The first part of our trip would be spent in Washington D.C. Jane and Kelly have never been there before and the last time I was there, Regan was President. We were really looking forward to going to D.C. Our flight was out of John Wayne Airport in Orange County and would arrive in Detroit for a connecting flight. It was the first time I had been on a plane for several years. I forgot how much I hate flying. Anyways when we got to Detroit, we had to wait two hours for our connecting flight. Once we did get on the plane, it turned out that there was a delay because there were thunderstorms in Washington D.C. So we ended up sitting on the runway for another two and a half hours. What a joke! God, how I hate flying. When we finally did arrive, the weather in D.C. was actually pretty nice. We hooked up with Biggie, one of Jane's close friends, who let us stay with him while we were in D.C. He lives in a city called Herndon, just outside of D.C. He was a most gracious host. That definitely helped us cut down on costs.

Well the next day, the weather was excellent...blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Hard

Me and Jane at the Cherry Blossoms

to believe there were thunderstorms the night before. Anyways, we drove into D.C. to do some sightseeing. The streets were a complete mess. D.C. was celebrating the Cherry Blossoms and there was a parade and other festivities going on...so a bunch of streets were closed off with

Me and Jane at the U.S. Capitol

police baracades. After driving around for a while, and making a few illegal turns, we found a spot to park. It was time for some hardcore walking from that point on. The parade, which I've heard a lot of good things about, pretty much sucked to tell you the truth, but the rest of D.C. was very nice. There were a lot of people there, which kind of added to the atmosphere. We took

Me and Jane in front of the National Gallery of Art

pictures in front of the White House, US Capitol, Washington Monument, Department of Treasury, and the National Gallery of Art. Also got to see the IRS building(money sucking leetches) as well as the Bureau of Engraving and Printing(where they make the money). After about four or five hours of walking around, our legs felt like jelly. We were ready to call it a day. We left D.C. and drove to Baltimore for a late lunch. After lunch, we all felt refreshed, so we headed back to D.C. We decided on visiting Arlington National Cemetery, which is a beautiful place...as far as cemeteries go.

The next day wasn't so nice. It was cloudy and raining the whole day. It was also very cold. Jane accidentally left her jacket at Biggie's place so I, being the gentleman that I am, gave

Striking a pose at the Lincoln Memorial

up my jacket. She was concerned though. She contantly kept asking me if I was cold...but fearing she would give me the jacket back, I told her I was fine. In actuality, I nearly froze my ass off. But hey, that's love. Anyhow we went to Jefferson Memorial which is an awesome monument by the way. Unfortunately the front part of the building was under renovation so we couldn't take any pictures from the front. Kinda disappointing. Anyways, we were supposed to meet my friend Darin there, but she never showed up. So we just kept walking around taking pictures. We hooked up with her later at the Lincoln Memorial instead. That was another cool memorial. We met up with Darin and her friend Loht there. It was good seeing her...hadn't seen her in almost a year. We took pictures at the Lincoln Memorial and walked around for a few hours. That was fun. After that, we retired for the day. We had a long day ahead of us...since we would be driving to New York the next day.

The next day, we woke up early. Everyone was excited about going to New York. Especially me. I was born in New Jersey, yet I've never been to New York. Anyways, I had mapped out the shortest route to New York...not to mention the route with the least amount of toll roads. I couldn't believe how many there were. I believe we ended up paying $18 in toll charges.

Well on the way there we stopped off in Philadelphia. I figured since we were already on the East Coast, and driving to New York, I had to stop and check out the Liberty

Me with the Liberty Bell

Bell and try some of Philly's best cheesesteaks. The Liberty Bell was cool. It was just cool for me to be able to stand next to and touch something that is so historic, and played such an important part in this country's history. Enough of that though...the cheesesteaks kicked ass. I had done extensive research on the Internet and asked the opinions of people who had been to Philadelphia, and the end result was that I had to go to Geno's Steaks and Pat's Steaks. The cool thing was that they were right across the street from each other. That made things easy.

Geno's Steaks

I did not want to spend a lot of time driving around Philly...since the area we were already in was not too good of an area. From what I had heard, those two places are the most famous places in Philly for cheesesteaks...and it appeared that they were. Both restaurants had a ton of those autographed 8x10s of celebrities who had eaten there...and I'm not just talking about a few pictures. There were hundreds all over the walls and ceiling. It was cool. The one I thought was the coolest was President Clinton. Now I'm not a fan of Clinton at all, but I think it must be cool for the restaurant that the President of the United States eats there. As for my verdict, Geno's Steaks gets an B, and Pat's Steaks gets an A+. I thoroughly enjoyed Pat's cheesesteak...especially with their spicy chili sauce.

