Pictures from Boston

Boston Common





Site of Boston Massacre, in front of Old State House





Salem Witch Museum





The House of the Seven Gables

Pictures from NYC

Me and Lady Liberty





Ellis Island





Ground Zero





Central Park





View from Empire State Building





Me and Triceratops at Museum of Natural History

Home at Last

I'm back in St. Louis and spending my day in my apartment. :) Ok first I should run down the last day in NYC...

Well Wednesday morning I boarded the train for NYC and spent a nice four hours looking at pretty New England towns again. It was a nice day (because my travel days were nice days, not the days I spent sightseeing) so I had some nice views. Julia had to work when I got back, so I killed time visiting the Museum of Natural History looking at dinosaurs. I don't think I'd ever seen dinosaurs before so that was cool. Finally Julia and I met up at a small café and she gave me directions to the theatre where I was seeing "Movin' Out" and we agreed to meet up after our shows (she was seeing something off Broadway). But since there were about two hours between then and the show, she suggested I just hang out in the Starbucks around the corner for awhile, which I did.

"Movin' Out" was a pretty good show. It was fun hearing the old Billy Joel songs and seeing the dancing. The play itself was different... no dialogue (or hardly any of it). It just let the songs tell the story. Pretty cool.

So then Julia and I met at the Starbucks I was at earlier, and then we went back to her place. I got packed and went to bed, and then yesterday morning got up at 6, got ready and walked my crap all the way down Church Avenue to catch the subway. Caught the plane, met up with my dad, went to lunch at Steak and Shake, and spent most of the rest of the day at my parents' house doing laundry.

I particularly enjoyed the part in my car again, singing my head off to my music again. :)

Now I have two days to take it easy before going to work on Sunday, then I have Monday off, then I have two days of training, and then it's the weekend again. Still have some time before things totally return to normal. And then it's the countdown to the holidays. :)

I need to buy a new phone charger though. I think I left mine at Ju's. And I need to make a photo album of my pictures so I can show them off. :)

Salem

Three words: Wet. Cold. Windy.

That sums up my experience of Salem. It rained all day with gusting wind that kept flipping my umbrella inside and out. I did manage to visit three attractions: the Salem Witch Museum, the House of Seven Gables, and the New England Pirate Museum. Seven Gables and the Pirate Museum were the best. I bought a copy of the book "House of the Seven Gables" AT the house, so I'm excited to read that. I also bought a copy of "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire in Salem. Yeah, you can say it. I'm a dork.

The worst thing to happen was right as I was about to get on the train for Boston, I realized I did not have my cellphone. The last place I remembered seeing it was at the House of the Seven Gables, in the cafe. So I tried to stay as cool and collected as possible as I marched myself CLEAR across town, in the wind and rain, back to the House. Luckily for me, they had it. I was so happy. I asked them to call a cab for me back to the train station because I was so sick of walking. The cab cost a mere $5 so that was good. Anyways. I guess that was the stupid thing that I did on this trip. I do something stupid on every trip I take. I'll just watch my stuff more closely this time.

Heading back to NYC this morning...

Freedom Trail

Ok, who was it that said it only takes 3-4 hours to walk the Freedom Trail? I roll my eyes in your general direction and call your description a SILLY thing. Or maybe I am a silly thing. It took me ALL DAY. Well, from the time I set out (10:30 am) to the time when I had to turn back because it was going to be getting dark soon (5:00 pm). I hadn't even made it to the end yet.

But still, it was overall a VERY cool and interesting day. I feel like I've been living the American Revolution all day. Of course it was a subject that I was very fascinated by in junior high and high school, so I've been waiting a long time to go out there and see everything. I paid for admission to the three museums (Old South Meeting House, Old State House, and the Paul Revere House) and it was well worth it. The Old State House was probably the best. In there you're assaulted with descriptions of the Boston Massacre, which happened right outside the building. I did get to see the actual engraving Paul Revere did of the event which I've seen in history books countless times. And speaking of him, his house was pretty neat. Not too much to see though, just recreations of 18th century rooms.

I think the high point, though, was my little stop for lunch: I had lunch at the Green Dragon Tavern, which is right along the trail on a narrow little street. Very cool little place. It dates back to the Revolution; in fact it says that patriots met there to plot their uprisings against the British. So I found that very cool and fascinating. I ordered a drink and jumbo shrimp. Mmmm, I love eating seafood near a coast. They were HUGE and oh so good. I sat and did postcards while eating. Across the street was a tavern called the Bell in Hand and it had a sign posted outside saying it was the oldest tavern in America (est. 1795.) The Green Dragon stated in its information that it was founded in 1657. So uh... didn't 1657 come before 1795?? I don't understand. Then my guide book says there's a pub called Warren's Tavern that also tries to proclaim itself the oldest tavern in America (est. 1780.) Sounds like to me that the Green Dragon has it. Oh well. Anyways, I highly recommend it.

I saw three really old cemetaries too: King's Chapel, Granary Burying Ground, and Copp's Burying Hill. Some famous graves I saw among those included: Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, the victims of the Boston Massacre, and Robert Newman, the guy who hung the lanterns in the Old North Church ("one if by land, two if by sea"). Very interesting.

Like I said, I turned back before making it to Bunker Hill. My guide book says that the Battle of Bunker Hill wasn't actually fought there in the first place, so I figured why bother. I could see it from the point where I turned around, so I took a picture of it. I had stopped right after getting a good shot of the U.S.S. Constitution. Then I high-tailed it back to the nearest subway station (about a half hour brisk walk) and came home. Er, back to my hostel. Now I'm fairly sore, because that brisk walk involved hills and such, and I know I'm going to be even more sore tomorrow. Gonna need some Advil.

So tomorrow I'm gonna try to do Salem. Hurricane Wilma is headed out to sea so I should be ok. Although it's still supposed to rain tomorrow. Oh well. It's been raining the whole time practically anyways. Well today wasn't so bad, just occasional misting. The only downpour happened while I was in Green Dragon, so I lucked out there. Tomorrow's going to be worse though. Oh well. But you know what, the weather on this trip has always done the OPPOSITE of what the weathermen forecast. It was supposed to be sunny Fri and Sat and it rained, and it was supposed to be rainy on Sunday and it was sunny. So we'll see. I guess it could go either way.

More later! Good night!

Catching Up

I don't have a lot of time on this computer so I'll sum up yesterday and today as quick as I can. Yesterday: Walked the Brooklyn Bridge in the morning (it was cold and rainy again, oh well), went shopping at Lush, and went for a walk in Central Park. Visited Belvedere Castle in Central Park, so I got my obligatory castle experience in. :) Next we went to a bar near there called Blondie's, where a bunch of Iowa fans were watching the college football game (Julia's friend Nina is a big Iowa fan). So we watched that and then we got to see Mizzou beat Nebraska (yeah!!!). Then me and Ju went up in the Empire State Building. She had a VIP pass and that was AWESOME. We bypassed all the lines. It took us maybe 5 minutes to get up to the top whereas for most people I'm sure it could take 2 hours or so. We felt so special. It was cloudy, but the view was still pretty awesome.

Then we came down from there, got dinner at Burritoville, then went to Nina's place, then went out to a place called Sing-Sing (you get your own karaoke room) and we didn't get home till 4 in the morning. Very fun, but I was VERY tired and not happy about it.

This morning I got up at 7:30 (I got about 2 hours of sleep in all) and got ready to head off for Boston. First I stopped by St. Patrick's Cathedral to attend the 10:15 mass (gorgeous). Then I caught my Amtrak train into Boston. Hopped the subway and then got on a bus. While on the bus a woman noticed I had asked about Church Street, and she asked me if I was going to this hostel that I'm staying at. I said yeah and she said she could walk me there because it was just around the corner from where she lives. So she told me which stop to get off at and then walked me to the door. It was not where I thought it was so I'm very fortunate she was there and nice enough to show me!!

This hostel is pretty cool. I was in one room at first but it was freezing and right behind the front desk (I heard everything they were saying) so the guy moved me into a room upstairs that's much warmer. Right now I have the room to myself. Interesting. So now I'm in the lounge watching the baseball game... pretty cool. Tomorrow I'm hitting the Freedom Trail. Will report on that later!

Day 2

Well today has been successful so far! This morning I "slept late".. meaning I got up at the time I was supposed to leave, 6:40. I was freaking out about whether or not I was going to make it on time. I left as fast as I could, hopped the subway, and arrived at Whitehall street. Then I wandered around the wrong way for awhile looking for the ferry station. There was a place that said STATEN ISLAND FERRY in huge letters, but I didn't think that was it. Finally I started following signs for "Pier A" and they led to the entrance of Battery Park, and I found it from there.

I walked to the entrance of Castle Clinton where you buy ferry tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and there was a small group of tourists clustered in front of the doors. So I went to stand behind them, and I swear, no more than two minutes went by and suddenly a HUGE CROWD of tourists showed up. The line was wrapped around the building within the next ten minutes, maybe. I was really lucky. And then I was really glad I HADN'T gotten there at 7:30 as planned, because I would've been just standing there for a long time. I got there at the exact moment I needed to. So, of course I was one of the first passengers on the first ferry, and I could move a lot faster being by myself, because I don't have to stop and wait for my group to go through security. I felt a smug sense of eliteness, being a tourist by myself. I felt like that's a step above being a tourist in a crowd, for some reason. Anyways.

I had forgotten to ask for a monument pass for the Statue of Liberty, so all I could really do was walk around it. That bummed me out... the monument reopened on my birthday last year, after closing as a result of 9/11. But I couldn't see it. Oh well. I was the only person on the walkway around the statue at first. It was really weird. Just me and Lady Liberty. I called Tracie because it just felt so odd. Finally I ran into a couple of girls and they had me take a picture of them and I had them take a picture of me. Cool.

Ellis Island was a little bit cooler, I think, because of all its history. My goal there was to find the statue of Annie Moore, who was the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island along with her two younger brothers. We saw her statue at Cobh in Ireland (where she left from) and they had told us there that there was another statue of her at Ellis. So it was my mission to find it. I walked all through the museum (I get impatient in museums... I usually don't want to read everything, just look at stuff) and I couldn't find it. I walked all around the perimeter of the building and couldn't find it. Finally I asked someone and she said "It's in the 'Peak Immigration Years' exhibit." So I went there and still couldn't find it. I was about to give up when finally I found it. It was different from the one in Cobh, so maybe that's why I didn't see it at first, but oh well. Mission accomplished. I took lots of other pictures there too, don't worry. :)

After arriving back at New York, I wandered around Battery Park waiting to meet up with Julia. After about maybe half an hour, we met up and headed for Chinatown to have lunch. We ate at a place called the Green Bow and her friend Nina and Nina's friend Laura showed up. (Laura is also visiting NY from out of town. She arrived last night, like me, and is leaving Sunday, like me {although I plan to come back Wed.} and is here for the first time, like me. Cool!) anyways after lunch Julia and I went to pick up the Empire State Building pass from her friend who works on Broadway, so I got to walk through Times Square and see Broadway. Then we headed for Ground Zero. Very sobering sight. The Cross at Ground Zero is still there but there is nothing mentioned about it anywhere on the plaques, which I thought was strange. I took lots of pictures of the area.

After that Ju and I headed back home to relax a bit and we'll go back out later and meet up with Nina and Laura for drinks or something. We might do the Empire State Building tonight too. It rained all day today (contrary to what the weather was originally predicted to be) and it's going to rain all day tomorrow too so I don't know when we'll have a good chance to have a good view. So I guess it doesn't matter when we go. Tomorrow's plan is to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, go to Central Park, and maybe see more of Times Square, and do the Empire State Building if we don't tonight. Should be good.

Feeling pretty good about the trip so far. Still a little nervous about going to Boston by myself but I'll manage. I've come this far, so I can push myself to go a little farther. Although Hurricane Wilma is headed up the East Coast and looks like it'll be in the New England vicinity by Wednesday. NOT cool. Pray that it doesn't affect me that much...

First Day in NYC

I made it by myself to New York City, all the way to Julia's subway station. I'm pretty proud of myself, being as directionally-challenged as I am, normally. Julia met me at the station and we walked to her apartment, which is pretty cute. Now we're just relaxing before we go have dinner... Mexican tonight. Mmmmm.

This morning, however, I was just a total wreck... I couldn't eat all of my muffin that the stewardess gave me on the first flight because my stomach was doing flip flops. But I was surprisingly calm when we landed at LaGuardia. Probably because by then I was so tired. But anyways I got off the plane, called Ju, found the Q33 bus, took it (almost) to the end, walked to the subway station (which wouldn't have been such a walk if I had gotten off at the CORRECT bus station, but I digress) and hopped the subway to her street. Not so bad at all. What was I so scared for, right?? :)

Tomorrow I am going to try to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on my own, then Julia is going to meet me after I get done with that and we'll go see some more sights together. She has a friend who has a VIP pass to go up into the Empire State Building, so how awesome is that? We don't have to wait in line. :) We already have tickets to musicals for next Wednesday (she's seeing some Irish drama, perfectly befitting her, and I am seeing "Movin Out"), totally excited for that. I can't believe already I have Broadway tickets. :) Saturday we're going to Central Park and some other stuff. And of course Sunday I leave for Boston. Little nervous for that but it might be really fun to go by myself. It was pretty cool riding the subway by myself here, so maybe it'll be cool there as well. We'll see.

So anyways, I guess we're going to dinner soon and then I don't know what later... maybe meet up with some friends of hers. Fun times. Will update more later!

Travelblogue

The date for when I leave for New York is rapidly approaching! I have been gathering "essentials" and getting myself ready for a while now, and I think it's gonna be a really fun time. This is my first time being mostly independent while on a trip, and I'm looking forward to see how that works for me. I may love it or hate it. I may find the freedom of exploring the city on my own exhilarating. Or if I hate it, I never have to do it again. So I'm interested to see how it turns out.

So be sure to tune in here to read about what I'm doing; I'll be posting here as often as I can throughout the trip. When I first started Open Seas, I wanted it to become a sort of travelogue for me to document my journeys, and this will be the first time it'll be used for its true purpose!

So on Thursday, I have to make it into the city all on my own, on two planes, a bus, a subway, and finally on foot. I can't wait to see what the New York subway is like. The next day after that will be visiting Liberty & Ellis Islands, Ground Zero, Times Square, and the Empire State Building, for a start. (I hope I can fit all that into one day! I tend to move pretty quickly, so hopefully I can.)

And Julia, I can't wait to see you! We are gonna have a BLAST!! (And don't worry, nothing else comes before seeing the Cardinals in the World Series...) :)

Welcome Captcha

At the suggestions of Jason and Tanya, Captcha has been installed on my blog. Hopefully that will work to keep most of the spam away... I got another spammer since the last time I was here. Argh. If that doesn't work, I will have to try something else.

UNWanted: Blog Spam

All of a sudden my blog has become the target of several commenters out to only promote their own sites. I've already tried putting a line in my template to keep web crawlers away but it hasn't worked. For some reason they seem to like this post, which I posted almost a year ago. I don't mind an occasional comment now and then from a well-wishing stranger, but since I have had so many in such a short time, and all promoting some service or other on their own sites, I imagine something is up.

Blog spammers, stay the hell away. I don't want to look at your dating sites or astrology sites or even Halloween costume sites. Just stay away. Don't make me have to password-protect this blog... I hear you can do that and I just might have to, even though I don't want to.

And just watch. In five minutes this post will have comments from people with some garage sale auction site or geneology site or whatever.