Saturday we flew into Baltimore. The flight was good and uneventful, thankfully. I don't know if it's BWIs fault or American's fault, but we had to wait 45 minutes for our bags to be put on the baggage thing! That's the longest I've ever waited & I've traveled a good bit in the last 5 years. Out of the 3 baggage claim belts, there was only 1 operating and that had 2 other flight's luggage on it before ours.
Anyway, we get in the rental car and find 95 with no problems (I was worried about that for some reason). The drive to Philly cost us $9 in tolls! It was a lot more than I'd expected, so if you're ever driving from Baltimore to Philly, don't take 95. I know I won't next time.
We spent Saturday night - Wednesday morning with Tom's parents. It was nice to see them again. We went to his sister's on Sunday night and watched the Eagles game - the one they won. :) She's looking good and is starting to show.
Wednesday morning we drove to West Chester to meet my mom at my nana's house. We were going to meet her between 12 & 1. We got there at 10 of 12 which is a first for us - being early. My mom had called a few minutes earlier to tell my nana she was just leaving Harrisburg, so it would be an hour and a half or so till she got there. No problem. We hung out with my grandparents and that was nice.
Mom gets there and we begin our drive to New York. The trip was again uneventful which was good. Traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel was heavy, so there was a bit of a delay, but we were fine with that. Checked into the hotel and the room is pretty decent and comfortable. We decide we're hungry, so we set out to walk a few blocks and see what we find. While we were walking it started snowing. Snow is fine with me if I'm not driving. Finally we couldn't take the cold anymore (I think we walked for about an hour, ducking into a Barnes & Noble on 6th avenue just to warm up). We go to TGIFriday's. I know it's NYC so it won't be cheap. Hamburgers were $14.89!!! A freaking hamburger. Anyway, dinner for the 3 of us was $78. We paid with the AMEX Traveler's checks mom gave us for Christmas. We got back to the hotel and watched The Apprentice. It's actually a really good show. The only reality type show I've liked. In fact, I watched it tonight and I still liked it so that must mean something.
Thursday morning we get up and head downstairs to the 24 hour French Restaurant that is attached to the hotel - Pigalle's. I got eggs, bacon & home fries for breakfast and it tasted fabulous! After breakfast we walked back through the hotel lobby and there were about 35 asian people in the lobby. This turned out to be a common sight and I think because the hotel was only $95/night and was 1 block from Times Square it's popular with the tourists. :) We wanted to go see Ground Zero. We went outside, I hailed a cab for us & told the driver where to take us. We went to the World Financial Center because I heard they had huge glass windows overlooking Ground Zero. In fact, when the towers collapsed WFC had to replace 14,000 panes of glass. The site itself wasn't as breathtaking as I expected. Seems like they're already doing construction to build a foundation for the new design. I took some pictures, then felt kind of rude for doing so. There was a display of the chosen replacement building and I read that there's going to be a "quiet" room. This room is going to have an urn with the ashes of unidentified victims for people to pay their respects to. Reading that made me tear up.
Next it's out into the cold to go see St. Paul's Chapel - the church all the rescue workers rested at during the cleanup. I don't think I could feel my face once we'd walked the 2 blocks there. There is a memorial set up throughout the church with some of the things that were donated, etc. I got teary here - good thing there were tissues all around. We wrote a little note in their guestbook and took a cab to NBC so we could go on the Studio Tour.
The studio tour, I think, was almost a total rip-off. We saw 2 studios - Dateline & NBC Nightly News, but that's it. When I went last time about 8 years ago, we saw the SNL Studio, Dateline, Rosie....hm. I thought it was more than that, but I guess not. We couldn't see the SNL Studio this time because Nick & Jessica were doing rehearsals for the show.
One interesting thing I learned: When the news anchors are looking at those TV screens they have in their desk, do you know what they're looking at? The broadcasts of the competition, in this case CBS & ABC. If Tom Brokaw sees that ABC is going to be doing a story about something that he was planning to do a story on, he will put that story on sooner so he can do it at the same time they do. That is why most networks nightly news is talking about the same subject at the same time.
Anyway, we walked back to the hotel and by this time the wind chill was -30, the coldest it's been in 100 years. They actually tracked the air from Siberia. We warmed up for a little bit and then ate at Sbarro's. No more $15 hamburgers for us! We spent the rest of Thursday night in the hotel watching Friends (haven't watched that in like 3 years), Will & Grace, etc.
