New York Recap, Pt One
Finally, right? haha.
New York City was absolutely incredible. The entire time we were there, everything was so surreal. I only wish we would have had more time there.
Monday:
We woke up at 5:30 AM and, almost in slow motion, got all of our stuff to the car and checked off our mental lists of what we needed to bring. Meagan thought she lost/forgot her license twice in route to the checked luggage counter. haha. I get motion sickness so I took some nausea medicine before I boarded the plane at 7:50 AM and slept the entire flight.Somehow, our plane was filled with selfish people who wouldn't switch seats with anyone so Meagan and I had to sit on opposite ends of the plane, even though Southwest doesn't have assigned seating. Apparently there was a ridiculous amount of turbulance but I slept right through it. Poor Meagan was awake and alone for all of it. At 12:30 we landed in Philadelphia for a two and a half hour layover. Walking around the airport, I bought a magnet and then we had Philly cheesesteaks. Despite it being in the airport, we had to do it, and they were actually quite good and pretty different from how they make them in Austin. Haha, we asked for a side of ranch and the lady was like 'Uhh where you girls from?'. hahah. Then, jeez, we tried to get outside to smoke and we couldn't find our way out of the dang airport! We literally walked around following different people's bad directions for about 20 minutes until we finally saw outside, but then we still couldn't get to it because despite having a glass wall, there were no glass doors to be found! Finally we found one of those huge revolving circle doors and both of us nearly ran into the glass trying to walk out because its so dizzying to be in those things. We finally made it outside and got to chill for a little bit, but then trying to get back to our terminal, we were even more lost because we couldn't remember which route we had taken to get here was the right way. We boarded our plane at 2:45 PM and actaully got to sit together this time but the flight was only an hour. The seatbelt lights were on the whole time. We landed in Providence, RI at 4:00. [A bit of information for you, I booked a flight to Providence thinking the audition was going to be in Boston but when it ended up being in Rochester, I didn't switch out the game plan in my head. Also, I got credits for southwest flight from my Godmother for my birthday so we had to fly Southwest there and they don't fly to many places up there]. We were supposed to take the Peter Pan Busline (affiliate of Greyhound for the NE) from the airport to New York, which is what a Peter Pan employee told me when I called their information line to verify. Turns out, the buses from TF Green Airport only go to Boston, not New York. So we sit and think for about an hour, trying to decide if we want to pay a lot more money to take Amtrak to New York, or to try other Buslines or go to Boston and take the Chinatown bus from there. In the end, we just walked up to the Peter Pan bus and asked the driver what to do. He was very nice and took us to the main terminal where we could transfer to a bus that IS going to New York. He was a weird one though, an elderly man and he kept talking about conspiracy theories. We were really just glad to get a ride. He introduced us to the driver of the New York bus and made sure he knew we were supposed to go with him an hour later.
I just love the name of the bus. It describes our trip so well. haha.
We then left on the bus bound for New York at 6:00 PM. Meagan fell asleep almost immediately. They played The Mummy - Tomb of the Lost Emperor or whatever its called and you could listen on headphones. I was the only person watching the movie, because I slept on the plane earlier, I wasn't tired. Apparently, I'm a loud movie watcher because I kept waking Meagan up laughing at the movie or gasping at sweet fight scenes. haha. It was an awful movie but it was better than the first two, plus it had lots of karate, which I love. haha. We got to New York City a little before 11:00 PM. I woke Meagan up to show her a building in the Manhattan skyline, but I didn't know whether it was the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building so I said nevermind when she asked what I was pointing at. haha. I'm terrible with architecture. We got to the Port Authority Bus Station a little later, but we didn't see the whale murals, which I really wanted to see. We then had quite a time trying to tell the cabbie how to get to Xaqs house when we had never even been on this side of the country before. He's like "East or West?" and I'm like "Idk, towards this street". haha. I never did get used to taking cabs on this trip. We got to Xaqs, hung out with him and his roommate for a bit, then unpacked our stuff and blew up our airmattress (which later, deflated every night). It must have been stabbed with something when we were camping at the Renaissance Festival. Either that, or I was just confused with the new weird airpump I got. We made our bed and went to sleep instantly. All in all, it took 16 hours for us to get from our house to Xaqs house. hahah. That's the price you pay for getting there cheaply though.
