In Love With New York City

It's been awhile...but we're still recalling our road trip, the latter half which was in June, but we figured we'd better get to it before we start writing about our new adventure...as the owner of a 40 acre farm.

After Boston we went to New York City, with a two day stop in Danbury Connecticut. We spent most of the time in the hotel, getting in late and relaxing in the dry conditions of the hotel. The last of the two nights we went to a bar called Widow Brown's Cafe to have drinks with @JJ_Alexande and his girlfriend @twistddreamr who we met on Twitter. We didn't plan on staying out so late but we got along so well, and were having so much fun, before we knew it was last call.

The following day we went to New York City...and IT WAS AWESOME.

We spent about four days total, the whole time in which we spent walking. Walking, walking, walking.

The first night we went to Central Park, walked around new Times Square...it was perfect weather, finally after days of rain, and we were taken in by it's seduction. We fell in love immediately, like we knew we would. We had been dreaming about going to New York City since we first new it existed. It was not the most perfect situation, but it was still...New York City.

New York City is really expensive though, which put a damper on some of the days, getting there by bus was "time-expensive"...taking a cab was just stupid-expensive. Not only do you have to pay cab fare, but you have to pay the fee to pass through the tunnel. We missed the bus the first night, to the tune of $60 ($12 was a tunnel fee), just to go a few miles into North Bergen, New Jersey where hotel fees were extremely reasonable. We cried as we swiped our debit card, already concerned about finances that had been set aside for the trip. We vowed that next time we would stay in the city, if only because the buses don't run all night, and that limited our time in the city further, especially since we did every day on foot.

It was still worth it, even though we didn't go to any attraction that required an admission fee. Walking through the Greenwich Village we passed Matthew Broderick talking to an older man about film, we barely recognized him, but we did, and though we very rarely make eye contact, we did with him, and he could see we recognized him. Turing we whispered to James "That's...". snapping our finger, "I swear, that's Matthew Broderick!" we said. He shrugged it off, but immediately a young man walking behind us pipped us saying "Does anyone else feel like 'Buller, Buller'" quoting a famous quote from Ferris Bullers Day Off, a famous film starring Matthew Broderick, and proceeded to tell us how his girlfriend had seen Sara Michelle Geller (Matthew Brodericks Wife and star of Sex in the City) quite a few times while living in the Village, and he had only moved to the city a few weeks ago, and this was his first sighting.

A moment shared between us and a new-New Yorker.

Sure, it was only Matthew Broderick, but it was the first famous person we had knowingly seen in person. We fell further in love, walking through the famous Greenwich Village, the home of so many great American writers, artists and musicians...like Dylan, Hendrix, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchele, Nina Simone, Velevet Underground, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Twain, Wittman, Pollock, Warhol...the list is so extensive it's crazy; these were the streets they smoked on, drank on, communicated on, wrote on...lived on. We fell in love with the neighbourhood.

While nothing like it would have been in their day, the city was still just so...alive. We walked at least 10 miles a day in many of the areas (some really...scary) south of Central Park from the East River to the Hudson River, even with bleeding blisters and sore legs and back. We enjoyed observing, taking pictures, taking it all in.

We wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, but since portions of it were closed and under construction we decided to save the money, and come back a day we could take it all in. We did go to Liberty State Park on our way out of town on the way to Trenton, New Jersey.

We didn't eat anywhere of note, due to budget concerns. Highlights include a slice of real New York pizza at Two Brother's Pizza (meh), shared a Gray's Papaya hot dog (which James said was the worst hotdog he ever had) that was fine, for the price; ate at a Cuban restaurant called Favela Cubana and had tapas and drinks; had pizza at an Italian restaurant. We also bought food at a Mediterranean market and had a picnic overlooking the East River.

If we had more disposable income by the time we got to New York City we would have done a few thing differently. Next time we'll bite the bullet and pay for a hotel in the city, to increase the hours we have to explore the city, and reduce surprise "bridge and tunnel" fees.

After New York we stopped in Trenton to visit another friend (Nick Twist), someone we had met on Twitter and carpooled with us from Chicago to the Detroit Tweetup. We had lunch, drank some spirits and got a mini-tour of Trenton before we continued on our journey, now heading back towards home, with more friends to visit on the way.

So many pictures, so we put them in a video: