Category: Domestic Travel

7 July, late night.

I don’t like red-eyes.

I understand how they’re useful. Once you arrive at your destination, you have the entire day to do stuff. This is with the proviso that you can sleep on command once you’re airborne. Door closes. ZZZzzzzz.

I can’t do that. Not even in 1st Class. Granted, it was 1st Class on an A320 (small plane) but nevertheless, 1st class.

I wound up tossing and turning and sleeping for only half the flight. The 1st Class food was a coldcut sandwich served with a hot bun and nice plates. The coldcuts were pretty good and we had our own flight attendant. But still coldcuts! Can’t imagine paying full fare for 1st class and getting coldcuts.

When we landed, we emerged into Singapore heat. 95 degrees with 100% humidity. Crap! At least I packed properly. Lots of linen shirts and some shorts and pants too. Welcome to Newark.

I remember promising my Asia logs, but there’s a lot of stuff to go through. Pictures. Pages. Lots of work. But there needs to be new stuff to read.

So I’m going to post stuff from my July trip to New York. An easier read and not as boring. =P

Flew back to SFO on the same kind of jet.

Going thru security was awful. Only one checkpoint and a really long line.

Sloooooooow

I met a really attractive young woman in line behind me. She said she was a teacher of little kids. I asked, “San Francisco Unified”? She laughed a lot and said “Marin”.

She would get eaten alive in the SFUSD. If the students didn’t get her, the administration and union would. No one’s allowed to be attractive or young there.

Cabbing in NYC is a 50/50 shot. Before, cabbies were pretty honest because you could lose your hack license if you screwed people. Nowadays under Bloomberg or if you’re a tourist, I guess it dun matter…
The cabbies going to the Hudson and to Norma�s were OK when we arrived in NYC.
Honest and good drivers.
But the one today that was supposed to get us to Penn Station @ 1530 on a weekday naturally went down Broadway.
Straight into a San Francisco traffic jam.
When I asked about the route, he said something like �could be traffic�. I responded that he may have picked this route to run up the fare. No reply. And the meter ran. And ran. And ran.
Finally, when it hit $6, we jumped out @ 49th Street and took the Subway to Penn Station instead. Left him stuck in gridlock where he thought he was going to make money off of us. He ain’t gettin’ any fares sitting in that mess!
Rat Bastard.

Something cool did happen today.
I was standing in line to get my one day Fun Pass. This guy sees me and offers me his. Tells me he got an extra and he didn�t need it. It�s a legit 7 day pass that expires on 1 Jan.
Pretty nice.
Just gave it to me and left. So when we got to Penn Station before we left the subway, I found two people from Europe buying tickets. Passed the pass along to them. Good karma I guess. Maybe they can make a short film chronicling the adventures of this pass. Adventures of a MetroCard. Nah, too cheesy.
Sounds like a student film…

Some advice from my day today.
DON�T GO TO THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING OBSERVATORY!
It�s not that the view is awful (actually, it�s quite nice) or that the building is ugly (Art Deco is cool), but since the loss of the WTC and the deck on the 110th floor, the ESB is the only game in town. And they�ve taken advantage of it appropriately (as we do with “capitalism”).
They make you queue outside of the building. That�s understandable. After a 30 minute wait, you make it into the lobby. You think, �we�re there!� and go in.
WRONG!
Then you go downstairs to buy your �ticket�. While waiting in the 50 minute queue to buy a ticket from two out of four windows, you are constantly hit with some movie/virtual ride thing that they are selling that promises no waiting. Some people jump out of line and pay double just so they don�t� have to wait. Then, you have to queue AGAIN to go up the lift to the 80th floor. Another 30 minute wait. Then, a short (ha ha ha) 10 minute queue to the top.
Queues suck. But the most suckiest part is that there�s a sign inside the ticket queue that says �2 hour wait�. Wouldn�t it make more sense to post that OUTSIDE instead of inside where you are a virtual prisoner? They suck.
NYC is something special, but I liked the view from my room at the Grand Hyatt Jin Mao. From the 76th Floor, with a view of the Huangpu @ the Bund at your feet.
Went to the MoMA in Queens. They are open for business here in the old Swingline Stapler factory until their old place on 54th Street is rebuilt. Gotta admit it was a bit of a letdown since my favorite parts, Photography and Industrial Design didn�t make the move. However, their coffee bar served Illy (mmmm Illy…) AND they DID have a 50% off sale on their line of Xmas cards (which are always fun) so it wasn�t a total wash. Then we endured the hell of the Helmsleys (see opening rant).
Had dinner @ the Carnegie Deli on 5th Avenue. Filling but no refills on Diet Coke. Now I know where Jerry�s Famous Deli ripped off the menu and d�cor from. Jerry�s gives refills tho. This was after a street vendor hot dog/sausage brunch. It was cool! The street vendor food, that is.
The Hudson is a destination place. Go hang out @ the bar, the library, the hallways, it�s all cool. Can�t say much about the �gym� or the knocking of the steam pipes all night in the room tho.
Totally cool place, but next time, I�ll choose the Westin @ Times Square or the Hyatt at Grand Central Station. Campbell�s Apartment is there. I like proper beds (not trendy platform beds) with box springs and firmness

I seem to be a glutton for punishment.
I woke up @ 0730 yesterday. Worked. Flew all night (slept fitfully for 3.5 hours) and went on all day until after midnight. So with my really bad SF public school math, I figure that�s about 39 hours up going non stop. My eyes were really red. OTOH, I slept like a log.
Now the weirdness of all this is that this is almost exactly the same thing that happened when I returned from NRT. Except that was a 8 hour flight over the date line. Can ANYBODY explain how that works??
It was an incredibly full day yesterday. Landed @ 0645 @ EWR. Wound up taking an Olympia Trails basi to Penn Station. Should have looked at the train schedule going into town (the schedule posted on the net is all old) before getting basi tickets, but was hungry and cold. Went straight to the Parker Meridian to Norma�s for breakfast. Although breakfast for two costs as much as a good dinner (it�s breakfast, for heaven�s sake), it�s REALLY GOOOD BREAKFAST! Fresh squeezed OJ & little individual French Presses for yummy coffee. Do it and then eat cheaply for the rest of the day. Have a slice of pizza for dinner. Just eat there. If you come during the late morning, you�ll have a bit of a wait, but I�m told that the scenery is supposed to be excellent!
Wandered down to Battery Park where we found out the Statue of Liberty �has been closed since 9-11″.
(begin political rant)
Fricking terrorists. Kill them all. Deal out to them what they have dealt out to thousands all over the world & at the WTC. Treat them how they treat their victims. That�s the only language they are intelligent enough to understand. Send Arafat�s daughter on a suicide mission. No wait, they won�t. They�ll get those who feel they have no hope to do their crap. Geez.
(end rant)
So to check out how the harbor still looks like, we decide to take the Staten Island Ferry for the tour of the harbor. It was hella cold but it looked nice. I fell asleep on the ride back to Manhattan. How embarrassing.
Puttered up the South Street district, saw the NYC Police Museum, went to Chinatown and ate at the only Ajisen in the US. Ate and checked into the Hudson. Hung out there and met up with my friend Annie and her husband Jesse. Had Thai food and then three hours of the Sopranos. Great, Another show to follow.
NYC Tip #1: Get a NYC Subway Fun Pass. It�s $4/day. Unlimited use of the MTA until midnight that day. Consider that you drop $1.50 each time you go through a turnstile, you recoup your cost after 4 trips. And Manhattan is so big and so full of stuff, you will go through many turnstiles.