After stuffing ourselves, we continued on our way to New York. It was a crappy drive for the next hour or so. It started pouring rain just as we were leaving Philly...so the traffic was bumper to bumper for a while. And with their tummies full, Jane and Kelly dozed off...I had to blast the radio to keep myself awake. The cheesesteak was starting to take it's toll on me. :) Anyways eventually the weather and traffic cleared up and we were on our way. One observation I made was that I was driving so much faster than everyone else. It's true that California drivers are a lot more aggressive than drivers on the East coast...at least in my opinion. I hope I didn't piss anyone off.

Getting gas was interesting. I stopped off in New Jersey to get some gas. I pulled up next to the pump, got out, and proceeded towards the pump. All of a sudden the gas station attendant comes running towards me yelling, "No pump! No pump! Only full serve!!" Sheesh...what a scene this chump was making. :) I told him, "Fine, I'll move to a self serve pump". And he started yelling some more, "No pump! Only full serve!!" So I told him nevermind, and I drove to another station. I always shake my head when I see people at gas stations using the full serve pumps...lazy asses. :) Well after driving by about ten other gas stations, it was becoming apparent that every gas station over there was full serve only. So I guess it was my turn to feel like a lazy ass.

When we got to New York City, I was surprised by how busy the city was. There was so much activity going on...makes Los Angeles look like a morgue. There were so many cars, buses, and taxis everywhere! The sidewalks and streets were filled with people, who all looked like they were in a hurry...like they were late for the most important meeting of their life, or they just robbed a bank. It was fun but driving in the city but it was crazy though so I quickly found a parking garage and left the car there for the remainder of our stay in New York. I believe they charged $18/day...which was cool with me, cuz I was not going to be driving in NYC any longer. Jane took care of the hotel arrangements. Her cousin works for the Ramada in Manhattan, and she hooked us up with a room for $65, which was kickass considering their normal rates were $120. Another cool thing was that Jane's uncle owned a Thai restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel so he kept inviting us over for our lunches and dinners. The food there was excellent! He let us eat there...whenever we wanted and as much as we wanted...at no charge. That was very nice of him. The free food and the discounted hotel room helped us cut down on costs a lot.

That evening we had dinner at her Uncle's restaurant and then we walked over to Times

Me and Jane at Times Square

Square. I was in awe the whole time. There were neon and flashing lights everywhere...not to mention all sorts of cool advertisments and billboards. The Cup O Noodles advertisement there was awesome. It was a huge ass Cup O Noodles cup sitting at the top of this tower and it has steam coming out of the cup. Anyways, Times Square sort of reminded me of Las Vegas with all the flashing lights and stuff. We took a lot of pictures here. It was probably my favorite place in New York. I wish we would have spent more time there.

The next day we woke up and purchased our Metro Cards. We figured since nobody wanted to drive, we would get around via subway. At first I was so confused by the subway maps. We got lost a few times trying to get from one spot to the next...but eventually we got the hang of it. I actaully enjoyed riding the subway. I think the whole system of the subways in New York kicks ass. It's very convenient and it's cool being able to get from one part of the City to the next so quickly. I think everyone on the subway had to know we were tourists. Because nobody else on the subway looked like they were enjoying the ride nearly as much as we were. :) One interesting thing we did see on the subway was at one of the stations. One guy in a business suit was walking down a steep flight of steps when this lady who was in a hurry(like everyone else in the city) bumped into him and knocked him down some steps. Well I guess he ended up hitting his face on the handrail. His face was a bloody mess. He was crying at the same time screaming and cursing at this lady. She tried to help him up but he just yelled at her to leave him alone. Freaky.

Well our first stop was at the World Trade Center.

Jane and Kelly atop the World Trade Center

Actually that wasn't the first stop since we got lost, but it was the first planned stop. This building was pretty awesome. We paid the $12 to take the elevator to the top where the observation deck was...110 stories. The view from up there was absolutely phenomenal. From the top you could see all of Manhattan as well as three other states. We were really lucky...since it was very windy outside, all the clouds were blown away. It was clear blue skies, which made the view so nice. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours...just taking it all in.

Our next stop was the Statue of Liberty. I was really looking forward to going there. It was one of the many historic monuments that I have wanted to go to for a long time. After getting off the subway at Battery Park, we bought our tickets for the ferry that would take us over to the Island. Then we grabbed some

Me in front of the Statue of Liberty

hotdogs from a nearby vendor. They were pretty damn good hotdogs. :) Anyways, when we got to Liberty Island, we decided to wait in line to go inside the statue. There were two lines. There was the elevator line that would only go up to the top of the pedestal(that the statue stands on). The other line was for the steps to take you to the top of the statue...up to the crown. Well I figured, we came all the way to New York, we might as well go all the way, up into the crown. I also figured that the line for the steps would be faster since most people would choose the elevator route. What a mistake that was. It was something like 324 steps to the top. Only problem was that the line moved so damn slow. We waited about an hour and a half and we only made it up about 80 or 90 steps. I don't know what was going on up there, but we had lost all patience. We jumped out of line and decided to just go outside on the pedestal deck. I was kind of bummed. We really wanted to go into the crown, but there were other things we wanted to see before it got too dark. The view from there was still very nice. We took some nice pictures.

