New York City

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Jess and i went to New York City for the day! We both wanted to go to some art museums while there, so i thought we should try to be there around 10 am. We drove to Hamilton where the train station was and bought tickets. Mine was $20 round trip to Penn Station, and hers was only $10 because she's military. (they get half off like, EVERYTHING.) I'd never ridden a train before, besides the heber creeper and the disneyland railroad, so i thought this would be a fun adventure. To be honest, it wasn't that exciting. :) The most exciting part of the whole trip was when a guy came around and took our tickets and punched holes in them, just like in "The Polar Express." (well, not EXACTLY like in the movie, but you know what i mean.)

It took almost two hours to get into the city, making it around 1pm when we got there. (we left kinda late... heh) First we stopped in Times Square and took a quick photo. (you can't go to Times Square without doing it. It's some sort of law or something.) Anyway, we started walking up and noticed all these pink and blue lawn chairs in he middle of the road with people sitting in them. As you can imagine, we were quite confused, and curious... Jessica thought maybe they were shooting a commercial. So we stopped and asked some older guys what they were doing. They of course, acted like we wre idiots. In their thick New York accents answered, "what do you MEAN 'what are we doing?' We're just sitting here. He just finished telling a joke, and i'm just lighting my pipe." We were still super confused. Whatever. I can't waste my time talking to these guys, so we kept going. Then we saw a sign that said they were trying to cut down on traffic in Times Square and decided to put these lawn chairs up for people to lounge in and would be replacing them with permanent furniture in the future. RANDOM. New York is so weird sometimes. (this picture is me standing in the midst of all the chairs. Unfortunately, my eyes are closed.)

Anyway, after that we tried to find the USO building, which was off 42nd and 8th ave. (one street away from Times Square) I have no idea what USO stands for, but it's military and they were hooking us up with all the discounted things we could do in the city. Most of the museums were free or half off, broadway tickets were half off, free comedy club tickets, etc. We were just checkin out what was available. There was a really nice black lady there that hooked us up with Comedy Tickets at the Gotham at 10pm. Cha CHING! It pays to serve our country. :)

We had quite a few hours to kill til then, so we left there and decided to see St Patrick's Cathedral, because Jessica never had. If you're ever go to New York City and only have time for a few things, THIS is a must see.

After there, we decided to go to the MET because Jessica also had never been there before. I was trying to convince her to go to "the top of the rock" which is going to the top of the Rockefeller center, but she wasn't interested. It's almost as high as the Empire State Building, but a WAY better view. (thank you Miles and Natalie for the tip) But she didn't want to because it cost money. (even though we got half off with her military discount...) On our way to the Met, we saw a little street market that had some cool food. We opted to get fresh crepes from some French people. She got ham and cheese while i got dulche de leche. We sat on a street corner sidewalk, just outside a business, while we ate. So good!

SIDE NOTE: Do you KNOW how many Starbucks there are in NYC? A little under a million, i think. That and McDonald's. They're like, on every other corner. It's RIDICULOUS. Anyway...

We then stopped in the store H&M. All the many times I've been to New York and i had never been in H&M until last year. I've always been kind of afraid of New York shopping... Like it was all too ritzy for me. So when i'd see this store, i'd look at the manikins and keep on walkin. But i was informed, by my friend Brig, that it's not ritzy at all. He called it a "cheap version of the GAP." Sounds like my kind of store, right? So we went in. I had to introduce her to the awesomeness. Here is a picture of Jess tryin on some shades. These were HUGE and all for $5! (she didn't end up getting them, but got some equally large grandma glasses for the same price)

Next stop: the MET. (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Um... HUGEST art museum, EVER. You could get lost and die in there and no one would ever know. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but it is really large. People buy annual passes if that gives you any idea. You NEED one to get any where NEAR seeing what in contains... We looked at the modern art, photography (both at my request) and drawing. (Jess's request) A creepy old man came up and started talking to jessica while we were looking at the drawings and so we had to leave quickly... Ha. She came over by me to have me save her but i had no idea it was THAT big a problem... I could tell she was uncomfortable but who ISN'T when talking to old men?!

Before we left we saw one of the feature shows. I think it was called Model Muse or something like that. It talked about super models, and their influences through the eras. It was pretty interesting. Had pictures and gowns on manikins with crazy hair. (one set of manikins had blonde hair that looked like something you did when you were six in the bath tub. It was all pulled foward, covering the face, and rolled into one pointy tube... INTERESTING...)

NEXT: Central Park. We took the bus down (here are some pictures of us on the bus) and walk through to the other side and see the temple. (while i wasn't able to do a session that day, i have been through the Manhattan Temple before and count it as part of my temple adventuring goal) We took a couple pictures outside and then decided to go back to the park and rest. Jessica said, "when are we going to just sit down? You'll been dragging me all around this city and we haven't had a second to rest...". It made me laugh. I didn't realize we were going so high speed. But it was nice just to sit in central park and eat out banana chips and attempt to feed the squirrels. (i know it looks like my shirt never ends in the picture outside the church... but it does, i assure you.)

We stopped at another mall and looked around for a little bit before heading back downtown to Gotham Comedy Club. Once we got there, they informed us it was a two drink minimum (sodas and water being $5 a piece) and Jess felt a little uncomfortable so we decided to call it a night and skip the show. We stopped in Times Square one last time and ate at McDonald's before we took the two hour journey back to New Jersey.

So, McDonald's out in New York are INSANE! Not only are they CRAZY busy, but they have multiple levels of seating, with TV's playing music videos everywhere...NOTHING like out here in the west. And get this, they have SECURITY men at the doors. ??? WHAT can you steal from there? I mean, really? You have to pay BEFORE you get your food... Whatever.

We ended up leaving NYC around midnight and thus, got home around 2 or 3 am. We were PRETTY exhausted. But, it was from a SUPER FUN DAY!

P.S. while i profess to really love New York, and i do... It'll always hold a special place in my heart; I must admit, i think i've had my fill. I don't think i need to go back for a very, very long time.