Trip #1 Summary

Photos: picasaweb.google.com/valeriebeth2010

I just returned from my first vacation of the year. I went to New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. I had a good time, saw a ton of sites and spent a lot of money. How much did I spend? I have no clue! I don’t know how much money I had in my purse when I left but I know I brought 400 and when I left I still had about 100 left. That means I spent at least $300 plus $50 for baggage. I’m not sure how much was already in my purse before I put in the $400.

I got a great deal on the hotel and flight. I booked about 2 months in advance. When I first checked on the site tickets were around $375 each and then I checked a week later and the price went down. I grabbed the tickets then before they had a chance to rise again! I used cheaptickets.com and got 5 nights in a 3 star hotel in Newark, New Jersey and a round trip flight from Charlotte Douglass International to John. F Kennedy International all for $275 per person. My mom and I went on the trip. I also paid for a Comprehensive tour of New York City for about 88 per person. I booked 2 bus rides also. The bus from Downtown Manhattan to Philadelphia was $20 roundtrip. The trip from Manhattan to Washington DC was $35 roundtrip.

I’ve used cheaptickets twice in the past 3 years and I’ve had 2 positive experiences. I’ll continue to use that site for my trips.

I did a lot of walking on the trip. I was determined to not pay cab fares to get from place to place inside the city. I used a cab once to get to a luggage storage place on my first day, to get to a restaurant in Philly, to get to the bus station and to get to a subway station. My mom was also with me and didn’t like all the walking which reminded me that I don’t need to travel with her anymore. It caused much frustration for me. I don’t normally get angry but I got angry at her many times. She complained about walking too much. She’s old and doesn’t like to walk much and I’m young and full of energy.

Transportation on the trip was very expensive. If I would have known that it was such a hassle to get from Newark to Manhattan I would have chosen a more expensive package with a hotel in New York. I used the New Jersey transit everyday to get from the airport area to Manhattan. It was $15 one way. That came up to $30 a day. I paid well over $150 just to ride the train for the week. Ridiculous! Why was it $15 to ride 11 miles?

Food was also expensive in New York City. In SC you’d pay around $5.00 for a big Mac combo. In NYC you’d pay nearly $7.00.

We also rode the subway a lot. I paid $27 for an unlimited metro card. That wasn’t too bad. The only inconvenience was that they changed every single train that we needed during our trip there. I got my directions off of the internet so I followed them. We got to the station and we’d see a sign “The D train does not stop here this weekend.” We’d have to follow the alternative route that the poster suggested. The subway wasn’t as hard to navigate as I had heard, but I do have subway navigating experience.

The subway has its pros and cons. I compared it to Seoul’s metro. I think Seoul’s subway system is much better and easier to get around than New York City. The subway is more expensive there. $2.25 per ride is pretty decent, but I’m used to paying 1400 won at the most which is a tad bit over $1.00 in Seoul. I do like that NYC subways run 24 hours. Seoul’s subways are closed from 1am-5am.

I hated having to pay $25 on both airlines to check my baggage. I paid $50 for checking my bags. We had to pay once on the flight with US Airways from CLT to JFK and another charge from JFK to CLT with Delta.

We had a safe trip. I was glad. I’d heard how bad crime was in NY. I didn’t feel unsafe at anytime. Even walking the streets at midnight in Chinatown.

My flight home was overbooked and on a tiny plane. (I don't understand why they overbook flights..only sell how many seats you have..duh!). I could have gotten on the next flight for free, but I was ready to go on this flight. Every single seat was filled. There wasn't enough room for all the carry ons so our carry ons had to be carried under the plane as cargo. I've never been on a plane that small! It could only hold 48 people. The service was great though. It was a 2 hour 20 minute flight and they gave us snacks and drinks.

I took tons of photos. I’d say I probably took about 1,000 photos. I’m thankful for digital cameras. I don’t know how I’d afford developing all those pictures. Most of my pictures will stay in a digital album so I won’t have hard copies. My sister has a photo printer so I’ll use it for my favorite shots. I love photography. I have to capture everything on film.

I covered 3 states! New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I didn’t do anything in New Jersey besides stay in the hotel but it counts because I touched soil. Haha. I’ll also count Maryland as being there because we stopped there for briefly although we didn’t get out of the bus. Hey gotta count down the states any way I can.

I think I’m up to 13 states now. I’m well on my way to North American domination. Its my plan to visit them all before I kick the bucket.