A trip to the Big  : Day Three

So now that Thanksgiving is over I can finish up talking about the trip to New York City. We didn't go into the city until the afternoon. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Café and saw a bunch of music memorabilia:

Billy Joel's motorcycle



Suits and backpacks worn by The Beatles



Paul McCartney's guitar



The original doors from Abbey Road Studios



This is where we sat, below Keith Moon's pants.
Oh, you're asking me what band he was in?
Yes.
Who.
Keith Moon, what band was he in?
Who.
That's what I want you to tell me. Who did Keith Moon play for?
Yes, he played for Who.
That's what I want to know!
Okay, I suck at this, watch this clip:



When I saw the pants of the Who's Keith Moon at the Hard Rock Café it reminded me of this clip from the Animaniacs.

We just walked around Times Square most of the day and checked out all the different shops. We looked at the Hershey's store and M&M World. I think I got a cavity just from walking around those places. We stopped into a bunch of other places and saw a few more familiar sights in the Times Square area:

Look at all those M&M's...I just drooled on myself.

There we are. It was so nice of that random guy who took our picture not to run off with my camera. Of course my mom offered to hold his camera while he took our picture. Good thinking, mom.

We ended the night by going to a comedy club. It was okay. I didn't see any comedians I recognized but most of them were pretty funny. It was a small crowd, there were maybe only ten people there so of course the comedians were a little more interactive with the crowd. Some of them got my mom and my sister pretty good but they left me alone for the most part. We called it a night after that and went back to the hotel.

The next morning we had to check out of the hotel and we were going to look around the local area where we were staying, there were some mini-malls in the area. But after we loaded up all of our luggage, souvenirs, and everything else we realized that the car had a flat tire. So we had to call around to see who could help. We had to put the donut on it and we took it to Sam's Club. My mom ended up getting four new tires since the others didn't look so good either. She got a pretty good deal. It was a pretty smooth ride home from there. Overall it was a pretty good trip, but I think I know what to expect the next time I go to New York.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have another post to write about my NYC trip, but I'm taking a break today to wish everyone a happy Turkey Day! I thought I would type "Thanksgiving" into Google's image search and see what interesting and unny pictures would come up. So here's ten that I found:

We'll start off with some Norman Rockwell




Mom burnt the turkey again



Here's an updated version of Norman Rockwell's classic Thanksgiving painting



Now for some cartoons and funny pictures:











Then, of course, is the tradition of the president pardoning a turkey:




Who started this tradition anyway?

This last one is a classic:

And lastly, here are a couple of funny Thanksgiving videos:





Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Trip to the Big  : Day Two

I would have had this post up last night, but New York City kicked my butt yesterday and I was ready for bed by the time we got back. If you didn't read yesterday's post, click here. One thing I've learned about New York City is that whatever you plan on doing, make sure you know every little detail about doing what you want to do, especially when it comes to things like making reservations, national security, and timing. Timing is everything. You'll see what I'm talking about a little later in this post.

We had to get up early yesterday because the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall started at 9am. The show was so much better than I had expected it to be. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of Rocketts kicking their legs in the air since that's all you ever see on TV. But yea, there was more to it, including a part where we had to put on 3D glasses. Here are some pictures from RCMH:








After the show we walked to Rockefeller Center. The tree was up, but it was covered by scaffolding so I couldn't get a good picture of it, but here are a few pictures from Rockefeller Center:

The tree is behind that giant poster.

We continued walking to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We went inside during their Sunday Mass, it was very interesting. The architecture of this building is beautiful:




After stopping for a little lunch we walked back to the Port Authority to ask how we could get to the Statue of Liberty. They told us we should take the subway rather than going by bus. They said it would take about three hours in traffic to get to the ferry. My mom and my sister weren't to thrilled about having to ride the subway, they had never done it before, but it was the best way to get there. It took us awhile to find out which subway train to get on, we asked a bunch of people and walked through a few underground tunnels and we finally found the train we were supposed to board. We went from 42nd and Times Square to South Ferry. While standing in line for the ferry we realized that security was pretty tight because of 9/11 of course. I had forgotten that I carry one of these in my coat pocket:




Oh, wait, I guess you can't really tell what that is. Here, let me take it out and show it to you:





