Two Weeks til... BROOKLYN!
Sorry, I keep hearing the countdown as a Beastie Boys song. So the calendar stands at fifteen days until the two older girls and I leave for our New York City adventure. I would have to say I am equal parts excited and terrified.
The excited part is obvious: it's New York City! There's so much to see and do, and so many iconic and historic places--in that respect I will be in heaven. When I had to delay the trip back in the spring, I pretty much dropped my itinerary and all the research I'd done to that point, so I've been getting back into it and just hammered out what I think is a pretty decent agenda. We have 3 full days and two partial days, and I managed to include all the big stuff I want to hit, plus some smaller hit-and-run sights. It will mean rushing through the museums, because I know several of them could easily be multi-day affairs if we really sunk our teeth in. But a few hours is usually enough for us to get the gist of a museum, and the key for this visit is to see as much as we can in the time we have. I think it's a busy itinerary, but not insanely so. I just hope I'm not horribly underestimating the time it will take to get between locations. I have these next two weeks to make sure about that, and to tweak the details.
On the other hand, I'm terrified because.. I dunno, NYC has just always terrified me, which is really why I never even particularly wanted to go there. I love to travel, as my journal has made clear, and while I have a preference for slightly more natural and off-the-beaten-path destinations, I don't mind exploring in an urban environment. But somewhere with SO MANY people in a relatively small area.. yeah, that just frightens me. I'd say the largest city I've explored so far is Los Angeles, but that's a sprawling city that doesn't feel so crowded. Plus I've always had a rental car when I've visited there, which provides some peace of mind to know I could hit the road if I want to. In NYC we'll be trapped, essentially, and at the mercy of public transportation (or walking, or cabs). I guess that's not so bad per se. But the people! I'm not an agoraphobic or anything, but I do like my personal space, and I don't at all like being accosted by people--vendors, panhandlers, etc. I'm also a little concerned since photography is such a big part of the travel experience for me, and I doubt I'd feel comfortable hauling around my usual load of gear. My go-to camera bag for travel and gigs is a messenger-style bag, which I feel pretty secure with. Usually I have my camera on a neckstrap with one lens attached, and the bag holds 3 additional lenses and/or a strobe. I think I'll have to pare down to 2 lenses (or maybe 3, if one is my 24mm pancake lens) so I can fit the camera body in the bag as well. At least that way it won't be quite so obvious that I'm hauling around a bunch of pricey camera gear. And for some days I might take just the camera with the 24mm pancake, since that combo is relatively small and light, and doesn't look so much like a high-end dSLR rig. We'll see, I guess.
The weather is looking nice so far--too early to tell about rain chances, of course, but as long as the temperatures are near-average it should be lovely. I did change our return flight this week. We're limited to Southwest because that's where I had points and airfare vouchers, and at some point they tweaked their schedule so our layover on the way home became 3 hours. Eww. So rather than leave from LaGuardia at 4:30pm and get to Orlando at 11:30pm, I decided it would be better to grab a nonstop from Islip/Long Island that leaves there later and gets here earlier. Plus by that point I'm sure we'll be ready to get home, so a nonstop sounds perfect. I am aware that it will take us a couple hours to make our way on the train out to ISP, but that still sounds like more fun than twiddling our thumbs in ATL for 3 hours instead, so what the hell. Plus the train fare will actually be cheaper than getting a car or cab to LGA anyway!
So yeah, excited, scared, kinda want to throw up a little for both reasons. :) But I think it should be a pretty awesome trip, as long as all goes well. Or as long as nothing major goes wrong, anyway!
The excited part is obvious: it's New York City! There's so much to see and do, and so many iconic and historic places--in that respect I will be in heaven. When I had to delay the trip back in the spring, I pretty much dropped my itinerary and all the research I'd done to that point, so I've been getting back into it and just hammered out what I think is a pretty decent agenda. We have 3 full days and two partial days, and I managed to include all the big stuff I want to hit, plus some smaller hit-and-run sights. It will mean rushing through the museums, because I know several of them could easily be multi-day affairs if we really sunk our teeth in. But a few hours is usually enough for us to get the gist of a museum, and the key for this visit is to see as much as we can in the time we have. I think it's a busy itinerary, but not insanely so. I just hope I'm not horribly underestimating the time it will take to get between locations. I have these next two weeks to make sure about that, and to tweak the details.
On the other hand, I'm terrified because.. I dunno, NYC has just always terrified me, which is really why I never even particularly wanted to go there. I love to travel, as my journal has made clear, and while I have a preference for slightly more natural and off-the-beaten-path destinations, I don't mind exploring in an urban environment. But somewhere with SO MANY people in a relatively small area.. yeah, that just frightens me. I'd say the largest city I've explored so far is Los Angeles, but that's a sprawling city that doesn't feel so crowded. Plus I've always had a rental car when I've visited there, which provides some peace of mind to know I could hit the road if I want to. In NYC we'll be trapped, essentially, and at the mercy of public transportation (or walking, or cabs). I guess that's not so bad per se. But the people! I'm not an agoraphobic or anything, but I do like my personal space, and I don't at all like being accosted by people--vendors, panhandlers, etc. I'm also a little concerned since photography is such a big part of the travel experience for me, and I doubt I'd feel comfortable hauling around my usual load of gear. My go-to camera bag for travel and gigs is a messenger-style bag, which I feel pretty secure with. Usually I have my camera on a neckstrap with one lens attached, and the bag holds 3 additional lenses and/or a strobe. I think I'll have to pare down to 2 lenses (or maybe 3, if one is my 24mm pancake lens) so I can fit the camera body in the bag as well. At least that way it won't be quite so obvious that I'm hauling around a bunch of pricey camera gear. And for some days I might take just the camera with the 24mm pancake, since that combo is relatively small and light, and doesn't look so much like a high-end dSLR rig. We'll see, I guess.
The weather is looking nice so far--too early to tell about rain chances, of course, but as long as the temperatures are near-average it should be lovely. I did change our return flight this week. We're limited to Southwest because that's where I had points and airfare vouchers, and at some point they tweaked their schedule so our layover on the way home became 3 hours. Eww. So rather than leave from LaGuardia at 4:30pm and get to Orlando at 11:30pm, I decided it would be better to grab a nonstop from Islip/Long Island that leaves there later and gets here earlier. Plus by that point I'm sure we'll be ready to get home, so a nonstop sounds perfect. I am aware that it will take us a couple hours to make our way on the train out to ISP, but that still sounds like more fun than twiddling our thumbs in ATL for 3 hours instead, so what the hell. Plus the train fare will actually be cheaper than getting a car or cab to LGA anyway!
So yeah, excited, scared, kinda want to throw up a little for both reasons. :) But I think it should be a pretty awesome trip, as long as all goes well. Or as long as nothing major goes wrong, anyway!