Random New York Ramblings

John and I went to New York on a quick weekender get away "just because." It was close to Valentines day, so that's how we celebrated, but it's not WHY. He won 2 round trip tickets at some convention a little while ago to anywhere in the continental United States (which means Hawaii is out), Canada, (no real desire, I hear it's pretty and nice, but it's not on my top ten at this point and I don't have a passport ) and Mexico (Swimsuits are not my friend and I don't drink plus there's still that whole not having a passport issue). So I picked New York, because that's where I honestly wanted to go the most, but actually believing that idea might get shot down because of how expensive everything else is. We might have free airfare, but that's it. Hotels, entertainment, food, other expenses. So I was pretty surprised and excited when John just said "okay."

Instead of doing individual posts on everything, I'm just going to ramble for a bit and hope I don't leave anything out. First off I'd like to say that I think New Yorkers in general are nice. Every time John and I were standing on a street corner examining a map, and looking generally tourist-y and lost, some local would always come up and ask us if we needed help and we were always grateful for it. Also I think in New York traffic signals, signs, etc, are just general guidelines. Suggestions really. Red and green lights were carefully observed, but speed limits, and crosswalk signs are apparently there for decoration. I think the rule is, if you can, then go for it. I first noticed this after our plane landed and it was like 2 in the morning cause we had a bunch of delays in Dallas, and the cab driver just whipped through town going like 20 over the speed limit,(which around here is criminal- don't ask me how I know that). Also, people cross the street whenever they want as long as there are no cars coming. I thought the honking was funny. I think they actually drive with their thumb covering the horn. I use my horn so rarely, I have to think about where it is, and usually end up hitting my airbag instead. I think car horns there are more like "I'm coming through, get out of the way if you get hit it's your own fault." Not that it's an actual possibility, because John would have to make like 20 times what he makes now to maintain our standard of living, but I found myself thinking that if we lived there, I would not own a car. Too scary. And I'm a pretty lousy parallel parker. Our hotel room was teeny, but our requirements for a hotel were that they were close to the Theater district, clean, reasonably priced (everything is relative) and generally respectable. We are pretty sure our master closet at home was bigger (really not exaggerating on this, but our closet is pretty big as closets go)- the bathroom might have tipped the scales in favor of the hotel room, but without a tape measure we'll never know. Which was okay though. It was nice, clean, and we were only there to sleep. It was cold outside the first couple days. I ended up buying a hat and gloves from a street vendor and also a Coach purse. Well a faux Coach. Foach. Whatever you want to call it. That was pretty funny. There's these guys standing around with big giant storage bins and in the storage bins are large bundles of what I can only assume were other purses wrapped up in bed sheets. I guess the law is they can sell them as long as the cops can't see the actual merchandise. So you'll walk by and they'll be like "want to buy a handbag?" "want a rolex?" "want some sunglasses?" Then they will quickly show you the stuff so they can put it away before a cop comes by.

We didn't actually make it out to the Statue of Liberty, there was a line, and there was just so much to do that day we only had three days to do everything(and it was cold) So we just stood on the dock and took pictures. I think the Statue of Liberty is technically in New Jersey. I did not know that before.

This sculpture was in the park near where you bought your tickets to go see the Statue of Liberty. Pretty incredible. Which brings me to other World Trade center things.

That's one of the big holes as seen through a fence. Believe me it is bigger and more awesome to behold in person. There's a guy (I'm fairly certain he's homeless) but he spends his whole day there trying to educate tourists about the massive destruction of it all and what happened that day. Apparently they are even now tearing down the tenth building that was damaged in the attack. I guess it was too close and too old and damaged beyond repair, so the scaffolding around it is to help tear it down brick by brick rather than build it up. (There's just no way to implode it like it was an old casino in Vegas or something, no place for the mess to go) - I should have taken a picture. There are so many times over the past week that I have said "I should have taken a picture." One of the things that particularly affected me were the Fire Houses. Each and every one of them had plaques out front honoring the firefighters from that particular fire house who died in the World Trade Center. This particular fire house was right across the street. They were probably the first ones there.
This last picture is a picture of a memorial for all the firefighters who lost their lives, not just the ones from that particular Station. I counted. I think it's like 342 or something. (I'm sure I counted correctly, I'm just not sure I remembered correctly). For the rest of my trip it was somewhat eerie to see the fire trucks flying down the street with their sirens blazing and the American flag flying behind. I could easily imagine that day, well minus all the terror and what-not, I won't pretend I understand what it was like, cause I never will. New York firetrucks have a different siren than the ones I've heard before, I think it was the sound more than anything that would give me pause when they would go by. One cool thing though was as we were running out the door to get to Legally Blonde on time, a bunch of firetrucks came flying up the street and stopped at a building just across the street and I saw a fireman climb the ladder on his truck to a window in the building. I'd never seen that before. I hope whoever the fireman was after was okay, but I'd never seen them use the ladder before, except in movies.