NYC: Greenwich, Serendipity, delays

Sunday September 12:

When we woke up and looked out the window we couldn't believe the difference from the day before. Instead of blue skies and sunshine, we were faced with the all too familiar rainy weather. Because of the weather we were definitely not in a hurry to stroll the streets of the city, especially since we had to carry our backpack with us this time. Both of us had been craving sushi since we started our AYCJ trip, so we searched online for some of the best (but affordable) sushi restaurants.

We decided on one in Greenwich Village, so we could explore that area a little bit. We said goodbye to the sweet little kitties and Staten Island, and hopped on the ferry for the last time. After a long subway ride, we arrived in Greenwich village. We walked around in the pouring rain without umbrellas (like true Oregonians!), weaved our way through the streets of NYU and eventually found the sushi restaurant. Sign says closed! Big bummer! Since we hadn't eaten anything for breakfast and we were both ready to get out of the rain we just walked into the nearest restaurant. It was this cute little hole in the wall pizza place. Nate said he almost liked the pizza better than Grimaldis, but I was not as impressed.

Luckily I had saved some room in my belly, because I really wanted to stop and get the famous frozen hot chocolate dessert at Serendipity 3. Since we didn't have much time before we needed to head to the airport, I was relieved to hear only a 20 minutes wait! To pass the time, we went into Dillan's Candy Bar. Nate was in heaven. They even had a candy stairwell!

Serendipity was full of charm, and the frozen hot chocolate did not disappoint!

After our dessert, we had to say goodbye to the city and headed to the airport. We felt like we covered a lot of what we wanted to see in such a short time, and weren't too sad to leave because we knew we would be back in a week for a daytrip.

When we arrived at our airport gate they had just posted a 3 hour delay on the screen due to weather and one of the runways out of service. We had just checked in 10 minutes earlier and everything said it was on time. We weren't too upset since we figured delays would occur at some point with 17 flights. Once we got on the plane we had to wait in a line of about 70 planes to take off. Oy! We finally made it home at about 3:30am. It was nice to be home for a few days, but we were extremely excited for our next adventures. Stay tuned!

NYC: 9-11, Brooklyn bridge, Central Park

Saturday September 11: Ground Zero

After getting some much needed sleep, we didn't actually leave Staten Island until about noon. We couldn't have asked for better weather that day. The sun was shining, and we were reminded of our freedom as the ferry passed the iconic Statue of Liberty.

One of the first things we wanted to do was visit Ground Zero. Being that it was the 9th anniversary of the horrible terror that occurred on 9-11 there were a lot of people and a lot of NYC firefighters and cops on the streets.

There were a lot of roads blocked, but people were still walking toward Ground Zero... so we just followed them. As we neared the WTC site, we came across this memorial poster where people had written notes by their loved ones names that were lost in the attack. Words cannot describe the emotions one feels while standing at Ground Zero especially on the anniversary of the attack. It was definitely emotional and humbling.

Our stomachs started to lead the way after we left Ground Zero, and we found ourselves on the subway to Brooklyn to experience the famous Grimaldi's coal brick oven pizza. We waited in a long line outside of the restaurant for about an hour before being squeezed in like sardines. It was well worth the wait! Mmm...

With full bellies we decided to walk off the pizza, and headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge. I've always wanted to walk on this bridge, so I was pretty darn excited! As we walked through a park in Brooklyn to get to the bridge we found this random guy on a bench feeding pigeons and letting them walk all over him. Probably one of the funniest and odd things we've seen on our trip thus far. (We didn't feel too bad taking his picture as everyone else around was doing the same.)

We finally found our way to the bridge and I was in awe. By far one of the highlights of the trip! The view of the city was incredible!

Central Park was next on our list, but first we made a quick stop at Grand Central Station. We stayed just about long enough to take a few pictures and we were on our way.

Central Park has always amazed me. I think it is so neat that in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city and massive skyscrapers is this beautiful park that people can retreat to. We walked through the park hand in hand just taking it all in. What a special place! Right outside of park is The Metropolitan Museum of Art where people were just chillin' on the outside steps. We enjoyed an icecream cone while being entertained by a very talented street performer before entering the massive museum. A person could spend days and days in this place, but we only spent a couple of hours (if that) because there are just too many other things to explore in NYC.

We walked through the park to another end and found ourselves right next to the Apple store and FAO Swartz. Of course we had to go in!

I wanted to go to Tiffanys on 5th Ave, but unfortunately we didn't make it in time before closing.

