New York City Trip: Day 1

Original Post Date: March 13, 2006

We are on our way to NYC at last! Our original flight was delayed, so they moved us to an earlier flight. Here’s the kicker: We got bumped to 1st Class! I have never flown 1st Class before. There are 2 seats instead of 3. Shauna and I are on the first row, so we have tons of leg room. They gave us water and orange juice while the flight was boarding. Now we have apple juice in glass cups. Fancy!! It makes up for us getting searched at security.

Oh, my gosh, I just got offered a warm towel! 1st Class ROCKS!!

Anyway, back to getting searched. We had to take our shoes off and not touch our bags while they searched them and gave us a pat down. Oh, well. I feel safer knowing that this could stop a potential terrorist.

We are on our way to Dallas and it will be on to New York City!! I am SO EXCITED!!

Okay, I am never flying coach ever again. We just got breakfast. First of all, the tray had its own tablecloth. The glass was a little goblet and the napkin was cloth. We got fresh fruit (kiwi, cantaloupe, and peaches), hot biscuit (or bagel) with butter & jam, and yogurt. This is the life.1st class is the way to fly. We feel bad for Steph, though, back there in coach. I hope they gave her more than pretzels & and a drink.

We got to Dallas and had about an hour layover. We saw a huge group of missionaries walk by us. They were obviously on their way out, because they were all clean and pressed. ☺ Turns out they are on their way to Honduras!

We boarded the next flight on time, but because of delays at La Guardia, we had to sit on the runway for about an hour. Talk about BORING! But, I’m almost done reading Pride and Prejudice, so it’s all good. We finally took off and will get into New York about 6:00. This flight has a movie, and the first one was “The Man” with Samuel L. Jackson & Eugene Levy. Didn’t care much about that one. However, the 2nd movie was “Walk the Line.” I immediately bought earphones so I could watch it. Awesome movie!

It’s now about an hour until we land, and I’m so anxious to get off this freaking plane. Not just because I’ll be in NYC, but because we’ve just been trapped on here way too long.

We have arrived! We got into La Guardia about 6:00. We waited a long time for our bags. Then we had to figure out how to get to Staten Island. The guy at Transportation Information was very helpful. We ended up buying an all week Metro pass for $24. We can use it the whole time we’re here for both subways and buses. We took a bus from the airport and then got on the subway at Lexington & 125th. We rode that all the way to Bowling Green and then it was a short walk to the ferry. That’s where we are now. It’s dark out, so it’s hard to see what stuff is out the window. I just saw the Statue of Liberty! We are passing it now! Oh, my gosh! It looks so cool!

*fun smell* The elevator down to the subway from the street smelled so bad!
*fun sight* The cops arguing with a guy, telling him he couldn’t smoke on the ferry. I think he was forcibly removed.
*dumb tourist moment* My metro card wouldn’t work at the subway, so I had to go ask for help. I didn’t hear her tell me which door to go through, so I wandered aimlessly for a minute. Luckily, Ashley was clueless with me on that.

It’s hard to take public transportation with our big luggage. We must do something different on Sunday morning, since our flight leaves so early. But first, we will enjoy the week. We’re in New York!!

Our house we are staying at is really cute. It’s on the main floor of a house, actually. 2 Queen beds and 2 singles. The house was built in the 1860s. The people that own it are really nice. They’ve made it like an anti-hotel. It’s like your own home in New York. We are just a few minutes from the ferry. We could have walked, but we had no idea where we were going, so we took two taxis. (I way overtipped the guy, but he was a cute little old man and he got us here quick and safe.)

We already found a great pizzeria down the street and around the corner. Great food and the people were very nice! I’ve noticed already that New Yorkers are very nice. Very helpful. They aren’t all rude and stuff like you always hear. That’s awesome!

We can hardly wait to start exploring tomorrow. Yay! We’re in New York!!