New Jersey/New York

Chad had a medical conference in New Jersey last week and I decided to go along for a little vacation for myself. I went for the one last year and had a decent time, so I was looking forward to this one. It was totally different! I finally understand "location, location, location" and I have also discovered I am not a big city kind of girl. Our hotel was just in the wrong place. It was in the loop of a freeway, so walking anywhere was out of the question. We didn't have a car, because the roads are all toll roads and parking costs you way too much money. So that left me with the hotel shuttle, which went to 3 places: 2 shopping centers in NJ and the NJ train station. So if I wanted food, it either had to be the hotel's food, or wherever the shuttle would take me. So one day I decided to pick up lunch for us by going to one of the shopping centers in NJ. I was dropped off at the "Outlet Mall" and discovered 80% of it was closed and boarded up, and it was all spread out over block and blocks and blocks. After 2 hours, I never did find a restaurant of any kind and went back to the hotel. Chad and I  went to the other NJ drop-off one night and there were finally some food establishments, but the shopping was all on the other side of the freeway that ran through the middle of it and some or the places were closing at 8pm. So if we wanted to do anything, it was going to be New York City. Which meant taking the shuttle, the train, and the subway.

Notice that the train list doesn't tell you what track any of the trains are leaving from

The NY subway system. SOOO dirty! I even saw a rat!

We got in on Saturday evening, and decided to go see Central Park while we still had some daylight. Our first mass transit experience. We had a guy on a bike pull us around the park for a short tour, ate dinner, and went back to the hotel. Travel time is so long that anytime we went into the city, we didn't get to bed til midnight.

Central Park - there's a concert going on behind us. Too bad we didn't have time to watch!

Free Tango lessons by the Sheakespeare statue in Central Park.

Sunday was Chad's first day of lectures and my chance to recover from a long day of travel and a late night out and about. Monday I did some exploring of the hotel and then Monday night we went to see "The Phantom of the Opera." I was really looking forward to this iconic piece of theatre, but I thought it was horrible! The whole story is just creepy, and none of the characters had any redeeming qualities or were likable in any way. And the music was just loud noise most of the time. And the seats in the theatre were tiny! But the set was gorgeous and the costumes were good. That's about it for me. I guess some of the problem with it was the directing and acting - the characters really should have been more liable, I guess, and the songs should not have felt like confusing noise when more than one person was singing. But yeah - SO not a fan!

Waiting for Phantom to start.

Tuesday was my "Outlet Mall" adventure, which was kind of scary (sections blocked off by police, workmen with jackhammers everywhere, boards and bars over closed shop after closed shop, being all alone and no chance of rescue for 2 hours) so I didn't want to venture out at all on Wednesday (it was raining anyway), but it really would have done some good. The Argentine soccer team showed up to stay in our hotel, including the famous Lionel Messi, and things got crazy from there. Fans were suddenly coming out of the woodwork, riding the elevators up and down in hopes of catching a glimspe of a player, the pool being blocked off for a "private party" every day for several hours, fans and reporters crowding the lobby, police security everywhere and anytime the players moved about, sections of the hotel were blocked off, like the entrance or the elevators. We did manage to get out that night and see a movie at the other "shopping center."

Crazy Fans in the lobby

On Thursday the hotel became even more crowded with the arrival of a medical school graduation party. So Chad's group was 700 people, then the Argentine craziness and a medical school to top everything off. Hotel service continued to go down - overcrowded shuttles, running out of food items on the menu, long waits and crowded rides on the elevators, needing new room keys over and over, and on and on. I was glad to get out Thursday night for Medieval Times. :) This is the third castle I've been to now! And it's the second time our knight has won! And the place was very crowded this time, with 2 junior high groups in attendance (they weren't half as loud and crazy as the soccer fans in our hotel.) But the taxi ride (we went 3 miles from our hotel) was $20 each way. Now you know why we were taking the shuttle.
The best part of the trip though, was going to the Manhattan Temple on Friday night. It's right in the heart of downtown Manhattan, and a totally unique experience. It's located on 6 floors, baptistry on the 1st, dunno about the 2nd and 3rd (probably laundry and offices), clothing rental on 4, endowment rooms on 5 and sealing rooms on 6. The most interesting thing is that no stained glass windows are visible from outside, but there were beautiful stained glass "windows" everywhere and lit in such a way that you would have thought they looked outside. The endowment room was only big enough for 40 people and when we caught last session at 8:30pm, we were the only married couple in attendance. That made us the witness couple, which was a little funny with Chad having to help me up everytime after kneeling. But never have I seen so poignantly how the temple is a refuge from the world and a holy place than there in New York City. It took almost an hour and a half to get there, and you come up out of the dirty, underground subway to a street crowded with rude people and angry drivers and then enter this clean, beautiful, calm building filled with the Spirit. It was amazing!

Can't read the church name, but this temple does have an Angel Moroni on top. :)



Notice the cars going by behind Chad - and the temple is part of a large building, so there's a museum on one side and a department store or something on the other.

We got back at midnight, showered and packed, set the alarm for 3 hours later since we had a taxi to the airport to catch at 4am! Saturday was exhausting! But we were soooooo glad to be home!!!!!

And then a windstorm took out the neighbors' tree, crashing it into our fence. Still better to deal with than NY/NJ!