We continued to walk down Fifth Avenue which was much less crowded than the night before for FNO. Eventually we found Time Square again and rested our tired feet at one of the tables in the middle of the Broadway. It almost feels like daylight in the middle of all of those lights!

We decided to call it a night, and headed back to the Staten Island Ferry. We had some time to kill since the ferry only runs every hour at night. As we looked up into the sky we could see the Tribute in light, which are two vertical spotlights into the sky where the World Trade Center was. This is done every year in remembrance of 9-11. From this angle at Battery park, it looks like 1 light, but as we got on the ferry we could see 2 lights. What an incredible way to end a very special day in New York City. We will never forget!

empire state

I haven't forgotten about my blog. I've just been too busy traveling, working, and being sick to update it.

I'm working on a couple of posts before I head out tomorrow night for the 3rd and final leg of our travels. This time around we will be jetting to the Bahamas, Vegas, and San Diego/LA. Ready to get this party started!

(this is the view of the Empire State Building from "Top of the Rock" in NYC on our little day trip after Puerto Rico. It was the most beautiful day!)

Jamba boost

Definitely in need of a Jamba energy boost this morning. The red eye flight to JFK was a little rough, as I didn't get an ounce of sleep (ok maybe a few minutes but not restful). Hoping to catch a little cat nap on our flight to San Juan, PR.



Nate talked to his parents last night who also bought the AYCJ pass and are already in Puerto Rico. They told us that the people we are staying with have plans to take us on power boats as soon as we land this afternoon. Should be a blast!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

AYCJ swag

This time around we are sporting the AYCJ gear (Nates t-shirt and luggage tag), and then some other AYCJ traveler we met here at PDX gave us a button. Yea, that's right. We are cool like that ;)





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

NYC: house swap, FNO, staten island ferry

Friday September 10: NYC arrival

We arrived at JKF around 6:00pm from D.C. just in time to exchange house keys with another AYCJ couple who happened to be leaving for Portland that evening. Thanks to social media (Twitter) we were able to arrange a house swap with this nice couple weeks prior to our trip. Call us crazy, but our schedules lined up so perfectly that it felt like it was meant to be. It was a success!

We then made our way to the Air Train, purchased our metro passes, and then connected to the subway to Manhattan. 

 on the subway

We just so happened to be in town during the second annual Fashion Night Out in NYC. We quickly found the luggage storage place and then hit the town. What a whirlwind of a night! I can't even begin to tell you how many people were out shopping and partying in the stores. The only celebrity that we came across was Kimora Lee Simmons on the 4th floor of Macy's. Sadly I didn't even know who she was, but knew I should be excited because of all the screaming & hyped up women crowding around. 

Time Square was our last stop for the night where we saw ourselves on the Forever 21 live camera on a large billboard. How fun is that!

After a very long and exhausting day of touring we were ready to call it a night. The couple that we were house swapping with live on Staten Island and so we took the free 20 minute ferry ride to get there. Their place was adorable and they had 2 really sweet cats that accompanied us during our stay.

There are definitely some amazing views of the city and Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

to be continued...

recap: D.C.

This post is little overdue considering we leave for our next leg of the All You Can Jet pass tomorrow night. It's hard to believe that just a few days ago we were touring Washington DC and New York City, and in just a couple of days we will be enjoying a little r & r in Puerto Rico and then Tampa.

Because I've had to work these last couple of nights after coming home on Sunday, I haven't had much time to sort through photos on our camera. Here is just a quick recap with iPhone photos, and hopefully when this crazy month of travel is through I will have time to post some clearer photos of our destinations.

Thursday September 9: Washington D.C.

Our flight arrived in D.C. around 11:00am, and we hopped on the metro bus as we read it was the cheapest way to get to downtown. The bus ride was about an hour long and we came across a couple of other AYCJ'ers, one who was a high school student who won the pass and was there for a press conference with the president and planning to make a documentary. Pretty neat to hear what people are doing with their unlimited flights.

(here we are on the bus - little tired but excited for our adventure!)

When we arrived downtown, we started walking toward "The Mall" and eventually made our way to Union Station (lots of walking!), where we could drop off our luggage for the day. We were both starving at this point, and decided to eat lunch at the Union Station food court. 

Prior to our trip, I had a arranged a tour of the Capitol that was scheduled for 2:00. We ended up walking all the way around the Capitol building trying to find the entrance to for the tour. We eventually had to ask one of the many security guards, and it turns out the entrance was across the building kind of in this underground stairwell. It was really neat to learn about some of the history of the building, and the interior of the dome is absolutely stunning!

