I <3 NYC

TUESDAY JULY 25, 2006~ Day 10: Secaucus, NJ to New York City, NY

David took the day off from work to show us around the city. We took the NJ transit bus from Secaucus into the city.

It was only a 15 minute bus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Port Authority Bus Terminal which is right on 42nd street. Since we were a block away from Times square we headed there first.

We walked up broadway through midtown and along the way saw Diddy's headquarters.

Sadly Diddy was nowhere in sight and neither was Danity Kane. Further up Broadway was

There was a lottery to watch him that evening but we didn't want to waste our day waiting in line so we kept walking towards Central Park. Along the way we saw Carnegie Hall and the Jekyll and Hyde Club.

I guess its sort of a Museum, Restaurant and Club all wrapped up into one. It's definitely an eye catching building. We finally arrived at Central Park.

After walking through Central Park we decided to head to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue.
It was so freakin hot & humid outside so it was nice to be somewhere that was air conditioned.

Check out the elevator in the middle of the stairs.

We stayed in there for a bit to cool off and to use the internet to figure out where to go next.

Since we were getting hungry we decided to eat at an Italian restaurant called Patsy's on 60th near Serendipity. We knew this place would be good because the ovens were out in the open where you could see them from your table. So, you know they can't be spitting in your food. Nah, but seriously, the food was really good.

We were going to head straight to Serendipity after lunch but we were too stuffed and decided to walk around a bit first and do some shopping. We headed to Urban and H&M. Again, I bought another fab bag @ H&M. Did I tell you how much I love that store? Well, I do. After more shopping it was time for some dessert.
It was about a 45 minute wait, which was fine because we we're still trying to recover from lunch. While we were in the doorway waiting, I saw this woman sitting outside on a bench. She looked really familiar to me but I couldn't remember her name. Once she came inside and I got a closer look I figured out it was Dianne Wiest. You know, the mom from Edward Scissorhands. She's a great character actress whose been in tons of films.
Then these 3 sorority girls from Missouri started talking to us. They told us that a celebrity was upstairs and that's why it was taking so long for poeple to get seated. Once we got seated upstairs it was confirmed that Jamie Foxx was there. He was eating with a huge table full of people who I assumed to be friends and family so we didn't want to interrupt him to ask for a picture. But as he was walking down the stairs David got this pix: Darn, too bad that girl's head is in the way. But, that's really him in the black hat. I swear! Anyways, back to more important things, the desserts. Here is their famous Frozen Hot Chocolate.

I don't even like chocolate all that much, but I figured I had to order their specialty. Good thing I did because it was yum!

Larnie ordered the Strawberry Fields Sunday. We finished this quick!

And here is David's "Can't Say No" Sundae with humble pie:

3 satisfied customers

We wanted to head downtown to Chinatown so that we could pick up some cheap souvenirs. So, from Lexington we hopped onto the subway & headed down to Canal St. After Larnie bought some shirts we wanted to walk on over to the World Trade Center Site. Since we didn't really know where we were Larnie asked a cop for directions.

Larnie: Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the World Trade Center site?

Cop: Go to Church

Larnie: [Thinking to herself, today's not Sunday. Looking very confused]

Cop: [Noticing the confusion in the girl's face] Walk on over to Church Street and make a left. [pointing to the next street over]

Larnie: [laughing] Oh. Ok. Thank you sir.

So, not knowing how far it was, we walked a good 20 blocks to the WTC site. It was pretty cool because we got to walk through Tribeca.

There is a timeline of what happend on 9/11

Here is what the WTC site looks like now. It's still under major construction.

Below the WTC site is the PATH train station.

We were getting tired and decided to take the subway back up to Port Authority. For those of you who haven't traveled on the NYC subway system, in order to use the subway you have to buy a MetroCard and fill it with money using the MetroCard vending machines. The fare for each ride is $2. So, when we first got the card @ the Lexington Station I put in $12 so that all 3 of us could ride downtown and back up again using only 1 card. Once you get the card you have to slide the card through the turnstile in order for a revolving gate to move. Well, I guess when David slid the MetroCard first time he did it too quick after the guy in front of him and so he had to slide it again.

I knew I should have let Larnie go first but I was right behind David and there were a lot of people waiting behind us, so after I slid the card I gave it to Larnie to use. But when she slid it through it didn't work.

Larnie didn't have any singles left so I handed her $2 through the gate. It took her a long time to figure out how to load the MetroCard so David and I kind of got worried for her. Finally, she was able to load the card and slid it through the turnstile. But for some reason when she was trying to go through the revolving gate, it wouldn't move. So, Larnie asked me for another $2. And I gave it to her.

After she recharged the MetroCard she slid the card through the turnstile again. But this time she decides to give the revolving gate an extra push before entering the stall. And so of course the automated gate thinks that she already went through. And she's like, "What happend?" I'm yelling & laughing at Larnie, "Don't push the gate first, just stand there and then push the gate." So again Larnie asks me for 2 more dollars. Of course at this point I'm like, "Oh, my gawd Larnie! You're wasting my freakin money!" But I give her another $2.

And she goes to recharge the card once again. When she swipes her MetroCard into the turnstile she goes in between 2 gates and pushes the revolving gate in the correct direction. And finally Larnie was able to get to the other side. I was like, "Larnie, that was a freakin $8 subway ride!"

Oh MaLa!

