Today's morning was like yesterday, up at 8 and gone by 9. We walked around for a little bit, looking for a place to eat. I just wanted wifi. There's a little deli shop a couple blocks away where I had a bagel and fruit. You can get fruit anywhere, it's great.
After that we walked over to the Empire State building. Some guy on the corner was selling tickets to get into a shorter line at the Empire State. Of course we walked away with tickets. At first it was funny counting how often my mom would stop and talk with these people. Now I've lost count. The tickets were $9 each. After buying them, we walked for maybe a couple minutes trying to find the entrance. The entire time it seemed like we didn't really know where we were going or if we were going the wrong way. After getting inside the building, you had to take an escalator up, then there was this movie theater style counter where you could buy popcorn and snacks. You had to wait in that line for some reason, then we took an elevator up to the 80th floor. On that floor you could walk around and look at pictures and stuff. It wasn't interesting and I didn't care.
The most interesting part of this room was the King Kong section.
When you got tired of looking at stuff, you got in another line. If you wanted, you could have paid something like $10 to skip this line and go into a shorter one. Apparently we had already used our fastpass ticket. I don't know when that happened. But we waited in this line for maybe 10-15 minutes before getting onto another elevator that took us up 6 more floors to the top.
The top had a viewing area that went all the way around.
It wasn't super crowded. I didn't think it was crowded at all. And as high up as you are, you don't really get dizzy looking down. My mom pointed out sights to me and I half listened. It was an okay experience. New York is very ugly in the daytime. I think it would be amazing at night though.
After we were done we went back inside and had to wait in line for an elevator down. There was an option to take the stairs down for 6 flights (which we would have done), but my mom messed up her knee a few weeks back so we opted out.
After we left the building, we went over to a Starbucks because I really wanted that wifi. My mom and I both got a coffee and split a slice of pumpkin loaf. We went downstairs where the seating was and I tried to get my kindle to download the pictures I had taken on my phone from yesterday. Nothing I tried would work and on top of that the internet kept going in and out. This made me decently angry. This wifi situation in NY is complete bull. After an hour of this I gave up and we left at 1.
We got on our bus and went over to Wall Street. The buses give free headphones to you everytime you got on. You plugged them into the wall and got a tour that gave you facts about the city. I really liked it, but we also had sort of a tour guide on the bus. He asked us where we were going, told us where to get off, gave us more detailed maps, and then spoke in spanish to the people behind us to do that same for them. The service with these busses is great.
We got off the bus at Wall Street because why not. There was a building where George Washington was when he became the first president. We walked around but it was boring. There was a neat church called Trinity Church. It's the oldest church in New York, more then 300 years old.
The church was 2 blocks from the Twin Towers. When 9/11 happened, not 1 glass was damaged in the church despite several other buildings being knocked down. We went inside and it was lovely.
We left the Trinity Church and were going to go to the Twin Tower memorial but I got distracted by an Urban Outfitters and did a little shopping. I bought a shirt/dress thing, a tank top, and a flannel shirt for $167. I love New York shopping. There was 4 floors at the Urban Outfitter. That's how shopping should be.
The 9/11 memorial was a short walk but I really had to go to the bathroom so it felt like forever. Emily said not to end the trip here, as it was kind of depressing. I didn't know what to expect, but it was alright.
We didn't hang out there for very long. There was a museum but we didn't go. My mom took some pictures and talked about how she likes being in places where history was made. If I didn't get to a bathroom soon, I was about to make history near this memorial.
We went over to a Burger King, bought a small fry, then had to go upstairs to a bathroom. This Burger King had a hostess that gave you menus when you sat down. It was so weird. I waited in line for probably 4 years before I finally got inside that 1 person bathroom. This was my punishment for eating mac and cheese last night.
After rewarding myself with some BK fries for not having an accident, we got back on the bus to go to Chinatown. This bus had a tour guide that talked about all the places we passed and he was also great. No one bothered with the headphones. We went through Battery Park, saw the three bridges, saw the place where the mafia would dump bodies. We saw a lot. We drove past the projects and I thought that would be exciting, but the buildings we saw were nicer than any apartment building in Lead or Deadwood.
Our tour guide was very informative and starting to gain my respect. Then he told us a story about seeing a UFO.
"With how vast our universe is, I believe there are other life forms out there."
Well alright then.
We got off the bus at Chinatown. I thought Chinatown was a couple streets, but it's way bigger than I thought. Also, it was disgusting and very sketchy. My mom's not turned off too easy (unlike me, who was ready to bounce the hell out of here), so we walked around for a bit. This led to us getting lost and me not wanting to stop and stand around long enough to look at the map. I pulled out my iphone for the map and it told me we were right next to a place called "Happy Endings". This was too ridicuous to be true, so I looked around for the Happy Endings sign when from the sky a bag of garbage was thrown onto the street by someone from one of the apartments. Garbage was literally falling from the sky.
