lamora | So I can tick this off the bucket list.

One of my BFFs and I discovered that we had the same vacation time, so on a whim we decided to take off to NYC for a weekend. I had never been to the Big Apple; I drove past it, I traveled around New York State, but never went to the city proper. We wouldn't be staying long, so it was a cheap, power tourist holiday. We left Laval at 4:30am with a car full of candy and energy.

We sort of forgot that if you don't have an EZPass, the tolls are cash only. >__> So it was quite a shock; we had planned on not exchanging money given the short amount of time we would be there, and use our credit cards instead. I paid for the first toll in Canadian money, but it was apparent that we'd have to stop. Christine's bank has a deal with the Bank of America so she was able to take out some cash without penalty.

Since we are both directionally-impaired, we did take the I-87 all the way down. We balked at the $12 toll at the Lincoln tunnel, because YOU ARE NOT THAT GREAT, NEW YORK, but from there it wasn't far from our hotel. We stayed at the Marquis Marriott, literally right in Times Square. Like, we walked out the front door right into the line for Broadway tickets. Given how short our stay was, this was really convenient.

Once we were settled in the hotel and the car was valet parked, we didn't waste any time. On the advice of several friends, we used the Gray Line Hop-on/Hop-off tour buses to get around, hitting most of the major landmarks (and Brooklyn) in no time. It helped with the serious over-stimulation of the city and all its history -- plus we got to see way more than if we'd floundered around on our own over the weekend. It was also only two blocks from our hotel.

We had time to do the Downtown Loop and after some antics in Times Square (and the M&M store) we managed to catch the Night Loop. The stark contrast between Manhattan and Brooklyn was surprising. I could actually see myself living in Brooklyn.

Tour Highlights:
- Guide pointing out Yoko Ono's apartment with the white shutters, so everyone could see it. We were like LOL OF COURSE SHE WOULD ahahaaa awesome.

- Finding out the Empire State Building had red and white colors for Canada Day. We were like AWWW THAT'S SO NICE ♥

- Seeing where they shot an episode of White Collar!

- The architecture oh my god. I love old buildings.

It was humid and warm in the city (41) but we were fine despite all the running around. Also, it had been supposed to rain all day, for both days of our trip. We were bummed about it; we had booked the hotel at a discount rate but the catch was no option to change/cancel. However, it did not rain at all. \o/

Now, the morning before we left, my hair-dryer exploded. It started to smoke, and when I looked at it to see WTF, it sparked and died -- leaving me about to go on a road trip in the middle of a humid heat wave with wet hair. #firstworldproblems

So naturally I assumed this foretold disaster, and I was right. When we got back to our room, we had fancy dinner reservations at The View (picked for many reasons: wanted to try the rotating resto thing, it was easy to agree on vs the buttjillion choices in NYC, etc.)

We want to freshen up and change for this dinner, and Chris lets me grab the first shower because my hair takes longer to do. If I'd glanced up at the shower head, I would have seen the problem. I did not. And I don't know how you take a shower -- but I leave the curtains closed, adjust the water temp, turn on the shower, and then slip in through the curtain on the other side in a neat, blissfully disaster-free process. Not this time.

I turn on the shower and the other side of the wall explodes with water. I nearly jump out of my skin at the noise, and frantically turn the shower off. Too late: there is at least 2-3cm of water on the bathroom floor -- it's soaked the towel on the rack, the door, it's all over the mat, etc. I am stunned. Also, feeling terrible because it's a mess; no one can dry their hair in this, it's not fair for Chris to take a shower in a soaked bathroom, etc.

So I lay most of the towels down and try to soak it up. I take my shower quickly, and try mopping the floor. It works about as well as you can imagine. XD So I go back to the main room and demand to know if Chris has any idea what happened to me in there.

Her first question is, "Why are you still naked?"

Her second question is "What the actual fuck" and I was like, IKR?!

We call housekeeping, still feeling awful because it sucks to be mopping up flooded bathrooms at 9pm. The lady tells us this is the third room on our floor to have volatile, exploding shower heads. She was not impressed and called the front desk to complain about whoever had made up the rooms beforehand.

It wasn't really funny at the time, but twenty minutes later it was hilarious.

So we paid through the nose for dinner, went back to our room and collapsed for like 8 straight hours. We were up at 7 to head to the Uptown Loop tour bus. After that, we had breakfast and secured our bags and car past check-out so we could stay longer.

We walked around, checking out local shops and sights. We went to Sephora and Saks, mostly just to say we went inside the NYC shops -- though I did end up getting something on sale at Saks. Then we went walking through Central Park, had a snack at the zoo, and moseyed back to get the car.

I really wish I'd had my new feet (insoles) at the time. (Of course, they were ready the day after my return.) By the time we got back to the car, I was in agony. XD; Chris also has chronic back pain, so we made quite a pair.

More familiar with how things worked, we took the Palisades Parkway, the 6, and -- after getting turned around and lost and exploring many small towns -- the 90 back to I-87. We stopped numerous times on our way back, either to confirm we were going the right way, or just because the scenery was gorgeous:

The locals in Peekskill were especially friendly. We were getting conflicting directions, and while Chris was gassing up I said I was going inside to ask for clarification. I was overheard, and suddenly found ourselves surrounded by helpfuls: a young lad, a middle-aged woman who instantly got her trucker husband on the phone, and an SUV full of ridiculously good-looking boyfriends on their own road trip.

After a few hours, we wanted confirmation that we were still on the right track running parallel to I-87 (avoiding tolls) so we pulled off and stopped at this wonderfully perfect thing:

AMAZING!! Anyway, two guys (from MD and PA) were able to use their smartphones to show us that we were going the right way. So we stopped for nothing, basically, but the diner was worth it.

... So, that's pretty much it. Not terribly descriptive, but I imagine most of you have been to NYC at some point.

Here there be pictures!
For some reason, they went out of order during the upload. ~__~