It really does only take 10.5 hours!

After work last Friday, Sean, Mike Doyle, and I decided to jet off to New York City for the 4th. Christian had bene bugging us about coming, and we convinced Doyle at the last minute to come along. The drive from South Bend went pretty quick. Even so, we still pulled into New York at about 4am, a little delirious from the drive. Nevertheless, we woke up at ten am for the World cup game and left for a tour of the City (apparently Staten Island, where Christian lives, does not count as “the city”). Chris showed us Staten Island’s AA stadium that had a high school all-star game going on. There were a bunch of firefighters and NYPD sitting in the mostly empty stands, waiting for their next call. For some reason that image of cops watching some ball on a summer day will stick in my mind as a typical New York scene.

We also saw the memorial to the Staten Island people who lost their lives on 9/11. Staten Island was the quickest way into town for the FDNY, so most of the firefighters who died came from Staten Island. We took the ferry into Manhattan and Christian took us by Wall street, the Bull, Trinity church, and the stock exchange because I had never done any of the tourist stuff. Then we took the subway (way less cool and way dirtier than the London tubes, and there’s no awesome accent) up to Bloomberg where Christian is interning.

Bloomberg has an awesome building and it seems like they treat their employees well. Christian got us into the building and gave us a tour and explained what he did. He’s got a pretty sweet set-up on the sixth floor and gets t oplay with Bloomberg’s cool consoles that the Mayor made millions off of. Pretty cool summer gig. And they have free food there! After Bloomberg we went to an asian lunch place by his work and got some pad thai for lunch. We walked through a famous candy store (dillons?) for a bit and then walked into central park.

It was hot as blazes and super crowded there, but we found a nice spot on a hill to do some people watching for a bit. Sean and I compared it to Forest Park at home. FoPo is way better and way bigger. Being back in the big city made me miss London a lot, but I still don’t think I could handle being in such hot mass of humanity that was central park. Times square for more than an hour at a time.

We tubed form Central Park down to Times Square to see that whole thing, which was pretty impressive. Ads and gigantic flagship stores all around. I was most impressed with the curvy signs in front of ABC news that scrolled the news. Don’t know why. I imagined how cold and miserable this place must be on new years and how I would probably not have fun if I went to Times Square. TV will do just fine, thanks.

We waited for Coleen, who was in town with her parents seeing a show, to meet us in front of the gigantic Toys R Us. We reunited there and I met her parents for the first time. Christian, Sean, and Doyle left us to go nap back on Staten Island while the Hallorans treated me to dinner at a bbq place off Times Square. Coleen has a very nice family and I don’t think I did anything to embarrass myself. I was most surprised by her parents’ strong new York accents, given that Coleen’s isn’t that noticeable (except for when she says wudder instead of water. Silly girl).

After dinner Coleen and I walked around for a bit. She showed me Grand Central Station, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and that gridiron building. I mimicked the NBC announcer that used to introduce Stone Phillips and Matt Lauer on tv (“live from NBC studies in Rockefeller Center …”). I was hoping to see Tina Fey from 30 rock there, too, but I guess she was busy. We hung out in a park for a little bit before we met the rest of the gang at a bar downtown. Josh, who is living in Jersey this summer, met us there with a few of his friends, and some of Coleen and Sean’s friends met us there too. We had a nice ND reunion there and hung out for a good while. I took Coleen back to Grand Central and hailed a cab for the first time. Wasn’t as exciting as I thought, but still pretty cool. My cabbie didn’t talk to me and wasn’t nearly as friendly as the London cabbies. After the bar Doyle and I got some beers and toasted to the statue of liberty as we passed by her on the fairy. A classy way to ring in the fourth.

We woke up Sunday to more bagels from Christian’s bagel deli and set up for a bbq/party on their deck. Josh, Coleen, Christian’s friends, et al came over for a long day of drinking and barbequeing. Made me real excited for football season. It was quite hot outside, and thank God his neighbors invited us over for a swim in their pool. Their neighbor was telling us about his football playing days at Army, where he played the last game against ND at Yankee Stadium. The rest of the night we drank some more, with a brief respite to go watch the fireworks from Staten Island pier. New York’s fireworks suck apparently if you don’t live in Manhattan. They were tiny bubbles on the horizon without noise. Christian said we should have just watched them on tv, to scoffs from the Midwestern kids in the crew. After many claims of new Yorkers being un-American for having crappy fireworks and actually enforcing their illegal fireworks ordinances, we went back to the house and stayed up late. This has been the first fourth since I was about two I think where I haven’t held something in my hand that had been lit on fire or exploded. For shame, New York, for shame. I missed our times in quaint old Door County where I would blow up fireworks with my cousins. Sometimes simple towns and simple pleasures can be just as good as the big city I guess.

Monday we woke up a little later, thank God, and headed back into Brooklyn to visit the infamous Coney Island. This was quite an experience. We saw the biggest mass of poorly parked cars, mazes of trashy roads, dozens of overheated traffic cops, and the most ghetto amusement park I have ever seen. I loved eveyr minute of it. Coney island is like if Six Flags St Louis stopped cleaning or repairing their rides about 30 years ago. It was great. Plus there is a beach there, which was a far cry from the peaceful shores of Cherry Grove, SC, that’s for sure. We walked around for a bit and the rest of the group rode the infamous cyclone roller coaster (I opted out). Then we walked to Nathans, home of the worlds greatest hotdog and the eating contest, which had taken place the day before. We then drove to a famous Brooklyn pizza joint for the New York style pizza that Christian had been promoting since freshman year.

I gotta admit, it was pretty good. I still prefer Stl style thin crust, but this pizza hit the spot. Nothing fancy, just a solid thin crust cheese slice and a thick crust square slice. Excellent. After eating it was finally time for the South Bend crew to leave. We meandered our way through Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New jersey and finally made it on to the toll road to take us all the way back to the other bustling metropolis that is South Bend. It was a great weekend, and I feel proud for having finally visited the greatest city in the world. My two complaints would be that the tolls and traffic there are quite ridiculous (we spent like 30 dolars going over 2 bridges) and their fireworks suck. Otherwise, I think NYC definitely lives up to its hype. I can’t wait to go back there for the Navy game in the fall!