June 19-23rd -- Brittany and I will be in LA, hanging out with people from Days of Our Lives and dipping our toes in the ocean!
June 24-July7th - Patti and Dana will join us -- as well as my niece Lauren and nephew Thomas - they've grown up so much in just the past 3 years (since we went to NYC together) - can't wait to share this trip with them. Wouldn't be possible without awesome grandparents (my parents) who have funded their trip, AND their mother Amy who helped get so many of the "little" things off the list (like passports, who needs passports). Anyway - the "kids" (they're 18 and 20 and I will still call them "the kids", ok - it's my blog) - will be with us through Dublin and fly out on July 7th. So for a while we'll be 6 people! We'll cover London, Bath, Stonehenge, Cornwall, Cardiff, North Wales, Liverpool and Dublin!
July 7th - July 17th - We continue on from Dublin without the kids - and we'll do south Ireland (Ring of Kerry, Kilarney, Cliffs of Moher) and then up to Northern Ireland, ferry over to Scotland, Glasgow, Inverness, Doune, Loch Lomand, Edinburgh.. and then drive south (yes, did I mention that we're DRIVING the whole time?) through England and see York, Nottingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, and back to London to fly out on the 17th.
July 17th-July 21st - Patti and Dana head home sweet home, and Brittany and I head to NYC sweet NYC.. c'mon we needed a little time in the city! And then on the 21st we'll get home and COLLAPSE!
So that's our introduction to the trip -- Britt and I leave TMW for LA, so I wanted to get something up. But I have another reason for signing on. People (including those I travel with) give me a hard time sometimes about blogging the trip until midnight the day that we do whatever we did that day. I tell them that if I don't do it now, then it won't ever get done, and then I won't remember anything that we did. I really can't. And it's not old age - never could remember that stuff, what I did yesterday. But ask me to recite every line in Princess Bride? I'm there. Weird brain.
Last year we went to NYC, and I never blogged our last day. I kept meaning to compare my notes that I keep in my phone (while waiting in line or on a train I type notes) and see if I could fill in gaps with Patti and Brittany's memories.. but that never happened. But I DO have my notes from my phone. These make little or no sense, have no cohesion from one thing to the next - but here it is, for the sake of documenting.. and for proving a point, that sometimes it is too late to blog.
Sunday, August 19th, 2012:
"Not homeless" -- See, that was probably really funny at the time. But now? Makes me scratch my head.
"I finish the blog, Britt does her "body shower" (this is a shower sans hair washing) and we pack up. The benefits of a small place, not many places to check for things you might have left." -- So that's not bad -- not eventful, but makes sense...
"We haven't seen rats yet" -- Brittany has this need to see rats. You hear about NYC, you hear about rats... she's a little disappointed.
Here's a big blurb... must have had time to write:
"We are heading to the subway with our bags as after yesterday we're a little gun shy. There are lines down for construction and we don't want to be lugging bags around detours and getting gross and sweaty (it's SO muggy down in the subway that we leave melted, we've been jealous of the people that get out of cabs probably looking the same way as they did when they go in). We walk to the station, and it's not far - a nice walk. We actually find a downtown train station first and typically we can cross the street to go uptown (to find the line going the opposite way)... Nope, its also downtown. So we walk further down and just as we find what we think is the uptown train, we see that it also houses a downtown train for another line - remember that we're skiddish about the train with all the closures for construction, and we don't want another hour trying to get uptown. Britt suggests that we just take a cab up to drop off so that we're not gross for the day and lugging bags through subway detours. We flag down a guy really quickly - and he says that he saw us before but he had to go around the block to get us. So he we even faster than we thought! Once we get in his cab we see how this was possible.. He is very sweet but he drives like he's Neo (Matrix reference), or for a more obscure reference, if you've seen "Jumper" - that scene where they're jumping through time just a few cars ahead at a time? He is driving full speed toward red lights that magically change just as he would have crashed through anyway."
"We had to check out of the apt long before our flight, so we found a place near Time Square that holds your bags for you. The luggage place is on the 4th floor - and it's just this TINY little store front sign that marks the address and the business name. But our cabbie found it for us! The elevator up has a note on it - "if you pack too much in the elevator you get stuck". We do not want to get stuck - we play it super safe and we go up one at a time. The place is a not a slick operation - it's just a room that they've rented, it has a desk in it and bags lined up against the wall.. It's like a big coat check system with just like "keep this half" tickets for a system - The ticket lady is absolutely high, but she has a really boring day ahead of her, sitting in a room of other people's luggage. We walk to Rockefeller Plaza and grab some food -- a street vendor hotdog (breakfast of champions) for me and Patti and a little corner bakery for Brittany - we need cheesecake." I have no idea if we got it or not. But I remember that there seemed to be an issue with it. Funny story ensues, I'm sure.
"Cool top of rock" It was very cool -- if you go to NYC (and you should) I suggest skipping the Empire State Building unless you absolutely have to fulfill some "Affair to Remember" or "Sleepless in Seattle" thing (which was of course, fulfilling it's own Affair to Remember thing). Empire is iconic - but the walls are so tall you can't really see much over them, and there aren't good views of the park or Time Square. Top of the Rock is surrounded by plexiglass (I'm sure a very strong grade) - and you can see directly into the park and Time Square -- AND incidentally a great view of the Empire State Building.
We head to this food truck event out in Prospect Park next -- we LOVE a food truck event, and we've been wanting to find them in NYC.
"Subway stops right under we think the F is what we want - but Britt asks the lady and she says to take the D to 34 and transfer to the Q and it will put us out at the park.
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| This is the pic of the smell |
The D train smells horribly! We don't know if it fart or cabbage or farted cabbage... But it is foul and the whole train is reacting to it. It's not just the out of towners that thinks the train smells.. So we're happy at least to see that we're not the only ones. We're happy not to be making the whole trip this way. We get off to transfer to the Q - but the Q line is under construction!! (which of course we only find out after we have traversed the maze of connecting tunnels through the hot smelly subway).. There is police tape across our platform - We figure out that the Q seems to be running on the R line which is on the opposite track Ok... Later it switches tracks to the Q and we're golden."
And that's all I have -- BUT I can fill in some big picture stuff -- We did make it to Prospect Park (we walked the wrong way toward the park from the stop for a while, but that's a given) - and the food trucks were great -- all arranged in a circle at the entrance to the park. Britt got some horrible cucumber lemonade drink that took FOREVER to make. I had already purchased and eaten my food from two trucks and she was still waiting for a DRINK. She went up to them at one point and said to cancel it - but they assured her that she was next. She should have cancelled sooner, maybe she would have been next sooner. She finally gets the drink and it's just awful. It's like someone put cucumber juice in perfectly good lemonade. ;) I do remember that I had Ropa Vieja! Because I'm always on the look out for that, and it was soooo good.
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| Full 360 View of the Food Trucks |
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| Britt's Drink! YUMM!! |
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| Bridge - with strange dolls placed |
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| Brittany on the Bridge |
We walk back from the park, and we're going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge again - Britt and I did it before, but it's really cool and Patti hadn't ever done it. And on the way to the bridge ... we see a RAT!! Brittany's day is made!!
We get across the bridge - Britt couldn't find the artist that she was looking for -- and our feet are THROBBING -- we find a seat, and a local McDonalds for a drink and to rest. AND we even have time to get in another visit to the cheesecake place...
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| Luggage Storage -- and Laser Welding.. |
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