Tonight I packed up for my last trip of the year- a road trip to Alabama for a family wedding and reunion. 2009 has been a great travel year for me. From visiting several US cities to sailing in the Caribbean to flying halfway around the world to a new country, it’s been amazing seeing the diversity in cultures and places. I also knocked several items off my bucket list- from running in a 5k to appearing in the crowd at a Today Show taping to flying in first class.

I made it to a lot of places that I wanted to visit like Boston and New York City, but also didn’t make it to cities I hoped to visit this year (my apologies to Chicago, Toronto and Portland). I also ended up in some places I had never planned to visit this year, like Providence, RI; New Orleans, LA; and of all places, Tokyo, Japan.

My travel started in April with a trip to Boston to visit a friend. Then Atlanta in July to visit family. An opportunity to help out a co-worker morphed into a last-minute trip to New Orleans in August. My 5-day September trip to New York City with my mom was the longest trip I took all year. October was the busiest month for me, with back-to-back weekend international trips to Nassau, Bahamas and Tokyo, Japan with friends, followed up with a visit to my alma mater in Gainesville, FL. My travelling slowed down in the winter, but I’m ending the year with a trip to Alabama.

This year I flew 20,731 miles on 14 segments- the most I’ve ever flown in one year, even though it’s only a drop in the bucket compared to any frequent flyer. I got to fly in some plane types that I hadn’t been in before- from a small 4-seat Cessna 172 to a Boeing 777 holding over 250 passengers. I also flew on United for the first time.

On other forms of transit, I traveled by train 3 times, doing round trips from Boston to Providence and Narita to Tokyo, plus a ride on Atlanta’s Marta train to visit family. I also tried out a new cruise line, Carnival, on a sailing to Nassau. Finally, I drove or rode in a car for 2,300 miles to get to New Orleans and Alabama.

So what will 2010 bring? I don’t have any firm plans yet, but there are several possibilities I’m looking into. But wherever I go, I’m looking forward to all the adventures and challenges that life will bring.

In the end, 2009 would not have been such a fantastic year for me if it wasn’t for all the family and friends who helped make the adventures and come along for the fun. Whether it was offering up a couch for me to crash on; getting me on a plane or just coming along for the ride; it would not have been as fun without them.

And thank you, all 3 of my loyal readers, for visiting this blog. It’s because of you that has kept me motivated to keep writing this blog for over a year now.

A seagull perches on the railing of the Sensation while docked in Nassau.

After my September trip to New York City, I took a 3-night cruise in October from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas and back on Carnival. This was my third trip to Nassau and the second time in two years. But every time I’ve gone to Nassau, it’s been by a different cruise line. So it’s given me a chance to see how the different cruise lines stack up against each other on the same route.

Disney- I took Disney on a 4-night cruise from Port Canaveral to Nassau back in 2001. One of the first things I noticed about it was the price- Disney cruises are generally more expensive then the other two cruise lines. The price difference, depending on the size of the cabin, can be upwards of a thousand dollars or more. But for the price, you do get some unique features not found on any other cruise line.

The dining experience is quite different from other cruise lines. Instead of everyone sitting in one large dining room every night, Disney has diners rotating around different themed restaurants each night. The food is fairly typical cruise fair, but many of the dishes were presented in a pretty and creative way.

As for the rooms, Disney continues to improve them through things like adding a video porthole to interior rooms to give a “view” of the outside world.

Of the three cruise lines reviewed here, Disney did have the best customer service. From the waiters who greeted diners by name to the friendly cabin housekeepers to the greetings of other staff members around the ship, it was clear that the guests come first on the ship.

The ship also offered a lot of activities for kids and adults, including special areas devoted to various age groups, although the offerings for the teenage crowd was a bit lacking when I sailed. Then again, it’s been a few years since I’ve been on them so they may have improved their program offerings.

The 4-night cruise did include a stop to their private island, Castaway Cay. The island was beautiful and well-kept. It included fun features like sunken treasures and statues in the snorkeling area; a biking path that goes down an old airstrip; and a fun castaway theme throughout the island.

The ship itself is also well-maintained. I didn’t see worn-out areas and cleaning crews were constantly cleaning various parts of the ship.

The shows, not surprisingly, were top-notch. They had great musical shows that the whole family would enjoy and a nice theater area to see them in.

Overall, Disney has a pretty impressive cruise product, especially if you have a family with younger kids. If you can afford the price, it’s worth a try.