It's a multi-purpose tool, but to national security, it's something that I might use to take over the world. So when we got to the part of the line where we had to put all of our belongings in the bins, that's when I remembered I had that in my coat pocket. They ran it through the x-ray machine and when it came out on the other side, they started looking through the pockets of the coat and I showed them where it was. They said they couldn't hold it for me, but if I went out and asked one of the hot dog or nut vendors outside to hold if for me and hand them a few bucks to do so, then I could get it back. So I did that. The guy I gave it to said he was done at 4:30 so we would have to be back by then. Then I had to go and walk through the metal detector again. The first time I went through before I had to take my multi-purpose tool to the nut vendor guy, the metal detector didn't go off, but when I came back in, it did. OH, GREAT!! So I was asked to take my shoes off and they ran them through the x-ray machine, just in case I would use my shoes to take over the world. After that fiasco, I put my shoes back on and we boarded the ferry. When we got to Liberty Island we found that not only could we not get into the statue, we couldn't even get into the monument below the statue. So what was the point of even paying to ride the ferry? So we walked around the Jolly Green Giant...I mean, the Statue of Liberty and snapped some pictures...HERE...ENJOY!:

Here's a shot of the backside of the Statue of Liberty which is an angle you probably don't see too often.

Ok, I'm finished with my rant, but if you learn anything from me, remember to make reservations and get tickets (they're free, you just have to pay for the ferry ride) for the Statue of Liberty, and don't carry any multi-purpose tools with you. Here's one more shot of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry ride back to the city:



So, that was yesterday. We traveled on foot, by bus, subway, and ferry, but mostly by foot. Today we're looking at going to Central Park and check out the zoo and the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and a few other things. Tonight we're planning on going to a comedy club, hope it's funny. I'll have another post up either tonight or tomorrow morning, it depends on how the city treats us tonight. Oh yea, and I did get my multi-purpose tool back from the nut vendor guy right at 4:30. I really didn't think I was going to get it back.

A Trip to the Big  : Day One

So here I am in the Big . Well, actually, I'm in Secaucus, NJ because that's where our hotel is. See, here it is:



I'm here with my mom and my sister. We had a pretty good trip in, except for when we switched from looking at the Mapquest directions and starting using my sister's GPS. Somehow we ended up in some ghetto in New Jersey. We were sitting at a red light and the street sign said Dr. MLK Ave. which of course stands for Dr. Martin Luther King Ave. But my sister didn't know that at first. She said something like "Who's Dr. Milk?" and with my quick wit, I replied "He's the guy who started his famous speech with the phrase 'I have some cream'". Yes, I know, I'm hilarious.

We arrived at LaQuinta and our room is on the top floor. We were upgraded to a nice suite, it's sweet! Here are some pics of our room:

Our living room...

...another shot of the living room area...

...the bedroom and my sister relaxing before heading into the city...

...the bathroom...

...and the view from our room.


Then I had some fun with the mirrors on the closet door:

It was a long trip and I was a little tired, okay?!

After we checked in and rested up a little we hopped on the bus, went through the Lincoln Tunnel and went into the city. Our first stop was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant for dinner:

I won a free t-shirt at there for answering a trivia question. The question was "What was the name of Forrest Gump's boat?" I was the first one to shout "Jenny!" After dinner we went to the huge 3-story Kids-R-Us to look at all the toys we're all too old to play with. They even have a Ferris wheel in there:

...and a Lego Statue of Liberty...



...and a T-Rex...



...and Steph made a new friend.

We walked around the city for a little while more before getting on back on the bus and here's some of the sights we saw:

Radio City Music Hall, which is where we're going tomorrow to see a show.



A fountain near Radio City Music Hall



My mom and Steph in front of the fountain, kind of blurry.



The New York Times building...



...and the rest of the New York Times Building.

So we went back to the bus station to ride back to the hotel, but as we tried boarding the bus driver said we needed a ticket and we couldn't pay cash, which is weird since we paid cash when we got on the bus earlier. We had to go get some bus tickets and then find another gate to catch another bus because the gate we originally went to closed after the bus we couldn't board left. It was a real hassle, but at least we know now.

When we arrived back to our hotel room, Steph decided to go downstairs to look around and because I was tired and delirious I decided to dress up her stuffed koala bear she brought to use as a pillow:

I used her gloves, scarf, vest, shoes, and a bag of pistachios. Then I put my sunglasses on it but that was after I took this picture.

And now it's time to go to bed, good night. I'll have more tomorrow.