Spring Break 2010: The List

Ah, the excitement of traveling. Don’t you just love packing for a trip? I know I do. Unpacking is a bitch though. But still traveling is one of my favorite activities ever. I planned this Spring Break vacation with great care. Before it arrived, it was all I thought about while at work. And now it’s over! And it went by so quickly!

I am having a hard time deciding which adjective to use to describe this trip. I’m debating between awesome and sucky. Awesome things happened and not so great ones happened too. You know I love lists so here goes Spring Break Vacation: The List!

• Our plan was to stay in Philadelphia for two days and then in NYC for 5 days which was exactly what we did. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites. The hotel was awesome. I can’t complain about the hotel because they gave us hot breakfast and free parking every single day. Plus, they were housing a team of cute baseball players which was great eye-candy. 😛
• I really thought Philly was cool. Our hotel was actually in Plymouth Meeting which meant we had to drive into the city every day which also meant having to find parking space every day. We visited a lot of historic places like Independence Hall where they signed the American Constitution. The city also had a million murals that lent an awesome artsy feeling to the colonial architecture of the town. However, my esteem for Philadelphia suddenly changed after I got a parking ticket! You see, the parking system in Philadelphia has these irrational rules which I really cannot explain. And apparently I parked in the wrong spot and an officer (Thank you wherever you are Officer Lewis!) gave me a cool ticket for 76 dollars! Right there the nickname Shittydelphia was born. Needless to say, the rest of that day sucked and we didn’t do much. Except going out for dinner and me having the best salad ever! The next day, we decided to try our luck one more time and give Suckydelphia another chance.  This time Crappydelphia kind of lived up to our expectations. We got on a tour on a bus that turned into a boat and got on the Delaware river. We went to a museum, saw the famous Liberty Bell and walked on one of the coolest streets in Philly where we had the famous Philly Cheese Steak! It was delicious. It got really hot that afternoon so we had frozen yogurt before we headed to NY.
• The drive to NYC was kind of stressing. Gigi, my GPS, would get lost every half hour. And she kept instructing us to take the ramp ahead when there was no ramp at all. So we figured she actually meant “Take crap ahead” because crap is the right word to describe traffic on the NJ Turnpike. When we finally arrived at the hotel, I was so grumpy and tired I didn’t even want to take my luggage out of the car. When I saw the hotel, I felt a little better because OMG, what a nice hotel it was! We were starved but it was Easter Sunday which meant all restaurants were closed. So our dinner was a spinach and artichoke dip with chicken popcorn at the hotel bar.
• The hotel had a shuttle to take us to Greystone station where we could catch a train to Manhattan. Our stop was Grand Central Station. Until now I didn’t know what that cool crowded place they show in movies and TV shows was called. It turns out that is the famous Grand Central Station. Here’s a picture of it:I have to clarify I didn’t take that picture. I stole it from the Internet. I really was there I swear! The thing is the day I was there I was so distracted (by a really hot guy) I forgot to take a pic and the ones my friend took kind of suck. If you don’t believe me here is some evidence:
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• We had like a million things planned to do in NYC. We actually only did a couple of them because on the second day there, I fell down and sprained my ankle! I know! On vacation! And I blame it on Lady Gaga because I was staring at a picture of her on Broadway when it happened. Needless to say, that was the end of our planned NYC activities.
• Things we did get to do in NYC: See the Statue of Liberty up close, ride on the ferry to Staten Island, take pictures of the Empire State Building, spend a nice afternoon in Central Park, try Bubble tea, which I hated, eat NY pizza, buy a scarf in Chinatown, have an awesome lunch in an non-fancy Ecuadorian restaurant and go to the Palisades Mall. 🙂
• Things we didn’t get to do in NYC: Go to a Broadway Show, visit the Museum of Natural Science, go to the Bronx Zoo, go to the Botanical Garden, go to Queens, have a picnic in Central Park. 😦
• Something odd happened on this trip: Towards the end of it, I got tired of taking pictures. Weird.

I will wrap up by uploading some photos that I couldn’t upload on Flickr because I have exceeded my uploading limit for this month. I need an upgrade pronto!