Trip!
I finally had my trip to New York. It was pretty fun, though required a lot of driving in a short period of time. We left Thursday night at about 11pm and drove all through the night. Sadie pretty much slept the whole way driving, and actually slept most of the trip except where we were not in the car. I didn't end up sleeping that night because I never sleep that well in cars, usually only getting 10-30 minutes at a time. So we drove all through the night and sometime the next morning we got to the Orange County Chopper place. They had some kick ass bikes there, but you could tell the whole place was only meant to sell T-shirts and other merchandise. After that we kept heading to New York City and that took a few more hours of driving. After we finally got to the city we took the wrong tunnel in, except ended up being closer to our destination. We pulled onto the streets with Dave driving and it looked to be slow progress because we had to drive from 9th Ave all the way to 59th. It looked like it was going to take an hour to get there because the traffic was so heavy with Taxi cabs everywhere, but Dave got the hang of NYC driving and we pushed our way to the museum in no time. He would make a good cab driver.
SO we got to the museum and paid $16 for parking. WE got inside just to be told that we were at the wrong museum location (there are 5 different buildings of the same museum on Manhattan Island). So we bought our ticket there and ended up wasting that $16 on parking there for 5 minutes. Then we had to drive up town to 200th Ave, but that did not take too long. The museum we went to was in a gothic setting, and we looked at the Unicorn Tapestries that Sadie had wanted to see since she was little. The tapestries were pretty fascinating and showed great detail for being 700 years old.
Sadie was not feeling to great probably from something she ate. But after the museum we headed toward the Statue of Liberty. It took some navigating because both the maps we had showed all the one way streets wrong... Though eventually we got to the highway leading south after we drove through the not so pleasant parts of Harlem and the other "bad" neighborhoods. It really was not too bad down there, looked far better than Detroit. The only real noticeable difference was there were no cabs, no cops, and no white people. The rest of New York seemed pretty diverse with cabs and cops everywhere, including suicidal buses that drove with no concern for regular traffic. When a bus came, you got the hell out of the way because they were bigger and had no intention of stopping. Eventually we got to the south part of the island and found a parking spot. They searched us and then we got on the boat. We swept by the Statue of Liberty and got some pictures, but we did not get off at the island. Then the boat swung across and landed at Ellis Island and Dave looked up some of his family. We discovered on the boat ride that Sadie is also a bit seasick, it did not help that she was already not feeling good from earlier. She made it to land ok, and the ride back to the city was not as bad for her.
After we got to land and bought some T-Shirts and stuff we walked toward the World Trade Center Site that was only a few blocks away. They had a police presence around the place to make sure no one vandalized anything I guess. They also had a fence around the place but you could see though it. They are doing a good job of getting it all cleaned up and have plans to make the new Freedom Tower in its place.
Then we left to find the car... Apparently Dave was not sure where we parked it (we pulled into a small parking garage down the street from the Statue Ferry). I knew where it was because there were these signs... But Dave ignored them and started leading us down a couple dead ends. Sadie wanted to be that I was right, but we ended up not. Anyways we got back to the car and left the city going towards Hershey Pennsylvania.
We pulled up to our hotel at 11-12 at night and were finally presented with our first REAL chance at sleep (though Sadie slept whenever we were in the car). I said I was going to take a shower as soon as I got there, and everyone else was "bleh, I'll do it in the morning". Well Sadie's mom decided to get in the shower before me while I was hauling our bags up from the car. So I set my things out and was about to jump in the shower then Sadie decided she wanted one and got in before me. I took my shower and then Dave did. Since there were only two beds, me and Sadie jumped in one and cuddled up for the night.
I did not sleep well because I was still wired from being in the car all day. But at I dunno... 8am Dave woke up and eventually woke all the rest of us up, against my will. I was hoping for a lot more sleep since we had got none the day before... but no. SO we jumped in the car again and headed over to the Hershey Factory place. The place was ok, but did not seem all that great. It was more meant for kids than Sadie's parents and us two ~20 year olds. So we went on this ride that showed how the chocolate was made... WE came out at the store and bought some chocolate. I ended up getting a 1/2 pound Hershey’s bar. I wanted a 1/2 bar of Cookies and Cream too... but they did not have those so I had to get a small bar. Then we saw some 3D thing about the history of Hershey’s, and it included some kind of "smell-o-vision" with 3D glasses, some kinda of scent machine, falling stuff and mist to simulator rain, splashing, and snow.
We left Hershey's and headed back towards Michigan. With a few more direction problems because of Dave's sudden dislike of following what our map said... We ended up getting home at about 10-11pm. We had to find Sadie's Cat's collar because he snuck out of it... Ended up watching TV and stuff until about 1-2am because I was not sure if I was spending the night or not (because we were gonna go to the Detroit Science Center the next day). Well I would to have slept on the couch and didn't want to wake up at 6am when Dave gets up because he does not need sleep. So I had a rather grumpy/tired Sadie drive me home.