Royal Caribbean-I’ve taken RC on a 3-night cruise last year and a 7-night cruise back in 2006. The pricing of RC cruises is similar to Carnival’s pricing and is definitely cheaper then what Disney offers. RC also offers more cruise options out of more ports since it’s a larger cruise line then Disney is and has more ships.

The food was very good. They offered at least 3 choices for a main dish each night along with various appetizers and dessert choices. One interesting phenomenon happened when I sailed with a large group of nearly a dozen people. The wait staff kept bringing to our table extra dishes that nobody ordered. We had no problems demolishing the extra dishes, especially as we had several hungry 20- and 30-something year-old guys at the table, and it was a great way to sample nearly all the dishes they had to offer that night. I’ve heard this happening with other people who have sailed with RC in the past, so this might be some kind of company policy. In any case, it was a welcome surprise. RC also had some of the best midnight buffets that I’ve seen on a cruise ship.

Depending on the size of the ship, there’s usually one or two alternative fine dining restaurants that passengers can go to instead of the main dining room. There is an additional surcharge, but when I went to one of them, the food was mind-blowing good, not to mention that the views out the windows of various Caribbean islands were quite stunning.

The activities offered on-board are definitely aimed more at the active/adventurous crowd. The larger ships offer activities like rock-climbing, ice skating and even surfing. The smaller ships offer lots of classes like dancing, yoga and aerobics classes.

Their evening shows were not quite the elaborate productions that Disney had, but they were still fun to watch. Some of the highlights include the ever-amusing “Love and Marriage” show and a dancing show.

Their private island was not as impressive as Disney’s was. The beach and snorkeling areas were not as nice and the island felt smaller then Castaway Cay was. Still, there were plenty of activities available plus a tasty bbq lunch was offered, so it was not a bad way to spend a few hours.

One of the pluses of RC over the other two lines is their Crown and Anchor club for repeat customers. They offer discounts on future cruises and goodies like a coupon book and a gift like a hat or picture frame in the stateroom when sailing. The benefits get progressively better the more you sail with them. It’s the best-designed program of the three and also the most well-promoted. It certainly offers some good incentives to keep returning to RC.

Carnival- I went on my first Carnival cruise this past October. Price-wise of the three, it has the cheapest rates, and often is the cheapest cruise line of all cruise lines on some routes. Some of its rates are as low as $80 a day in the low season.

The ship, the Sensation, had some rather odd interior decorating going on. One lounge area featured giant hands all over the room. Another lounge dubbed the “Michangelo” room featured a bunch of marble statues, but only one was actually a replica of a Michangelo room. And many of the common areas had dark trippy mirrors and lights that reminded me of a old Vegas casino. The whole decorating scheme was a bit spastic and outdated (although in fairness I was on one of their older ships).

Their shows and activities were also not as impressive as what was offered on the other two ships. Part of the problem had to do with the layout of the theater itself. There’s a lot of poles blocking the view of the stage and it’s easy for other people to block the view. Also, being a smaller ship meant that the stage itself was quite small.

The food was decent and they had some great creative items at dinner. The breakfast/lunch options were pretty average.

The ship itself didn’t offer a whole lot in terms of activities. Mostly it had a golf course, several pools, a slide and some workout areas. Overall, Carnival didn’t impress me all that much.

The verdict- If money is no object and you don’t mind having Mickey Mouse along for the ride, Disney offers a high-quality cruising experience. If you’re the more adventurous type or just want an excuse to do things like ice-skating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Royal Caribbean is the way to go. Carnival is okay for the price, but there are better options out there.

Overall, cruising is not my prefer means of travel since I’m forced to stay with large crowds and many cruise ports have turned into tourist traps. But for an all-inclusive vacation with large groups, a cruise works well since it’s easier for everyone to do something that they’re interested in. To me, cruising is more about who you’re going with then where you’re going to.

"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."

For the last day of the trip, I didn’t have anything planned in advance. I wanted to keep it open in case there was something we didn’t get to earlier. My mom wanted to visit the state courthouse where on its steps many Law and Order scenes were filmed. So we visited there first. It was nice to see the courthouse, although it looked like every other Roman-designed courthouse. I did spot the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian as we left the area. I didn’t realize the Smithsonian had other institutions located outside of Washington, D.C.
I wanted to visit the United Nations next. Unfortunately, due to a global summit that was happening next week, we couldn’t tour the UN as it was closed to visitors. Hopefully the next time I’m in the area I can tour the place.

United Nations Headquarters, sans the country flags.

