a shoe that fits ever-better with each passing day — but I think I should probably post to the web more, and walled gardens less. Even if those gardens’ walls are quite permeable.

So, with that in mind, I wanted to talk about a trip I took this week.

The trip started with an invitation from Apple to go to an iPhone Duo Creator Showcase in Manhattan. We were told we’d get a briefing about the new device, and then get time to see examples of great third-party apps from a bunch of developers. Immediately, I was in. Heck yes.

This of course required me figuring out how to get to Manhattan. Generally speaking, this is not challenging, as there’s an Amtrak station near my house, and the Northeast Regional runs all the way into Penn Station. However, Amtrak is building a new bridge over the Potomac, and because of that, rail service is disrupted, often severely.

As it turns out there were some additional, severe service interruptions when I needed to travel, which was… inconvenient. That meant I likely need to at least cross into DC by car and pick up the train there. Unfortunately, and allegedly, none of the stops in and around DC favored overnight parking, so I did the next best thing: I drove to Baltimore, and picked up the train at BWI. That meant my 3-ish hour train journey was preceded by a 3-ish hour car journey. 🥴

On the plus side, I had the occasion to use plug-and-charge in my new-to-me electric car for the first time, so that was neat.

Regardless, on Tuesday I was able to make it to BWI without incident — far from a guarantee in the DC corridor, especially since my super power is picking the worst possible time to be on I-95 or the Beltway.

The train ride on the Northeast Regional to New York City was easy. I really do love traveling by train, and wish I could do so more frequently.

Upon disembarking and getting onto the street, I found a flood of people heading into Madison Square Garden, all wearing Knicks gear. I later learned the regular season began on Tuesday, and this was the Knicks’ first home game since winning the championship last season. That explained a lot.

That night, I met up with my friends Sam and Soroush; the former I speak to frequently, but the latter I had, sadly, mostly fallen out of touch with. Soroush had plans with another friend, but both he and Kyle were gracious enough to let Sam and I merge our plans with theirs. Similarly, Sam was kind enough to escort me to Soroush’s place, where I got to meet his lovely wife Taylor for the first time, and hang for a few before dinner.

Dinner was at Super Nice Pizza, and was delicious. Everything we ate was quite tasty, but the surprise of the night for me was… some sort of fried leek thing that was basically a fancy lad’s Bloomin’ Onion. It was delicious, but more importantly, the company was excellent.

This photo is trash, but, here’s the leeks:

After dinner, we went to a Tiki Bar and had a nightcap before bed. Pleasingly, the weather in New York was incredible this week, and we were able to sit outside.

Wednesday morning the day began early with breakfast at Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish with my buddy Adam. Though I love lox, and the name of the darned place includes “smoked fish”, I decided to eschew that for fear of halitosis, and instead had a very tasty bacon, egg, and cheese.

(I’m not sure why I’m incapable of taking sharp photos.)

The conversation was great, if a tiny bit rushed on account of all the activities we had in store for us that morning.

Which brings me to the iPhone Duo Showcase.

I have been lucky enough to get invited to a couple of WWDCs, and I also somehow got invited to an event in Brooklyn in 2018. However, this kind of access was extremely unusual for me. This was basically my first time, so I wasn’t sure how to act.

The Showcase took place at Apple’s Tribeca loft, and let me tell you, even if the Showcase stank, seeing that loft may have been worth it. It was gorgeous. The loft also used Lutron Caséta switches basically everywhere, which I got quite a kick out of.

To lead things off, we had a briefing about the device, which was informative, and I learned some new things about the Duo I hadn’t previously known. Walking in and seeing two Duos — a device I’d never seen in-person before — sitting on one of those grey mats you see at the Apple store? Incredible. The matte screens, cranked up to 100% brightness, sitting open, was stunning.

After the briefing, we were led into a large open area, where the developers had set themselves up in stations, to have conversations with the media. Before we got to that, though, I couldn’t resist this photo op:

It was extremely cool to see a version of the woven Apple from the recent video.

While Marco and I walked around seeing all the different stations, and chatting with all the developers, I took far too few photos and basically no video. I deeply regret this, and if I am lucky enough to get an invite to another event, I endeavor to do way better about capturing more images and videos.

While at the stations, I had the opportunity to mess with the various Duos, and I was incredibly impressed. I will have lots to say on ATP next week, but the Duo is just so darn different. And right now, I’d argue, different is fun.

After what felt like far too little time — even though it unequivocally wasn’t — we were asked to make way for the next group. In a serendipitous turn of events, we ran into our friend John Voorhees in the lobby, as he was about to take his turn.

All told, I’m very appreciative and lucky that I had the opportunity to get some time with the Duo before launch. It helped me do a better job on ATP the next day, and helped me let my thoughts about the Duo start to brew.

After the Showcase ended for us — around 11ish? — Marco and I had a mission. There was only one option for lunch.

The weather continuing to be amazing, we took a [slightly circuitous, whoops] walk to one of my two favorite pizza spots in the world: John’s of Bleecker. The conversation during the walk was excellent, and that only kept up during the meal.

When [briefly] debating what to order, we figured we’d split a pizza. We weren’t sure if 14" or 16" was the right answer, but Marco quickly pointed out that at a small $2 delta, you Get the Bigger Pizza.

The pizza — like the company — was amazing.

Shortly before leaving John’s, Marco checked train schedules to get him home, and realized he had a couple hours to kill. I made passing mention to Marco that I had never been to B&H’s store in midtown, and he jumped at having an excuse to go.

It was both exactly what I expected, and not at all what I expected. I was sad to see very little Ubiquiti gear, but there was so much stuff.

After B&H, we killed some time and Marco took off. I went back to the hotel room to rest for a bit, as I felt like I had been run ragged.

That evening, Adam asked me if I had any plans, which was perfect timing, as I was about to go figure out something to get into, but had nothing on the docket. We went to an Irish pub, where we had a couple drinks. The conversation was meandering and wonderful; just like I like it.

After splitting up, I met up with Sam again to crash an “iOS IRL” meetup. I was later than expected, so the crowd was thin, but everyone was lovely and welcoming. I am glad I swung by.

On Thursday morning, I had a train to catch, a drive to make, and most importantly, a family that I missed very much to come home to. I started the morning by stopping by a new location of Liberty Bagels, which the family and I had tried when we were all in Manhattan last summer. With no expected close-quarter conversations looming, I treated myself to a toasted plain bagel, with lox, plain cream cheese, and red onion. It was positively divine.

When booking my travel, I noticed that an Acela was marginally more expensive than the Northeast Regional, so, Limitliss LLC decided it was okay for me to treat myself. 😉

This was the first time I’d ridden the Acela, and I had heard universally good things. Based on this one ~2.5 hour experience, I can say… it’s nice! The trains are clearly less abused than the normal Amtrak trains. I was in a “NextGen” train; I’m not sure what the older trains are like. Mine had seats a bit nicer than a normal Amtrak, with pull-down footrests, and a cupholder. Though I didn’t enter the café car until I was disembarking, it certainly seemed quite a lot nicer than the ones on a normal Amtrak.

Ultimately, the difference between the Northeast Regional and Acela was only around 30-ish minutes on this short-ish distance. The experience, however, was definitely noticeably up-market. In cases where the cost difference isn’t too much, I’d definitely spring for the Acela again.

All told, the experience was really great, and I’m really appreciative of Erin and the family being so great about me leaving for 2 nights in our busiest time of year. I haven’t a clue if I’ll get invited to anything else — Apple can be a fickle group — but I’ll definitely cherish this experience.