The City that Never Sleeps

Note: I wrote this the night we took off to Rome, just so you know!

Oh what a day! Or two days. I don’t really know how long it’s been since we left Phoenix, but it feels like a lifetime of adventure already. I woke up waaay too early in our posh Dulles Westin to take a cab to Reagan National Airport across town so we could catch a 10:55 flight to JFK Airport. All I wanted the day before was to see the Washington Monument from the air or airport, but Dulles is about 20 minutes outside of Washington, DC in Virginia. Luckily, the cab route gave us a nice view of the monument and a cab driver who slowed down so Michelle and I could snap quick pictures of this as well as Arlington National Cemetery and The Pentagon. Since I’m a huge landmark nerd I got super excited about this, since the last time I was in DC, these were the two major monuments I didn’t see, (By the way, my pictures don’t do it justice, seeing these from the air shows how MASSIVE they both are). The Reagan Airport was a much better experience than Dulles and I HIGLHLY recommend it if you have a choice between the two. It is smaller, nicer, and much more open—and you get a quick tour of the monuments from the runway and the gate if you’re lucky (Hi capitol and Jefferson memorial!).

The flight from DC to JFK was delayed, but quick, only about 45 minutes. I dozed off as soon as we took off and when I woke up I looked out my window and saw the Hamptons—which I because I have spent too much time on Google Earth. JFK airport is MASSIVE, once we got off the plane we had to walk through the sketchy tunnel to the terminal and then through the high-tech, state of the art terminal 3 (it has iPad bars, really) to a train that took us over to the international terminal. We tried checking into Alitalia for our next flight, but in true Italian fashion, they were not open yet and when they finally did we learned we could not check in until six. Not wanting to sit around for nine hours (which we would surely fall fast asleep somewhere in the terminal), we decided to venture to Manhattan, because hey, when was the next time we were going to be this close? (The technical answer is in about 5 ½ weeks when we fly into Newark from London, details).

JFK is located in the borough of Queens, and getting to Penn Station in Midtown was a lot easier than we expected. We just took the airport tram to a train station and one cheap, 20-30 minute train ride later we were wandering around Manhattan.

--Before I go on, I just have to brag about how awesome I was at navigating New York. I have been to NYC once before, when I was 14, but I credit my ability to successfully get us from Penn Station to Times Square and back to 19 years of watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, oh and the hours I have spent in my life studying maps of Manhattan (seriously).

Like I said, I had been to New York before, but my family wasn’t nearly as excited about the city as I was. This was Michelle’s first time and I was thrilled to be there with someone who was marveling at everything with me. I decided the easiest and quickest way to see New York was to walk to Times Square. The people watching was just as interesting as the place itself. I learned that the way to tell the difference between a New Yorker and a tourist was the tourist hold their children close and keep them on leashes, etc. while New Yorkers let them freely follow behind, hoping they can keep up.

Herald Square was on our way so we got to see the giant, three-story, one square city block Macy’s as well as the Empire State Building (and the Flatiron building from a distance I’m almost sure). Once we got to Times Square we tried to take everything in, which is extremely difficult when you’re running on two days of traveling and 5 hours of sleep. But the energy of the city kept us going. We ate lunch at an restaurant called Connelly’s where I’m sure many Irish mob members have congregated. We also went inside the M&M Store, the Hershey’s Store, and saw the Naked Cowgirl (I was hoping to see the Naked Cowboy, but close enough). We also saw a plethora of people dressed as animated characters, which is creepy considering this is not Disneyland and I’m not certain anyone was paying them to be there (one set of Mickey and Minnie Mouse were collecting money in a stocking).

The absolute HIGHLIGHT of my whole time in New York happened when a tourist came up to me and asked, “Do you live here?” I almost said yes because I was so excited and flattered, but I remembered that I didn’t live there, and if she asked for directions there was no way I could help. But still, I was ecstatic because every moment up until this point I had been trying to look and act like a local, but I realized that I had my giant travel backpack on and that was next to impossible. But one person in a city of six million thought I was a local, that’s enough for me.

We soon headed back to the airport and checked into our flight which we will board in about an hour. Hopefully this one takes off and lands safely and happily in Roma! We have begun to recognize the other stranded travelers and have made a little community who are all pulling for this plane (and our vacations).

Until another day.

Xoxo,

Gossip Girl