Our last stop before heading out of town was visiting the famous metal bull that is the symbol of Wall St. Now, I thought finding a giant metal bull would be pretty easy to spot in NYC. Sure, there’s lots of crazy things to see around the city, but even a large animal cast in brass attracts attention. But it was challenging to find the “Charging Bull” for the simple reason that despite its connection to Wall St., the bull is not actually on Wall St. It’s close, but it’s a few blocks over on the north end of Bowling Green at Broadway and State streets.  We ended up having to get directions from a friendly New Yorker who pointed us in the right direction. We found it, surrounded by a large group of tourists eager to get their picture taken in front of it. The bull is sculpted in great detail, right down to certain, ah, anatomical features.
After getting a few pictures, we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and headed over to Penn Station to catch a train back to Newark Airport. Work on the Airtrain was still going on so it was a bit chaotic getting back to the terminal. The flight back on Continental was on time and uneventful. I did spot the Continental retro jet (a plane painted in CO’s old color scheme) parked at one of the gates in EWR, which was fun to see. I had heard about it but never seen it before.

Final thoughts

Overall, the trip was a great success. I’ve been wanting to see New York for many years, so I’m glad I finally made it there. The city was everything I imagined it would be. From the ease of getting around on the subway to the diversity of different neighborhoods and restaurants to the hustle and bustle of being in one of the world’s largest cities, I enjoyed every aspect of it.

Even though I spent five days there, I barely explored all the city has to offer. If I get a chance to go again, I would love to get out of Manhattan and explore some of the surrounding boroughs. I’d also go visit more museums and walk through the north end of Central Park. New York City has no shortage of things to do, so I suspect I’ll be making many more trips there in the future.

A display of candies in the Soda Shop

For Day 4, 0ur last full day in New York City, I wanted to visit Central Park and my mom wanted to see another museum. We had breakfast in a cafe next to our hotel called the Soda Shop. The cafe is filled with pictures of old candy ads and sells all kinds of harder to find candies along with serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We hopped on the subway and got off near the FAO Scharwz store. We passed by the Apple store and I couldn’t resist taking a look. I love how Apple maintains the same look for its stores in each city and still find a way to make each one unique. In the case of the NYC store, the entrance to the store is on the ground level. That’s the only thing on the ground level. The rest of the store is located underground, so you have to enter the glass cube structure at the ground level and go down stairs or an elevator to get to the store. It’s certainly an eye-catching way to design a storefront. The rest of the store is your typical Apple store, complete with a long Genius bar.

Next to the Apple store is the famous toy store, FAO Schwarz. Known for unusual items like a piano so large you can play it by standing on it (as featured in the movie Big), the store is worth a walk through.

A display of Muppets in the FAO Schwarz store

One of the highlights of the store for me was the giant stuffed dragon on the second floor. The dragon has been my favorite animal since the sixth grade and my apartment is full of them. So seeing a giant dragon almost from the moment I entered the store delighted me. Alas, it didn’t have a price tag on it. I probably couldn’t have fit it in my apartment anyway.

Other fun things to look at included a nice electric train setup, the Muppet workshop where you can design your own muppet, looking at several large Lego creations, and of course dancing on the large quarter-million dollar piano.

As we were leaving the store, I noticed several people dressed up in renaissance fair type outfits. At first, I thought they were store employees wearing costumes. But once I saw a large group standing around outside, it was clear they were tourist. I never did find out why they were dressed up, but it seemed so typically New York that they didn’t attract much of any attention from other people walking by.

The FAO Schwarz store is catty-corner to Central Park, so the park was the next logical stop. My mom really wanted to find the carousel that’s located in the middle of the park. I was happy just walking through the park. We were there on a Saturday and lots of people were out relaxing, walking their dogs and just enjoying the lovely NYC weather. Even with all the other people, the sheer size of the park meant that it never felt crowded. The size of the park also means they have all kinds of attractions like a zoo, two skating rinks, an outdoor theater and a conservatory garden. In many ways it reminded me of Vancouver’s Stanley Park in both size and attractions.

A fountain in Central Park

As we walked over to the carousel, I heard the sounds of a band playing. After going around a hill, we found some kind of world peace concert going on, complete with a gentleman singing one of his favorite Brazilian songs. On the ground were large sheets of paper with line drawings of people on them that passerbys were coloring in. In a nearby lake, canoers were out paddling and a yoga class stretched out on the lakeside plaza. It just felt like a perfect morning in the park to me.

Eventually we found the Central Park carosel. Since I had already let my inner 5-year-old out to play at the toy store, it was easy to let her out again by buying 2 tickets to take a ride on the carousel. It had been several years since I had been on a merry-go-round and I had forgotten how fun they could be. Sure, I was just going in circles, but it was fun to listen to the music and wave to all the kids having a birthday party as I spun around.

