But I pushed those curiosities aside and booked my bus ticket anyway, to leave Friday night and return Sunday night (hopefully). Apparently it's a 4.3 hour bus ride between DC and NYC. We didn't experience that time frame until we returned on Sunday. We boarded the bus Friday night at 6:30pm, and we finally got off around 12:30am Saturday morning. It was actually a fine bus trip - aside from the really stinky toilet that kept gagging us at intervals - despite the extra time it took. The Megabus we took was a double decker bus, which was pretty cool, and was rather comfortable. We were travelling in a group of 5, so we grabbed the back row of 5 seats and got cozy. We became friends with the guy and girl sitting in front of us to our left, and enjoyed our sporadic conversations with them as they got more and more tipsy through the trip. Their downing of 2 wine bottles was nothing compared to the couple a few rows ahead of us, though, who's glasses and bottles we heard 'tinking' pretty consistently through the 6 hours.
When we finally made it to our hotel, it was roughly 1am, and we were starving. We made it to the Hard Rock Cafe on Times Square - oh, did I mention our hotel was right in Times Square? That was a pretty sweet deal. We made it to HRC just before the kitchen closed, and I ordered a salad (much needed greens and after 6 hours of roadtrip snacks...) which was bigger than my head. I barely made a dent in it but I was ready to burst by the time we left. Interestingly, there's no real downtime for NYC - it's pretty much hoppin' all day and all night. I kept forgetting that it was after 1am, because the streets were packed like it was 8:30pm.
In all honesty, my memory of all we did Saturday and Sunday is kind of blurred - we did a lot, I can tell you that. I just can't remember everything...I should've kept a list of stops. But here's what I can remember. We walked around Times Square for a bit, checking out the giant M&Ms store and browsing the street market. We went over to Rockefeller Plaza and saw the Lego Store through a window - this picture goes out to Caleb and Max, whom I thought of as soon as I glimpsed it:
Then we had lunch and one of the guys had to leave for a conference/meeting he had to be at (hence the trip's origins), and the remaining 4 of us went exploring a bit. I don't remember all we did, but I can tell you it involved a lot of walking. A lot. We did make it to Tom's Restaurant, where Jerry Seinfeld et al spent much of their time in "Seinfeld," and I made them walk a little through Central Park (no one ran by in only their underwear though, sorry Ben), and we ended up coming out right next to the New York Temple, which one of the boys was blind to until we forced his eyes up to see Moroni. We hit the Subway to get somewhere and took a cab to get somewhere else, and we thoroughly experienced the city. I kept pushing for a bike taxi or a horse-drawn carriage, but somehow I was outvoted 5 to 0 every time (I know, it's a little awkward when you vote against yourself...). At one point I was pretty sure we were in Brooklyn and suddenly we were in the heart of Manhattan, so I didn't keep a good record of what was going on - I played follow the leader for the most part on this trip, slightly clueless to most of the plans.
We did spend a little time in line during the afternoon, to get discounted tickets to a Broadway show. We ended up near the front of the line, which was great, because we got some pretty decent seats for...wait for it...the Phantom of the Opera! I was so excited about this! This is a great musical, and I loved the entire time I was watching it! It's amazing how powerful musicals can be - each song sent chills up my arms, and I was wholly absorbed in the performance. Well worth the 40% reduced tickets.
We grabbed some New York cheesecake after the show, which I was wholly absorbed in as well. Yum...
Sunday was the day we decided to keep lighter, so we took the Staten Island Ferry back and forth, passing the Statue of Liberty twice. Next time I'm back there, I'm going to the island, I've decided. And I want to check out Ellis Island. But we skipped that for now and just saw it all from afar. We got some New York pizza for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon mainly wandering, counting down the time for when we'd come back. It's hard to plan too much when you know the time to leave is coming up quickly. Plus we were exhausted from Saturday, as well as Friday's late night, so we were rather lethargic.
But we found of we needn't have worried about our timing for the bus home anyway, because we got there early so we could get good seats on the bus, but then found out the buses from the last hour had been delayed in traffic, so every bus was running rather behind. We left an hour later than planned, but we arrived in DC just minutes after the bus scheduled to arrive an hour before us, so I couldn't complain too much. Plus, we didn't have the stinky toilet smell because we sat in the front, so all in all, the trip home was great.
And now I'm back in DC, recuperating for the last 3 days from the 2 days of straight walking. I can still see a little blister on one of my feet, but all in all, I've recovered well. I'm glad to be back, with my own room and bed, and no rush to be anywhere. But I do miss the New York weather - slightly cooler than the 90 degrees we're enjoying here, so the humidity wasn't nearly as bothersome. I'm really looking forward to the Autumn weather out here - not the Winter weather, but the 65-70 degrees with a slight wind factor.
Now I'm planning on staying put in DC for the next few weekends, but shoot, I wasn't really planning on going to NYC until about 5 days before we left, so who knows, perhaps I'll end up in Boston this weekend, which I'll be sure to tell you all about!* Otherwise, I'll try to do something fun and exciting around here to tell you about soon! And I'm going to start working on making more friends, so I don't just sit around, doing nothing, which is just starting to get a little old at this point...though it's been great watching the crazy antics on "Ellen" each day - I'll miss her when I finally get a job that steals me away from my new hobby of tv watching while hibernating from the extreme heat outside.
*The chances of me being in Boston are 1 in 500 million, so while I'd love it, don't hold your breath for that post to come in the next week...
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