After the tour we took a little rest on a park bench as we were both exhausted from the red-eye flight (we each got about an hour of sleep) and we both had tired feet. Since the tour took a couple of hours we didn't have much time to spare before needing to catch the Metro. We were able to spend about an hour in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, which we thought was appropriate with all of the jet setting we will be doing this month. 

We rode the Metro to meet up with our great friends Core and Evan. They happened to be visiting Evan's parents at the same time we were there, and his parents so kindly welcomed us into their home and let us stay the night. His parents live on Fort Andrew's Air Force base - home of Air Force One. We were able to see the tail end of Air Force One when we drove by it's hanger. We enjoyed a wonderful meal with our friends, and then hit the sack to prepare for another busy touring day.

Friday September 10: Washington D.C. 

Our friends had to leave on an early flight home that morning, but Evan's mom was so kind and drove us to

the Metro station around 7:00am. Since we hadn't seen the west side of "The Mall", we decided to start there first. We arrived at the White House, and we were the only tourists there, it was almost kind of eerie. 

We then trekked toward my man Abe Lincoln's Memorial, and again we were pretty much the only people there besides a few security guards. 

 We made our way down The Mall, stopping at the Korean War Memorial, WWII Memorial, and the Washington Monument. We were able to score some tickets to go up into the Washington Monument for 12:30, so we had a few hours to spare before that and decided to go to the Holocaust Museum and American History Museum. Both were wonderful!

I'm glad we were able to get tickets to go up in the Washington monument, because the views of D.C. were spectacular! What a wonderful way to finish off our trip! We were able to see a lot in 24 hours and we were so glad we could visit!

By the end of our time in D.C. we had some majorly tired feet and blisters to go along with it! Ouch! We toughed it out and caught the Metro Bus to the airport to embark on our next adventure! NYC!

We're here!

After a long sleepless night to JFK, we had a 3 hour lay over in our home away from home for the month. Took a short flight to DC and made it just in time to catch the metro bus (cheapest way to get downtown $6/pp. nice!)

We've got a busy day ahead of us, stay tuned!



JFK


On the metro bus!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Love it already

More leg room and direct tv!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Travel light

We decided that it would be easiest if we just bring one carry-on for our trip to DC and NYC.

We bought this Kelty redwing pack with an REI gift card and everything fits! It did help to use the a vacuum type garment bags though. Feels so liberating to only bring one bag since I usually overpack.





See Mom, I told you we could do it! Hehe


On our way to PDX right now for our first red eye flight of AYCJ.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

'99

Eleven years ago... I was on my way to Washington DC & New York with some of my 8th grade classmates. Obviously I was a giddy and boy-crazy teenager at the time and was more excited to be traveling with friends (and not parents) then really appreciate the places we were going to. Not that I didn't appreciate the trip, but I think this time around I will be more interested in the sights and history of our nation's capital. 

With my childhood friends Kelly and Amber. Thinking we are all cool with our massive headphones and discmans. I think I took about 13 rolls of film on that trip. Thank goodness I'll be using an iPhone for tunes and digital camera this time around. Gotta love technology!

All-you-can-work...

so we can All-you-can-jet.

Tonight I finish my last night of work (five 12 hour shifts!), and I am exhausted! We head out tomorrow night on the red eye flight to JFK, then a quick little layover and a short flight to Washington DC on Thursday morning.

We will be meeting up with some of our great friends who happen to be visiting their parents who live in DC while we are there. We are so grateful that they are letting us stay at their place. Yay for avoiding expensive hotels!

All of this exhaustion is going to be so worth the adventure we are going to embark this month!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

AYCJ itinerary

Happy September!

I found some neat photos to use as my iPhone backgrounds when we are in each different city (such a nerd I know! I'm just procrastinating on things I really should be doing like cleaning the house and laundry). I think our itinerary is pretty much set in stone, although with crazy weather conditions in the Caribbean we may have to make some changes. Praying that isn't the case, but the beauty of the AYCJ pass is that we can rearrange flights up to 3 days in advance if we need to.

Washington DC: Sept 9-10

 via

New York City: Sept. 10-12 & 20th (for day trip)

 via

San Juan, Puerto Rico: Sept. 17-20

 this photo was taken on our little side trip to San Juan on our honeymoon

Tampa, Florida: Sept. 21-23

 via

Boston: Sept. 27-29 (Nate only, I have to work)

Bahamas: Sept. 29-Oct. 1

 via

Las Vegas: Oct. 1-3

 via

LA & San Diego: Oct. 3-6

 via

Looking forward to some much needed sunshine since Portland decided to bring on the fall weather!