Denver, CO to New York, NY

Today my mom and I arrived in New York, New York. We made it through the Denver TSA Security fairly quickly, and got to our gate with plenty of time. We boarded the plane without issue, but I had the fortune of sitting in front of a baby who kicked my seat throughout the flight and screamed when she wasn’t kicking. (Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much of one.) I was able to plug in my headphones and sleep through a lot of it.

Welcome to New York

We arrived in New York but the jetway was having issues so we had to wait another half an hour for the maintenance crew to come and fix the jetway. By the time we got to baggage claim (we were at the back of the plane, so we were essentially last), there were only a few bags left. We got our bags and headed to the taxi queue. While in line, we got our first introduction to New York. The dispatcher who told people which taxi to go to got in an argument with one of the taxi drivers. Apparently the taxi driver had done something wrong or annoying. F-bombs were flying around between them and one guy in line said “I’m home now”. We eventually got a taxi, but the traffic between the LaGuardia Airport and Penn Station in Manhattan where we are staying was atrocious. It took about 45 minutes to go like 9 miles.

Our Hotel

We are staying in an old hotel called Hotel Pennsylvania. It is right across from Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan. There is a subway station close by as well. When we arrived, there were about 100 people in line to check in and when we had finally gotten checked in, the line was still just as long. I guess that’s what happens when your hotel is 18 stories high and covers almost an entire city block.

Out on the Town

After dropping our stuff off at the room, the first order of business was to get food in our stomachs. We hadn’t eaten since before boarding our flight in DIA. We wandered around a bit and took some pictures. I have decided that every single building here is tall. Even unimpressive buildings are tall. I wonder if being around tall buildings makes people’s egos tall… That would explain a lot.

We ended up at a pizza restaurant because that seemed like an appropriate thing to do considering New York is famous for its pizza. It was very similar to Garlic Knot pizza back home which makes sense because Garlic Knot boasts that it s New York style pizza.

We then walked up towards Time Square. That place is pretty cool. The pictures do not do it justice. If you stand in the middle of Time Square (a feat which is in and of itself difficult with all of the people moving about) you can see two lighted billboard stacks and there are screens all around the outside of the square as well. We walked around soaking up the sights and took a few pictures. (Actually, I didn’t take any pictures because my phone died. Good job me.)

We then headed back to the hotel where I am writing this now. Tomorrow we are getting up early to go out to see the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island.