After the ride, my mom and I were ready to head over to the American Musuem of Natural History. The museum is located right across the street from Central Park at 79th street. We picked this museum because it’s one of New York’s more famous museums and because of its location. I’ve been to a couple of other natural history museums, including the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; so I was curious to see how this one would measure up.

The museum is divided into five floors, with each floor being devoted to a topic, such as fossils, mammals, culture and outer space. The museum was a bit complicated to navigate at times as it wasn’t always clear how to get from one floor to the next. While I took the stairs most of the times, the elevators were quite crowded since several elevators were for “staff use only”.

A brontosaurus skeleton in the lobby of the AMNH.

Some of the exhibits were quite interesting. I enjoyed the space exhibits the most, as it included features like finding out how much you would weigh on various planets, films on various space research programs, and a history of the universe walk where each foot on the ground represented several million years of history.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the museum was really showing its age. In the environments floor, most of the exhibits consisted of various dioramas of animals in their native environments. I would have liked to see more informational films about the animals or have some kind of interactive exhibits. Looking at dozens of statues of animals doesn’t excite me at all, even if the sheer size of them like the humpback whale one is impressive.

The floor devoted to world cultures was even worse. Not only was it diorama nirvana, but many of the displays looked yellow and faded. On one display about Islam, a tag indicated that a item had been removed from the display- in 1995! The museum still hadn’t replaced it with anything 14 years later. I understand that keeping displays fresh takes time and money, but the AMNH could really do a better job in this area, especially since it’s suppose to be one of the premiere natural history museums in the country.

The fossils floor was a bit better. They had more fossils in their exhibit then I’ve seen anywhere else. They had everything from a tiny shrew skeleton to a giant brontosaurus and everything in-between. One of the coolest displays was a boneyard- a pile of skeletons from a dried-up lakebed. It was so neat to see so many types of skeletons jumbled together in one spot.

Overall, the museum is not a bad spot to go to if you need to fill a few hours, but there are better museums out there.

After our AMNH visit, we headed back to our hotel to get ready to see another Broadway play- Wicked. I had first heard the Wicked soundtrack when I was in college and later read the book that the musical is based on. But until now I had not seen the musical anywhere. So of course I was excited about finally seeing the musical whose soundtrack I’d come to love.

So after enjoying a lovely dinner at the Cosmopolitan Cafe, we hopped on the subway and went down to the famous Great White Way.

The stage of Wicked before the start of the show.

The musical was magnificent. It had just the right balance of humor, drama and musical numbers. The costumes dazzle, the stage shines, the actors entertain. It is everything I imagined a Broadway play to be and so much more. It was definitely the highest point among many high points of the trip.

The only downside to such a fantastic, populer show is that it sells out every night. Wicked tickets are usually not available through the discount channels like TKTS or Playbill. Tickets for Wicked generally start around $100 for seats towards the back.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel to get one last night’s worth of sleep in New York City. The next day would be our last in the Big Apple.

Subway art in the Broadway station.

Day 3 began dark and early with my alarm going off at 4:45am. Yes, 4:45am. The sun wasn’t even up yet. But I had a good reason. Ever since I started watching the NBC’s Today Show regularly, I’ve wanted to go to the show and be a part of the crowd in Rockerfeller Plaza. So with sign in hand, I headed out to the plaza.

Getting there took a bit longer then I expected. I knew the subway system would be running on a different schedule at that early hour, but construction caused additional changes like having a downtown train run on the uptown tracks. It was a bit confusing at first, but I eventually got to where I needed to go.

As I walked around the corner to the plaza, I didn’t see anyone at first. Just the portable railings and camera equipment that was being set up for the show. But then I spotted a small group of people standing around with signs. Ah-ha, the start of the line. So I walked over and joined them as the fifth person in line just after 5:30am. A gentleman let everyone know that there was free coffee and bagels available from his co-workers in a food truck parked next to the line. Apparently all the local morning shows pay for catering for all the fans that showed up.

As we waited, the gentleman talked to the crowd, asking questions like where everyone was from (most folks that show up are tourists) and offering up all kinds of information about New York. One thing he shared about was how 9/11 changed street security. For example, trash cans are now banned from public streets. Street vendors are not allowed to sell two hot drinks to the same customer because they could be used as a weapon. Plus, the police enforce all these regulations via street cams that the man himself saw. Truly absurd.

