New York City

My mom arrived on Wednesday, September 20th from Sacramento, CA at LAX. After the crazy LAX police , "Miss, you cannot park here!". I was not parked I sat there for 5 seconds while mom was getting out of the terminal. Ugh!! I circled the whole freaking terminals agian and then we were finally out of that stupid place. We then went to my nail salon (had to be beautiful for NYC). Mom had her manicure and pedicure done and I got waxed in the meantime (ouch!!). Grabbed some El Burrtio JR  and visited some of my friends before heading back to my place for some sleep. Mom rearranged her suitcase (it was 20!! pounds over weight) and I unpluged things and threw out stuff in the fridge.  I finally fell asleep about 11:30 and then the alarm woke me at 2:45 a.m. I got up and got ready, we packed the car and left my place about 4:00a.m. We got to the parking place for LAX (105 parking) unloaded the bags and while I parked the car mom loaded the bags onto the shuttle. When I walked to where the bags were, they were loaded, we waited 5 mintues for 2 guys from Germany to load into the shuttle and we were off !

We flew United and at the terminal they have the skycap, it is $2 a bag (not including tip, which they will let you know) for them to check you in, which I highly recommend because they print you your ticket and you just then go to security. Check - in was no problem, just had to wait while TSA opened and then to take off my shoes and take my laptop out of its case.  We got something to eat, McDonalds, and took that to the gate. We were there about 2 hours (at least) early and just waited, when I was walking through the terminal with some water for my mom to take medication they kept making the anoucement for the no water or liquids of any kind on the plane (poor Aquafina, it is soooo evil).

The flights from LA or  San Francisco to NYC and vise versa through United for the Economy Class seats have 5" extra then regular flights. It was definetly noticeable by me, mom does not fly that much. They showed Nacho Libre (ok, slept through some) and we got the little snack boxes that they sell on the plane. We sat next to a very "intresting" lady. Other than that, the flight was uneventlful (which is what you always want). My mom has never been on a plane that long or really out of California or Canada. She kept asking what city we were flying over, uhhhh some field with lights, who knows. We were getting close to NYC and I looked out and saw tall buildings on a island with a long park in the middle, we have arrived.

We landed about 2:45p.m., there time, and got all of our luggage and got a taxi to our hotel. We were staying in Midtown, about 1 block away from the Empire State Building. I had researched before the shuttles and taxi and other ways of getting into the city and found with the amout of luggage that we had (lots) that the best way going was a taxi. For $45 from JFK they take you anywhere in Manhattan (plus toll). It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel and all the cab driver asked for was the $45, plus tip, of course. 

We stayed at the Red Roof Inn, 6 W 32nd Street, and it was great. Check-in was fast and easy and the bellhop was funny and very nice. We changed and I called my friend who had moved back to Staten Island and decided to meet up later. We went to the subway and bought the MetroCards, the 7 day unlimited use pass for $24 each- very good deal. We were starving - so far all we ate was McDonalds (half a sandwich) and some snacks on the plane. We went to the Manhattan Mall, 1/2 block from where we were staying, and I got a Nathan's hot dog :-) and mom got some good Chinese food.   We then went to Macy's (because they are not everywhere LOL) and while my mom was buying something at a make-up counter my friend body slammed me and almost made me fall down she hugged me so hard!  Since we now had out tour guide we went to the Empire State Building and then we caught the  subway and went to Time Square. That place is sooooo bright. 

We went to Toys R' Us, rode the ferris wheel, 

 went to Foot Locker, Billabong, Hersey's, brodway store, and saw some movie being filmed. We went and had our first NYC pizza across from the Hawaiian Tropic resturant.  

After that we had to find the X1 bus for my friend to take back to Staten Island which was in the opposite direction from anyway that we walked. We walked from Times Square and finally found the right stop in front of the New York City Public Library. Her bus came about 20 minutes later and we decided to NOT take the subway and treat ourselves to another cab ride. We finally got to bed around midnight.