Marriott number deux

From Baltimore we went by train to Trenton, a grey and apparently depressed town but, as I kept telling my co-workers, it looks like Paris if compared with Detroit. We spent six hours with no lunch break, from 10:30 to 4:30, inside a grey cube farm office of the State of New Jersey IT department. Now that's entertainment.

Then we checked into a hotel downtown. As far as I can tell it is the only hotel in downtown Trenton, which would explain why there are giant MARRIOTT directional signs all over a 20-block area, hanging on what are obviously city-owned utility and traffic signal poles, pointing the way to the hotel. One of my co-workers was so intimidated by the urban environment that he insisted he would have dinner in the hotel restaurant rather than venture out on foot. Big scaredy cat.

Drizzly and cool here -- almost identical to the weather in SF, says a pal who YIMed me.