NYC Weekend

July 4th has never ranked high on my goodtimesfun list. Yes, BBQs are fantastic, hanging out is great, and who doesn't love a day off? It's the fireworks that get me. In Chicago, amateur explosions commence at least a week in advance, very often directly in front my house, behind my house, above my house, and continue until the Indiana contraband runs out. How about securing that border??

Nevertheless, I decided to make a 'holiday' of it this year. Equally inspired by the desire to visit friends and to avoid being friendless in DC, I hopped a bus to New York City — my first experience aboard those fabled East Coast buses. There's the Chinatown bus, the so-called "Jewish" bus, Bolt Bus, Megabus, and the one I ultimately settled on because they pick up a block from work, Washington Deluxe. And I gotta say, I am a happy convert. Traffic blew, but what do you expect on holiday eve? The bus was clean, with comfy seats and foot rests, air-con, and free wi-fi. Even the bathroom surpassed expectation.

After noodling around Brooklyn for a bit, we watched the fireworks from the roof of my friend's friend's place, a guy who also happened to go to my high school.





While I pride myself on blending in with the 'locals' when I travel, I am not above being a straight-up tourist. I wholeheartedly embraced the role on Saturday. First stop was a jaunt over to the Brooklyn Museum to check out the Murakami exhibit, although the rain and longer-than-anticipated bus ride killed my motivation to actually go in. Just as well: that is one gift shop I did not need to browse. I poked around the piece in the lobby atrium, then left to meet a friend at the farmer's market in Grand Army Plaza.


this is how i looked when i got off the bus

After some delicious bread, cheese, and fresh apple cider, it was off to lower Manhattan to hop a ferry to Governors Island.





What a fun little side trip! We packed a picnic and snacked amongst the creepy little bald-headed man-baby sculptures. The officer's living quarters felt eerily like The Others compound from LOST, an open park of quaint two-story yellow houses with sprawling porches. You can enter the Admiral's house, empty save for some artwork of the island, but the other doors are locked up. More outdoor sculptures, an empty chapel, theatre, YMCA.





Currently on view right as you approach the island is one of Olafer Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls installations.



The island is open Wednesday thru Sunday and it is free, as is the five-minute ferry ride to get there. Last ferry leaves for the island at 3PM.

Post-island adventuring, a little stroll around Wall Street and the financial district grew into a six-hour walk around all of lower Manhattan. I love long walks, as you may have noticed, and I'd never really spent much time around this side of town. This is the NYC of my mind, not the Disneyland of Union Square. Soho, Chinatown, Little Italy, Greenwich Village... hit it all, with stops for snacking, of course. Green tea waffles are my new street food obsession, that I will crave until the next time we meet. Got my requisite slice, which, while not amazing, was scores better than any pie in DC. Our weary feet wound up in Times Square, closing out the evening with Wall•E. (A movie I was completely skeptical about, but I was delightfully proven wrong.)

A little locked-out misadventure at 1AM nearly spoiled the day, but delectable brunch at Counter cured any lingering grumpiness. I'm a sucker for flavored butter.

The bus ride home was completely seamless, and so fast. Barely four hours, compared to seven on the way up. I know I'm completely late to the game, but for the five people who HAVEN'T taken a weekend bus ride, it's highly recommended. I'm thinking of going to Philly next weekend.

So, while the fourth is still not my favorite, it's certainly got its redeeming features and is a pretty perfect recipe for fun, if you've got the right ingredients.

And now.... back to work!

jetBlew

for christmas, the boy got me tickets to the westminster dog show in new york — i know, amazing, right? (there will be a post on that later.) the bestgiftever even came with plane tickets on jetBlue, which is finally serving chicago. i was eager to check it out after all the raves.

flight there: totally awesome.

the forty-channels-of-TV in your seat beat out my bookclub book for in-flight entertainment, while the unlimited snacks were a shock to the system after flying The Majors, with their $10 snackpack, for so long. our selection included chocolate chip cookies, doritos mix, biscotti, and the jetBlue signature blue chips. between the two of us, we had one of each.

flight home: total hell, with snacks.

it was wednesday, valentine's day, the day the snow hit new york city. luckily, we were not among those who spent upwards of nine hours trapped in the plane on the runway. our flight was just flat-out canceled that day. after diligent status checks online, we went back to JFK the next day under the impression that our 9:50am flight would indeed take off.

and take off it eventually did..... 13 hours later.



i understand that there is nothing you can do in the face of a snow storm, and that flights are among the first things to get effed up. however you can do something to communicate problems to your passengers. in the event that you could actually reach a customer service agent on the phone — the automated message told you they were experiencing heavy call volume, then promptly hung up on you — they would tell you to check the website, which indicated that your flight actually took off ten minutes ago. of course, the rumors were running rampant about what the problem might actually be. (all the planes are frozen to the runway, only one runway for the entire airport, no crew members, etc.)

flights were being canceled left and right, except for ours, of course. dangling that thread of hope. we were the one and only flight to chicago still on the board. the departures board lit up every few minutes to tell us we were leaving at 10:25. then 11:50. then 12:05. then 1:20. then 4:50. on and on ad naseum. we were kind of hoping they would just cancel the damn thing so we could make alternate plans. (which at one point involved a 12-hour bus ride, a border crossing, and a spontaneous visit to my hometown.)

to their credit, the jetBlue folks we actually spoke to (including airplane techs wrangled in to help with damage control) were very patient and earnest, and the snacks and drinks never stopped flowing.

above all, i'm just shocked that an airline is taking this long to bounce back from what, in all honesty and i'm not just saying this because i'm from buffalo, was not that bad of a storm. what is going on??

jetBlue, those first two hours were fun, but i just don't think this is going to work.



also, on a different note, i've resigned myself to the fact that i will probably not finish updating the antarctica trip. just know that, oddly enough, the ice sparked a fire for life in me that i hope stays burning, and i can't wait to go back.