As most know by now, my boyfriend Alex and I ventured up to New York City to explore the city. He has never been before, and I haven't been in many years and those trips were short. Also, I have wonderfully generous and fun cousins who live in Brooklyn and have just enough space for visitors. To cut down on driving and stress, we left the car at my grandma's in NJ just an hour out of the City. Plus she provided us with a place to stay the first and last night along with wonderfully delicious meals. Pop Pop provided the entertainment, of course.
We left from New Market on Sunday March 7th about 9:30am. Mom and John didn't even wake up to say good-bye. We had plenty of water, Girl Scout cookies and Karen, the GPS.
It rained the whooooole way. Now the 6 hour-drive is not unfamiliar to me and it is not a terrible trek to make, however, the rain just made it wearisome.
We stopped in Pennsylvania for lunch at Arby's. Then we made a stop in Easton, Pennsylvania. My navigator, Alex, liked to check the GPS every so often to find fun things en route. The Crayola Factory came up in his findings. After literally driving in a circle in the middle of town (a round-about as the Aussie Karen called it), we ran through the rain to the Crayola Store. We were disappointed to find the actual factory was not in Easton, just costly video of how a crayon is made and a play center for children. So we skipped that and looked around the store. The largest box we found was I think 152 crayons. You could also make your own box from a giant dispenser in the middle of the story. And the most noticeable rarity was the World's Largest Crayon in a glass box. It was made from parts of old crayon and left-overs, melted down and shaped into a very large, very heavy blue crayon.
After that we continued the few hours left into New Jersey. Karen was able to take us a 'toll-free' route which only extended the trip by about 6 minutes. Those 6 minutes turned into 15 when I took a few wrong turns but we soon made it to Grandma's. She and Pop Pop grilled (yes in the rain) steaks and she made her famous potato salad. I noticed an empty bowl and spoon with cream left on it when we arrived, and sure enough, dessert was her delicious (and probably my favorite of her desserts) Boston Creme cake.
We planned our first day in the city after dinner. We would take the bus into Port Authority. Hop a subway and meet Kim at her office near Union Square to drop off our bags and explore Greenwich Village. That story will come in the next blog :)
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