Trip to NYC and CHI- TOWN

At the begging of the Month my friend Kelly was visiting from Australia. She really wanted to go to New York City. She had never been so I gave her a buddy pass and we headed off on our adventure and the midnight red eye flight.

I really didn't think that we were going to get on, but when we did, I called my dad at midnight and had him book us a hotel room. I told him which one though, so he didn't have to go searching for a good deal.

I got to sit in first class on the way over and was not very smart. I watched a movie going over. I couldn't pull myself away. I finally got about 2 hours of interrupted sleep before we landed in JFK. We then started out. I was very glad that I knew the way and was just able to go instead of like last time, when I wandered around and had to ask everyone where to go.

Our hotel was very easy to get to and I rather liked it. The lobby was bright and colorful, the hallways were dark, but colorful and the rooms were small but clean and air-conditioned. That was my favorite part. We took a quick nap, before heading downtown.

We first went to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was fun to walk most of the way across it and get some better views.

We then walked through lower Manhattan, through the St Paul’s Church, saw Alexander Hamilton’s grave, we walked passed Wall street and got a picture of the Big Bull and saw the ground zero before walking down through Battery Park to buy our tickets for the Statue of Liberty.

The lines were crazy. We stood in Line for over an Hour just to make it to the screening center. The ferry was way over crowded, but at least it was a nice clear day to have a nice walk around Liberty Island. After that we took a train up to Times Square to eat some pizza.

We walked around looking at all the lights and made a stop in Toys R Us to see the Giant Ferris Wheel inside and the little less than Life Size T-Rex and other toys. After that we went over to Central Park to enjoy the peace and quiet and the pretty views of the buildings.
One thing that really shocked me were all the Piles of Garbage that lined the streets at night. The heat of the day didn't help the smell of the bags. It kind of helped it to smolder. It was kind of interesting. It made it so deep breathing was not recommended.

We soon had to go back to the Hotel to change and accidently take a nap. We then quickly left to go eat at a little open door pub down the street. It was great food and not to spendy. We then had to go see Times Square at night. I love Times Square. It truly is one of my favorite places on earth. I love the lights and the Atmosphere.

I was very grateful when sleep finally came. We planned to get up early but it didn't happen. We only had time to go up to the temple. The man in the front let us go into the front doors. I felt really underdressed to do that, but they were really nice. We then went up the 1 train line a ways to Tom's Restaurant. They used the outside as the Restaurant in Seinfeld.

We then went back a couple streets to see the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is one of the biggest in the world. It was really beautiful and I wish I would have had more time and a better camera so I could enjoy the inside of it.

here is another view of the inside

After that we walked through a corner of Central Parks North West side before heading back down to 5th avenue getting food and heading to the airport.

The airport was a fiasco. We tried to get on a flight and it didn't work. The rest of the flights looked terrible for the next two days. I had to make a decision so I decided to take us to Chicago! It would help us out, because we would have a free place to stay, the flights looked better and there was another city that Kelly said she had visited.

We both got first class, on a little plane over to Chicago and soon got on the blue line headed to my friend Celeste's house. We all sat to chat for awhile. Kelly was amazed at the Fireflies in the backyard. We sat there playing with them and trying to take pictures of them forever.

Finally we went downtown and walked around the streets. We went up inside the John Hancock building pretending to get drinks, so we didn't have to pay. The view was amazing at night. We then went and ordered a Pizza and got Kelly some fries. Because it was so late, we had to take the pizza to go. We ate it over east of Michigan Ave buy the NBC building in a little park.

It was so fun, to sit enjoy friends company and the lights of the city. After that we walked around by the Chicago river and headed back home.

We stayed up all night talking, before leaving really early to get flight stuff figured out.

It took a couple of tries and I didn't think we were going to make it, but after racking up a lot of airport appreciation time we finally did. I was stressed about all the flights, but the trip was really fun and I'm glad we were able to go.