Tall and Short

This summer Southwest had one of their really good sales on tickets which included flights from Birmingham to New York City for $200 round trip. I immediately called my friend Amanda to see if she would want to take a trip to NYC, and she did!

Not only did we have cheap plane tickets, but we also had a free place to stay. My brother-in-law, Matt, lives in NYC and just moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan. He and his roommates were so kind to allow us to stay with them.

Another important pre-trip note before I get started on the trip: About a week after we purchased plane tickets, Amanda and I both realized that the Red Sox-Yankees series was going to be happening in NYC while we were there. We both agreed that would be our big event of the trip. Most people spend money on Broadway tickets - we spent money on baseball tickets.

So now on to our trip...

JP was able to take us to the airport on Thursday September 22. Our flight left around noon. We had a short layover in Baltimore where we got McDonald's for lunch. It was while we were in Baltimore that we learned that Matt was not going to be at his apartment as planned when we arrived. He had a job interview and they wanted him to come to one of their events that night. But, Matt made sure we knew what to do during our first few hours in the city before we met up with him.

Once we landed in NYC, we chose to take a cab from LaGuardia to Manhattan. Matt had given us directions to use the bus and subway systems, but to these two NYC novices they seemed quite complicated. So, we opted for the cab despite it being more expensive.

Our cab driver dropped us off at the intersection we had told him too. He was actually very nice and helped us figure out what building was Matt's apartment building. After finally finding the entrance to the lobby, Amanda and I left our baggage with the doorman. Matt had told him we would be doing this so he was expecting us.

Once we were luggage free, we started on our first journey into the city alone. There was just so much to take in. The last time I was in NYC, I stayed in a hotel that was in more of a touristy part of town. This time we were definitely in a more local part of town. We kept seeing middle school aged children walking home from school. I kept wanting to say, "where are your parents?" because I can't imagine be by myself in NYC at the age of 12!

Amanda and I walked our way to Central Park and back, stopping at H&M. We ended up at Shake Shack where I enjoyed a wonderful hamburger and milkshake. Just talking about them makes me want one now!