New York

If you get overwhelmed by picture-heavy posts, I suggest you skip this one.

Several weeks ago I went to New York for a little jaunt in the city. Now, I'd never been to New York City before, but someone sitting on the bus behind my friend and I described the difference between DC and NYC quite aptly.

He said, "I love New York because it's a CITY (said in a low, manly voice), whereas DC is like, 'hey, everybody, i'm a city! (said in a high, tiny voice)." I wish I had taken a voice clip of the guy because it was so funny. My friend and I laughed about it for days.

Anyway, New York. There are busses that you can take from DC to NYC. They are pretty cheap (usually about $18-$28 one way) and most of them have free Wi-Fi.

When I heard about the free wifi, I was sold. I decided to visit my friend Dani in New York before she moved away, and at the last minute my friend Sean decided that he, too, wanted to participate in this thrilling adventure.

After looking at bus prices and availability, I decided to take the Bolt bus on the way up and the DC2NY bus on the way back. I was pretty sold on the DC2NY, but Sean highly recommended the Bolt and I was afraid I wouldn't have great wifi on the DC2NY. I had a lot to do Friday on the way up to NYC and I decided that I couldn't chance not having internet.

The irony in this situation lies in the fact that I didn't even get 5 SECONDS of wifi on the Bolt (it didn't work the whole way up!) whereas I had wifi THE WHOLE TIME on the DC2NY on the way back. So much for a productive Friday bus ride (I was cursing my choice of Bolt the whole time)...

The first thing I had to do in New York, naturally, was get a hot dog. I got it from Gray's Papaya, which you can see by looking at the "Murder!" sign closely, is also suffering from the economic crisis. Still, it was the best $1.50 hot dog I have ever had (made even better by the fact that it was in New York!).

No trip to New York is complete without a jaunt across the Brooklyn Bridge. After our hot dogs, we did just that.

I couldn't have asked for better friends to experience my first trip to New York with. Sean, Dani, and I all went on a study abroad to Jerusalem together.

I love this picture because, well, we look like ghosts.

The city never sleeps! I took this picture at about 1 am.

I happen to be in love with catwalks and fire escapes on the outside of buildings. And there were some sweet fire escapes in New York.

I think my experience with Central Park and this tribute to John Lennon was made much, much cooler by that bird running across right as I took the picture.

Central Park.

The craziest thing I saw in Central Park: this guy taking the dogs out for a walk. He's pretty resourceful--I think I counted 9 dogs with him!

Central Park is even more beautiful in the middle of New York City than it would be, say, in the middle of Montana because it is so random and so different than the cityscape that surrounds it. How crazy that you can be in the middle of a city and suddenly walk into a peaceful and huge city park, filled with lakes and small running streams?

Besides Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge, there were several other "free must-sees" for me in New York. There were lots of "must sees," but with so many free (or almost free) things to do, why would I waste my time spending money? That's pretty much my philosophy for life, actually.

The Met wasn't free but it was "almost free"--they have a donation system where they ask you to pay what you think the museum is worth to you. Since I only wanted to see a couple of things, I didn't feel too bad paying just a little amount.

The Met is an awesome museum with lots and lots of different exhibits. It can be overwhelming if you don't know what you are looking for. Let's be honest, it's overwhelming even if you do know what you are looking for!

With all of the options and such a short time to see everything, I convinced my friend Sean to run around to about 20 different exhibits just so I could look at the art and move on to the next. It reminded me of the time I was in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo--since I wasn't sure I would ever be back and I wanted to see EVERYTHING in the 30 minutes they gave us after the tour, I ran around the whole museum. I am pretty sure that I ran into every room and saw everything. I don't actually remember anything, but I know I saw it all.

Anyway, I knew I had to set some priorities if I wanted to make this a valuable trip to the Met. And strangely enough, the thing at the top of my priorities was the Ancient Near East collection. Even though I left BYU incredibly disenchanted with my major, even I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see artifacts from thousands of years ago.

I mean, this thing was featured on one of my textbooks!

And who can pass up an opportunity to see statues of fertility bulls?

Or Ashurnasirpal's palace from Mesopotamia in the 800's BC?

Or a fragment of the Ur-Naama stele, or a female worship statue from 2600 BC in Southern Mesopotamia? I totally learned about these things in one of my archaeology classes. The elite (those wealthy enough to pay for a statue of themselves) would place their statue in the temple to allow for "perpetual worship"--and thus greater blessings from the gods. 

