NYC or Bust!

We are HERE! Here being Hotel Pennsylvania in downtown New York City. We are across the street from such landmarks as Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. The hotel room is surprisingly large, all of us are pleased! We did decide it is eerily like the Titanic in the halls - lots of small hallways and a severe lack of people. Hopefully we won't hit an iceberg.

Leaving Kate's house was sad :(. I miss her family when I don't get to see them for so long (though it has actually been just as long since I have seen Kate herself, cough*that better not happen again*cough). The trip from PA to NJ was uneventful. I told Ashley we weren't stopping, so she was too scared to tell me she had to pee for an hour and a half. We got to David's camp before David and Carol, but luckily Carol knows us better than anyone and sent us directions to the restrooms without us even asking! We only got to say hi and bye to David before he had to get back to work, then we hopped in the car and headed to NYC!

Before we left the great (smelly) state of New Jersey, we stopped to get gas. FYI - you cannot pump your own gas in New Jersey. Very frustrating experience for 3 independent women who were in a hurry to get somewhere more fun. Especially when the gas station attendant decided his conversation with his coworker was more important than removing the gas nozzle from the full tank and letting us be on our way. David says this law was written to create jobs. We decided that there were many other solutions to such a problem that would have created more meaningful jobs. Any comments/opinions?

We came in through the Lincoln Tunnel and went straight to our hotel. Literally straight to the hotel, we didn't get lost once. I LOVE GPS! Elizabeth met us shortly after we got in. After I took a nap (of course!) we headed out to explore. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe on Times Square, saw the Naked Cowboy, passed the largest Macy's in the world, and walked in the middle of Times and Herald Squares. We were going to check out the Empire State Building, but it had a 2 hour line because it was the sunset view. (Our logic - 2 hours is not worth the "sunset time wait" when we wouldn't have made it up until looong after the sun went down.) So, we wandered for a bit and headed back to the hotel to relax.

There is not free wifi here so I will be writing the blog daily, but probably only updating once or twice. I will just post them when we have time to run to a Starbucks or McDonalds with free wireless. Sorry, I know you're on pins and needles to hear all about this fabulous trip, but there's not much to be done.

Adios amigos,
~Ali