Well, I've been home from my trip to the Big Apple for a couple of days now- enough to have gone through my pictures, reminisce, and wish endlessly to still be there! I had hoped to blog each day, but the second day I was in New York, Joe and I actually left to go to Atlantic City and the hotel didn't have free wifi! So here's the rest of my trip (you can see day #1 here)!
The second morning I dragged Joe out of bed earlier than I think he would have liked to go down and get Bagel Express, the cheap breakfast spot just a block up from his apartment to get a true New York City breakfast! I'm not a big bagel person, but I really liked my bagel breakfast sandwich and it was a perfect start to the day!
I'm glad we woke up early, because then we walked down to the highline, which is an old railroad rack converted to a walking/running path, and it was HOT! I didn't expect a place like this to exist in the middle of the city, so it was pretty cool to see!
The path curved and took us near the Hudson River, so I got to see that too before heading back East to go to Chelsea Market. It was so hot and humid, so I was very glad when we finally got to the market to get some water. ... I also may have bought some of my favorite candy, chocolate nonpareils!
After this, Joe and I went back to his apartment to meet up with Ben, his long time best friend who he gets to live with for the summer. As much fun as it is to explore the city, it was also fun to go back to Joe's apartment, relax next to the AC, and hang out, laughing, joking, and catching up. I hadn't seen Ben since New Year's Eve and probably since a year before that, so it was great to just be together, three friends. Then, we met up with Ben's friend Harry to head to get some lunch! Each Saturday in Brooklyn there is a food fair, called Smorgasburg, with a ton of tents set up with food vendors! It was in a little park that overlooked the city skyline, meaning we had great food and a great view!
For lunch I had the BEST hand squeezed lemonade (made right in front of us!) and a spaghetti donut and Joe had fried chicken served in a pineapple boat. The fair also had a lot of the really trendy foods like rolled ice cream, carved mango, and ramen burgers, but the lines for those were so long!!
Going to Brooklyn also meant going on my first subway ride!
After lunch, it was time to go to the OCEAN!!! Joe and I left Ben and Harry in Brooklyn and took the subway back to his apartment to grab our stuff and then head off to another subway station that would take us to the bus stop. It had been a beautiful morning, but when we got off the subway before boarding the bus, we were already running late and it was pouring rain! Everyone else in the city seemed to have been put on pause as they waited under construction awnings for the downpour to pass, but there was Joe and I, running by ourselves along the streets getting completely soaked!
We finally made it to the largest bus transit station I have ever seen with only ten minutes to buy our tickets and get to the correct area in the station. Again, we were running, but we blended in well among the rest of the hurried crowds all trying to get places. We made it to the correct door and found ourselves at the back of an already long line and then we waited. And waited. And waited. The bus was nearly 45 minutes late so we giggled about running through rain dragging my poor suitcase behind us to catch a bus that was late anyways!
The bus let us off in Union, New Jersey, where Joe's uncle picked us up to drive us to Atlantic City. We met his aunt at the hotel, and the four of us had a really excellent dinner at Guy Fieri's restaurant! The fog around the hotel that night was so thick we couldn't see the ocean, but the next morning when we woke up it was beautiful and clear! We spent the entire day in the water and on the beach, and I don't know the last time I giggled as much as I did when Joe and I were body surfing in the waves.
Joe had to drag me out of the frigid water after almost a full day. He said it's because he didn't want me to get more sunburned; I jokingly called him a spoilsport. I love the ocean and being near it, but I usually hate being in the water. I was just having too much fun that day and surprised myself by not wanted to get out! Once we were dry we went back to the hotel room and I grabbed my camera- I hadn't dared bring it to the beach before, but since we would no longer be playing in the water I wasn't worried! We first walked along the boardwalk outside of the hotel, which was beautiful as golden hour was just beginning, then headed down towards the water. These are some of my favorite photos from the trip, and I'm really glad we set apart some time for me to use my camera and just watch the sunset!
That night we ordered room service and felt fancy and laughed about our sunburns because it had just been the greatest day! I don't know that I can truly express the joy that I had felt from that day, but it was hard to wipe the goofy grin off of my face and even now, almost a week later, I'm smiling as I write this, thinking about how much fun we had.
The next morning came too early. After a quick breakfast I dragged Joe to the beach one more time with me, just to say goodbye. I love the ocean, and I will always want to be on the ocean, and every single time I just get silly about how badly I hate to leave.
But it was okay because we got to go back to the city and see some final sites before I flew back to Colorado that night!
My final afternoon in New York, Joe and I went to Central Park, then Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty, the bull on Wall Street, the One World Trade Center, and the World Trade Center Memorial. Being the day before the Fourth of July, it was PACKED with tourists. The line for the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty must have been hours long, and we couldn't get close enough to the bull to even touch it, and definitely not to get a picture with it!
Can you find Joe?
I wouldn't recommend sightseeing those areas of New York that close to the Fourth of July, but seeing as we weren't planning on taking the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty or going to the World Trade Center museum due to our time restrictions anyways, it was actually pretty neat to see all of the people because it gave the history of these places a much richer feeling.
We then went back towards his apartment for dinner #1 which was at a cute restaurant called Dig Inn. It gave you the option to make your own bowl with tons of really healthy stuff to put in it, like quinoa and lots of veggies!
And then it was time to go to the airport. You can tell I'm used to DIA because I got there 3 hours early, only to find a security line that was all of two people long. Luckily they had a food court type area outside of security where Joe and I sat and spent our last precious moments together before I left! Dinner #1 didn't fill me up all the way, so we split dinner #2, which consisted of really good orange chicken and fried rice!
And then it was time for me to go and it sucked and I'll leave it at that. Can't wait for our next adventures!