Tuesday:
This day was the best. We woke up and walked to the subway station with Xaq and during the ride to work, he explained how the subway worked and where each of the different lines go. We got off before him and had to transfer lines. Apparently, we were on the wrong side of the platform, but for about 10 minutes, we couldn't figure out why there weren't trains going the direction we wanted to go in. We went back up to the upper floor and found the downtown line instantly. This was the only time we ever messed up on the subway. I love that thing. We took a train for about 20 minutes and got off at the American Museum of Natural History. This place was phenomenal. I can easily say its one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Its wayyy bigger than I ever imagined and we got turned around a lot. Of course there are maps, but there was never a 'you are here' sticker on any of them. That seemed to be the norm all over the state. Obviously, maps are no help if you don't know where you are. First, we spent a lot of time in the Roosevelt Rotunda (where the first set of dinosaurs are, at the entrance), trying to get good jumping pictures, but none of them turned out that great. Then we went into the Asian Mammal room.
.
Then the Hall of Asian Peoples. We literally spent two hours in this hall alone. It was so badass.They had miniature landscapes of cities and towns, samarai war armor, relics from all over the place including wars and the building of the Great Wall, lifesize casts of people in traditional clothing.. It was incredible.
.
This one has a guy on a flying carpet. This is the museum of what? Natural history? Mhmm...
.
This is my favorite picture. Just look how detailed it is. Its so weird to think that something can be so well kept after hundreds to thousands of years.
After the Hall of Asian Peopels, we went to the hall of Biodiversity. This place was insane. They had taxidermied animals everywhere and it was so creepy and awesome. First, me on a giant clam shell.
Next was the Hall of Ocean Life and they have a LIFE SIZE replica of blue whale, the largest animal on earth, hanging from the ceiling! We almost fell back from amazement when we walked into this room. The picture can hardly do it justice. Look on the stairs on the other side of the room. In red, I pointed out Meagan. That should show the emense size of this thing!
Next was the hall of Human Origins, where they have a cast of Lucy, the australopithecus, who is thought to not only predate humans but be a direct ancester and the most of a missing link that we've got, outside of bigfoot. haha. She's 3.2 Million years old.
Then we went to the hall of Meteors and Gems, where Meagan was crushed by the largest meteor collected after hitting earth.
And I took Senior pictures.
Then the dinosaur floor!!!!!
hahah, meagan making the same face as the dinosaur:
By this time, we'd been in the museum for four hours and we were exhausted and we still had so much planned, so we left.
I know thats like 30 pictures, so I'll post the other days on another entry. Yay AMNH!
New York City was absolutely incredible. The entire time we were there, everything was so surreal. I only wish we would have had more time there.
Monday:
We woke up at 5:30 AM and, almost in slow motion, got all of our stuff to the car and checked off our mental lists of what we needed to bring. Meagan thought she lost/forgot her license twice in route to the checked luggage counter. haha. I get motion sickness so I took some nausea medicine before I boarded the plane at 7:50 AM and slept the entire flight.Somehow, our plane was filled with selfish people who wouldn't switch seats with anyone so Meagan and I had to sit on opposite ends of the plane, even though Southwest doesn't have assigned seating. Apparently there was a ridiculous amount of turbulance but I slept right through it. Poor Meagan was awake and alone for all of it. At 12:30 we landed in Philadelphia for a two and a half hour layover. Walking around the airport, I bought a magnet and then we had Philly cheesesteaks. Despite it being in the airport, we had to do it, and they were actually quite good and pretty different from how they make them in Austin. Haha, we asked for a side of ranch and the lady was like 'Uhh where you girls from?'. hahah. Then, jeez, we tried to get outside to smoke and we couldn't find our way out of the dang airport! We literally walked around following different people's bad directions for about 20 minutes until we finally saw outside, but then we still couldn't get to it because despite having a glass wall, there were no glass doors to be found! Finally we found one of those huge revolving circle doors and both of us nearly ran into the glass trying to walk out because its so dizzying to be in those things. We finally made it outside and got to chill for a little bit, but then trying to get back to our terminal, we were even more lost because we couldn't remember which route we had taken to get here was the right way. We boarded our plane at 2:45 PM and actaully got to sit together this time but the flight was only an hour. The seatbelt lights were on the whole time. We landed in Providence, RI at 4:00. [A bit of information for you, I booked a flight to Providence thinking the audition was going to be in Boston but when it ended up being in Rochester, I didn't switch out the game plan in my head. Also, I got credits for southwest flight from my Godmother for my birthday so we had to fly Southwest there and they don't fly to many places up there]. We were supposed to take the Peter Pan Busline (affiliate of Greyhound for the NE) from the airport to New York, which is what a Peter Pan employee told me when I called their information line to verify. Turns out, the buses from TF Green Airport only go to Boston, not New York. So we sit and think for about an hour, trying to decide if we want to pay a lot more money to take Amtrak to New York, or to try other Buslines or go to Boston and take the Chinatown bus from there. In the end, we just walked up to the Peter Pan bus and asked the driver what to do. He was very nice and took us to the main terminal where we could transfer to a bus that IS going to New York. He was a weird one though, an elderly man and he kept talking about conspiracy theories. We were really just glad to get a ride. He introduced us to the driver of the New York bus and made sure he knew we were supposed to go with him an hour later.