Here we are like total tourists taking pictures of ourselves on the subway

Here is Larnie trying to do her Rent "Santa Fe" impersonation. She tried to get me to do this with her and I was like, "Hell no! You're on your own!"

Good Times!

Chocolate & Cheese Steaks

MONDAY, JULY 24, 2006 ~ Day 9: Pittsburgh, PA to Secaucus, NJ

Since it was along the way, we decided to stop by the Hershey's Chocolate Factory in Hershey, PA.

Now, I'm not a big chocolate fanatic, but I thought that the Hershey's Chocolate World was pretty cool. First of all the tour was FREE, and you know how I love free stuff. And it wasn't just a plain old walking tour of their factory, but it was a ride!

Here we are in the middle of a heated tunnel simulating the roasting of the cocoa beans.

It was a cross between Disney's "It's A Small World" and being in the middle of an episode of "Unwrapped" on the Food Network. I loved it! I don't know what it is about factories, but the behind the scenes stuff just fascinates me.

They even had their own "Hershey's Factory" song which Larnie and I couldn't get it out of our heads. And at the end of the tour they give you free chocolate. Right at the exit of the tour are a bunch of shops and this great bakery. Since I'm not a fan of chocolate I bought myself some snickerdoodle and sugar cookies. Mmmm my favorite! I love it when cookies are freshly baked and are still warm and chewy.
Our next stop was Philadelphia. Honestly, the only reason we went there was to check out the Liberty Bell and get some "authentic" Philly cheese steaks. Thanks to Larnie's friend Donna, we found a great place to park and found ourselves in the middle of the Independence Mall area.

Here we are in line for the Liberty Bell looking like total tourists.

That's Congress Hall behind us.

GENOS v. PAT'S

The Battle of the

Ultimate Authentic

Philly Cheese Steak

I'm sure most of you have heard of the infamous rivalry these 2 establishments have. Both are located across the street from one another in the Italian Market area of South Philly. Both claim to have the best Philly cheese steaks. Both are notorious for sending people to the back of the line if they don't order properly. For example, here is what you will find on Pat's website:

"How to order a Steak" by I. M. Hungry

Step 1.Specify if you want your steak with (wit) or without (wit-out) onions. {if you're not a rookie this should come naturally}

Step 2.Specify Plain, Cheez Whiz, Provolone, American Cheese or a Pizza Steak. {we have lettuce and tomatoes / { if we have to read your mind it's 50 cents extra}

Step 3.Have your money ready. {do all of your borrowing in line}

Step 4.Practice all of the above while waiting in line. {if you make a mistake, don't panic, just go to the back of the line and start over}

We decided to do our own experiment to find out which one really had the better cheese steaks. So, I ordered 2 from Pat's and Larnie ordered 4 from Genos. We got there around 3:30pm after the lunch rush so there wasn't a line (thank gawd) because both of us didn't order correctly. Luckily the guy @ the Pat's window was really nice and knew what I was trying to order. I didn't want to get yelled at for having the enemy's food on the premises so I grabbed my 2 cheese steaks from Pat's and stuffed them in my bag as we walked across the street to Genos.

Then it was Larnie's turn to order. Poor girl, I think she was nervous because there were people behind her (one of them was a cop) and she had to order more sandwhiches for her cousins. Because when she made her order it came out all jumbled and the guy at the window had no idea what she said. It didn't really help that there was a sign on the window with this:

So, Larnie had to repeat her order a couple of times. But in the end we got em. Here are Genos' Provolone with & Whiz with

The Pat's pictures are on Larnie's laptop but they basically look the same. SO, who had the better cheese steaks? Here are our findings:

• You have to get them with Cheez Whiz.
• Pat's Italian rolls were better than Geno's bread.
• And both are WAY over rated!

Yeah, really. It's sad to say. I think I've had tastier cheese steaks here in CA @ Philly's Best, The Great Steak & Potato Co. and at California Steak and Fries. I don't know if it was because when we ate there we weren't super hungry because we had just gotten coffee. But the meat on both sandwhiches were really bland. And the bread didn't taste fresh. But, if I had to choose a winner I'd have to say it would be Pat's. I mean, just look at the outside of both buildings, you know Genos is compensating for something if they have to have those huge bright signs all along their building.

After Philly we drove another 2 hours to Larnie's Ate Pinky's house in Secaucus, NJ. Here is their house:The Galleon family was so welcoming. Ate Pinky's youngest sons Matthew & Joseph were nice enough to give up their room for us and all of our luggage. [OH, I never talked about our luggage... So, every night that we stopped @ a hotel we had to take all the baggage out of Larnie's trunk so that there was nothing inside to tempt someone from breaking into her car. Well, since Larnie was moving across the country, she of course had a lot of stuff to bring with her. So every night we stopped we had to unload like 10 pieces of luggage, a cooler and a guitar case! All I have to say is thank gawd for rolling luggage carts! People would look at us all perplexed while unloading because there were only two of us yet we had enough luggage for 5 people! After SLC we had a system down for unloading and loading Larnie's CRV. The only good thing about it was that we got a good upper body workout everyday.] Luckily Matthew and Joseph had a big room because our luggage took up half of it!

After catching up with the fam, Larnie and I called it a night because we had another big day ahead of us. NYC baby!

MISSION 9 ACCOMPLISHED! 3624 miles traveled