I doubt you guys care, but it's my thread so...recap of trip:
Day 1
Well the first day we just drove, got to the hotel (and wtf? hotels.com mentioned only like 5 hotels, and the Radisson was the nicest one with available rooms - but when we got there we saw like AmeriSuites and a few others that weren't mentioned that we'd have much rather stayed at.) and unpacked. My aunt forgot her dress and my uncle is a bum (these are both on my dads side mind you, nobody on my moms side would dress like these people) so my aunt wanted to go to K-Mart or Walmart to get something to wear that night. We asked where stuff was and the lady at the desk pointed us to this HUGE mall (Garden State Plaza) with a ton of REALLY nice stores, but we didn't have time to shop. I needed a white shirt and she needed something to wear that night. We were just going to go into Macy's but my aunt was like "Pennys has me written all over it." My uncle and her went into there and we went into Macys, my mom got a few things for my sister and we made our way back to JCPennys to find my aunt/uncle. Shortly after we see them coming down the escalator (she bought a cheap sweater or something and my uncle some pants,) and my aunt was like - "oh you're here, we thought you'd be spending all kinds of money in Macy's and we'd be waiting for you." So then my dad was hungry and we were discussing dinner, my aunt (note: to get an idea of what she is she's a rather large women with a rasky voice and no manners. Some would stoop to saying trailor trash minus the trailor) wanted to order pizza back at the hotel (I wonder why, Dominoes is 3 pizzas for 15 dollars.) She wanted us, I'm assuming, to get 2 pizzas for 10 and then her and my uncle split the $5. My dad wouldn't have that - we can have Dominoes at home. So, we went to this little family Italian restraunt down the street and had a waitor who was Spanish and spoke very little English - he didn't even know what pork was! Anyway, my aunt ordered this white pizza even though it had cheese in it she didn't like and then she didn't eat it. After the meal she was like "this is the best (or maybe she said worst?) $15 I've ever spent" - even though her meal wasn't even $15 as she got a personal size. My mom took this as a reference to Dominoes. She also talked on her cell phone half the time which really erks me and my mother. Then we went to the funeral home, and my dad introduced us to people - we offered condolences, etc. Then he wanted to show us his grandmas house or something, and we drove by White Castle! I had to stop there, even though everybody warned me against it - I ordered 6 burgers (I only ate 3, gave 3 to dad, but whatever). Geeze, how do New Englanders eat that garbage? Oh well, they weren't TERRIBLE - even though they SMELL terrible. We took a wrong turn going back, ended back up on turnpike for awhile and tried to get directions from this arab working at the gas station, but he'd only been in the US like a week I guess and didn't know anything..including the majority of the English language. We made it back, my uncle was mad that my dad took a wrong turn (as he was following us) and we had to drive like 12 minutes longer than we should have. After he got to the room he left and walked around, my aunt called us and asked if we'd seen him. We went to sleep.
Day 2
Woke up at 7, we had to be at the funeral home at 9:30. My uncle had apparently gotten over it and called us that morning and said good morning, and asked us how we were and such. He asked what we were doing for breakfast and my mom said we'd probably just go to the hotel restraunt, they didn't want to do that and said they'd just grab something at Burger King on the way to the funeral home. We went into the restraunt, which I guess was a mistake - it was like $60 and the food wasn't great at all, and the service was worse. Oh well, that's NJ for you. Anyway, we went back to the room and got ready to leave then we...left. So when we get to the funeral home they put us in line and gave us the flag to put in the car window to show we're with the funeral, then we went inside and said good morning to everybody - got the last views of the body, etc. Then we left there and went to the church where they did mass (Catholic funeral, btw) that was like 45 minutes and then everybody went to the graveyard. This part lasted probably not even 5 minutes and then everyone went to this place that was holding the reception...some place that caters to special events and stuff. The food was decent and everyone talked for a couple of hours then they went on their way. My aunt/uncle had to get back (they only stayed one night) but my aunt made countless comments throughout the thing and my uncle had pants on that were ripped on the cuff..and a cowboy belt thing with a denim shirt and a sweater. My aunt had one of the most hideous sweaters ever on. These people suck.
Anyway, after this my dad showed us some things from when he was younger (peoples houses and stuff) then we stopped at the train station to get a schedule as we had planned to take the train into today to NYC. Then we decided to go yesterday afternoon (it was like 2:15 then) so we were driving to the train station in Hoboken and realized that it's only one exit before Lincoln tunnel, so we just drove into the city ourselves and parked in a parking garage across from the tunnel. We were in New York (and I saw a sign that said there was a $350 fine for honking...hah!). So, we parked, my sister changed out of her dress and into normal clothes/shoes (everyone else was still wearing funeral stuff and uncomfortable shoes..especially my mom - her feat are all blistered up now.)
