USA: New York

We were super excited to return to the United States. We remembered how nice it was compared to all the places we had been. However, we had a strange arrival. First, the flight attendents on our American Airlines flight were really grumpy they kept getting upset at all the passengers because they were short staffed... Then when we arrived at JFK in NY we felt more like we were in a forgein country than the US. It was a strange feeling being home but feeling like we were still overseas... Well, we ended up having a great night eating Baked Potatoes & Chili for $4 total at Wendy's and staying at what turned out to be a really nice hotel.

The next day was action packed. We first went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Coralee had never been to New York so I, Jason, got to show here around since I had been once before. Oh, I forgot to mention that it was about 40 degrees and that there was snow everywhere. A Ranger asked us if we were going to go inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. We told him we were a little too late and they had already given away all those passes for the day. He handed us two and said enjoy! We had a great time and although Coralee wondered if it was going to be worth it to see the Statue up close, she later said that it totally was.

We also went to Wall Street and tried to go on the NYSE Tour that I went on in Aug. 2001. However, since Sept. 11 they have shut down a lot of things, and this was one of them.

We went to the World Trade Center Site and read the events of the day on the boards. We also saw that they seemed to be in the beginning stages of preparing to build the new "Freedom Tower" on the old site. It was cool seeing what they have planned.

From there we took the Subway to Central Park. We walked through the park and Coralee was freezing. I was cold too. We saw the Trump Towers, the Rockerfeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Today Show Studio & in the morning we also saw Macy's from the movie Miracle on 34th St.

That night we went to Time's Square. Coralee was really impressed with all the lights and all the people. She also loved seeing all the Broadway Play signs. We ended up eating Mexican food at Chevy's at Time's Square. It was a really fun filled first full day back in the USA!

The next day we went to the Empire State Building. We thought about going to the Observation Deck but it was $18 each so I couldn't bear to pay it. We ended up walking about 30 minutes from there in 26 degree weather to the United Nations. It was so cold that we both bought New York beanies and knit gloves.

We went on the United Nations tour and saw the Security Council room, the General Assembly Hall and a few other rooms and displays. The statistics on military spending vs. feeding the poor and providing education and clean water are staggering. It would only cost about 20% of the total world defense budget to provide food, housing, clean water, education, etc. for the billions of people who lack those things worldwide!

We took the train back to Secacus where our hotel was to pick up our luggage and we went out to meet my cousins Tom & Kim. Tom was there just as planned, even though we hadn't been in contact with them for about a week. We got to see Amber, their little girl. When we arrived my mom called and asked us if we were OK. Both our parents had been worried about us since we forgot to call them when we arrived.

We had such an awesome time eating dinner and seeing Tom, Kim & Amber. They prepared a feast for us and treated us like royalty. Coralee had never met them and had a great time getting to know Kim. As Coralee says, "She's such a sweetheart." And I had a good time hanging out with Tom. He took me to play soccer in an indoor game that night at like 1opm. Tom is really good and I was a little out of my league I think.

Well the next day they loaded us up with tons of goodies: Girl Scout cookies, Doritos, H20, etc. Tom helped me figure out the best way to get to the airport from their house. We were able to take a train back to Penn Station. Then we caught the Subway to Queens and caught a local MTA bus to the Airport. It was fast and cheep! We were really glad that we got to stop in New York and see the sights and especially glad that we got to see Tom & Kim.