I wanted to get the hell out of Chinatown. This place was so seedy and gross I didn't even take any pictures. We found a location where our bus would pick us up and had to wait half an hour. There was a light rain. When the bus came, we stayed on the bottom level and I fell asleep on the ride back to Times Square. Apparently, we were suppose to drive by Saint Patrick's cathedral and go to the UN. But a Cardinal died (the formal Cardinal for the archdiocese of New York, Camin's words not mine) and we got stuck behind his funeral procession. My mom said the traffic was terrible. I slept through it all.
We went back to our hotel and hung out there for an hour.
Around 6:45 we left to find a place to eat. We went to Hell's Kitchen and looked at several restaurant menus before deciding on a place called Southern Hospitality.
The place looked cool and we were sat right away. The menu was all bbq and I ordered a pulled chicken platter with baked beans and corn bread. My mom got ribs with mashed potatos and a veggie medley. She also ordered a sangria. I tried it and it was delicious and I don't like sangria.
I tried to get on their internet but my kindle wouldn't connect. Our food came out and it was soo delicious.
We ate and ate and ate. My mom said it was one of those meals that you get sad when you can't eat anymore. The ribs weren't as sweet as last nights but they were fall off the bone. We ended up trading my cornbread for her veggie plate. I don't like cornbread. I don't know why I ordered it.
The dinner cost $53.24
We left feeling like fatty ding dongs.
Then we found a bakery and went inside because we still had some self respect to throw away. We bought a canoli, cookies, and a strawberry tort. That all cost $12. After we left the bakery, we saw a bubble tea shop. I've never had bubble tea but my mom likes it. Of course we had to go inside.
I didn't really know what I was ordering, so I got a "yellow moo milk" and my mom got "bubble milk green tea". Mine was great! It tasted like almond milk and had tapioca and jelly in it. My moms wasn't as good as mine. She says my yellow moo milk isn't as good as her green tea drink. The drinks cost $7 something.
We went back to the hotel. It's been raining most of the evening. Nearly everyone here carries an umbrella and gets poked in the eye by someone else's. I think umbrellas are for wimps.
After drinking my bubble tea I took a shower. Then we ate some of the snacks from the bakery. I broke down and paid for internet at the hotel. You get it for 24 hours and it costs $15. Complete bull. Even at that shoddy hotel in Pierre I had free internet. But I was able to get the travel blog updated. That's a weight off my back.
What a day. I visited the Empire State Building, almost pooped my pants at the Twin Towers memorial, saw garbage fall from the sky, and had bubble tea. I went to bed at 2 a.m.
After that we walked over to the Empire State building. Some guy on the corner was selling tickets to get into a shorter line at the Empire State. Of course we walked away with tickets. At first it was funny counting how often my mom would stop and talk with these people. Now I've lost count. The tickets were $9 each. After buying them, we walked for maybe a couple minutes trying to find the entrance. The entire time it seemed like we didn't really know where we were going or if we were going the wrong way. After getting inside the building, you had to take an escalator up, then there was this movie theater style counter where you could buy popcorn and snacks. You had to wait in that line for some reason, then we took an elevator up to the 80th floor. On that floor you could walk around and look at pictures and stuff. It wasn't interesting and I didn't care.
Lobby
The most interesting part of this room was the King Kong section.
Poor old thing
When you got tired of looking at stuff, you got in another line. If you wanted, you could have paid something like $10 to skip this line and go into a shorter one. Apparently we had already used our fastpass ticket. I don't know when that happened. But we waited in this line for maybe 10-15 minutes before getting onto another elevator that took us up 6 more floors to the top.
The top had a viewing area that went all the way around.
Look at all that smog.
It wasn't super crowded. I didn't think it was crowded at all. And as high up as you are, you don't really get dizzy looking down. My mom pointed out sights to me and I half listened. It was an okay experience. New York is very ugly in the daytime. I think it would be amazing at night though.
Same outfit, different day.
After we were done we went back inside and had to wait in line for an elevator down. There was an option to take the stairs down for 6 flights (which we would have done), but my mom messed up her knee a few weeks back so we opted out.
After we left the building, we went over to a Starbucks because I really wanted that wifi. My mom and I both got a coffee and split a slice of pumpkin loaf. We went downstairs where the seating was and I tried to get my kindle to download the pictures I had taken on my phone from yesterday. Nothing I tried would work and on top of that the internet kept going in and out. This made me decently angry. This wifi situation in NY is complete bull. After an hour of this I gave up and we left at 1.
We got on our bus and went over to Wall Street. The buses give free headphones to you everytime you got on. You plugged them into the wall and got a tour that gave you facts about the city. I really liked it, but we also had sort of a tour guide on the bus. He asked us where we were going, told us where to get off, gave us more detailed maps, and then spoke in spanish to the people behind us to do that same for them. The service with these busses is great.
