Returned From NYC

I got in yesterday from my trip to New York City and lemme tell ya...I was exhausted. New York City was awesome! So much to do....never a lapse in finding something to do if you want to.

My trip started out stangely. My dad dropped me off at the airport in Little Rock and as I was checking my bags in at the curb, security was in an argument with a man about his leaving his car unattended. Security was trying to explain to him that he can't leave his car there (in the drop off zone) and the man insisted that a friend was watching it, and his car. The security officer told him, that every car had to be atteneded, so this idiot goes off and starts screaming in Arabic. Lovely. NOT smart to get mad and scream in Arabic at an airport of all places. That may not be politically correct...but we all know it's true.

Then I went onto Albany via Chicago. That leg of the trip was uneventful. Dustin picked me up in Albany and gave me a brief tour of the city. It is much more beautiful than I thought it would be. We went on to his house, had dinner with his wife and stayed up pretty late talking and watching movies. Monday we drove around Albany some more after going to a state park in the mountains. At the state park we walked trails (absolutely gorgeous views) and grilled hot dogs. In Albany we went and saw the state capitol, the downtown area, etc. I was really pleased at how clean the area is. Most big cities are dirty in the downtown areas, but that is not the case with Albany.

Tuesday started with us getting up at 4:30am to catch the 5:10 train to New York City. We both caught a few minutes of sleep on the train but not much. The train let us off right at Madison Square Garden in NYC. We immediately went walking and hit Times Square. TV does Times Square no justice. It is SO big and SO busy. We did so much that I don't remember what order we did things in. Then we went to Rockefeller Center. And this huge Catholic Church arcross from Rockefller Center. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it but it is a magnificant structure and the inside of it is gorgeous. I got some good pictures of it.I know on Tuesday we visited Ground Zero which was very somber. There are signs all around the perimeter telling the story of 9/11. Very sad indeed. A list of all of the victims who passed away is also present. Just trying to read the names and soak them all in is an extremely daunting and sad task. You can't get a really good picture of the area where the Towers stood, but you can see this big, gaping hole in the ground and the landscape and know what happened. After that, we grabbed a bite to eat in Manhatten (VERY pricey) and made our way to our hotel in New Jersey to get a couple of hours rest before heading back into the city. That evening we went to Times Square again (I wanted to see it at night) and then to the Empire State Building. I wanted to go to the top (Observation deck) but there was a 2-2.5 hour wait. It just wasn't THAT important to me. If I was in NYC for a week...yeah I would have done it...but with only 2 days, that would have taken a lot of my time. We milled aound in NYC for a while, just looking, etc until we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we headed into NYC and went into Central Park. It's amazing. We were on the outter edges of the park and still, a lot of the hustle and bustle of the city were drowned out. We also visited the Statue of Liberty. Again, there was about a 2 hour wait for the ferry, and we didn't have that kind of time before the ball game. The part of the trip that made me the most upset was the fact that my camera quit working at the Staue. I got one decent shot of the Statue from land and then, my camera died. I was pretty mad about that. Dustin got some good pics and said he'd send me some...but it's just not the same. After that we hopped on a subway and headed to Yankees Stadium where we had tickets for an afternoon game. THAT got off to a bad start when security made us leave the stadium area and check in our bags (we were carrying backpacks) at a bowling alley across the street. Naturally this bowling alley charged $5 just to put a bag in a closet. Robbery I tell ya! Seriously though, I overheard someone say that this bowling alley made over $150,000 last baseball season just having bags checked in. GOTTA be some sort of agreement with the Yankees. There is NO indication on the tickets that wouldn't be let in. Both of our bags were small enough to fit under our seats. Anyway, after the Yankees game we went into the Financial District, walked around a bit, ate some dinner, and went back to the vicinity of Penn Station where we would catch our bus back to Albany. We watched in amazement, along with about 100 other people, as this artist took 2 pans of spray paint, a ruler and a pan lid and did a PERFECT painting of the NYC skyline. It was amazing. All I could say was wow. This guy was awesome. It was spectacular.

Then we headed to the bus terminal for our ride back into Albany. That was uneventful except for the girl sitting in front of us talking on her cell phone for 2 hours solid while everyone else tried to get some sleep. Ah well. We got back to Albany and stayed up talking with Dustin's wife for a while before going to sleep. Got up the next morning...went to the airport and left. I just got my luggage today though. Somehow it got lost either in Albany, Chicago, St. Louis or Little Rock. No telling LOL

All in all I had a wonderful time. I loved visiting Dustin and Laura, definitely loved NYC. I plan to go back up there sometime but will definitely spend more time there. Two days simply isn't enough. I will try to work it out so that I can go up there in the fall, to see Dustin and Laura, to see the leaves changing colors and to spend more than 2 days in the City. I had a spectacular time and look forward to going again.

I will try to post some pics soon. I dunno how to do it, but I will try. I just got my digital camera and am still learning its featuers. Stay tuned!