For years Natalie has been talking about going to New York during the fall. When we were in Arizona we used to take trips up to the mountains to see the leaves change color in these tiny, isolated areas. So this year I decided we would pull the kids out of school for a few days and take a drive up north for Halloween.
Early in the morning on October 26th we packed up a van I rented and started driving. I have been talking to my Mom's cousin online for the last few years and she lives in Cary, North Carolina and invited us to stay with her so that was our first stop. I had a great time meeting Sharon and her husband but unfortunately our trip was too short. We got there in the evening and had to leave the next morning. We were originally supposed to meet my uncle Jeff in Philly but there was some communication mix-up on the time he decided to just catch us later in Gettysburg and we slept in a little that morning. It ended up for the better because the alleged 6 hour drive to Philly turned into almost 10 and we got there late in the evening.
The next morning, October 28th, we walked around Philly. I was hangry and not having the best start to my morning. We stopped first stopped at Elfreth's Alley and then at Christ Church first, which is where George Washington, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Betsy Ross went to church. It was cool sitting in the pew where George Washington sat but I was disappointed in the propaganda which you'll see in the pictures below. Completely ridiculous that they are injecting woke politics into our historical sites.
Afterwards we walked to the cemetery where Benjamin Franklin was buried where they had more woke propaganda. We walked through the liberty bell site (whoopidy-doo), past Independence Hall, and then over to Jim's for a Philly Cheesesteak. Afterwards we walked past City Hall over to Swann Fountain (featured in Always Sunny in Philidelphia) and Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul before catching an Uber back to our hotel, which was now 4.5 miles away.
It was cool seeing the old sites in Philly but overall I thought it was a dirty, woke shit-hole and I have no desire to ever go back again.
Afterwards we drove to my cousin's house in Rye New York. We stopped at Sal's Sicilian Pizza where I had the best pizza. When Natalie and I went to New York in 2007 I wasn't overly impressed with the pizza that everyone hyped up. But on this trip we found some good pizza and Sal's was the best.
The next morning we took the train to the city. My cousin has a prepaid pass for a lot with limited spaces so we used his car. We were running late so I called him to make sure I could get in the lot without issues. There is no gate at this lot and someone that shouldn't have parked there was parked there. I drove up and down the lot with my cousin on the phone asking what to do and he told me just park in the area that has the lines for no parking since he's supposed to be guaranteed a spot. We parked just as the train was coming up to the platform and made a run for it barely making it on time.
Our first stop was Grand Central for some coffee and then to switch over to the subway to get to battery park. When we got to battery park for the Statue of Liberty tours we had scammers trying to get everyone coming out of the subway to follow them. Apparently, it's a known issue and the city refuses to arrest these people. When we got over to the spot of the ferry, 1/4 mile away, they finally had warning signs about the scams. It's amazing the BS that people will allow their mayor to get away with.
I always thought the Statue of Liberty sounded pretty lame but it was actually really cool. We didn't get the tickets for the crown because when I booked a month prior they were already sold out. However, we did get pedestal tickets and from everything I've read the view is better there anyways. It wasn't about the statue for me, it was the view of the city from there.
After the Statue of Liberty we decided to head towards the new Freedom Tower. Natalie wanted to get some Starbucks the minute we got off the ferry and I told her I don't want to hear the word Starbucks for the next week. We ae in the city, we can get real coffee. We ended up going to Gregory's for coffee instead before going to Freedom Towers. For whatever reason the museum was closed that day but we did go up to the 102 floor. The elevator ride was really cool. It goes 23mph (vs 16mph for Empire State Building) and they have a big led screen in the elevator. On the way up it was displaying the NYC skyline over the years and on the way down it had a different display. It took us 47 seconds to get to the 102 floor where the view was a lot better than the view I remember from the Empire State Building back in 2007.
Throughout the day I had been looking for the best pastrami sandwich in the city and read it is at Katz's. So our next stop we walked about 45 minutes over to Katz's where I had the best pastrami sandwich of my life. We went to Jim's in Philly and I thought the cheesesteak would be better. The hot pastrami sandwich on rye at Katz's made up for the Philly Cheesesteak not fully satisfying me. I would go back to NYC just for another pastrami sandwich from Katz's.
After Katz's we did Times Square. I was surprised that Adri hated it. she said it was too crowded and noisy. We tried to take the boys to the Legostore but it had closed 15 minutes before we got there. We also went hunting for a Yankees Jersey for Adri and then went back to Rye for the night. The next morning after waking up late we decided to do the city again.
I had planned a lot of sites to see in the city and it was becoming very apparently, we were not going to get to see a lot of them. One day down and we had checked off 4 of the 20 and now we were getting a much later than planned start. It was now the 30th and we had about 7-8 hours to do some more exploring by the time we got to the city. This time we went to St. Patricks, St. Barts, Pop's, Central Park, Tavern on The Green, got Chinese takeout, then went home. One of the highlights of our day was on the subway platform going from Central Park to get our Chinese food. I have seen people out on the street that were high but I have never actually seen anyone doing drugs in my life. We'll we were standing there on the platform and a train pulls up and this lady has her finger in her nose. Then she's looking up her nose with her phone. It's around 5PM and there are people everywhere and she's doing coke. I told Natalie and we were both in disbelief thinking maybe she's just plucking nose hairs. But then as the train's doors close she reaches in her person, gets some more powder on her finger, and shoves it right back up her nose. A fantastic story to end the day.
The next day we stayed in Rye and did Halloween with the cousins. We all got to experience a New England style Halloween. The weird thing is after a cold couple days it was record heat on Halloween, getting in the 80s. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt after dark, on Halloween, in New York. While the kids were on the hunt for candy I was doing my leaf hunting trying to find the best tree. I was going to go to bed early that night for our drive to Gettysburg in the morning but I ended up staying up until 2AM talking to Rodney. After that I couldn't sleep and probably got 45 minutes of sleep in before we got up at 0600 to hit the road. It was a rough drive to Gettysburg.
We met up with my uncle Jeff at the visitor's center and did the bus tour and museum. The last time I saw my Uncle was at my mom's funeral back in 2017. I thought the tour was really cool but the kids were bored. I've heard the stories but it was really cool to see the battlefield where everything actually took place. I'm really bad at using my imagination to visualize what happened. Growing up in SoCal I never could imagine the terrain and trees growing outside of the mountains in the East Coast. Exploring the battleground makes it that much better to visualize when reading about the battle. After dinner we walked around the cemetery and some of the memorials. The next morning after breakfast we met up again by the memorials and did a little more exploring before we started heading back to Florida. Originally, we were going to go to Jamestown for the day, spend the night there and then head back to Florida. But the drive sucked so bad we skipped it and pushed through to Florence Georgia. The last day we were so burned out we didn't do anything in Georgia, we just headed home.
Overall it was a pretty epic trip. Everyone had fun. I wish we could do this every Halloween but due to the stuff with school it won't be happening again for a long time. Also, I might just fly next time. I wanted to see stuff on the way but the drive really sucked!
First stop, breakfast sandwiches and breakfast tacos. 
St. Barts
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