Baltimore, Amish Village, Philadelphia and NY

Charging Bull

It was another long day of the trip. Usually, we used to start early in morning and return late evening. This day, we covered, Baltimore-just the harbour. Then we moved to Amish Village, it's a different culture, different (old) lifestyle which still exists in certain parts of America. They showed us their style of house and the guide girl made me try dresses. Also, I was the translator for this guide too. She even suggested me taking it as a job which I am considering.

The Times Square

Then we moved on to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell-an iconic symbol of American Independence. Next was the Stock exchange in New York, followed by the Charging Bull/Wall Street Bull. Last but not the least for the day the one and only Times Square. We spent plenty of time in Times Square. I believe it is the most famous place all over the earth. People from all over the countries come to visit this place.

New York Skyline

It's located in midtown Manhattan section of New York. Once we completed it, we had a nice dinner in a nearby Indian restaurant. Just before moving towards our hotel, we stopped for night view of the New York skyline. I must say, its worth watching. The night view is like a cherry on top. With this we concluded our day. But hold on, it was completed wrt tour. My day had just started as I called one of my old friend from New Jersey with tea. As father wanted to have tea, I called him and he was also so friendly that he traveled 40 miles to bring tea, actually to meet. We had tea and went for a Pan. Then, as per tradition, called our common friends and remembered the great old days.

Enterprise Shuttle @ The Intrepid

Next day was also dedicated to New York. By this time, guide was so happy and grateful that he decided to buy breakfast for me and parents. As I helped him to drive this tour till the time. He would have gone mad as it was already difficult to manage the Chinese group and then on top an Indian group with language barrier. Our first attraction for the day was the Empire State Building. We skipped it as we already visited Chicago 360. It also gave us time to chill a bit and have breakfast for free. Second no. goes to Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. I had been to this place, but it was easy for parents, if I could just escort them through it at a faster pace and explain them whatever possible.
More to follow about New York in next post.

New York

Downtown

After travelling around 1200 miles (2000kms) we reached the costliest and time pass hotel of our journey. We booked this hotel, as it was near to Times Square as well as China Town. Hotel rent was 150$ for 2 Queen Beds. As soon as we powered on the TV, C grade movies started, which confirmed our hotel choice.

White House @ Madam Tussads

As we had to just rest for a while and head on towards Square, we didn’t mind any of these things. We were hell tired so everyone slept for some time, refreshed and then started looking for bus stop. We took bus 4.85$/person from South Hackensack to port authority and near to that we have times square. It’s better to take bus to avoid parking in downtown. Note that Times Square is @ 7th and 42^nd, but the cops closed the streets up to 57^th street when we reached and they kept on closing streets one by one to control people. We tried for some time to get as near as possible, but our crew was more worried about returning and wanted to see pub/dance bar. Hence we left before 2016 hits and tried for a dance bar. Unfortunately bar had strict policies for shoes and we didn’t had proper ones, so we were not allowed. In all this mess, it strikes 12 and we were not even able to see fireworks. Well then we tried for club and they were also closed. Still we call it as Happy New Year. It's all about being happy whatever the situation is. This bullshit is called as maturity.

View from Empire State

Next day we had a pre booked New York tour by Tours4fun.com. So we traveled by Uber cab after using first time referral discount from hotel to China Town. Tour girl (Vikki) took some amount from us to cover entry fee of the attractions. Our first attraction was Empire State Building, a 102-story skyscrapper and world's tallest building for at least 40 years. It;s name is derived from New York's nick name The Empire State. It gives a good view of Manhattan downtown from top. To know more and view a good video visit http://www.esbnyc.com/.

Deep Thinking

Our next stop was Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum-a Military and Maritime History Museum with a collection of Museum Ships. If you would like to see planes like F16, you should visit this place. Museum houses legendary aircraft carrier Intrepid, the space shuttle Enterprise, the world’s fastest jets and a guided missile submarine. USS Intrepid served tours of duty in World War II and the Vietnam War. Enterprise, the world’s first space shuttle that paved the way for America’s successful Space Shuttle Program. Also on display are 28 authentically restored aircraft, including the Lockheed A-12 Blackbird, the world’s fastest military jet and spy plane, and the British Airways Concorde, the fastest commercial aircraft to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean. Rounding out the Museum are the submarine Growler, the only American diesel-powered strategic missile submarine open to the public.

