New York!: Part 1

I have never been to New York. Like, any part of it. I haven't even been close to it. The farthest North I've been is Delaware. But I've always wanted to go to the Empire State. One of the leading arts and showbiz capitals of the country, full of history and culture, exciting opportunity, world-famous cuisine, and cinematographic eye-candy.

So when my friend and co-writer/director from Absolution, Peter, asked me about going up to New York over spring break, you can probably guess I got a little excited. And over the past month or so, we've been planning this trip and now, spring break is here, and at the time of writing this, I'm actually here.

For the next couple of days I'm going to be (hopefully) forcing myself to write about my trip, part for anyone who's interested and actually likes reading my writing, part for myself to better enjoy what I'm experiencing by putting those experiences down on (pseudo) paper.

4:50 AM should not exist. It just shouldn't. No one likes it. There's no one that looks at the clock and is happy to see that readout. Unfortunately, 4:50 AM was a much too real reality for us this morning, as Peter and I began embarking on the journey of a lifetime. Okay, that's a bit hyperbolic, but it's pretty flippin' cool, especially for us. It's the first time either of us have gone anywhere significantly far away on our own, with no other family members there. It's pretty exciting.

After rolling our cold lumps-of-bodies into the car, we were dropped off at the VRE station for our 6:15 train to Union Station. Not having ridden in a train before (at least not in conscious memory), it was pretty cool, just to have the experience. We got to Union Station around 7:30, and waited for our 8:35 Amtrak to Penn Station. Also, inside the station was a random pigeon that tried to wreak havoc on those of us waiting. It was weird.

Our train was delayed almost half an hour, but at around 8:55 we boarded and, shortly thereafter, departed.

If you've never ridden on it, the Amtrak is really nice. I was surprised. Comfortable seats, plenty of leg room, power outlets, and free wifi (which never actually worked for me). It reminded me a lot of flying, so I was pretty impressed.

The trip was supposed to be about 3 1/2 hours. At first we just talked and observed, then I broke out my laptop and actually got a fair bit of writing done. Pretty pleasant trip, until we got lost.

Our stop was Penn Station, New York. So around 12 (right around when we were supposed to arrive), the train stopped at Penn Station. The attendant removed the ticket stubs he'd placed above our seats. So, we assumed that this was our stop.

Yeah. Not so much. Apparently, there are at least 4 Penn Stations on that route. One in Baltimore (which we had enough common sense to realize wasn't our stop), one in Pittsburgh, one in Newark, New Jersey, and our stop, in New York. Well, apparently the Penn Station that we got off at was in New Jersey. Who knew? There wasn't any sort of sign that said it was New Jersey until you're off the train and on the upper level. And by then, it's too late.

Fortunately, the NJ Transit goes right to Penn Station, New York, and is also pretty cheap. So at about 12:30 (half an hour late), we hopped on the new train and headed for our correct destination. Oh, and by the way, as if to mock us, we saw that pigeon again in Jersey.

Finally arriving at Penn Station about 45 minutes late, we met up with Peter's cousin, Chelsea, and got on another subway, which we took to the Staten Island Ferry. I've never been on a Ferry before, so we went out on the deck and enjoyed the ride from there. And it was great. The weather is also blissfully gorgeous right now, which is a nice change from the Snowmageddon and 40 MPH winds we've had recently.

Arriving at Staten Island, we took another train to the area where we're staying, then had a pleasant walk to the house. We made it.

When we got here, it was about 2:30, putting the total trip time (from the first train departure) at 8 hours 15 minutes. Needless to say, we're exhausted, and pretty much just laying around the house right now. But tomorrow we're heading into the city, and I'm stoked. We're gonna try and see a lot of sights, but we also have tickets to the Jimmy Fallon Show tomorrow, as well as a reservation at NINJA. Wednesday we've got tickets to Emeril and a play, Extinction, starring James Roday (Psych's Shawn Spencer).

Thanks for reading. I need to go knock myself unconscious for a few hours before heading out for the city tomorrow. I'll try and have another post tomorrow night.

-Micah