We got off the bus at Wall Street because why not. There was a building where George Washington was when he became the first president. We walked around but it was boring. There was a neat church called Trinity Church. It's the oldest church in New York, more then 300 years old.
Trinity Church
The church was 2 blocks from the Twin Towers. When 9/11 happened, not 1 glass was damaged in the church despite several other buildings being knocked down. We went inside and it was lovely.
Here we have to be quiet like we're in the library- mom
We left the Trinity Church and were going to go to the Twin Tower memorial but I got distracted by an Urban Outfitters and did a little shopping. I bought a shirt/dress thing, a tank top, and a flannel shirt for $167. I love New York shopping. There was 4 floors at the Urban Outfitter. That's how shopping should be.
The 9/11 memorial was a short walk but I really had to go to the bathroom so it felt like forever. Emily said not to end the trip here, as it was kind of depressing. I didn't know what to expect, but it was alright.
We went over to a Burger King, bought a small fry, then had to go upstairs to a bathroom. This Burger King had a hostess that gave you menus when you sat down. It was so weird. I waited in line for probably 4 years before I finally got inside that 1 person bathroom. This was my punishment for eating mac and cheese last night.
After rewarding myself with some BK fries for not having an accident, we got back on the bus to go to Chinatown. This bus had a tour guide that talked about all the places we passed and he was also great. No one bothered with the headphones. We went through Battery Park, saw the three bridges, saw the place where the mafia would dump bodies. We saw a lot. We drove past the projects and I thought that would be exciting, but the buildings we saw were nicer than any apartment building in Lead or Deadwood.
Our tour guide was very informative and starting to gain my respect. Then he told us a story about seeing a UFO.
"With how vast our universe is, I believe there are other life forms out there."
Well alright then.
We got off the bus at Chinatown. I thought Chinatown was a couple streets, but it's way bigger than I thought. Also, it was disgusting and very sketchy. My mom's not turned off too easy (unlike me, who was ready to bounce the hell out of here), so we walked around for a bit. This led to us getting lost and me not wanting to stop and stand around long enough to look at the map. I pulled out my iphone for the map and it told me we were right next to a place called "Happy Endings". This was too ridicuous to be true, so I looked around for the Happy Endings sign when from the sky a bag of garbage was thrown onto the street by someone from one of the apartments. Garbage was literally falling from the sky.
I wanted to get the hell out of Chinatown. This place was so seedy and gross I didn't even take any pictures. We found a location where our bus would pick us up and had to wait half an hour. There was a light rain. When the bus came, we stayed on the bottom level and I fell asleep on the ride back to Times Square. Apparently, we were suppose to drive by Saint Patrick's cathedral and go to the UN. But a Cardinal died (the formal Cardinal for the archdiocese of New York, Camin's words not mine) and we got stuck behind his funeral procession. My mom said the traffic was terrible. I slept through it all.
We went back to our hotel and hung out there for an hour.
Around 6:45 we left to find a place to eat. We went to Hell's Kitchen and looked at several restaurant menus before deciding on a place called Southern Hospitality.
The place looked cool and we were sat right away. The menu was all bbq and I ordered a pulled chicken platter with baked beans and corn bread. My mom got ribs with mashed potatos and a veggie medley. She also ordered a sangria. I tried it and it was delicious and I don't like sangria.
I tried to get on their internet but my kindle wouldn't connect. Our food came out and it was soo delicious.
Before
We ate and ate and ate. My mom said it was one of those meals that you get sad when you can't eat anymore. The ribs weren't as sweet as last nights but they were fall off the bone. We ended up trading my cornbread for her veggie plate. I don't like cornbread. I don't know why I ordered it.
After
The dinner cost $53.24
We left feeling like fatty ding dongs.
Selfie
Then we found a bakery and went inside because we still had some self respect to throw away. We bought a canoli, cookies, and a strawberry tort. That all cost $12. After we left the bakery, we saw a bubble tea shop. I've never had bubble tea but my mom likes it. Of course we had to go inside.
I didn't really know what I was ordering, so I got a "yellow moo milk" and my mom got "bubble milk green tea". Mine was great! It tasted like almond milk and had tapioca and jelly in it. My moms wasn't as good as mine. She says my yellow moo milk isn't as good as her green tea drink. The drinks cost $7 something.
Yellow moo milk
We went back to the hotel. It's been raining most of the evening. Nearly everyone here carries an umbrella and gets poked in the eye by someone else's. I think umbrellas are for wimps.
After drinking my bubble tea I took a shower. Then we ate some of the snacks from the bakery. I broke down and paid for internet at the hotel. You get it for 24 hours and it costs $15. Complete bull. Even at that shoddy hotel in Pierre I had free internet. But I was able to get the travel blog updated. That's a weight off my back.
What a day. I visited the Empire State Building, almost pooped my pants at the Twin Towers memorial, saw garbage fall from the sky, and had bubble tea. I went to bed at 2 a.m.
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