This weekend Stacie, Dad, and I traveled to New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia for Stacie's and my last weekend in the United States (AHHH). We left Friday afternoon and made it to Fort Monmouth NJ by 10:30 or so. Two rooms, Dad got the bed, Stacie the fold out, Peter the roll away.
Saturday morning, continental breakfast: bagel/creamcheese, coffee, yogurt, orange juice. We drove to Metropark Train station to ride to New York City on the NJ Transit (This is where the pictures start).
Out of Penn Station we walked to the Empire State Building and braved the lines (about an hour). Dad chickened out so Stacie and I went up alone. On the 86th floor the morning air was cool, crisp, and free of carbon monoxide and cloroflorocarbons. Habia unas buenas vistas!
Then we walked to Grand Central Station on our way to Times Square. At Times Square we stopped in the M&M store, I bought a rap CD from some lady, we saw "The Naked Cowboy", gawked at all the huge screens, and then started walking towards Central Park.
Stacie and I had Gyros from an "All Halal" street vender, while Dad had a Falafel sandwich. BEST GYROS EVER $4. Seriously , the Gyro was amazing. We ate them on a giant boulder in Central park.
Next we walked throught the park to the Apple Store, there were tons of people there (and a line to get in!) I played around on an iPhone for a while (so cool) and then we looked at headphones, too expensive.
We took the Subway to Washington square, which is under renovation and totally closed down. Walked through Greenwich Village to Little Italy, Chinatown, the southern fish market on the east side, and then down to South Ferry.
On the ferry to Statton Island I somehow was able to get a great picture of the statue of liberty from behind the heads of three rows of tourists trying to get the same thing. Lady liberty is actually quite short compared to the New York skyline, you have to pretty close to feel that patriotic nostalgia immigrants were able to muster from much farther away on their way to Ellis Island. Like the warmth from the embers of a neglected fire.
At Statton Island we turned around and got back on the ferry.
We road the Subway to Times Square, passing underneath the site of the former World Trade Center. The lights on the subway car were flickering and the operator slowed the train down as we pass through what was once the WTC subway station. An eerie but important experience in my opinion.
At Times Square we found a pizza place to eat; pepperoni, Fanta. Stacie and Dad had cold ones and made jokes about their twentyoneitude. The mascots were out in force again; Elmo wouldn't let Stacie take a picture with me unless I paid Elmo a dollar. So I snapped one just of Elmo as we crossed the street. Mickey mouse was out too, and the screens seemed even bigger and brighter.
On our circuitous way back to Penn Station we walked past the Church of Scientology [sic]. I made jokes about Zenu and Thetans (Tom Cruise I'm sorry you wasted all of your money and sanity, now we have to tell ourselves that we're not like you, not so easily sucked in to manufactured religions, but it's hard, you know, with all the Thetans).
Anyway, we made it back to the hotel.
Sunday
Continental breakfast: bagel/creamcheese, two bowls of cereal, two cups of orange juice. I drove us to Philadelphia in the morning, we went to the Reading Market for hoagies and cheesesteaks. Stacie and I were pretty tired from all the walking in New York, so after seeing the Liberty bell we let Dad go solo while we sat in the grass by some historical house.
It was a good trip, I hope you enjoy the pictures!
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