I just love the name of the bus. It describes our trip so well. haha.
We then left on the bus bound for New York at 6:00 PM. Meagan fell asleep almost immediately. They played The Mummy - Tomb of the Lost Emperor or whatever its called and you could listen on headphones. I was the only person watching the movie, because I slept on the plane earlier, I wasn't tired. Apparently, I'm a loud movie watcher because I kept waking Meagan up laughing at the movie or gasping at sweet fight scenes. haha. It was an awful movie but it was better than the first two, plus it had lots of karate, which I love. haha. We got to New York City a little before 11:00 PM. I woke Meagan up to show her a building in the Manhattan skyline, but I didn't know whether it was the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building so I said nevermind when she asked what I was pointing at. haha. I'm terrible with architecture. We got to the Port Authority Bus Station a little later, but we didn't see the whale murals, which I really wanted to see. We then had quite a time trying to tell the cabbie how to get to Xaqs house when we had never even been on this side of the country before. He's like "East or West?" and I'm like "Idk, towards this street". haha. I never did get used to taking cabs on this trip. We got to Xaqs, hung out with him and his roommate for a bit, then unpacked our stuff and blew up our airmattress (which later, deflated every night). It must have been stabbed with something when we were camping at the Renaissance Festival. Either that, or I was just confused with the new weird airpump I got. We made our bed and went to sleep instantly. All in all, it took 16 hours for us to get from our house to Xaqs house. hahah. That's the price you pay for getting there cheaply though.
Tuesday:
This day was the best. We woke up and walked to the subway station with Xaq and during the ride to work, he explained how the subway worked and where each of the different lines go. We got off before him and had to transfer lines. Apparently, we were on the wrong side of the platform, but for about 10 minutes, we couldn't figure out why there weren't trains going the direction we wanted to go in. We went back up to the upper floor and found the downtown line instantly. This was the only time we ever messed up on the subway. I love that thing. We took a train for about 20 minutes and got off at the American Museum of Natural History. This place was phenomenal. I can easily say its one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Its wayyy bigger than I ever imagined and we got turned around a lot. Of course there are maps, but there was never a 'you are here' sticker on any of them. That seemed to be the norm all over the state. Obviously, maps are no help if you don't know where you are. First, we spent a lot of time in the Roosevelt Rotunda (where the first set of dinosaurs are, at the entrance), trying to get good jumping pictures, but none of them turned out that great. Then we went into the Asian Mammal room.
.
Then the Hall of Asian Peoples. We literally spent two hours in this hall alone. It was so badass.They had miniature landscapes of cities and towns, samarai war armor, relics from all over the place including wars and the building of the Great Wall, lifesize casts of people in traditional clothing.. It was incredible.
.
This one has a guy on a flying carpet. This is the museum of what? Natural history? Mhmm...
.
This is my favorite picture. Just look how detailed it is. Its so weird to think that something can be so well kept after hundreds to thousands of years.
After the Hall of Asian Peopels, we went to the hall of Biodiversity. This place was insane. They had taxidermied animals everywhere and it was so creepy and awesome. First, me on a giant clam shell.
Next was the Hall of Ocean Life and they have a LIFE SIZE replica of blue whale, the largest animal on earth, hanging from the ceiling! We almost fell back from amazement when we walked into this room. The picture can hardly do it justice. Look on the stairs on the other side of the room. In red, I pointed out Meagan. That should show the emense size of this thing!
Next was the hall of Human Origins, where they have a cast of Lucy, the australopithecus, who is thought to not only predate humans but be a direct ancester and the most of a missing link that we've got, outside of bigfoot. haha. She's 3.2 Million years old.
Then we went to the hall of Meteors and Gems, where Meagan was crushed by the largest meteor collected after hitting earth.
And I took Senior pictures.
Then the dinosaur floor!!!!!
hahah, meagan making the same face as the dinosaur:
By this time, we'd been in the museum for four hours and we were exhausted and we still had so much planned, so we left.
I know thats like 30 pictures, so I'll post the other days on another entry. Yay AMNH!