Getting There...

As many of you I have a friend here in Juneau (I actually have a lot of friends in Juneau, but this story revolves around one...) who I've gotten close to over the last six months. We have a great time taking her dog, Murphy, for walks, going to the gym, trying all sorts of different culinary endeavors. This Memorial Day, we tackled the biggest adventure: New York City!

The idea started two weeks ago - literally. She began talking about different places she wanted to visit. New York came up. As we were sitting right there, I said, "I'll go to New York with you!" I was actually completely kidding. She said, "You want to?" "Yeah!" "OK, let's go!" Me: "Great! When?" Stacee: "How's Memorial Day weekend?" Holy cow! That's soon! The next day, I ask for two days off during Memorial Day weekend, and my boss actually granted it! I called Stacee and said, "We're going to NYC!!!" The rest of the story goes like this:

We don't have a plan. When I say we don't have a plan, I literally mean we don't have a plan. I mean, we don't have a map. We don't have a place to stay. We don't know what we'll be doing once we get there. We don't know how we're going to get around the city. We don't have a plan. When I call my Uncle Leo to tell him, "We're going to New York and landing in New Jersey (you should have heard the smile on his face) and then tell him we have no plan (you should have heard the doubt in his voice) he actually began to get very excited I was FINALLY going to New Jersey.

As I'm talking with my mom, she reminds me Becky (my cousin) lives in New York. So Becky and I start talking on Facebook. She offers us a place to stay (THANK YOU!!!!!!!) and offers to show us around a bit. Perfect! Our own private tour guide (no map needed) and a place to stay! Bring it on!

So we pack and get on a plane to get to Seattle, still no plan, mind you. We overnight at Seatac (Terminal A has the best benches to sleep on) and get ready to catch the flight to Newark. By sleep, I mean rest - I didn't sleep. With all the lights and the vacuums and people going from one terminal to the other, there was no way I was sleeping.

We “got up” at about 5 in the morning…actually, closer to 4:30 – we had coffee by 5 in the morning. We laughed at how terrible we probably looked from our rough night, but our excitement about New York couldn’t taint our mood at all! We got to the terminal we were supposed to be at, and luckily got on the plane (It was sold at capacity, but a few folks didn’t come, so we got on!). Before we knew it, we were off to New York!

As we were flying, about 3.5 hours into the trip, I looked out the window and saw hundreds – quite literally! – of lakes. I thought to myself, ‘We must be over MN....’ Sure enough, the captain came on and said we were flying over MN, and that we would be coming into some turbulence for the remainder of the flight. Man, he wasn’t kidding.

We continued flying, and I looked out my window and saw this massive body of water! ‘We made it!!! We’re here!’ is what I was thinking. However, our captain came on and dashed my hopes: “We’re now flying over Lake Superior – this is why we have all this turbulence.” They don’t call them “the Great Lakes” for nothing! My word, they were huge!!! And there were Thunder Bumpers everywhere. It made for an interesting ride…

So we arrived in Newark right on schedule (not two hours in advance like I thought originally…) and the adventures began. Oh man. Becky had given us directions on how to get to a place she had picked out to pick us up from. Problem was, we had no idea what we were doing, where we were going, or a map to speak of. We learned that the “people in red” are very helpful. Our directions said to get a train ticket from the airport to Penn Station. Great! How hard can that really be? So we see all these folks lining up at a kiosk that we assume is for train tickets. So we wait our turn, and the man in red comes over and gets our ticket for us and tells us to get off on the third exit, go down the stairs, and get on the train to Penn Station. How hard can THIS be? So we get on the AirTrain, and Stacee wants to get off at the first exit because there is a sign that said, “Penn Station this way”. I tell her to wait to get off at the third. She questions me but decides to trust me (good plan!) and we get off at the train station that leads us right to the train! We walk on, the doors close, and we’re on our way!

By this time we’re giddy with exhaustion and excitement. We’re in New York!!!! And we’re on a real train! With a man who punches tickets and everything! Our directions tell us we’ll be on this train for about 35 minutes, but to get off at Penn Station. We ride for about 7 minutes and the conductor comes on the loudspeaker and says, “Next stop Penn Station Newark.” Crap. Our directions don’t tell us if it’s supposed to be Penn Station Newark or not…not good. I try to call Becky, but she’s not answering. So we make a split second decision and begin to gather our things together. Another passenger looks at us and says, “You don’t want to get off here. Trust me. You want to get off at Penn Station New York.” Ok…I guess we’ll have to take this guys word for it. So we ride on.

We arrive at Penn Station New York (with no idea that we are under NYC…). Our next direction tells us to get a Metro card and get on train E. Metro card, no problem. Train E, a bit of a problem. What I didn’t know was that Becky uses “train” and “subway” interchangeably. Not helpful when you don’t know what you’re doing. So we’re looking for train E. There are plenty of signs for Subway E, but none for train E. So we call Becky, and she confirms that we want Subway E. So I tell Becky we’re getting on the Subway, and we’ll call her when we get to Jamaica Station.

We arrive at Jamaica Station, leave the subway and make our way to the street. Now, being a girl from the LA area, I know a little bit about places that are not safe. The area around Jamaica station was not safe. I There are bars on all the windows, trash on the street, and we are quite literally the only two white people on the street. Plus, we have baggage – we have targets on our backs that say, “TOURIST!!!” Stacee is super excited: “We’re in New York!” I haven’t had any sleep in about 52 hours at this point, and knowing how LA is, I know it’s a bad situation. So I tell Stacee, “Stacee, we are not having fun yet. We need to be paying attention. I need you to walk like you have a purpose, don’t be nice, and pay attention. I will tell you when we are having fun. Right now is not the time.” So I call Becky – she says she hasn’t left her place yet. Not a good thing. She tells us to go get dinner. I’m thinking, where are we going to get dinner? We don’t have a map, we’re in a bad part of town, and have no idea where there is food. Not good. We go in a Subway Station to get sandwiches (fitting, I know) and order sandwiches. As we are sitting eating, waiting for Becky to come, we get many stares (we ARE the only white people…) and a man comes in with a handful of pills that he offers the customers in the store. Like I said, not a good place…I finally call Becky after not hearing from her in 45 minutes. She said that she missed us and is turning around.

Long story short, kinda, We find Becky and begin our crazy adventure in New York…I’ll post more on that later…

NYC

As many of you know, I recently got back from a quick trip to NYC. Pictures are up on facebook, and I am working on a post for the trip on this blog...check back in a few days for more!