Tuesday, January 25, 2005

I heart NY

Well, I'm going to attempt to recall my experiences in New York to you in this epistle of my life. I may finish today, and I may not. I don't really know how much detail I should share, or even how much I really remember. I can get long-winded, so please forgive. (oh, and sorry in advance because I'm sure I'll use past and present tense as if it's all the same-I was not an English major.)
Tuesday, Dec. 28th-Our flight leaves Dallas at 6:50 a.m. that morning, so we leave Tyler a little after 3. Cory comes along to drive the car back because we didn't want to pay for parking. We got there around 5:30, checked our bags, then got in the unusually long line for security. Apparently they weren't ready for the crowds that morning and only had one security station open. We met a nice lady in line who had spent some time in Belgium, so that was fun for Ine. Right when we got close to the front of the line, a hurried man rushed up to the lady checking ID's and asked if he could be rushed through since his flight left at 6. (It was 10 minutes until 6 at this point.) She said, "I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to let anyone cut in line." He was frustrated because obviously the line was going to take about 20 minutes to get through-time he didn't have. I asked the lady if we could allow him to cut in front of us, and she said that was fine, so we did. He was very grateful and even chatted with us for a few minutes while waiting to get through security. We told him we were going to New York and he said that sounded fun-and he also said that he didn't think we would have any trouble finding a guy to buy us drinks. How did he know that was our goal? So once through security-and after Ine had been thoroughly searched-we went to our gate. We had a bite to eat then boarded the plane. There was a lot of sleeping going on, but since I had the window seat I was looking out a lot. I realized on the almost 3 hour flight how useful an iPod would have been. I've really got to get my hands on one of those. It was a really smooth flight and the weather was good for landing. Here is a picture from the plane window:


After searching for the correct baggage carousel, we got our luggage, went to ground transportation, and caught our shuttle to the West Side Inn. We were early for check in so we had to wait about 30 minutes before getting our key, but the nice guy working at the desk kept us company telling us about the high cost of cigarettes there. We went to the room, which looked exactly like it does on the website. (www.westsideinn.com) It also smelled of fresh paint and was very warm. We ended up having the windows open every night because it was so warm. After we checked in, we headed to the subway (the 1 and 9, which we became best friends with during our time in NY). We went to Times Square, basically because we had no other ideas, and we were really hungry. At this point it was 4 p.m. and we hadn't eaten since 6:30 a.m., so needless to say, Jenn was HUNGRY. I wish I had a picture of my face when we came out of the subway and stepped into Times Square. It was a priceless moment I can't ever get back. Just the shock of taking it all in-the huge buildings with big lights and people everywhere. I must have looked like a kid in a candy store for about 30 seconds. We were on a mission though, so the first place we saw (Planet Hollywood) is where we went to eat. I didn't even care that I was going to have to pay $12 for a burger-that's how hungry I was. It was really good though. After that, we wandered around the area for a bit. It actually was pretty cold, and it snowed that night (which ended up being the only day of snow, but not the only day of cold). Here is a picture of Ine and I in the snow:

We were all pretty beat from the early morning and wanted to get a good night sleep before the crazy week begun. Ok, that's all I have the energy to write for now-obviously I try and tell too many unimportant details-but this is more for my own memory. Feel free to read as little or as much as you'd like-or leave mean comments saying I write too much. That'll be fun too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm so jealous. i love hearing all the details and the pictures are great. thanks ~ katy

Anonymous said...

Jenn you've portrayed the trip amazingly (is that a word?)! Anyways, I totally want to print a copy of this b/c it's so fun to look back and read about it...love ya ~Lin