The City Stretch

After visiting Martha’s Vineyard, Ryan and I had a long stretch of cities to see along the coast, which made for a week of hotel stays with real beds (so much for roughin’ it!). As per usual with cities, Ryan and I spent most of our time walking and looking, trying to take in the culture of each place for the unique urban area it is, and we did have three very different cities to see.

Boston

First up was the harbor town of Boston, or more accurately, Bahston. This city was super easy to visit and see thanks to the Freedom Trail, a two-brick wide path inlaid in the sidewalk that leads tourists to all the historical sites in a Wizard of Oz sort of fashion. Most of the landmarks the little brick road took us to were free to poke our heads into, and plaques on the outside described their historical significance. Some of the awesome sites we got to see included:

Sam Adams' grave

The site of the Boston Massacre

The (Episcopal) church where Paul Revere instructed the hanging of the tell-tale lanterns

Paul Revere’s home

We deviated from the trail a bit to walk along the famous Boston Greenway, which is a series of beautiful parks that follow the route of what was once interstate 93, which today runs below ground in a tunnel under the city. The repurposed space is like a green snake slithering through the concrete jungle, and provides entertainment in the form of carousels, fountains, and labyrinths. 

Ryan was bummed when he discovered a labyrinth is not the same thing as a maze.

All this walking of course made us pretty hungry, and being in New England we had to find a place for some chowder and seafood. The obvious choice for this sort of fare in Boston is at the Union Oyster House restaurant, which touts being the oldest still-working restaurant in the United States. They had pictures covering the walls of famous people in the restaurant, along with historical boasts like “the first female waitress” and “Paul Revere ate here.” Upstairs, they had the John F. Kennedy booth, where the President had eaten on a visit to the city. For Ryan and me, clam chowder, a crab cake burger, and spiced calamari washed down with Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest was about as Boston as we could get, and it made for another fabulous meal.

Yesssss

We left Boston the next day by way of Fenway Park, where we got a good look at the green monster with a drive around the stadium before heading to the interstate for our next city destination.

New York

Arriving at our hotel that night became quite the adventure, even though we weren’t staying in the city. Instead, we stayed at a Ramada in East Orange, New Jersey where it immediately became clear we weren’t in Martha’s Vineyard anymore. A couple questionable characters stumbled into the street in front of the car, fortunately with enough time for Ryan to brake and let them drunkenly stumble by, which was our first indication of trouble, then at the hotel one very rough looking individual inquired about a room while I tried not to stare at the huge shiner swelling one of his eyes shut. Lovely! The room was decent enough, except for the cockroach Ryan found in the bathroom, but we weren’t sure we’d be able to find a safe place for dinner where we wouldn’t stick out as tourists (tough for us in an African American neighborhood). Fortunately we found a Chinese takeout place where we got sesame and orange chicken to eat and Snapple to drink – because it wasn’t obvious how white we were before.

 

Anyway, we chose the hotel because of its ideal location to the train station. A quick two minute walk and we were at the platform for the 30 minute ride into Penn Station. Fortunately the hotel parking lot had cameras and was well lit, so overall, we decided where we were was probably one of the better deals we could have asked for in order to do New York City on the cheap. Helpful, since New York City is such an expensive place.

We spent two full days in the city, taking in as much as we possibly could, which was difficult in a city as overwhelmingly large as New York. Our first purchase in the city we almost immediately regretted – we got roped into one of those bus tour things.

Now before any of you who have lived or spent considerable time in New York comment below making fun of this blunder, in our defense, it ended up being a really easy way to get around the city and see as much as possible from lower Manhattan up to Central Park while also understanding what we were seeing. For instance our tour bus drove by the upper west side where our tour guide pointed out where the Titanic was supposed to have docked, and the hotel (still in operation) where the survivor were held during the investigation. Additionally, our tour guide was a true New Yorker, born and raised, and he gave great advice about tickets for shows and things to see along with insight into opinions and beliefs of the people who live in the city.

Between our tour bus, walking considerable distances, and meeting up with one of my best girlfriends from DU, we were able to see quite a bit of the city. For instance…

The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry

The Empire State Building from street level

Times Square (a marketer’s worst nightmare)

Wall Street

Some of the most notable highlights from our trip to the Big Apple though included seeing Avenue Q at an off-broadway theatre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 9/11 Memorial.

