all i gotta say is, with the length of the drive i'd have to do this (4 hours not including traffic...or excessive speeding ), there better be plans in place to make this an kick ass meet up.
sorry i can't help contribute in the formulating of the plans, but i don't know anything to do in NYC (never been there, never wanted to go). i'll be coming in on I-80. make this meetup somewhere easy for me to get to please and i'll see what i can do as far as making it out there.
last weekend in August should be free for me, as long as it isn't on a Sunday. That's the end of my week off between summer and fall semester, so only thing holding me back is whatever cash i gotta come up with. i'd like to enjoy that last weekend as much as possible before i launch into a 16 week semester, so if we're gonna do this, let's make it good.