New YOOORK!

Sometimes I go to New York. Well, just the once, actually. It appeared that I had a free weekend in June, so Tamry, Sandy and I planned a trip to New York! At first Sandy was just going to meet us there, but it turned out she could get on the same flight as us!

Proof:

We landed in New York, and took my very first New York Subway ride. It looks like every picture or movie I've ever seen with a New York Subway.

We were on our way to our hostel, and when we emerged from the subway, we found my inheritance:

We ended up staying at the Y, which is fabulous, because my elderly neighbor back home firmly believes in the Y. When she found out I was moving to Chicago, she told me not to worry about a thing, because I could just go and check into the women's housing at the Y while I looked for an apartment. They could also help me find a job. That's how she did it when she moved to Chicago anyway. I'm glad I got to stay at the Y even if it's in New York and not in Chicago.

We dropped our things off in a back room at the hostel, and decided it was time for lunch. It turns out one of our friends from Chicago was also in New York, and only about 10 blocks away. We met up with her for lunch at a Thai place in Manhattan. 

We found a convenience store near our hostel, and we ran in there for drinks. What did I find? My new favorite obsession: Flav water. I found it once at a 7-Eleven in Chicago, and have been searching for it ever since. I was so happy to find it in New York; I bought four.

Then it was time to hit the city! We flew in on Saturday morning, and were leaving mid day Monday.

Possibly Fifth Avenue:

Obviously Times Square:

My buddy Daniel Radcliffe was all over Times Square. He just loves it there. And he loves being huge. 

And, did you know in New York the cops love to hang out in groups? Do you think they are all working on a crossword puzzle?

Due to lack of time we decided we would let a tour guide take us to all the touristy spots, and then we wouldn't have to do the legwork. So, we jumped on a bus. A tour bus, not the normal kind of bus. 

Oh, more cops in groups. They must have finished that crossword puzzle.

So, do you want to hear about a super awesome and hilarious inside joke from the trip? Of course you do! Well, that convenience store I mentioned earlier is called Duane Reade. Naturally, I've never heard of this before, and I had a hard time remembering those two names. So, I would call it any variation of a D and an R name that I felt like, and most times the R was forgotten. Anyway, the one I think I settled on most frequently was Don Juan. Well, we passed so many Don Juan's that I felt like I needed to take a picture to prove it's existence, so here you go:

For dinner we went to Carnegie Deli, which was a joke. By a joke, I mean it had ridiculously huge portion sizes, the wait staff was only interested in turning over their tables and apparently not in earning a tip, and the pickles were gross. But, maybe I came at it with the wrong attitude. 

This is a super awesome clock that I learned about that I knew I didn't need to notate in my phone because I'm really smart and could remember exactly what it was. 

So, it's the hours, minutes and seconds till midnight, and the other half is the hours, minutes, and seconds  till the new year? That's my guess, anyway. 

Also sighted, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints "I'm a Mormon" campaign. Times Square, huh, guys? Fancy!

After gallivanting about, we made it back to our hostel around 1:30 AM. We got ourselves a private room, and it sure was fancy!

When we woke up on Sunday morning we got to see the view from our hostel, which was pretty  cool.

Then, we made our way to church. There was some ridiculousness getting there, because apparently the random bus stop we chose required that we pay outside first, and couldn't use our metro cards. What? What's wrong with you, New York? Have you ever heard of Chicago? They have this really great system where tourists can buy a 1, 3, or 7 day pass, and they have unlimited rides on every single bus or L in the city. Maybe you should adopt that system. None of this, "Oh, actually, to ride this bus you have to go back outside, around the corner, to the tree with the hobbit hole, and barter with the hobbits to give you a secret code to cash in at the Don Juan to give you a slip of paper to ride the bus because we don't take the metro card even though we previously told you that if you bought one of those you would be good to travel around NYC. Thanks though."

Do you spy the church sign right above our heads? Well, we went inside, and found the chapel. We got there very early and just waited and waited and waited for church to start. It finally did, you know, after everyone got there. After church we smiled at a few people, which was a mistake. I guess if you live in New York you have to be a jerkface, and if you are a Member in New York you are still a jerkface. We were all saying how we would probably go inactive if we lived there, especially if we were interns. These people will break your spirit, and fast! Anyway, the sacrament was the same, and it doesn't matter if everyone around us is mean, we could still renew our covenants and then get on with our day. 

In every Don Juan, and in every eatery they were selling Poland Spring Direct. What? What is this place?

We swung by Bloomingdale's, and then went to experience a miracle on 34th street.

The Macy's seriously is huge, and it was so huge that I got lost for a while and took a rest in the McDonald's on the top floor. Then it was time to vend from the street vendors! 

We lucked out and saw another group of cops. I think they were looking for another crossword puzzle to do. 

We had a few goals when we went to New York: 

1) Eat ice cream from an ice cream truck. 

2) Buy matching sunglasses

3) Walk the Brooklyn Bridge! 

This is my best Brooklyn face:

Well, once in Brooklyn, we had to get pizza at Grimaldi's. We ended up making friends with a mother daughter duo from England, and when the daughter saw the line for the pizza she exclaimed, "Mothah! We half to queue? We half to queue for peetzah?!"

When my friends heard that, they weren't exactly sure what she was saying. I guess they don't read British literature. Or have a Netflix account.

The queue:

The pizza: 

It was okay. It was certainly tasty, and it melted in your mouth. However, I prefer to chew my pizza, so this is not my particular style of pizza. 

4) Ride the Staten Island Ferry

5) Take multiple blurry pictures of the skyline

6) See the bull in the financial district

After the bull, we decided to roll back up to Times Square because we needed some souvenirs. 

Seeing how it was like, midnight thirty or something, Tamry was pretty tired. She found this button and almost shut down all of Times Square: 

The next morning we packed our bags and went out into the gross Manhattan streets to complete our list.  Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day. 

7) Walk where Tina Fey has walked.

30 Rock, baby!

We grabbed lunch inside 30 Rock and found these awesome murals:

Then we took a quick rest before heading off to the airport.

Sandy, doing what she does best: making the airport machines give us our boarding  passes.

The last Don Juanito we stopped at had Just the Reds!

And Tamry, chillin' before our flight. 

Bye! See you in Chicago! Oh, also, the cops say bye, and thanks for visiting!