Day 2 - NYC
We walked down 42nd street some and stopped in Burger King and went to the bathroom, then walked more. This was the first time I can remember ENJOYING walking for a long distance. I really wanted to take the subway, so we went down into it and were looking at the map but I didn't want to catch it there...I wanted to go through times square all the way (we were right in times square) - so we did. We were going to the United Nations building and we walked there. This one lady was walking across the street by me and was like "fucking tourists" (not to me, but in general...I guess she was referring to how the tourists are SO slow...I kept up with the the locals though). We walked to Grand Central Station and looked at that, went through and we were a few streets from the UN building. We got there like 15 minutes after the last tour started, and everyone was tired of walking except me. We took a cab though, to appease them. The cab driver said he just started his shift and he was a pretty nice guy, he was an arab and was reading an arabic newspaper. The ride reminded me so much of "Meet the Parents" as he would go like as fast as he could for one block and then slam on breaks at each light..they had handles in the cab to hold on to. Then he read the paper during the light. There's ~3 lanes per street in NY, roughly, but nobody pays attention to them and they just cut in front of everybody and then everyone slams on breaks. It could definitely be an amusment park ride for sure. We went to 5th and went into Macy's for a bit, not really to shop as we did that in the one in NJ but there used to be a clock in the Macys floor my mom wanted us to see. None of the employees remembered it though..one of them didn't even know what a clock was. We wanted some good ol' NY pizza pie and went to this Italian restraunt across the street. The pizza wasn't that good (but it was decent, I though!) and when we were finishing up this spanish looking gangster guy with tons of tatoos and big muscles and his girlfriend sat down and she said "This is the worst pizza I've ever had" any my mom laughed and they looked and she said "he said the same thing" and then they laughed and said "if you're ever in queens, go to such and such the pizza is the best." What's this I hear about New Yorkers being mean? We were right next to the Empire State Building, which was our plan for the night (and whole reason for going on Tuesday) and it was about 6:15 or so now. To kill time we went into this little tourist shop and got a few things (mainly my sister did, but I got some postcards.) We then did the Empire State Building. You stop on the 86th floor to do the viewing outside, it was increidbly windy/cold up there but it was awesome. I rented this thing that tells you everything you're looking at. Fith Avenue looks INCREDIBLE at night, all of NY does. After this (as this lasted a while..there were tons of people) we caught a cab back to the parking garage and headed home.
I didn't see too many eccentric people, but I was only in one part of Manhatten - which I guess is a nicer part as most everything we did was close to the Fashion District (Madison, 5th Ave. etc.) But I did see a guy riding his bike and giving everyone thumbs up while yelling "I'M BLACK AND I'VE GOT RHYTHM" and two black guys preaching on the corner...that was classic, and when we were getting tickets at the ESB through the window I saw a homeless women and her dog. (There were a ton of homeless people in NJ too, heh.)
Day 3 - Today
It was raining everywhere and was going to rain until the afternoon, we didn't go to NY like we had planned as by the time it had dried up we wouldn't have been able to get home at a reasonable hour and my dad had to be at work tommorow as he took 3 days off for a non-immediate family death.
I absolutely loved the city, the people, the traffic, the noise, the cars, everything. I generally don't like lots of people, but these people generally don't talk or look at you which is great. A lot of them are listening to music too (I saw a TON of iPods.) We're going to go back pretty soon I think and actually get to do stuff.
I took a lot of pictures while on the Empire State Building, but not really too many elsewhere as I don't like looking like a tourist - but up there it didn't matter as everyone was one.
Oh, and by the end of the second day we were all pretty much over my aunt. She made countless snotty comments mainly involving money. My moms theory is that she was mad that my mom, me and my sister came and that all she wanted was for my dad, her, and my uncle to go. She wanted my dad to drive, and foot the bill. That's pretty much what happened anyway as they followed my dad up there, and he paid for their hotel room even though they said they'd pay him back when we got there. (they didn't.)
"Moneys burning a hole in your pocket, huh?"
"You've just got money to burn don't ya?"
There was a lot of comments like that, she also kept calling us "the happy happy family" and went on and on and on and on and on about stuff - her company (which she has a low job in and has only been there a week or two) and when her and my cousin went to NY. I mean, she's apparently done everything, been everywhere, and met everybody. When, in fact, she's nothing but a failure that can't keep a job. She kept calling us the "eatenst family" (like when I wanted to go to White Castle) even though she's like 3 times our size and had to stop and get snacks at a gas station and McDonalds and stuff. It was extremely annoying, my dad didn't even say goodbye to them before they left.
I liked how they pump the gas for you up there, even if the people pumping the gas don't know English and worship Allah. =)
btw, about the family thing..
I know I didn't really explain who died..but that's because my dads family is confusing. My stepdads dad was bestfriends with this guy, Joe ever since they were young. When they got married to their wives and had kids and whatnot, they didn't want their kids calling each other Mr. soandso so they called each other uncle soandso and became non-legal cousins, I guess.
Next time we're going to do a lot more of the stuff as it'd be a trip geared around going (I think my mom, grandma and me are going to go this summer) but for what we did get to do I had a blast. I loved everything there, and I'll get some pictures up probably tommorow as I'm pretty tired now.
