Whew, made it to the city!  It was a bit of an adventure making it here.  I messed up and put the wrong zipcode into the GPS and we ended up unnecessarily driving through Brooklyn.  Then, we missed staying on Hudson Street and ended up taking the Holland Tunnel to Jersey, ha!  We valeted the car, checked our luggage and then raced to the subway to try to make our 2PM cruise around Manhattan Island. 

People on the street were so nice and helpful!  We had our subway map out and a few different people actually walked up to us and asked us if we needed help getting somewhere.  I thought that was really nice of them!  My Frommer's guide did say that most New Yorkers will be really helpful and be willing to give directions as long as your polite and respectful (ie, don't stand in their way in the middle of the sidewalk).  We barely made it to the Ferry Terminal in time, but we did.

The cruise went by the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and best of all . . . it got VERY close to Liberty Island.  It hovered around there a bit and gave everyone ample opportunity to snap as many pictures as we could ever want of the Statue of Liberty.  The tour guide was really informative and funny.  The first time we zipped by the Statue he said, "Ladies and Gents, save your pixels!  She'll still be there when we go by again."  He also walked around the ferry at the end and handed out free maps of the city to anyone who wanted one.

  We also lucked out and were able to ride the NY Waterway bus back to the hotel for free, so we saved a swipe on our Metro Card and didn't have to take the subway back. 


The hotel is fantastic, much better than the one in Philly.  It's got a very comfortable, plush King size bed, big screen HDTV, Nintendo, etc.  Not to mention a nice view of the streets of New York.  The hotel staff is extremely friendly, and I'm stoked about our stay here!  And the car is parked in a garage that is part of the hotel, with 24-hour valet attendants.  So, needless to say, I feel safe with my car where it is, which was a concern originally.
Ok, well, now we're about to watch a movie and pop the bubbly and enjoy our first night in NYC and get rested up for a big day out tomorrow.

After that we made our way over to the Liberty Bell Center and saw the Liberty Bell.  We got there pretty soon after they opened, so we lucked out and didn't have to deal with a line or crowd or anything.  We originally planned on taking a tour around Independence Hall, but made an executive decision to skip it.  The rain and cold plus a lot of school children made the decision an easy one.  The Bell was the main thing we wanted to see.  We ended up just eating lunch at and walking around the Bourse while we tried to dry off and warm up a bit.  We spent a bit of time in the hotel today resting up and trying to get ready for NYC.  We did go out for dinner in Chinatown again.  Tonight we went to a restaurant called Vietnam.  It was fantastic!  We had a nice bottle of wine and Andy had a chicken curry and I had lime chicken.  Very tasty, much better than the food we had at Joy Tsin Lau.  Great service too. 

Today was just kind of a miserable day with the unrelenting rain.  Not too bummed about it though, we did make it to the stops and attractions we *really* wanted to see.  I pretty much packed our itineraries for both cities so I wouldn't feel bad if we decided to cross a few things here and there off the list.  We're leaving 9AM in the morning to head to NYC.  Wish us luck!

The hotel is right next to Chinatown.  Lots of cute shops and restaurants really near by.  We ate dinner last night at a little Shanghai style restaurant named Joy Tsin Lau.  We spent a lot of time last night just walking around and exploring the city.  Took the subway a bit further into town and checked out a couple places we're heading to Monday.  But yes, Chinatown here is kind of small, but very vibrant and has a good ambiance.

Today we woke up early and took a bus to the Philadelphia Zoo.  It's a very big and impressive zoo.  It was a lot of fun, we spent about 3 hours there.  It had a lot of different animal exhibits and going right when they first opened proved to be a good idea, as when we left it was incredibly crowded and started to get a bit difficult to be able to get a clear view of the animals without a bunch of unruly children running into you and pushing you.
We had a bit of a hiccup with taking a bus going the wrong direction when trying to make our way to the Museum of Art.  We finally made it there, though.  It was very exciting to see some very famous artist's paintings there.  Most notable for me were paintings by Magritte, van Gogh, Mondrian, Dali, and Pollock.  Also, there's the famous Rocky statue in front of the museum.  The view of the city from the steps of the museum was also quite a sight to behold. 
We've done a great deal of walking so far, and boy are our dogs barkin'!  We've also decided the subway is the best and least confusing way to travel in the city.  We had a fantastic dinner tonight at a fine dining restaurant, El Vez.  It was in my Frommer's guide, and I'm so glad I took it's advice!  Their queso fundito con carne was to die for.  It has chorizo in it, so of course it had to be ordered.  Their margaritas were also some of the best I've had. 

We're both pretty exhausted and ready to get up early and start tomorrow's fun.  We've altered trip plans a bit here and there due to getting used to the city and the public transit.  Tomorrow's big plans are mainly the Italian Market on 9th Street early in the morning, and then heading over to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center.  I'm sure some more city exploration will be involved as well.  The city is huge and bewildering to someone who grew up in Blythewood!  It is fun nonetheless.

My "clipboard of fun" as Shannon has dubbed it, Frommer's guides for NYC and Philly, and the SEPTA passes for Philadelphia. 

I've spent a few months planning the trip, gotten great "insider tips" from the Frommer's guides as well as photographers on flickr.  As of today, I have a new valve body for my car's transmission, so hopefully the lil' Focus can pull it out.  If not, I have AAA for backup.  So, hopefully, no surprises or hiccups we're not prepared for.  Let's go!  Saturday 4 AM, stay posted!