The line really began to build up around 6am. Lenny, a regular who always appears on the Today Show, showed up at 6:20am, skipped the line and walked to his spot by the rails. The rest of the crowd was allowed to join him at 6:45am, 15 minutes before the show started.

Meredith greets the crowd.

 

Unfortunately that morning most of the anchors were out of town. Matt and Al were in Dallas to cover the opening of the new stadium while Ann was in Iraq. So that left Meredith to hold down the fort at Studio 1A. Since she was in the studio most of the time and the show was using a lot of wide shots from Dallas, the crowd wasn’t shown much that morning. But even without a camera to wave at, it was a lot of fun to hang out and talk with people and just take in the happy energy of the crowd.

My getting up early finally paid off after 8am when Meredith came out to do some standups. At first, she stood exactly in front of me so I couldn’t be seen. But then on a different shot she moved over slightly and I appeared briefly for a few seconds. During the commercial breaks, Meredith took the time to shake hands, sign autographs and pose for pictures with people in the crowd.

Around 9am, the show pretty much stayed inside of the studio for the rest of the morning so the crowd slowly dwindle. I wandered around Rockerfeller and explored the various shops in the area while waiting for my mom to meet me there since she valued sleep more then I did.

The Empire State Building.

Once we met up, we went to the Top of the Rock, which is an observation deck located at the top of the Rockerfeller Center. It’s the second-highest deck in the city behind the Empire State Building. But unlike the Empire State Building, there’s no long lines at the Rock to wait in and you can see the Empire State Building from the top. The views up there are of course spectacular. I didn’t appreciate just how big New York City is until I saw it from up there.

Besides the view, the Top of the Rock had a few exhibits like a theater showing short videos about the history of NBC, the Rockettes and how the building came to be. There was also a rather fun “light room” featuring colored lights that would follow people around the room.

After the Rock, we headed over to the pier since we had a ticket for a 75-min Circle Line Cruises boat tour that went around the Statue of Liberty. It was a freebie included when I had booked my flights through Expedia. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the tickets closely enough. Turns out they were a voucher that had to be redeemed at an office that was nowhere near the pier. Oops. Since there were only two tours available that day, we decided that we would take the Staten Island ferry later in the day instead. So we headed over to the Carnegie Deli for lunch.

The deli is famous for its monsterous-sized sandwiches and cheesecakes and for visits by various celebrities. I had a pastrami sandwich for lunch- and had enough left over for dinner that night. After eating all that we could, we headed back to the hotel to store the leftovers and then went to the Staten Island Ferry.

The ferry runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The frequency that it runs at varies from 20 minutes to one hour depending on the time of day, and the trip takes about a half-hour from one port to the other. The ferry has seating for several hundred people- most of it in the inside. But it also has some nice observation decks running along the outside that worked well for statue-spotting. I was able to get some nice pictures of the statue and the city skyline. Considering the price (free!) and not having to deal with the hassles of security screening, this was definitely the way to go to get a view of the statue. The one downside of the ferry is that it’s quite windy up on the top deck, but that’s probably why the deck is labeled as the “hurricane deck”.

The Statue of Liberty.

It would have been nice to get closer and have a chat with Lady Liberty. But from what I’ve heard from others, getting up close and personal with the statue also involves getting up close and personal with lots of security screening agents in a process that’s even worse then what the TSA has come up with for airports. If I did go through that hassle, I would want to be able to go all the way up to the crown that reopened earlier this year. Tickets for the crown though were sold out on every date two months ahead of time.

After a leisurely hour-long ride on the ferry, we walked around the Battery Park area where the ferry leaves from. The area has a lot of street performers and artists hawking their wares along with a park area and an old fort.

Ground Zero is just a few blocks north of Battery Park. The area is mostly one large construction site. There really isn’t much to see- and that’s the point. The area for now is much more about what isn’t there then what is. Due to the construction fence surrounding the site, it’s hard to see anything beyond tall construction equipment.

Memorials are scattered around the area. The fire station that was the first to respond has plaques honoring each firefighter lost from the station that day. Around the corner, people placed flowers and other mementos to honor fallen police officers. A temporary museum is set up across the street, but it was closed at the time I was there.

Ground Zero.

I wish I had seen the area before 9/11. Seeing the towers would have been impressive and given me some perspective about how much the city has changed as the result of the attacks. At least the rebuilding process has started, even if it’s going very slowly.

After visiting Ground Zero, my mom and I headed back to the hotel to eat our deli leftovers for dinner. After such an early start to the day, I was ready to call it a night. We had one more full day in New York ahead of us.

