NYC Part 1

Remind me never to book another flight that leaves at 8 am. Rather than considering what time we'd have to be up in the morning to get to O'hare in time for our flight, I was thinking about how early we could arrive on the East Coast in order to have more time in NYC. Next time, I'll have to plan that better.

Other than being incredibly tired from having to wake up at 4 am after only getting about 2 hours of sleep the night before, our flight to Newark was pretty uneventful except for one minor problem. Sneetches apparently get air sick. Poor thing.


Our flight arrived in Newark right on time, at 11 am. After grabbing our bags and taking the Air Train (the tram that takes people to different parts of the airport) to the hotel shuttle pick-up spot, we got to the hotel at roughly noon. They didn't have any rooms ready in order for us to check in early so we went and had lunch in their restaurant to waste some time. They had a stand with the typical travel brochures, mostly of what to see and do in NYC so we grabbed nearly one of each, even the ones for all the Broadway plays we had no intention of seeing. By the time we'd finished eating and looking through all the brochures they had a room ready for us so we dropped our luggage off and immediately left.

The hotel ran a 24 hour shuttle to the airport so we hopped back on it and took the Air Train to the NJ Transit station to take a train in to NYC's Penn Station. $28 for the two of us to take the train...ONE WAY! What's up with that? The Metra train we sometimes take into Chicago only cost $12 one way for the two of us and that is for an hour long ride. The ride into NYC was only half an hour. Fucking ripoff if you ask me. I think anyone that rides the NJ Transit should complain about price gouging!

Upon emerging from Penn Station, this was our first site:

The headquarters for the Fuse tv station we desperately want to get but can't because our lousy cable company doesn't offer it just happened to be right across the street from the train station. The kiddie was pissed to see that. It was like a big HA HA fuck you, tempting us with something we know we can't have.

Our first stop, since it was nearby, was the Empire State Building. Looks kind of small considering we have the Sears Tower here, but it's such a landmark building that it was still impressive to see. The line wasn't very long to get up to the observation deck so we went ahead and paid the $30 to go up there.

The first view we got was looking south. If they were still standing, the World Trade Towers would have risen up and towered over the group of buildings in the background.

Another view looking south, that of the Statue of Liberty with our camera zoomed in as far as it would go. I always envisioned the statue as being much taller than it actually is.

Sneetches don't have the best eyesight, so he insisted on stealing quarters from me to look through the viewfinders.


Many more pictures to come. Just wanted to get this started while I had a bit of free time.