~day 1~

I will be blogging about my recent trip to New York over the next few posts. It’ll be a lot of information! I’m writing it as an extension of the journal I kept on the trip.

Day 1: Sunday, August 1st

Lance and I started our day at 2:30am. We got ready and drove to his parent’s house. They are usually up by 4am anyway so they were a good choice to drive us to the airport. The self check was being lame so we had to go to the counter but that worked just fine. Lance forgot to remove his phone when he went through the metal detector. Silly. We had many other security checks throughout the trip and he remembered to remove EVERTHING from his pockets, including his Chapstick which he got many odd reactions too. Haha.

We waited about 20 minutes before Dacey, Ryan B (#1), and Ryan N (#2) showed up. We were pleasantly surprised they made it that soon.



We got some breakfast at Burger King while waiting for our 6am flight to Chicago. Smooth flight but I was so exhausted. Once we landed we had a 2 ½ hour layover and had to change terminals twice.

We boarded the plane to New York but had to sit on the tarmac due to poor weather conditions in NY. Luckily it didn’t take long. Another smooth flight (minus the annoying conversation #2 wouldn’t drop. I’ll spare you the details.) We had to circle in the air when we were close to our landing destination due to the same poor weather.

Finally, we made it!

We purchased MetroCards good for 7 days of unlimited bus and subway. They made the week very easy to commute. We happened to catch the bus we needed right away but missed our stop so we walked a little and a helpful guy directed us to the subway. Oh the sights you see! There was a guy in a “wife beater” and boxer briefs only. Yuck! Put some pants on dude. We arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal which would be the “middle man” between our hotel in New Jersey and all the stuff we planned to do in New York.

We had to purchase separate tickets between NJ and NY. We got a ticket to North Bergen where our hotel was located. We were dropped off at a park and ride where we could see our hotel less than a ½ mile away. Problem was there were no places for us to walk to the hotel! #1 called the hotel to see if they offered a shuttle to pick us up but they acted as if they didn’t have a clue where we were and didn’t have shuttle service anyway. They told us to walk. That was one crazy maneuver we all had to pull with our luggage to boot! We seriously were jumping medians, walking in the ditch, and running on an interstate! What an experience! We realized we needed to figure out a different bus stop for the rest of the week because we were NOT doing that again.

We arrived at The Holiday Inn Express and had another hiccup. What else could go wrong? They said they only had reservations for 2, not the 5 of us, and they only book 4 to a room anyway. That last part is not accurate according to The Holiday Inn website. I quadruple checked everything I booked! I gave them our Travelocity itinerary and it clearly stated 5 of us in one room. A manager had to come and he said Travelocity only paid them for 2 and charged us for 5. Not our problem. They let us in and said it was fine. Thank God. We were tired and just wanted to sit for a bit and decompress.

The front desk gave us a bus map and $6 hotel shuttle map so after taking a breather we headed in the direction of a bus. On our way a shuttle stopped and asked if we needed a ride. #1 asked if it was the $2 bus and the driver said yes so we hopped on. Those shuttles were a shady operation. We ended up taking one into NY every morning. They charged different prices for different people and it appeared some didn’t even pay. They were basically stealing the business from the buses. It was cheaper than the bus when we bartered so we benefitted and didn’t have to walk as far to the bus stop. And they came every 5 minutes so it was very convenient.

We did purchase a 10 trip NJ bus pass after figuring out the bus schedule not thinking we would be taking a shuttle every day. I felt like Lance and I should only buy a 10 pack while the others obviously each had to buy one. I know that was God directing me because we wouldn’t have needed 20 trips and would have wasted money.

We decided to get dinner at Dallas BBQ. That place was huge and full but we got a table right away! Delicious and very reasonably priced.

We went in search for Planet Hollywood to pick up our 3 day NY Passes that would allow us entry to a ton of sites without us having to pay at each place. We all had pre-ordered online so it was very convenient.

We were in Times Square. Super bright. Super busy. Very cool. We stopped at the Hershey Store. I wanted some candy but it was ridiculously priced so I passed. We were on one of the huge screens too. Very tiny but we were there!

We just missed the 9pm bus so we had to wait until 10:30. Bummer the bus didn’t run more often. Very busy day of transportation issues and lots of walking. It felt good to be back at the hotel.