NYC - Day 1

NYC Day-1

We landed at JFK which was a ways away from our hotel. We purchased a week unlimited metro card for $27 from a little mart inside the Air Train terminal (Jamaica Station). We took the Air Train $5 one way for about 4 stops to the Subway then took the subway 10 stops to our hotel. Total travel time was about 50 minutes. We stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania off 34th St. and 7th Ave. The hotel was my least favorite. I know not to expect much from NYC hotels but this was for sure way less then I expected. It was the cheapest I could find in the area we were looking to stay. The lobby was nice but always busy. They charged us $4 per bag to hold until we could check in. We had a 6 A.M. flight in, check in was not until 3 P.M. Jeremy had a 10 A.M. meeting across town until 3 P.M. We got in at around 8:45 A.M. had to check our bags which we had 2 backpacks and 2 carry-on bags with wheels. Me being as cheap as I am I didn’t want to pay a penny but I couldn’t cart Pressley, 2 backpack and 2 suitcases around for 6 hours all by myself. Jer talked me into dropping off the two suitcases so we each had a backpack. We made our way down the hall for breakfast. It was a no frills diner. Jeremy ordered an omelet that came with potatoes $17 and I wasn’t going to eat because I was not about to pay $20 per person for breakfast! Jer talked me into it, so I did. I got the 2 eggs with potatoes, 2 slices of bacon and a side of pancakes for $22. Oh did I mention coffee. Whoo hooo…. I thought “this is going to be way too much food for me so I’ll share with Pressley”, boy was I way wrong. The eggs must have shrunk during the cooking process… yet soggy, the potatoes were just yuck and the side of pancakes, ‘1 pancake’ a bit bigger than a silver dollar. It was cold and chewy and the waitress didn’t bring the syrup until all my other food was gone. Thanks! I would have bet a 100 bucks that there was alcohol in the coffee. She brought Jeremy a coffee after he declined. 2 creamers and 3 sugars later I drank it as fast as I could she had time to ask if I wanted more even though I was still waiting for my syrup. Errugh…. Jer took off for his meeting after he was done and Pressley and I tried to finish what was left of ours. We took care of the $45 dollar breakfast bill for 2 then I had to figure out how I was going to handle 2 oversized backpacks, an umbrella stroller with a baby in it. 3 sweaters and a few blankets. 10 minutes later I had us all packed in.

Where to? We still had 5 hours at this point. After walking in circles for what felt like an hour (only 5 minutes) we were back at the check-in line to see if I could get further than Jeremy did. It took the chick 25-30 minutes to push a bunch of buttons to tell me she had to talk to her manager. After 15 minutes of standing there with a tired baby she came out of the back room and said “we can get you in”. I was ecstatic! Pressley was too and decided to fall asleep, another 15 minutes of signing papers and other crap we had the keys, we couldn’t get our bags because Jeremy had the claim tickets, so we were headed to our room. The elevators were nice and clean and in working order and the hallways were clean and big, so far so good. You can’t judge a hotel by its cover (lobby/halls).

The rooms only perk was that it had its own bathroom. The bed was a double with minimal linens and pillows. There was a T.V. and a floor lap but no clock. There was a chair but no table or desk. The bathroom was okay in size but smelt like they had just painted it. Weird! The shower looked dirty, there was a used soap in the shower and its wrapper on the floor. Humm… The rest of the room seemed clean. I wore my sandles while taking my shower. The showers water pressure was so strong, I felt like I was being hosed down by a prison guard. The curtain stuck to my butt, couldn’t help but think of who else’s butt it had touched. The entire floor was soaked by the end of my shower. I didn’t know whether I should use my towel or Jeremy’s to dry it up (we only had two for the 3 of us). The only other thing I could think of at the moment was how thin the walls were and how much you could hear from your room. Every 2 seconds a door slammed and it would make you jump. After a couple nights of that you have to tune it out or you don’t sleep.

After Jer got back from his meeting it was a bit after 4 (I say 5 but we’ll agree to disagree) so we decided to get cleaned up and walk to Time Square for dinner. We went to Planet Hollywood since we had been there before and we knew the food was good. So were the drinks.