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More photos from New York:

Is New York really able to enforce “No Honking Zones”?

Sadly, the romantic gift shop is closed. And this really is on “Mott” Street; not an Engrish spelling of “Most Romantic”.

A first visit to New York cannot be complete without a visit to the Empire State Building.

Billboards and signs as far as the eye can see. And in New York, last call is at 4am, not 2am like all those other wussy cities …

It’s been less than 12 hours and we’ve already spent over $100 in taxi fares. Ugh.

JetBlue used to be my domestic airline of choice. They’ve got decent seats, each-to-their-own LCD screens, and all-you-can-eat snacks, including blue-corn chips.

But Richard Branson has got David Neeleman beat, hands down. On our first Virgin America flight, we experienced every cliché you could possibly imagine:

• Techno music to greet us upon boarding, and to see us off upon landing.
• Lots of neon blue and neon red ambient lighting to match the mood music.
• Obligatory metrosexual Asian steward and exotic Asian stewardess, and in general, flight attendants under the age of 60 whom you don’t have to feel bad for every time you see them walk by.
• High-five greeting upon exiting the plane, instead of the David Spade “buh-bye”.
• They fly out of SFO; no more trips to Oakland.

There was also some heavy-duty geek-friendly stuff going on:

• A/C power to each seat. My MBP’s legendary 4-hr battery-life prowess was not required for this 5-hr flight. When I was finished marveling at the presence of A/C power in coach class, I simply plugged in and recharged.
• The in-flight media entertainment has much to offer (movies, TV shows, music, games), and on top of all that, seems to be Linux-based to boot. I didn’t bother asking the flight staff any questions about it, but with game selections like “Penguin Command” and “Circus Linux!”, and with a distinct X-like hourglass cursor appearing every now and then, I had no doubt.

Virgin America, my new favorite domestic carrier. The bonus on top of all that, in this day and age of $4/gallon gasoline, was their relatively-bargain $389 round-trip price for SFO-JFK on the same weekend His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was visiting New York.

Finally, the first nice weekend of spring: