Finally back to Day 3 of the East Coast Trip

Let's just ignore the fact that it has been close to 6 months since I have last posted about the trip we took in spring. Yes, moving right along... So it's Monday morning and it seems that NYC does not know the difference between a week-end and week-day, everything looked the same, it was just as busy, just as crowded and just as wonderful. Ashlee and I were kind of sad to know we would be leaving the big apple to continue our trip southward.

We decided to use our Double Decker bus pass to its full extent and grabbed the bus that went up the West Side of the island of Manhattan, then to Harlem and then by the Museums. Ashlee especially enjoyed this part of the bus trip because she was beginning to really appreciate the architecture in the city. She took a lot of pictures that I have been enjoying as a screensaver on my workstation. We passed Central Park again, kept going north and got a nice view of Grant's Tomb. Then we headed into Harlem where I saw the funniest Muslim friendly restaurant claim on the marquee that there is "no pork on my fork". About ready for lunch ourselves we got off the bus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yeah, that’s a bad idea on a Monday. Many Museums in NYC are closed on Monday (who's Sabbath is that?). So we started our walk.

We initially wanted to look for some food and just kept on walking and walking all over the Central East Side. Seriously we walked for several miles and we were getting sick of it. Especially because at my insistence we did not take the stroller, so we were carrying the kids. They became uncomfortable and so did we. We knew we had to go back to the airport and get the rental van before 5 but we weren’t sure how we would do it. It was a logistical nightmare. Our bags were back at the hotel and our van was in Queens. Plus the kids’ car seats were at the hotel as well. After some frustrating deliberation we took the subways and trains out to JFK and arrived in time to get our Van. We had to rent car seats because the Renee and Lance were obviously with us.

This was the part of the trip where I broke out the not so secret weapon of modern travel. The GPS. Oh yes, drive like a local even if you have never in your life been somewhere, you know as much if not more that the guy that has lived here for 30 years. I borrowed my dad's Roadmate 700, and have to mention that after this trip I purchased my own. I can't recommend travelling without one. So we headed back into the city to get all of our gear at the hotel on Times Square. Seriously driving with that GPS made what looked like a total nightmare seem really fun.

From there we went to get Sushi, which I admit was entirely selfish of me, But it was tuna night and I was getting a deal. This Place was called East Sushi. It’s a Kaiten sushi bar which means the sushi passes you on a conveyor belt. I think it would have been no big deal to eat there, but they were playing music like it was some European discothèque, and I could barely hear myself think. Let alone hear what Ashlee was thinking. We were seated after about 20 minutes, and ordered food for Lance and Ashlee and I just ate the stuff coming off the belt. Ashlee’s mood changed quickly as some lady made some weird comment to Ashlee about having a baby with her. It became impossible to communicate and we tried to leave as quickly as possible.

We loaded up the Van again and set the GPS to take us to Gettysburg PA. 210 Miles South East of Manhattan. We drove through the night and ended up in the hotel after 2 am due to a few construction delays. Something I hear newer GPS units will be able to warn you of. This was easily the worst day of the trip (still beats the best day at work), and we were glad it was over.