New York City.....get a rope!

Yes, the title of this entry is a line from an old Pace salsa commercial, but it seems like half the time I hear the words "New York City" this slogan is one of the first things to pop into my mind. The reason I've used that for the title of this entry is because I am about to fill everyone in on the awesome 2 days I had in the Big Apple.

So, my roommate and I left our dorm room in Fenway at about 6:00 AM Wednesday morning, the 15th, heading toward South Station Boston where we would catch our bus to NYC. We rode the 7:30 Boltbus (boltbus.com) to the city, and I must say I was thoroughly happy with the bus system. The buses had leather seats, electrical outlets, and wi-fi for us to use. We made a quick stop in Connecticut at a Travel Center, and after a little bit of traffic after we got to the Bronx, we arrived in the city, at the intersection of 34th Street and 8th Avenue. We were set loose, and free to roam the city.

The first thing we did after getting off of the bus was going to check out the Empire State Building, as it was pretty close to we were. It was neat seeing the tall building up close and in person, really don't understand how huge the skyscrapers are until being in their shadow. We spent a little bit of time here, and then we went to Bryant Park and met up with my friend Chelsea, a girl I met at Carolina during my freshman year of college. The 3 of us ate lunch in the park, and Chelsea gave us some sense of where we were in the city, so Phil and I started embarking on seeing a few things. We first went to Times Square. It was cool seeing all the huge billboards and famous advertisements and signage in the city, and also seeing the ball that drops every new year. We also went to the M&M's and Hershey's stores in Times Square, well, because we could! After going to Times Square we headed to Rockefeller Plaza and checked out the scene over there. The neatest thing about all of this was finally seeing person places that I have seen on television and in movies my entire life. We decided to sit around and hang out for a few minutes at a bench near the Rockefeller Center at this time, and while we were heading to the bench we happened to cross Jesse Jackson. Yes, we saw the Reverend. Apparently the NAACP was having a convention this week, and he was in route to speak or something like that.

About 3:30 or so we decided we wanted to see the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the Late Show with David Letterman is taped. We headed that way, walking to 54th and Broadway, where we noticed a large number of people had gathered behind a police barricade. On top of the marquee to the theater was a black curtain draping the standing area, and we heard that a band was going to be practicing soon and later performing. Turns out the singer that was on the roof of the marquee was none other than the legendary Paul McCartney. We heard him practice "Eleanor Rigby" before we found out that at 5 PM they would be doing the actual filming for the broadcast of the show later that evening. We decided we would stick around and see this, as it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. We set up shop at the corner of 53rd and Broadway against the railing and waited. Sure enough, right after 5 Paul and his band came out to much fanfare, talked up the crowd, and performed 2 songs for the show. After this, Dave came onto the roof thanking Paul, so we also got to see Mr. Letterman! Paul went on to perform 4 or 5 more songs before leaving the roof, and Chelsea and her roommate, Sarah, who also is a friend of mine from Carolina, were able to make it to the corner in time to see the Beatle perform. Oh, and Paul will be playing 2 shows at Fenway Park in August, so I'll be getting to see him again before I head back to NCSU for school! After this, the 4 of us hopped on the subway to go to the East Village, where the girls live, to eat dinner and hang out for the rest of the night.

We ended up going to dinner at this little pizzeria on Bleecker Street, which was delicious, and ended up getting dessert at this great place near the pizza place called Yogurtland. You pay for your food by the ounce, so you can load up on toppings and frozen yogurt, at 39 cents per ounce. It can be tricky to actually know how much you're buying, but a pretty solid sized dessert ran me about 4 bucks, and it was delicious! We then walked down to the waterfront, where we could see downtown and uptown, across the water to Jersey City, NJ and also the Statue of Liberty in the harbor. It was a really pretty night, and definitely a nice time to wind down. We then went to Washington Square at the end of 5th avenue to enjoy the rest of the night before heading back to the apartment.

We went to Stuytown, where the girls live, and hung out a little while before catching some rest. In all, we had a great first day in the city, but there were a few more things to do before heading home.

We woke up this morning, and after getting ready and leaving the apartment we rode the subway down to Battery Park to check out Ground Zero. It's not a fun place to see in NYC, by any means, but it definitely makes you reflect and think about what happened there in the fall of 2001. We walked around this area, taking some pictures and enjoying the great weather before heading back uptown to meet up with Chelsea for lunch. I forgot to add, another girl from Carolina, Katherine, spent a lot of time with us and was a great guide in the city. She also joined us for lunch downtown, we looked around Grand Central Station, and then it was time to catch the bus back to Boston. We left NYC at about 3 PM, and after really bad traffic in the city and on the way home, we arrived in South Station at about 8:30 PM, and headed back to Fenway.

I've been uploading pictures and movies to my computer and youtube while also trying to make sure I have everything in order for my weekend trip to Pittsburgh. I'm sure there are some things about the city I forgot to mention as I wanted to get this done, and I'll be sure to add stuff later as I remember it. Basically, New York was amazing. It's a lot to handle, but it truly is an awesome place. I don't know if I could live there, but it makes me realize I think I could handle living in a city like Boston, which before I thought was way too big for me! It was a quick trip, but definitely one worth taking.

I'm going to head to bed for the night, early wake up for my flight out of Logan. I am going to add the video I took from 53rd and Broadway of Paul McCartney, along with a better video of what the rock legend was doing up there. I think in the first video you can hear me talking to my Dad on the phone, hahaha. Alright, love you all, have a great Friday, I'll be back soon to add more about my summer. Oh, and real quick, I now have less than 1 month until I return to North Carolina. This summer has flown by, and I've realized over the last few weeks just how awesome an opportunity this is for me and how much I'm enjoying this whole experience. I'm one blessed kid.

Here are the videos, goodnight!