New York City Spring Break

Jenny and I grabbed a couple of assorted bakery items form the continental breakfast, which wasn't really even that good considering the rating of this hotel. All they had were some lousy muffins and croissants. Even Holiday Inn at least has raisin bran, bagels and fruit on the bottom yogurt. This breakfast here sucked big time.

I purchased a (overpriced) city map from a street vendor a few days ago that proved to be worth every single penny as our trip unfolded. The map was totally for tourists and listed every destination that they would want to see, including how to get there by subway. We set off on foot for Grand Central Station, which is where today's adventure began.

Today would be our last day out East, and we could do anything that we wanted to do. We mulled over going to Philadelphia to check out some historical shit, but shot that down because of the time that it would take to drive there (90 minutes each way) and the fact that there was sop much stuff left in NYC that we had yet to see. We planned on taking the train back into the big scary city, and almost missed our train because we had trouble finding the train station in New Jersey. The parking lots around the station were designated for New Jersey residents only, but we had to park there because we didn't have any other options, plus it was super confusing. We didn't want to risk missing our train so we parked there anyway and ran to catch our train. We made it within seconds and once again depended on the New York City subway system to ferry us about town and to take us to our multiple destinations. We would be utilizing this system often during today's adventure.

Everyone still refers to this NYC landmark as Grand Central Station, although it's name has been Grand Central Terminal since 1913. This is one of those buildings that you have to see for yourself in order to appreciate it's architecture and historical aspects. In case you didn't know, the purpose of this building is a transportation hub for railroad and light rail trains. It was huge in the time before commercial airlines when people actually used trains as transportation. The main concourse is ridiculously huge and is so spacious that a little kid like me could get lost and never found again. The people look like miniatures walking around in this giant building. It was nice to feel small for the first time in a long time.

It really is interesting what you can learn from the the internet. 10 years ago I wouldn't have known this interesting and fascinating occurrence in the lower level of GCS. When 2 people stand diagonally across from each other in this room pictured here and face the wall, they can whisper to each other and engage in conversation. I didn't believe it until Jenny and I actually tried it, but it turns out that the ceiling is shaped perfectly to carry even the slightest sound to the other side of the room. I took a video of this bizarre event that you can see on the next page. The video is the best way for me to describe how wonderful and unbelievable this was.

Jenny and I are no strangers to the photo opportunity, or what was known in the 80's as a "Kodak Moment." For us it was absolutely necessary to have our picture taken in this grand room. I'm a little wary about giving a stranger my $400 camera, and I didn't want to set it on the edge of a banister or stair for 10 seconds to use the self-timer, so we took pictures of each other instead of us being in the picture together. Twice is nice though, right? Now you have 2 pictures to look at instead of just 1. Lucky you.