Well, I guess I'd better start by letting everybody know how our vacation to the east coast went last month. Jen had a few weeks off before residency started so we figured we should probably take a vacation before she started working 80 hours a week. I had never been to the east coast so we decided to make a little trip out that way to see some friends.
First up was New York. Jen's cousin Rachel lives right in Manhattan. She has an awesome apartment at 34th & Park Ave. It was originally a two bedroom apartment but they converted the dining room into a third bedroom. They put up a new wall & it looks really good. I wouldn't have even noticed if she hadn't told me they put up the wall. I was pretty amazed at how large it was. Even with the dining room converted they had a ton of living area. Definitely a difference from what I've seen in other cities. Although, she says that it isn't common.
We got to New York on a Friday about midday. We moved all of our stuff into the apartment and then decided to start in with the tourist stuff. We had to park our car in a garage. It cost $29 a day. Ouch! But since Rachel was so nice to let us stay at her place for free it didn't hurt too bad. It's so nice to have such good friends.
First thing we did was walk around downtown Manhattan for a while. That was awesome! I felt like I was walking through a movie or something. You couldn't walk 100 ft without running into something you'd always heard about but had never seen. We saw ground zero, wall street, the statue of liberty (from afar), a really neat church, china town, and on & on. Here's a couple pictures from that day:
At one point we went to lunch down in Chinatown. We went to a place called Joe's Shanghai. It specializes in something called a soup dumpling. It's this little dumpling filled with a yummy soup of some sort. I didn't necessarily want to ask what was inside, but it sure tasted good.
Rachel was working about as much as Jen is now, if not more. Luckily, though, she got some time off to hang out with us. She got to go to dinner with us down in Little Italy. Let me tell you, I would be in heaven if I could get an apartment down there and just eat for the rest of my life. There are about 50 restaurants down this one little street. The street is blocked off, the restaurants set up tables outside, and there are lights strung up all over the place. People are eating & drinking wine, waiters are speaking Italian & trying to get you to eat at their restaurant, other's are selling stuff. It's really neat. We just picked a place and sat outside. We sat there for probably 3 or 4 hours before we realized what time it was. It was just so relaxing & the food was awesome.
We went to the Empire State Building, which sucked. Not that it wasn't neat once we got to the top, but it was pure hell trying to make it there. We waiting in probably 6 or 7 different lines before finally getting up there. It took over two hours. Ugghhh! But we got some neat pictures (see below) & we get to say that we did it. Word to the wise though, be prepared!
Here's a picture of Jen & I on top of the Empire State Building!
This is the entrance to the Empire State Building. I thought it was really neat. Of course, this is only about 10 minutes into the 2 hour wait.
Next up was Central Park. It's huge. I took a picture from the Empire State Building that you can see below. It's very pretty & clean. I was impressed. People were out running & walking, just hanging out. There are lots of little ponds & gardens. A nice relaxing time.
Central Park from the Empire State Building.
Probably the most comprehensive thing we did was to take a tour around Manhattan island. It was a 3 hour tour that took you all the way around the island, with a guy pointing things out & telling you stories along the way. It was really interesting & gave you a good flavor of the island. Be warned though, make sure to wear sunblock! I got burnt so bad on my forehead that I blistered the next day. Ouch! I'm all healed up now though, so no harm done.
We went to Bronx zoo with some friends from West Point. It was a neat zoo, but I've seen better. The trip out was a bit of an adventure, since we went the wrong way on a subway twice. Oops! At one point we had to go above ground to change trains, in Harlem! Kind of scary for a couple of whities from Indiana. :)
While we were in New York we had our first anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. In some respects it seems like it went fast, but it also feels like we've been together forever. Any woman able to put up with me for that long deserves a medal. I'm thinking a purple heart for our 50th anniversary. :) Anyway, we went to a nice dinner down in Little Italy again (which was even better this time). Then we went to see Rent on Broadway. Then we decided to pretend we had some money & get a hotel downtown. All in all, a very nice first anniversary.
Well, I guess that's it for the part of our vacation to New York. We were there for 4 days all together. It was a blast and I'd definitely recommend going to anyone interested. What a great city. Don't know if I could live there though.
Check back later for the rest of the vacation. See-ya!