The Greek things were cool too, but my allegiance lies with the older part of the ANE.

The weather for my jaunt to New York was absolutely perfect. It was overcast, drizzling slightly, and quite cold. Sean was cursing the fact that he was wearing shorts all day (and that we only had one umbrella!), but I was quite comfortable. The best thing about the weather was the lack of tourists and others on the streets. Everywhere we went was pretty deserted for New York (which was awesome!).

After putting lunch off several times so we could wait until we could find a good place to eat, we finally decided to just get a pretzel. Now, I know that New York City is pretty famous for its street hot dogs and street pretzels, but this pretzel was absolutely the WORST pretzel I have ever eaten. It tasted like burnt salt. Eating it while standing under an awning in the rain and watching people get soaked as they ran by as we waited for the rain to subside, however, was a priceless memory. Just like eating fried chicken instead of turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, or eating cow stomach, pig intestines, frog legs, or other oddities. It's definitely a story that I will recite many times for my children.

Anyway, we stopped by a few other places before dinner.

Wall Street

 Trinity Church

 The iconic "Broad" and "Wall" intersection

 Oh, hello, Alexander Hamilton's grave

 Ground Zero

I was thrilled that Trinity Church and St. Paul's Cathedral were on our list (because, well, I made the list) because of one thing: the Puritan tombstones. Ever since I wrote a paper on the rhetorical effect of the symbols on Puritan tombstones, I have been dying to see them in person. When we got to Trinity Church, I almost died when I saw the graveyard surrounding the church. The graveyard was filled with Puritan tombstones. Just getting into that graveyard would clearly make all of my dreams come true.

Unfortunately, the lot of my life is living with unfulfilled dreams. There was a wedding at Trinity Church and the graveyard was closed. I asked Sean if it would be weird if I went up to someone in the church and explained my situation: "Look. I really need to get in to the graveyard. I did a lot of research on Puritan tombstones and I even wrote a paper on them and presented it at a conference, but I have never touched one. I NEED to get in the graveyard. Can you just let me in for 20 minutes?"

Unfortunately Sean said it would be weird--and besides, they probably had Puritan tombstones at St. Paul's Cathedral!

They did. And St. Paul's Cathedral (and graveyard) closed at 4:30. And I got there at 4:50.

I guess I will have to take a trip up to Boston before I leave. Because I really can't leave DC with my dream unfulfilled of touching these Puritan tombstones. In the meantime, though, I got a couple of pictures through the fence.

After dinner with Sean, Dani, and her friend, the four of us stopped by Times Square. The magical quality of it all was intensified by the thick fog that lay over the buildings.

 I took this picture for my sister Kaitlyn, the chocolate lover.

 I was wearing a BYU t-shirt (can I just say that every time I wear my BYU t-shirt, at least one person will come up to me and either tell me that they are Mormon, they used to be Mormon, or they know a Mormon?) and as I walked through Times Square, this man advertising for a comedy show saw it and said, "Hey BYU! Come on in! Lots of jokes tonight about the Honor Code!" If only I had prepared a clever reply to respond! Instead I said no thanks and quickly walked away. Lame, I know.

 Dani took us to this awesome glass elevator in the Marriott. It sticks out in the middle of the hotel and goes up 48 floors at a high rate of speed. It was the closest I got to riding a roller coaster in New York. This is the view looking out of the escalator as we were racing up to the top. It seriously felt like Willie Wonka's elevator, and we were all waiting for the crashing sound as we smashed through the roof.

 But for such a nice hotel, the carpet was really kind of ugly!

 My trip to New York was made possible because I stayed with Dani at her employer's house. It was right in the middle of downtown New York, it was beautiful, and I didn't have to pay for a hotel. It was seriously like living in a dream. The artwork and paintings in the house made me feel like I was staying in a museum.

 And finally, quite possibly the best part of the New York trip was going to church right below the Manhattan Temple. They were having a tri-state YSA conference, and Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder L. Tom Perry spoke in sacrament meeting! (And the craziest thing--Harry Reid was there too! I go all the way to New York with Sean, who works on Capitol Hill, and see Harry Reid. Crazy.)

All in all, it was an awesome trip. Beautiful weather, wonderful friends, and a chance to experience "THE CITY."