New York was great! We had so much fun and so many experiences that I never expected to have. We stayed in NJ with a kind of far-off skyline view of the city (it was good enough for me). Day one included the drive up and staying in that night. We ate at the hotel's restaurant and settled in for a night of drinking. Who goes into a fancy hotel with two cases of beer? We do. That's how we roll. For some reason every morning I'd wake up around 6 something and, every time I went to the window to look out. There was an amazing view of the rising sun coupled with that skyline.
Day 2: THE BIG FOUR!
This was legendary for us. Not even just because of the bands that came together but because of being at Yankee Stadium with *52,325* of our party buddies. For being in the Bronx. For driving ourselves there (yeah I know, it wasn't bad...it's over the river and not even through the woods...but I still drove in New York..go me!). And for seeing the guy on the exit ramp with a house made out of palettes with beer cans and bottles lining the top as decoration.
Day 3: Yeah, we know what we're doing.
Not. We took the subway in and walked out of Madison Square Garden knowing exactly where we were and where we were going. Wait, no, that was all of the other tourists around us. We're the ones who looked left, then right, then picked right. We walked, saw a girl almost get hit by a cab, she cussed out the driver and banged on the hood. That's when I knew we were headed in the right direction. That's really all we did that day. Walked around, saw things, visited the Empire State Building (where I undoubtedly got some of my best trip pictures), went through Times Square, ate great pizza, and went from hot to rained on to freezing cold. Hopped the subway back and had a cozy night in again.
Day 4: That was fast.
We weren't quite sure what to do but I wanted to ride the ferry and Brad wanted to go to Wall Street. Problem solved. We ended up at the 9/11 Memorial (not actually going in, it opened the same week we went and there were no tickets available) to see where the towers stood and to visit the little gift shop/museum-ish place. Wow. That's all I can really say. So we left there and these people asked us for directions. Really? Now I know we may look like normal folks, but when we open our mouths (and especially Brad), you would know we're from much further down the coast. Funny thing is, we knew the answer because we are very good at paying attention to street signs. Then we went to Battery Park, strolled around, got hot dogs and ate next to the river, staring at the Statue of Liberty from afar. Oh...by the way, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a pretzel with cheese in the middle. It wasn't. Ew. On to Wall Street, the Bull, and wandering back to the lower end ferry. The end. From then on we were homeward bound. Of course instead of planning our time wisely (who does that, really? lame.), we just took our time but hurried up all day and left around 5pm instead of the 3-3:30 we had planned on. Five o'clock traffic leaving NJ? Fun stuff. We ended up home safe and sound sometime in the wee hours of Saturday morning with another trip under our belts and another two states marked off of our long list.