 

KLM is running a promotion right now where you can get two free luggage tags featuring a picture of your choice through their website. All you have to do is upload a photo or choose one of theirs and provide some personal information. The process also get you entered into a contest for a free trip. There isn’t a deadline posted for this, so I’m guessing they will offer these tags until supplies run out. So if you want some, don’t wait.

I just ordered mine using a photo from my recent Japan trip and I’m looking forward to getting them in three weeks. Even if you already have luggage tags, these could serve as a nice gift for a traveller in your life.

Go here to order your tags.

If you don’t have any plans on Halloween and want to get out of town, JetBlue is holding a major Halloween sale right now. After noon, all remaining seats are just $31. But hurry, the sale is for today only. More info can be found at their website.

If I didn’t already have plans for Halloween, I might have jumped on this for no other reason then to try them out as I haven’t been on JetBlue before.

Thanks to Lucky for pointing this nice deal out.

For day 2 of the trip, my mom and I wanted to make a visit to a place most tourists don’t go to- the Girl Scouts of the

A display at the entrance to the Girl Scout office.

USA headquarters. We’re both Girl Scouts and have been for several years. My mom knew a couple of people there who could show us around. Besides offices, the headquarters had a museum detailing the history of Girl Scouting from its beginnings in Savannah, Georgia to the present day. Staff members showed us around other parts of the headquarters, including one international area that had memorabilia sent in from Girl Scouts around the world.

After taking some more photos and doing some shopping at the Girl Scout store for folks back home, we went to the Empire State Building. We didn’t go up as we were planning on going up to the Top of the Rock later that week. But checking out the art deco designs in the lobby was worth the stop since we were by the building anyway. After that, we went to Macy’s.

Macy's wooden escalators.

I wanted to go there just to see Herald Square and see if there was anything that made this store different from any other Macy’s store. My first impression of the place is that it’s huge! It has 8 floors, complete with the original wooden escalators on the upper levels. Besides the wide assortment of clothes, the store had several restaurants and sections devoted to holiday ornaments and other special items. But other then the wooden escalators and the size, the store is pretty much like any other Macy’s that I’ve seen.

So after Macy’s, it was time to take the subway over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or as it’s more commonly known- the Met. I’m not much of an art aficionado, but with the sheer amount of artwork that they have, it was not hard to find something I would enjoy looking at. The Met has five floors of artwork, artifacts and other bits of history spanning from the earliest records of human civilisation to the current day.

Egyptian Courtyard in the Met

The courtyards were the most impressive part of the museum. One was designed like the entrance to an Egyptian Pyramid. Another looked like a French courtyard during the Renaissance. A third was located on the roof and had a large, banyan-tree-like metal sculpture that felt otherworldly against the NYC skyline.

It surprised me what qualified as “art” in some exhibits. Some of the more bizarre entries included a vacuum cleaner, a canvas painted in one solid color and a flourescent light tube used in most offices.

We were in the Met for about 3 hours, which was barely enough time to take a brief look at most of the exhibits. If you’re planning a visit here, it’s best to focus on just one or two areas that you want to see and save the rest for later.

Shrek: The Musical marquee.

After the Met, we hopped on the subway and headed back to the hotel for dinner and a change of clothes before heading back out to Broadway. I had gotten a buy-one-get-one-free deal for Shrek: the Musical. Since my mom and I both wanted to see a lighthearted musical, it fit the bill perfectly. The musical itself was quite fun to watch. The plot pretty much follows that of the movie, but with more silly jokes and fun songs. If you enjoyed the movie, then you will enjoy the musical as well.

After the musical, we wandered around the Hershey’s and M&M store at Times Square just for grins and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

I’m a city girl by nature. Most of the trips I’ve taken in the last three years have been to major metro areas like Atlanta, Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia. But until now I had not been to the mother of all metro areas- New York City. Last week, I finally rectified that problem by spending 5 days and 4 nights exploring as many blocks as I could of Manhattan.

The trip started on a whim. In August, Expedia was offering $200 off three nights hotel and flights. I looked at several different cities I hadn’t been to yet, including Chicago, Portland and Miami, to see if I could find a good deal. When I looked at NYC, I hit paydirt. I could get 3-nights hotel and flights for about $130. At the time, the flights alone would have cost about $200. After finding the deal, I tweeted about it. I quickly got a note from my mom. She knows how much I enjoy travelling and wanted to come along on this trip. A mother-daughter adventure was soon born.

