For this week’s entry, I will be documenting another day trip with me and my friends. It was August 2019, and we were headed to New York City. The one thing that I love most about where I live is the access it provides to so many cool places. My hometown is ~30 minutes from Philly, about 3 hours to Washington D.C., and less than 2 hours to the Jersey Shore, Pocono Mountains, and New York City.

I always volunteer to drive when adventuring with my friends, as I enjoy driving and my car is reliable and fuel efficient. It was about 9 am, and my friends Carlos, Jordan, and I were on the way to New York.

The plan was to park my car in Staten Island and take the free ferry offering priceless views to Lower Manhattan. After scrambling around Staten Island for about 30 minutes, we found parking, and we arrived in the ferry terminal. It was packed with people (welcome to NYC!), and we waited for about 20 minutes. We finally got on the ferry and were on the way to Manhattan with great views of the Statue of Liberty and the downtown skyline.

We got off the ferry near Battery Park on the southern tip of the island. It was a warm, summer day, and there were tourists and people everywhere. We wandered around downtown, seeing the 9/11 Memorial, World Trade Center, and the new Oculus shopping area. I studied the MTA subway maps the night before, so I knew we had to board the 1 train to get uptown. We were headed to Central Park.

Getting off at Columbus Circle at the lower left corner of the park, we walked through Central Park for an hour. We climbed on the rock formations, saw the lake, and watched some baseball game. We then had an idea. Just like I did in Washington D.C., I thought finding electric scooters would be a great idea, but it turns out they’re banned in Manhattan. Lucky for us, we found Citi Bikes nearby, downloaded their app, bought a day pass, and began riding.

I love riding bikes through the city, as I did in Philly, but New York is on a different level. It’s much more crowded and has more bikers, pedestrians, and cars. It can also be stressful navigating the unidirectional bike lanes with short-tempered New Yorkers on their way to or from work. With that being said, I still had a great time biking around; it was exhilarating.

After we got on the bikes near Central Park, we rode bikes to Grand Central Terminal and walked around inside. The Citi Bikes are great considering you can leave them at any docking station around the city, and there are tons. From Grand Central, we headed over to Times Square with the bikes, and then moved east on to the new Hudson Yards neighborhood along the Hudson River.

Hudson Yards is a new, developing neighborhood with a huge mall, hotels, apartment buildings, and its signature architectural landmark, the Vessel. Upon arriving at the Vessel, we learned it was only for people who reserved timed tickets, even thought it was free. We were about to leave, but then a nice couple asked us if we wanted their tickets. Something came up, and they had to leave, so we used their tickets! There was only two, so my friend Jordan waited outside, but I am so grateful I was able to climb around the Vessel. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

From the Vessel, we walked down to the Highline, and walked south for 20 minutes, eventually climbing down to street level and finding bikes. We biked to Madison Square Park, which is adjacent to the iconic Flatiron Building. At the park, we ate Shake Shack and watched crazy squirrels running around. After eating, it was already 8 or 9pm, but the day wasn’t over yet. We found the bikes and rode towards the Manhattan Bridge. We rode the bridge over to DUMBO, Brooklyn. There is a beautiful little park, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, that offers great views of the entire Manhattan skyline.

 

Once we took in the great views, we biked back across the Manhattan Bridge, and rode south towards the Financial District. Last on our tour was Wall Street. We walked past the New York Stock Exchange and took a picture with the famous charging bull statue. We were extremely tired, but we saw everything on our itinerary. We headed to the ferry terminal, bought some Wendy’s for the road, and took the ferry across to Staten Island. My car was still there, which was awesome, and we made it home by 3 am.

Rating: 8.9/10 (long day but very fun)

— P.S. I couldn’t find any personal pictures from this trip–my friend must have them from his camera–so these are from the internet.