We were able to see Avenue Q for 40 percent off through the TKTS booth that offers same day discounts, and we were able to get our tickets in about fifteen minutes because we went to the southern TKTS booth rather than the Times Square booth as per our tour guide’s suggestion. Sweet! We were in the second row of a very intimate theater that served drinks to your seat and hosted quite a talented group of actors. We thoroughly enjoyed the production, particularly the Bad Idea Bears. Also, fun fact, a theater is considered “on-broadway” or “off-broadway” not depending on its location (few of the big theaters are actually on Broadway), but because of the amount of seats in the theatre. If the venue has 500 or more seats, it’s considered a broadway venue, if it has 499 or less, it’s off-broadway. What blows my mind is that there are so many. If you want to try and comprehend the size of New York City, imagine at least ten venues that seat over 500 people in your hometown, and then throw in the dozens of off-broadway little theatres too. Crazy!

In Central Park

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is also mind bogglingly huge and although we spent about a good two hours in the museum we hardly scratched the surface of their incredible collection. The highlights we did get to see included some beautiful landscape artwork of the Tetons, High Sierras, and other places Ryan and I are fondly familiar with now. We also got to see several Monet and Picasso paintings (beautiful) and the absolutely enormous, incredibly famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware” which took a whole wall. It’s definitely an experience when you get to see a picture that has appeared in history books from the beginning of our education in real life. Of course another aspect of the Met is that it’s located in Central Park, which Ryan and I explored thoroughly both by bike (part of the bus tour scheme) and on foot with my friend. Central Park isn’t the biggest park we’ve been in, Forest Park in Saint Louis almost dwarfs it, but it’s amazing that such a green oasis exists among all the buildings. As Ryan says, “in most places it’s a city surrounded by wilderness, but in New York it’s wilderness surrounded by city.”  Sums up Central Park pretty well.

The final activity worthy of note in NYC was our visit to the 9/11 Memorial where the foundations of the original towers have been converted to fountains, and the Freedom Tower now rises enormous and shining into the sky. Ryan was at school when the terror attacks were carried out, but I hadn’t left for my bus yet and was standing in front of the TV when the second plane hit. Needless to say it was difficult for both of us to visit the memorial, and equally difficult seeing so many tourists taking pictures and posing. I took a few photos, but it didn’t really feel appropriate, and before long I just wanted to leave. The 9/11 Memorial is an important aspect of New York City today, and the memorial will be critical for future generations to understand the enormity of the horror that day, but for Ryan and I having lived through it, it was still just too fresh, even thirteen years later. For New Yorkers it seems to be the same, our tour guide was saying that although 16 more super tall skyscrapers were on the books to go up in the city, building owners were struggling to find tenants for the upper third of their towers, regardless of the views or prestige of the penthouse suite. For now at least, no one’s forgetting.

Overall, New York was a blast. Overwhelming, exciting, and expensive it might top our list for coolest city we’ve been to on the trip. The only downfall was that the Cardinals lost their opportunity for a World Series appearance, which we watched with a few other despairing fans at a brew house not far from Penn Station. There’s always next year I suppose. As for us, it was off to city number three to round off our extravagant period of comfy beds and yummy food.

Washington DC

DC was more of a social visit than anything else, with Ryan spending time with his dad who had flown in to join us and his relatives who live in the area, while I was gallivanting about with my three best friends from Argentina, reunited after over two years. The girls live in Philadelphia and Raleigh, and so we agreed that DC was a good meeting point that worked for everyone. Between all the catching up and visiting, there was not nearly enough time to see all the monuments and museums and everything DC has to offer, but we did make time for the national mall and the Smithsonian Museum of Nature in Science. The museum was featuring a special exhibit of outdoor photography winners from the public lands contest, and Ryan and I enjoyed strolling through and guessing what photographs were taken where. I was considering entering this year’s contest with some of my photos… but I’m not so sure after seeing the incredible pictures in that exhibit.

After spending one last night with Ryan’s family, it was time to head back into the woods after a grand total of nine days in the comfort of hotels and restaurants. Something we most certainly will not miss though are the tolls. We’ve just about had enough of paying upwards of $20 to get from point A to point B. Nope! Time for the wilderness yet again.