For the trip, we flew MCO-EWR on Continental. I chose CO mostly because it was a non-stop flight that fit our schedule and budget well. Plus, they were offering double elite-qualification miles which was a nice bonus. The flight to New York was around 90% full, but surprisingly free of crying children and babies that often fill flights coming to and from Orlando. This probably had to do a lot with the fact that school is now in session and we’re in the low season for tourism.

Once we landed in EWR, plenty of signs guided us to the Airtrain that goes to NYC’s Penn Station. Unfortunately, the section of track that connects the airport with the New Jersey train station was under construction, so only one side of the tracks could be used. This meant that folks riding the Airtrain from the airport had to get off at the last airport stop and wait 10 minutes for a train coming from the station, rather then ride the train the whole way. This caused a lot of confusion and delay among passengers as everyone was forced to get off the train unexpectedly. New Jersey Transit, who runs the EWR Airtrain, did have a lot of redcoats were around to help direct people around. Still, it didn’t help one gentleman who exclaimed “There goes my train!” as our train pulled into the station- and his Amtrak train pulled out.

The train ride from Newark to New York was fun in that the train goes under the Hudson river to get to the city. It’s the first time I’ve gone underwater in a train. Entering Penn Station was a bit overwhelming at first. So many people rushing around to get to where they needed to go. The signage was a bit confusing at first, with signs pointing every which way, but with the aid of a giant subway map and a friendly cop, my mom and I figured out where we needed to go.

After accidentally getting off at the wrong subway stop, we finally made it to the Cosmopolitan Hotel. The hotel is an independent hotel located in the heart of the Tribeca area. The hotel doesn’t have a lot of frills, but it was well-maintained and the room was large for a NYC hotel. After dropping our stuff off, we headed out to find some dinner.

The Little Italy district was about 15-minute walk from our hotel. It was easy to spot the district- it was marked by lots of red, green and white bunting; sidewalk cafes and a large Ferris wheel. The 10-day celebration of the Feast of St. Gennaro was in full swing. We picked one of the many sidewalk cafes along the street and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner while doing some people-watching. It was fun listening to Italian accent of the cafe owner and watching pedestrians enjoy treats like cannoli and gelato.

Afterwards, we walked through more of the Little Italy and Chinatown areas before heading over to visit Grand Central Station.

Seeing Grand Central during rush hour was a delight. People were rushing everywhere across the grand marble annex while conversations created a pleasant echo in the lobby. It was fun to watch the destination boards light up and to imagine that I could go hop on the next train to  New Haven or Boston like so many New Yorkers were doing. After seeing the hustle and bustle of the station, we walked to another area known for its frenetic activity- Times Square.

Seeing Times Square left me speechless. All the lights- all the people- all the activity- and to be in the middle of it all! It was wonderful to finally be standing in the spot that I’ve seen countless times in movies, TV shows and pictures. After taking some pictures, my mom and I stopped into the Toys ‘R Us store to gawk at the ferris wheel inside and to see the lego sculptures of New York landmarks.

After that, we wanted to take a night tour of the city. Now, I’m normally not the tourbus type. I prefer to see things on foot. However, my mom had heard of the night tour because it was getting great reviews from vistors and natives alike. Plus, it would serve as a good introduction to the city. So off on the double-decker bus we went.

The tour was interesting because the guide provided all kinds of tidbits about the area, from where to find the best pizza in Brooklyn to which apartment complexes various celebrities live in. And the bus did go into places that I simply wouldn’t have time to get to on this trip like Brooklyn. The only downside of sitting on top of the double-decker bus is that it got a bit chilly up there, especially as we crossed over the bridges to and from Brooklyn.

After the tour, it was getting rather late and it was time to call it a night. We had so much more to explore over the next few days.

Later posts in this trip report will include a visit to the Today Show, riding the Staten Island Ferry, and seeing Wicked on Broadway. Stay tuned!

“If at first you don’t succeed- skydiving is not for you.”

-unknown

A couple of weekends ago, the topic of skydiving came up several times with co-workers and friends. One of my craziest adventures to date was when a group of friends wanted to go skydiving and invited me to go along. “Jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Sure!”

So the day before my 23rd birthday, we all schlepped out to Titusville to Skydive Space Center located at Arthur Dunn Airpark. Before coming over we were asked not to wear collared shirts and to remove anything that would come off easily in flight. We also had to let the center know how much each person weighed so they could be paired up with an appropriately-sized diver.

Inside the jump plane

Once we arrived at the skydiving center, the first thing we all needed to do was fill out some paperwork. The paperwork included a number of waivers that basically stated “if you die, we’re not liable”. After all the paperwork was taken care of, we headed outside to the hanger with a jumpmaster who walked us through what would happen during the flight.

