Wow. Very eventful weekend. Hmm how to start...
Ok, so on Friday, I woke up nice and early and got ready for NYC! I drove to Vince's house, picked him up, and we drove to Trenton Station. We had an awesome time driving there, and our new philosophy for driving is "taking random turns gets you to where you wanna go, guaranteed!" Seriously, taking random turns has always worked out for me...hehe. Anyways, after paying the $11 for parking, we met up with Vince's sister at the train station. We payed for our round trip tickets and off to the train we went. The train was rather boring...but its a train, so its not really supposed to be fun >_>.
After arriving at Penn Station (NYC), we bought day passes for the subway! Only $7 to ride all day...very nice! Our first stop was the Apple Store. I totally geeked out in that store...So many powerful computers everywhere! I was facebooking on a MacBook Pro most of the time (the better computers were always taken >.<), and I played with the iPhone for a while (wrote the last blog entry on one!).
Next was Central Park. Central Park is probably my favorite spot in NYC. I really LOVED that place. I was super jealous of all of the couples relaxing in the park, and the beautiful sights didn't help >_>. We walked a lot, seeing lots of artists and people playing instruments for money. There were tons of boulders that Vince just HAD to climb...and some awesome picture perfect bridges. We went to this Chess/checkers house on the top of a hill, and I wish I could just sit there all day. There were lots of chess/checkers tables all around the perimeter of the circular building, and the view was spectacular. This shot sucks because its from my sucky phone-camera, but it can sort of show how different it is walking from a super busy, super tall, super loud city, to a calm and peaceful sanctuary right in the middle of the city. We walked through The Mall, and my favorite spot was Strawberry Fields, a John Lennon memorial in Central Park. It was a "quiet zone," where you couldn't ride bikes, rollerblade, have music, etc etc...and there was an awesome memorial for John Lennon in the middle of the area. I absolutely loved it!
Next, after a ride in the Subway, was China Town!!! There was more jewelry than I could possibly have imagined. Literally every store on some streets sold jewelry X_X. China Town was pretty cool, and lunch was the best part! We went to this place called Dim Sum. Apparently they are lots (my dad has been to them before also), and its a very strange kind of restaurant. It is chinese food of course, and they bring it out on metal carts so customers can choose what they want and they just put it on the table. You don't really order food like other restaurants, rather, you just point to the one you want and she puts it on your table. The food looked horrible...I thought I wasn't gonna eat at all, but I tried a few of the dumpling-thingamajiggers, and they were SO GOOD!!! I loved the shrimp and the shrimp/pork ones so much! I didn't feel well afterwards, so I'm not quite sure if I was eating Pork or cat meat >_> *cough*.
Next...I think was the Nintendo World Store! It was smaller than I thought (2 stories though) and it was very crowded. I bought 2 t-shirts and a keychain, and Vince also bought 2 t-shirts (one the same as mine), and some pins.
Hmm I'm trying to remember what was next. I think, since it was in the same area, the Kinokuniya Bookstore was our next destination. It was a Japanese bookstore, with japanese everything! I loved it...I could not only see tons of silly japanese stuff (wait...everything japanese is silly!), but I saw so much manga! There was lots of Japanese music also! In a glass cabinet in the back, I asked to buy this one wallet (Deathnote wallet), but since there was only one, and since Vince really wanted one also, and since I was also buying an awesome poster, I let him buy it. I dunno if that was the right thing to do...cus I want it!! RAWR VINCE! I also picked up a Japanese newspaper (free) while I was there so I could pretend like I was reading it on the train ;).
I don't even remember what was next. I think it was Time's Square, but I'm not quite sure. Anyways, Times Square was amazing. I wish I could go there at night, but even during the daytime it is quite awesome! We saw the guy from MTV News and we went in several stores in , including the Mars store (m&m's, reese's, etc.), which was VERY expensive, and the Hershey's store, which was very reasonably priced. There were so many absolutely perfect gift ideas, but I don't have someone to buy them for, so why would I? hehe...
During this time we also found the GIANT Toys R Us store! I loved the store. It was so big, and there were giant Lego statues everywhere, as well as a HUGE moving T-Rex!!! It was so awesome! The store reminded me of so many childhood memories...I loved it. Also, there was a guy playing DDR on Expert. He had a crowd and he was getting really tired, but he was still very good I think.
After that, we went to the super huge, 3-story McDonalds for a place to sit, and Vince and I got some stuff there while we were at it. We sat on the third story for quite some time, getting much needed rest...Vince's sister had to leave though, so Vince and I went to the Disney Store! We just went in for the sake of going in, but it was pretty neat. My favorite part was the top floor, which was just pieces of Disney art. There was a section that drew me, and the art was done by John Alvin (found out from the guy working there), and the art was just so amazing (and expensive!!) that I just had to stare at the art for a while. After we were done with that, and after Vince bought a bunch of Cinderella merch for himself, we went to the Apple Store again (for a long time...again), and then back to the train station for the journey home.
Quite an eventful day if you ask me! I love New York City, and I wish to go again once I have a camera...Oh, and whenever I said we "went" somewhere, I meant we would find a subway station and take the subway there, since everything is pretty far away (just in case you were wondering why the subway pass was worth the money).
~SK
