It finally happened.
I went to New York City.
I honestly went with a different set of expectation, and I genuinely didn't expect to like it as much as I did. But it was perfect.
My cousin, Danny, got invited to go preach at a youth camp, and we decided that we'd take a little trip into the city on Sunday afternoon.
My best friend booked us a hotel in New Jersey, as it was cheaper and had a shuttle we could take into the city (we thought we would use it. We did not). We were going to go see the Statue of Liberty first, however, the New Jersey turnpike decided to hold us captive and not let us pass.
Let me tell you something: I do not understand that thing, and I'd even go as far as saying that I hate it. It's really confusing, there are roads leading in all sorts of directions and people are not nice. People honk at you for trying to merge into their lane. It's apparently extremely unreasonable to expect them to let you in. How dare you not only use one lane until you get to your destination.
Oh, and the honking is ridiculous. Honk for this, honk for that. You'd think they had a bumper sticker that said "if you are breathing, honk!" -- you might think I'm exaggerating, but I kid you not, at one point, I had to pray for the Lord to touch the heart of the man in the other lane to let us merge. I am just thankful that I wasn't driving because I would have burst into tears (thanks Danny -- he doesn't read this blog, he'll never know).
We ended up on the turnpike four times in one night, literally from 5 pm to 11 pm. Finally, after a lot of dancing, laughing and yelling back at the cars, we decided to end the night. We ended up getting some Taco Bell, and heading back to the hotel to watch friends on TV before going to bed. We did not make it to NYC on sunday night. But we made it bright and early on Monday morning and it was a splendid ten hours. Seriously, we spent ten hours in NYC. How funny is that? We tried to do as much as we could. I wanted to go to the Guggenheim, the Met and Times Square. We only go to see the Times Square, and only because we parked near there.
Side note: Times Square is weirdly underwhelming. I felt a little let down to be honest.
Side note: Times Square is weirdly underwhelming. I felt a little let down to be honest.
But we saw other great places, ones that I wouldn't have seen on my own. We took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour (it saved us from having to walk from place to place) and we got to see the city in a day. We went to the 911 Memorial, Oculus Station, Grand Central Station, The Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, the lower level of the Empire State Building. We took a boat tour that showed us stuff and taught us some history. I learned that "my husband", Hugh Jackman, lives in NYC in some village. The bus tour takes you everywhere.
Each building is unique and its own thing. We went to see the Flat Iron Building (I don't know if that's one word or what) but that building is trippy and I felt like I was in inception. I'ts just a wonky building and it makes my stomach feel funny. I don't know. Nobody every described me as normal. The day was perfect. We ate breakfast at the hotel, and didn't eat lunch until about 4pm. I simply can't wait to go back. There is so much more I still got to do. I still have to go the museums and I still have to see a Broadway show. Can this school year be over so I can start adventuring?
Look how pretty it is:
Until next time New York.
Let's go on another adventure.
- R.