Next to the hanger was a mockup of the door on a Beechcraft King Air, which is the type of plane we would be jumping out of. The jumpmaster demonstrated how we needed to exit the plane for the jump. One thing that surprised me is that there’s no actual jumping involved. Instead, all I would need to do is step off and gravity would do the rest. Another part is how the landing would go. Since we were all doing tandem jumps where we would be strapped to a jump master, all we need to do is stick our legs straight out and let the jump master do the work.

As we waited for our turn to go up, I watched the parachute riggers do the work of packing the chutes. It’s a job that has to be done carefully, as a poor packing job can lead to hard openings of the parachute, tangled lines or possibly cause the chute to not open at all. If the main chute doesn’t open correctly for whatever reason, divers can cut away the main chute and use a larger reserve chute instead. And if for some reason a diver doesn’t open his chute, there’s a backup device called the Cypres comes to the rescue. The Cypres is basically a small computer with an altimeter, vertical speed indicator and a razor blade attached. If the device detects that a diver is falling very fall at a certain altitude (usually over 70 mph at 2000 ft. above ground) the device cuts away the main chute and deploys the reserve instead. Even with these safety devices, skydiving is still a risky sport. But the introduction of better chutes and devices like the Cypres has made the sport safer.

As the time to jump drew nearer, we got rigged up with harnesses and met the people we would be paired off with. While we waited, a videographer asked me why I wanted to skydive. I said it was because I always wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. The videographer replied “oh, but you haven’t seen the airplane yet!”

The plane landed and we all hopped aboard. I then understood what the videographer meant about the airplane. The “seats” on the plane were nothing more than two long benches that everyone straddled facing the back of the plane. As one skydiver eloquently put it, we packed “butts to nuts”. Trust me, after sitting in that arrangement, I wanted to get out as quickly as possible! Fortunately, that didn’t take long. Once the group was settled in the plane, we took off and started heading up to 15,000 ft. Getting up to the jump area took around 20-25 minutes.

As we climbed to altitude, the reality of what I was about to do hit me. I was about to jump out of a plane, strapped to a guy that I had just met 10 minutes ago- and he had the parachute. I admit I almost lost my nerve at that moment. But I decided that I would go down, and I was taking that guy down with me.

Next to the plane door was a red light that the pilot would change to green when he reached the drop zone. As we got close to the zone, all the jump masters made one final check of everyone’s straps and rigging. And then, the moment came. The light turned green. Because of where I was sitting, I would be the first out of the plane. The videographer in front of me got up, opened the door and then straddled a rail on the outside of the plane. My jumpmaster and I got up and awkwardly crab walked to the door. Then I stepped up to the threshold and stepped out.

Wooosh! The first thing I noticed was the wind roaring past me. I felt like I was in a wind tunnel. It was now obvious why skydivers communicate through hand signals- I couldn’t hear anything my jump master was saying even though he was strapped to my back. The second thing was that I didn’t feel like I had dropped at all. I had thought I would feel like I had gone down a steep drop on a roller coaster. It turns out that since the plane was already moving at over 100mph (and thus so was I), I wouldn’t feel much additional acceleration from stepping out of the plane. So I never really felt like I was falling beyond seeing the ground get closer.

After getting over the initial shock of feeling the wind, it was time to do some fun tricks like spins and hamming it up for the camera. The videographer that got out ahead of me had caught up with me and it was awesome to do things like grab his hand during freefall.

Coming in for landing

But the freefall portion of the dive soon ended. Since we were falling around 110mph, it only took about 60-90 seconds to burn through 12,ooo ft. of altitude. So the jumpmaster pulled the chute around 3,000ft. Whump! We flipped from the horizontal position to a vertical one. I galanced up and saw a large beautiful rectangle of fabric. All was well. The next few minutes were quite relaxing compared to the rush of freefall. It was nice just to glide and enjoy the views of the coast and landmarks like NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building. During our slow spiral down, I watched as our jump plane landed on the runway below. What an odd sight seeing the plane I was on getting back to the ground before me. The glide down lasted around 5-10 minutes. As we got near the ground, the jumpmaster executed a flawless flare and put us down not far from the small cheering crowd sitting in the stands.

Looking back on the dive, I have absolutely no regrets doing it. It was a thrilling experience and one I haven’t forgotten. It was so fun to get out and do something so few people have done. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I recommend others do it? Absolutely, as long as you’re aware of the risks involved. Really, if George Bush can do it at the age of 85, anybody can.