DAY 3 - NYC

Day 3 turned out to be even better than the previous days because this was the day that Katie and I went to New York City! We had our bags packed and we woke up at 6:30am. By 7:30, we were out the door, and we caught the Yellow Line (see Metro map from Day 1) to Chinatown. From there, we walked 3 blocks or so to the bus depot. We waited until about 8:30 when our BoltBus arrived. It was a big charter bus with leather seats, extra leg room, and power/WiFi available. By the time Katie and I got on the bus (due to the big line), there were no seats next to each other except for the very back of the bus. So we grabbed those seats (which was next to the bathroom…gross!), and began our journey to NYC.

Unfortunately the power on the bus wasn’t working. The bus driver stopped a few times to get the system to reboot, but no dice. Katie pretty much just sat there and gathered her thoughts for the full 4 1/2 hours (haha), and I was virtually asleep the entire time. About 45 minutes from our stop, we could see New York City from the bus. The bus finally got into the city where we encountered what else?—traffic. Finally we got to our stop on 33rd and 7th in Manhattan which is next to the Macy’s store. Craig showed up about 15 minutes later with some Sammies in his hands for us. That was really cool of him. It was practically the best sandwich I have ever tasted. So good! We just sat on a bench outside and ate it. From there we walked to Macy’s. We let Katie loose as Craig and I just wandered around the different floors. Already within an hour of seeing each other, Craig and I had not one but TWO major laugh attacks. Remember the story when Craig visited me in D.C. and we laughed so hard we were both crying and our stomachs hurt? Well, that happened twice already. The first was when we were heading up the escalators in the store, and this group of Asian girls were in front of us. They all went up the escalator, and from the side two white ladies were trying to get on the escalator and pretty much cut us off. When the lady realized that she almost cut us off, Craig said, “No no, go ahead.” And the lady said, “No it’s fine. You’re with them [the Asians], right?” Craig just shook his head, and we both just started cracking up instantly. What a typical thing for a white person to assume that just because Craig is Asian, that he belonged to that Asian group. It isn’t even close because the group of gals were probably Chinese, and Craig is Filipino. Big difference. Anyway. Our second bit of laughter came when we got to the 8th floor (I believe there’s 9 floors total). We decided to take the elevators down instead of the escalators. Craig pushed the button to go DOWN. Within a few moments, the elevator doors opened up wide and we saw a bunch of people in there. Craig was standing right at the entrance, but he noticed that the elevator was going UP. However, nobody in the extremely crowded elevator was getting off on our floor, so it basically *appeared* that Craig pushed the UP button, causing their elevator to stop. While Craig was standing there frozen and nobody was moving, I literally busted up laughing in front of everyone, and Craig proceeded to laugh, so it truly looked like Craig purposely pushed the elevator button to screw with people when in fact he did not.

Anyway, after that was over, we went downstairs and outside and waited for Katie. When Katie was finally done browsing, we hopped on the NYC subway, and headed towards Grand Central station where we would get out, take some pics, and then walk several blocks to 42nd and 1st—the UN Millienium Plaza Hotel where we were staying for the night. We got our keys and headed up to the 35th floor. The room was amazing and the view was even more spectacular. We could see both the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings from our room (see below).

After we freshened up, we invited Craig in the room to take some pics. Finally we left and began walking towards Grand Central again where we would take the subway towards Central Park. At the station, Craig told us about the Whispering Corner where Katie went on one corner of an archway's wall, and about 15 feet away I was on the other corner. Katie would whisper a phrase into her side of the wall, and I could very clearly hear what she said on my side. It was cool. So cool in fact that these two people saw what we were doing and were wondering what was going on. So Craig told them what to do, and they, too, were stoked about it.

After a fairly short subway ride, we got off and started to walk around. We originally wanted to get frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity (like from the movie), but the wait was well over an hour! So we decided to walk some more and visited Dylan's Candy Bar instead. Did you know that Dylan is Ralph Lauren's daughter? Anyway, we enjoyed some ice cream and frozen hot chocolate there (as well as enjoyed the break from walking).

After eating our yumminy goodness, we strolled to Central Park where Craig took a bunch of pictures of us. We walked through "The Mall," saw a bunch of skaters doing their thing, saw a bride and groom getting pictures taken by the Bethesda fountain, saw people ballroom dancing, went to the Wollman Ice Rink (which was iceless), and took pictures near a pond. For those who don't know, Central Park is HUGE (like 6 miles around), so we only walked around parts of it. Then from there, we headed to the Plaza Hotel. We walked around the lobby area, but we didn't linger too long thinking that someone would soon kick us out for taking pictures.

From there we headed over to 5th Ave to walk a bit. We then got super hungry and looked for a place to eat. Craig suggested we eat at The Eatery. We didn't know what to expect, but our motto for the trip was "Trust Craig." So we went with the flow, and sure enough, Craig did not disappoint. We had a wonderful meal there. We decided to pass on dessert and get dessert at Junior's where Craig said we'd love their New York cheesecake and red velvet cake. YUM!! However, before Junior's it was time to check out Times Square at night. Times Square was just as amazing as I remembered it from a few years ago. It almost looked day time because of all the lights there. We had a blast just watching people and checking out the area. I love New York!

Finally we headed over to Junior's where we would enjoy some fun times with our waitress, Linda, who seemed like she hated her job (and Katie called her out on it...although not knowing she was standing right behind her when she said it. Doh!). Craig was right again. Those desserts were sensational. Best cheesecake I can recall ever letting hit my lips. Mmm! This place was also where I was completely drained of all energy because of all the walking, but Craig somehow made me laugh so hard with this goofy face that he makes. Despite being completely wrecked from the travelling, he still mustered a good laugh out of me.

From there, Craig went with us to the subway station where we ended up parting ways. Katie and I headed back to the hotel after more walking. We got to bed around midnight or so, and we decided that we still had too much to do and see to attend Brooklyn Tabernacle the next day. So sadly, we decided not to go to church. :( Since we've both attended it in the past though, we were content. And that concluded our adventures in the east coast, day 3 (New York style)!

To view all pictures from the trip with captions, visit http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2107628009/a=70595232_70595232/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/