Wall Street

We took lot of time in Intrepid so Vikki was quite angry and decided to just drop us @ Madam Tussad's Wax Museum. Else we were supposed to spend sometime at Times Square and then to Madam. Anyways, they are close, so it's fine. Madam Tussad's wax museum was started from London and now has branches in major cities throughout the world. It is called as "wax museum" but not everywhere we have wax sculptures. Most of the sculptures in New York were plastic but their setup was bit realistic. Environment, background, colors, dresses, music combined made us feel like they are real and sometimes if a real person is statue for sometime, we may feel that its a sculpture. Strange feeling. we took lots of pictures with celebrities and moved on to last but not the least the famous Times Square. Last night, we were not able to witness what Times Square is, but today we saw all the big screens and madness of it. It's truly a light city. Then we walked towards port authority to catch a bus to New Jersey. I was hoping to get a good veggies instead of having something time pass. So I waited till our hotel and found nearby subway.

White House

We got a warm welcome @ Subway by a Spanish girl Merlyn. She greeted us with famous quote "Kya haal hai ?". I also replied with same enthusiasm "badiya, aap kaise hai". Since most of the shops, restaurants and hotels of New Jersey are owned/run by Indians, we get such greetings. A nice welcome increases taste and make us feel homely. Within 5 minutes of time span, we got mixed with the owner and Merlyn, hence took the photo.

New York Stock Exchange

Next we moved towards Baltimore, where we had our 2nd hotel booked.

Famous F16 @ Intrepid

Warm Welcome Restaurant

New Year Recipe

Today I am going to tell you how to prepare a New Year. Step by step procedure is as follows.

1.       Select a famous place. I chose world famous The Times Square.

2.       Make a trip plan. We made a trip to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.

3.       Put 4-5 people in a SUV. I chose few guys from office.

4.       Add snacks as per taste. Got lots of snacks to have it on the way.

5.       RIDE. We started directly from office.

It’s been long since I have traveled anywhere. There were multi reasons for that. I guess, I was laying low. Anyways travelling spree has returned, I am back. Ready to roll and rock the planet. I like travelling by road/rail as it gives us enough time to get away from the screened life plus it’s cheap. It would take 3-400 $ for flight to New York from Minnesota, hence we chose driving. My friend, have no doubts about driving in US. Yes, it is easy, but still takes guts to drive continuous for 20-24 hours.
Let’s get to point 1.

Of course Times Square

1.       Times Square

I heard a lot about the Times Square, but never got a chance to visit Light City New York. We had a long weekend and it was New Year’s Eve so I thought what could be better than to celebrate it on the world’s most exotic place. People from all over the world were there to witness 2016.

Crowd was so huge that cops were closing streets one by one. We stayed there for some time and then came back. Courtesy of my friends, that we didn’t saw the boll drop.

Road Trip Plan MN to NY

2.       Trip Plan

I was planning to visit New York, Niagra and DC. But the group didn’t wanted to see frozen Niagra, instead we included Philadelphia in our list. Car, Hotels and NY tour was pre booked.

Crew Members

3.       Put 3-5 people in a SUV

Our initial plan was to take a full size SUV as we had 5 people, but in the end one guy dropped. Hence we booked an intermediate SUV. We got Nissan Rogue. NOTE: if you are going interstate travels and know that those states will have tolls, it’s better to have an eazypass with you. It’s an electronic toll system. Toll charges will be automatically applied to that device as you pass from toll booths. No need to pay via coins anywhere. It’s easy, fast and convenient. Normally, they are active while taking car but it’s better to confirm.

4.       Snacks as per taste.

Since we were travelling like 20 hours-1200 miles (2000kms) one way. We added lots of snacks with us.

Nissan Rogue Intermediate SUV

5.       RIDE

The most exciting part of the recipe. We started from office around 3:30 and visited few rental offices again to confirm that easy pass is active and if we can get a all wheel drive instead of front wheel drive as those cars are better for long journey and snow travels. Unfortunately both didn’t worked out and we had to continue our journey without them. We stopped on the way just to fill gas and coffee. Our first halt was at Chicago where we picked the fourth guy. Finally our expedition towards New York started.

Keep Reading…