Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Labor day out to the East Coast..

So this labor day, Nick and I decided to head out east to visit Stevi, Ronnie, Iyanna, and new baby brother Little Ronnie. We took off on Thursday night after work in "my brand new car" haha. We had some great quality time together, Nick drove while i read my book, and while i drove, Nick Slept. :) We got to Tuckerton, NJ on Friday in the afternoon. We decided to go to Long Beach for the afternoon. The water was freezing and their were "jellies" all along the coastline.. i've never seen that before! We didn't stay too long.. we headed back home for dinner and an early bedtime. Saturday Nick and I took a bike ride along Great Bay blvd until it dead ended, there was a lot of one-way bridges and marshland.. A LOT of fisherman.. definitely cool, secluded, and relaxing. We laid out by the pool for a little bit then we got ready to go to Seaside. We went there, walked along the "Jersey Shore" boardwalk, definitely a big carnival. We took the chair lift along the coast line and just took the whole experience in.

Sunday, Nick and i got on the NJ Transit and headed North to NYC. The Transit is DEFINITELY the way to get into the city, i cant imagine driving anywhere near that city. NYC makes Chicago look like a small child. That place is enormous and would have been extremely overwhelming if it wouldn't have been for my cousin Joe and his lively girlfriend Elisabeth. We met them at the New York Penn Station and they showed us around. Before they got there, Nick and i tried to walk around, but we were getting so lost and confused, we walked in a couple of shops, but the prices steered us out. One thing we noticed was it was dirtier than we expected, garbage bags littered the sidewalks, and the smells were horrendous. I was so excited when Joe and Elisabeth got there, i haven't seen Joe in so long and i haven't met Elisabeth yet.

Elisabeth tells us right away that she had a couple of options for lunch, which was so awesome because Nick and i had not a clue where anything was! We hopped in a can and went to Chelsea, on Pier 66 to eat at The Frying Pan; which is on a boat on the Hudson River. It was so awesome, it was a ligthship during the Coast Guard and is a historical landmark now. We had Lunch there, but it looked like a very quaint place to grab a beer after work. We sat on the edge of the ship and watched a water rugby game (looked like) going on right next to us. I would definitely recommend stopping at this place.

Next we walked over to the High Line. The Highline also has a lot of history in NYC. Back in the 1930's it was used to transport people 30 feet above ground to protect them from the dangers of traffic below. It ran until about 1980, then about 2002, people got the idea to create it into a walkway with landscaping. It now is the coolest place to people watch, stroll around, get from A to B, grab a coffee or gelato at one of the moving carts, or take your lunch break. There is so much greenery and creative things that went into this infrastructure above the city. They even have bleachers above 12th St so you can watch the cars come by, watch the mass chaos from above :) While walking on this we got a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as well :)

We got off the Highline and started towards Ground Zero, it took a little longer than expected but we went past a lot of famous celebrity boutiques and got a lot more of the city in. We made it to Ground Zero, what a sight to see. They have come a long ways since 9/11, in just a couple of days they are celebrating the 10 year anniversary. We all talked about where we were on that day, its crazy how we all had such vivid memories of where we were on that exact moment.

After that we decided it was time for some coffee. We started walking towards the subway to start going back.....somewhere. haha Nick and i were so lost.. Thank the Lord for Joe and Elisabeth :) we got to stop at Central Park, Whole Foods, got the full underground subway experience.. we started walking towards Times Square. now THAT was what we thought of as NYC, we saw the ball that drops every New Years, the mass chaos of the people... and we even got a Minute and a half video of every type of motorcycle/street bike/ dirtbikes/ 1 quad. It was so cool! It was Hells Angels ripping through the streets of Manhattan on Sunday.. so cool!

We stopped at a couple shops, grabbed some coffee.. then went over to Magnolia Bakery for some "world famous cupcakes" i definitely see why.. those things were delicious!! :) We started back towards the train station.. it was definitely a fun day.. we saw a lot.. and had a great time!

On Labor Day, back in NJ, we went to Cape May for some Whale/Dolphin watching. It was a 3 hour trip, yes we saw a lot of dolphins, but no whales. A lot of people were throwing up, it was definitely a "learning" experience.. haha. We then stopped off at Atlantic City Airport to go get a tour of Ronnie's work at the Coast Guard... we got to see all the helicopters.. it was really cool to get to see everything that goes on there.

We went back to Tuckerton, had a lovely spaghetti dinner, packed up, said good byes.. which are always the hardest part and took off back to michigan about 8pm.

What a fun time and good memories.. Cant wait to go back!!