Adventures in the East - Part 1

A few months ago, we decided to plan a grand trip to visit New York and Washington, D.C. A few months later, when we realized we couldn't afford it, it was already too late--we'd booked the tickets. So we thus committed to have a stellar, albeit expensive, trip.



We left Friday night--or should I say Saturday morning--on the red-eye Delta flight to New York City. Though getting to tell people, "I'm on the red-eye to New York City" seems like it would make you feel especially cosmopolitan and adventurous, the act of actually being on the red-eye to New York City mostly makes you feel like a miserable wretch. After take off, you settle in, determined to get a good, solid night's rest--this is when you find that your seat reclines at an angle of exactly .03 degrees and that plastic-wrapped napkin they gave you is actually your complimentary blanket which you cleverly roll into a makeshift pillow, desperately hoping it can somehow make it possible to sleep while sitting Mary-Poppins-straight. 3.5 hours later, we disembarked in a coma-like stupor and made our way to the hotel --we were two sleep-deprived white people lugging suitcases through the New York subway at 5:30 am. It was awesome.

Our hotel was a couple blocks from Times Square--named for the good times you have when you're in it...

This was my second trip to New York and Roo's first. I love the city. This is beautiful to me:




We wandered around both days we were there, and we found ourselves at the New York Public Library. This place was like a temple to me. Old stone and elaborately carved wood and books.

This is the ceiling. Most libraries I've been to have gross flourescent lighting, like they're actually trying to make people feel bored in there--I feel like New York's library ceiling should be the standard for all libraries.
Of course we had to try some New York pizza. It was good and cheap. This is just after we went to The Strand--probably the most awesome bookstore I've ever been to--book browsing usually makes one hungry for pizza.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry to get a good view of the skyline..and New Jersey.

Roo seems unimpressed by Wall Street.

One of the main reasons for our trip was to see The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Once someone was like, 'what's the coolest thing that we could ever do in the world?' and then he was like, 'I know, lets show Lord of the Rings on a huge screen and have a symphony play the score and a choir sing along too. And Howard Shore should be there. And lets do it at Radio City Music Hall.' And that person was right, this is really the coolest thing to do in the whole world! It was fantastic! The part where Frodo pulls Sam out of the water and saves him from drowning makes you cry even more when the music is live...

This is the view from our back row seats.

Meals mainly consisted of pretzels and hot dogs.
This cool band made Central Park feel like New Orleans Square at Disneyland. We sat down and I watched the joggers pass by and smile, a young dad helped his baby daughter dance along to the music, a busy-looking businessman dropped a couple bucks into the guitar case and went on his busy way. I love Central Park.




Here is the view from our hotel room on the 24th floor. You just don't have that many floors where I come from, so this kind of elevation is a novelty worthy of a picture.
How perfect.