The next morning Sadie called and I got picked up to go to the Detroit Science Center. That place was pretty cool, but like the chocolate tours seemed a bit to kiddy for us to be there. They did have a few experiment things that were pretty cool though. After that we headed back to her house and I fixed her parents router and we sat around watching TV. I also played some Super Mario World Advanced and got a picture of Sadie falling asleep while reading a book. Then she and I headed off to the park for a couple hours.
That has been the extent of this last weekend. WOOT! It was fun. :)
SO we got to the museum and paid $16 for parking. WE got inside just to be told that we were at the wrong museum location (there are 5 different buildings of the same museum on Manhattan Island). So we bought our ticket there and ended up wasting that $16 on parking there for 5 minutes. Then we had to drive up town to 200th Ave, but that did not take too long. The museum we went to was in a gothic setting, and we looked at the Unicorn Tapestries that Sadie had wanted to see since she was little. The tapestries were pretty fascinating and showed great detail for being 700 years old.
Sadie was not feeling to great probably from something she ate. But after the museum we headed toward the Statue of Liberty. It took some navigating because both the maps we had showed all the one way streets wrong... Though eventually we got to the highway leading south after we drove through the not so pleasant parts of Harlem and the other "bad" neighborhoods. It really was not too bad down there, looked far better than Detroit. The only real noticeable difference was there were no cabs, no cops, and no white people. The rest of New York seemed pretty diverse with cabs and cops everywhere, including suicidal buses that drove with no concern for regular traffic. When a bus came, you got the hell out of the way because they were bigger and had no intention of stopping. Eventually we got to the south part of the island and found a parking spot. They searched us and then we got on the boat. We swept by the Statue of Liberty and got some pictures, but we did not get off at the island. Then the boat swung across and landed at Ellis Island and Dave looked up some of his family. We discovered on the boat ride that Sadie is also a bit seasick, it did not help that she was already not feeling good from earlier. She made it to land ok, and the ride back to the city was not as bad for her.
After we got to land and bought some T-Shirts and stuff we walked toward the World Trade Center Site that was only a few blocks away. They had a police presence around the place to make sure no one vandalized anything I guess. They also had a fence around the place but you could see though it. They are doing a good job of getting it all cleaned up and have plans to make the new Freedom Tower in its place.
Then we left to find the car... Apparently Dave was not sure where we parked it (we pulled into a small parking garage down the street from the Statue Ferry). I knew where it was because there were these signs... But Dave ignored them and started leading us down a couple dead ends. Sadie wanted to be that I was right, but we ended up not. Anyways we got back to the car and left the city going towards Hershey Pennsylvania.
We pulled up to our hotel at 11-12 at night and were finally presented with our first REAL chance at sleep (though Sadie slept whenever we were in the car). I said I was going to take a shower as soon as I got there, and everyone else was "bleh, I'll do it in the morning". Well Sadie's mom decided to get in the shower before me while I was hauling our bags up from the car. So I set my things out and was about to jump in the shower then Sadie decided she wanted one and got in before me. I took my shower and then Dave did. Since there were only two beds, me and Sadie jumped in one and cuddled up for the night.
I did not sleep well because I was still wired from being in the car all day. But at I dunno... 8am Dave woke up and eventually woke all the rest of us up, against my will. I was hoping for a lot more sleep since we had got none the day before... but no. SO we jumped in the car again and headed over to the Hershey Factory place. The place was ok, but did not seem all that great. It was more meant for kids than Sadie's parents and us two ~20 year olds. So we went on this ride that showed how the chocolate was made... WE came out at the store and bought some chocolate. I ended up getting a 1/2 pound Hershey’s bar. I wanted a 1/2 bar of Cookies and Cream too... but they did not have those so I had to get a small bar. Then we saw some 3D thing about the history of Hershey’s, and it included some kind of "smell-o-vision" with 3D glasses, some kinda of scent machine, falling stuff and mist to simulator rain, splashing, and snow.
We left Hershey's and headed back towards Michigan. With a few more direction problems because of Dave's sudden dislike of following what our map said... We ended up getting home at about 10-11pm. We had to find Sadie's Cat's collar because he snuck out of it... Ended up watching TV and stuff until about 1-2am because I was not sure if I was spending the night or not (because we were gonna go to the Detroit Science Center the next day). Well I would to have slept on the couch and didn't want to wake up at 6am when Dave gets up because he does not need sleep. So I had a rather grumpy/tired Sadie drive me home.
The next morning Sadie called and I got picked up to go to the Detroit Science Center. That place was pretty cool, but like the chocolate tours seemed a bit to kiddy for us to be there. They did have a few experiment things that were pretty cool though. After that we headed back to her house and I fixed her parents router and we sat around watching TV. I also played some Super Mario World Advanced and got a picture of Sadie falling asleep while reading a book. Then she and I headed off to the park for a couple hours.
That has been the extent of this last weekend. WOOT! It was fun. :)