We were getting pretty tired so after that we made one last stop before heading back to the hotel for a rest. We jumped on the subway and headed back into the city. We stopped at Washington Square. Me and Jane watch the TV show Friends all the time

Me at Washington Square

and they always show the stucture at Washington Square so we had to check it out. :) It was pretty cool there. There were a lot of people hanging out there...playing checkers, kicking hacky sacks, sleeping, reading, rollerbladding, walking their dogs, etc. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but Jane and Kelly were pretty tired. So we just headed back to the hotel, took a rest, and then ate some dinner...at the Thai restaurant of course. :) Then we called it a day and went back to the hotel. Later that night by brother Paul came by. He was in town for an interview the next day with some Investment Bank, so he crashed with us for the night. He was up and gone the next morning before we got up, but we were to hook up with him later for dinner.

The next day we didn't have too much planned. We were all kind of tired. We decided to jump on the subway and head down to Wall Street. That was pretty interesting. Business men running around everywhere...with lame tourists like us getting in their way. At least that's how I saw it. Anyways after snapping a few pics, we took a tour of the New York Stock Exchange. The trading pit was crazy. Stock brokers running everywhere, pieces of paper scattered everywhere on the floor, all sorts of phones ringing. Unfortunately they forbid the taking of any pictures...that sucked!

After that, we decided to take the subway over to Brooklyn to check out Coney Island. My friend Rose lives in Brooklyn and she's always said good things about it. Boy was I surprised when the subway was passing through the city. Graffiti and garbage everywhere. Now I know this probably wasn't a good indication of how Brooklyn was like, but it was my first impression and it wasn't a good one. Anyways I was looking forward to that since I've heard good things about Coney Island. To my surprise, the whole boardwalk was dead. That was extremely disappointing. All the rides were closed along with all the restaurants. This would have been perfect if I

Nathans

were looking for some peace and relaxation, which is hard to find in New York. But I wanted to have fun...at least ride Cyclone, the famous wooden rollercoaster. Disappointed, we went for a stroll and tried to find Nathan's Famous Frankfurters, another place I had researched on the Internet. We found that place and it was very good...at least we didn't come all the way to Brooklyn for nothing. Leaving Brooklyn was a pain in the ass though. We tried to find our way back to the subway and got lost. We took one wrong turn, followed by another. The neighborhood we were in was not a pleasant one. I swear I thought we were gonna get killed. Finally after about 30 minutes we found the subway station. Even the station was scary. I went to use the mens room, and the guy pissing at the urinal next to me was totally paranoid. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, he kept looking over his shoulder like he was about to get mugged. And then as I was washing my hands, this guy in the stall started screaming. I was thinking, "Shit...I gotta get the hell outta here now!!" Sorry for the language, but I was scared. :)

We got back on the subway and I think once we got back to Manhattan, we were all relieved. We proceeded to check out Rockerfeller Plaza, which we were all too tired to appreciate. We also checked out some shops on 5th Ave. Another cool thing we saw was an incident with a taxi cab. We saw one guy in a business suit run up to this taxi that was at a traffic light, open the door, and jump into the back seat. Well this taxi driver flipped out. He jumped out of the cab and started yelling at the man. He opened the door, grabbed the man, and basically threw the guy out of his cab, then got back in. Well, the business man wasn't too happy with that, so as the cab started pulling away, the man kicked the cab and put a nice dent in the door. The cab driver slammed on the brakes, got out and started coming after the man. Well the business man started walking away, so the taxi driver spit on him. :) Once again, if you were there, you could tell we were the tourists...we were the only ones standing there looking at this whole incident. Anyways, a few hours later, we hooked up with my brother Paul and a longtime family friend Janin. Janin lived in Manhattan so she knew where all the good places to eat were. She took us to this nice Italian restaurant. Very good food, but very pricey. Paul was grateful enough for letting him crash with us, so he picked up the dinner tab. My brother kicks ass. :)

The next day, we swung by Central Park for a brief walk before heading back to Washington D.C. I was too tired, and I just wanted to head back to D.C. and rest for our flight home the next day. The drive back was a long and boring one...one that Jane and Kelly spent sleeping most of the way. Once we got back to D.C. we ate dinner and hit the sack.

The flight home the next day was a quick one. We slept most of the way home. We were totally exhausted from this trip. We were supposed to go to Vegas the day after we came back, but we were too tired. But we did have a lot of fun. This was probably the funnest trip I've ever taken...one that I will remember for a long time to come.