Friday morning we get up and eat breakfast at Pigalle's again. This time I got Eggs Benedict. I don't know if it's cuz I usually get this in diners, but the hollandaise sauce was too mustardy for me and that made it yucky. We decided it was best to check out of the hotel and drive the car to the Metropolitan Museum of Art rather than pay for a cab there & back while paying for parking.
So, I drove us to the museum (my mom was very impressed with my sense of direction and how well I knew my way around - she complimented me on it to all of our family - hee hee). We walked around the museum for about 2 1/2 hours. The only thing I wanted to see was the Temple of Dendur. It's an Egyptian Temple from 15 BC (I think, maybe it's 4 BC) that they brought over piece by piece from Egypt. When you walk into the room, it's just breathtaking. After our 2 1/2 hours of walking around, we make it to the Egyptian section, but it's blocked off. I ask the guy how else to get in there. He said we can't because that section is closed for a private party that evening. Are you freaking SERIOUS????????? I was soooooo mad. After that we left the museum.
Are you still with me? I'm trying to make it exciting, but narrative prose isn't my forte. One liners are if I'm in the right mood :) Anyhoo - We decide to leave the city. I could tell it was going to be bad when it took us 25 minutes to get into the Lincoln Tunnel. Traffic on the NJ Turnpike was backed up, but it was 4:30 or so, the height of rush hour. We were in traffic through the entire state of New Jersey. I am not even exaggerating. The 2 hour trip up there took us 4 hours to get back. We were all frustrated and tired of being in the car by the time we got to my nana's and ate dinner.
Saturday morning we got up early because my entire family was going out to breakfast. 14 of us went to the Exton Diner and ate and talked. It was really nice - I love hanging out with my family. Then we went to my Aunt Judy and Uncle Michael's house because I wanted Tom to see it and how awesome it is. We were there for about an hour then we drove to Harrisburg.
We went to my brother's house since Tom hasn't seen it either and Tim, Jen, mom, Aunt Laurie & Tom and I went to lunch at Friendly's. It was yummy and of course we got ice cream.
After that Tom & I went back to my mom's for awhile while she went to church with Laurie. By this time it's started snowing again. This is where my update from Sunday (paragraph 1 anyway) comes in. Then we went to Mel's house to see them and Jenny Kerwin who was there. That was one of the best parts. I miss seeing them every day. Mel has digital cable and I got to watch Sex and the City from the previous week so I knew what was happening. Then we went home.
Sunday morning we got up and it was still snowing. We left for the airport at 11 and true to my prediction on Sunday it took us forever to get to the airport. It snowed all through Pennsylvania and as soon as we hit Maryland it turned to rain and wasn't slippery at all. That's the only thing that saved us. We were able to do 70 and got to the rental car return place at about 1:40. Our flight left at 3:45 and we got back to Dallas around 6:30 CT. So, Tony, as you can see we weren't in Harrisburg for very long. I did go to Turkey Hill but that was it. I drove by our old apartments and it always makes me think how I met you guys and how long it's been!
I found out while I was in NY that I'm going to Tijuana, Mexico! Work is sending me to train their mentor team on doing restores and Long Distance unblocks. I'm all about traveling for free, so I'm really excited. I leave on Sunday 2/1 and come back on Saturday 2/7. I hope I do a good job.
I'm glad to be back in Dallas and getting back to my normal life. Ooh - I found out last night that Ikea is building a store here (a *real* Ikea, Evan!). It will be open Mid 2005. I can't wait! Now I don't have to make a 5 hour trip to Houston just to go to one. My house will be Ikea'd out! :)
Stupid me just missed the season premiere of Nick & Jessica. I thought I had set the DVR to record it, but when I went to get a drink 10 minutes ago I noticed the recording light wasn't on. Then I remembered that I hadn't set the DVR. *sigh*. So I only saw like 5 minutes of the show. But, I did get to hear the "Does the horse go faster because there are wheels on the carriage" question Jessica asked Nick. He was like "As opposed to the horse just dragging it on the ground? Uh yeah, it goes faster with the wheels."
Anyway, I'll try to update tomorrow. I'm working 12-9 the next 2 days so I don't know how busy I'll be, but I'll *try*.
posted by Chris O. @ 1/21/2004 07:36:00 PM
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