New York City!

okay, for girl scouts we got to pick a bridge that we could "bridge" from cadettes to seniors, and we picked the brooklin bridge in new york city. we planned the whole thing out in january, and we were going to take amtrak there and tour the city with a free tour the next day- the tour includes walking across the brooklin bridge- and then the last day we go home on the amtrak.

So, on Friday, we all "wake up" at 5 to go to the amtrak station. i didn't go to bed at all that night, so it didn't really matter. Anyway, we got on the TEN HOUR ride to new york, i sleep for half of it. then we get there, and the hotel is full of french people! i couldn't understand what most were saying. anyway, the next day. we are ready for the tour by 8:30 with Jerry, the tour guide. he has an auctioneers voice i swear. he talks fast- AND WALKS FAST TOO! anyway, there are 11 of us g/s (including leaders and my sister) and three other people on the tour. me and the three people (two from poland, one from switzerland/germany) and two other g/s were the only ones keeping up with jerry. and jerry is a very old man and is a little deaf, so he was walking too fast for his age, and too deaf to tell him to stop. anyway, lunch was at 5pm! well, he called it lunch. me and one of the (faster) g/s only ate rice because we are picky eaters. but i am getting ahead of myself. we toured everything! the brooklin bridge, brooklin, manhattan, we rode the staten ferry, saw ground zero, empire state building, etc. we bought so many hot dogs...haha. we rarely stopped, and Jerry really knew his stuff. he does these tours for free becuase it's what he loves to do. he's retired, so he has time. we toured time square too, and that's when we departed. it was 1 in the morning when we returned to the hotel. he had us walking a lot. 15 hours, taking out the little breaks we did have. then we all had to wake up at 6 to eat and catch the amtrak back home. i wish we could've stayed in ny longer, but hey- it was for g/s not for fun.