East Coasters

Ann Arbor to New York City: 10 hours
New York City to Washington, D.C.: 4.5 hours
Washington, D.C. to Ann Arbor: 8.5 hours



Phil and I headed to the Eastern Seaboard two weekends ago. We spent two days in New York City and another two in Washington, D.C. Accommodations were provided throughout our stay thanks to our friends Jenny Chisnell and Frank Wisswell.

It took us 10 hours to get from Ann Arbor to NYC. We knew it was going to be a long day in the car so naturally we didn't go to sleep until 4 when we had plans to be our the door by 8. Phil spent a lot of time working, trying to avoid carsickness while I kept myself occupied by downing as much caffeine as I could, repeatedly hitting the seek button on the iPod and half consciously attempting to find a license plate for each of the 50 states.

We were somewhere in Pennsylvania when I received a text message from my sister notifying me that Michael Jackson was dead. I had no idea that the story was such a media circus, with no facts yet confirmed, so I blindly believed her. My roommate sent me a text informing me that the story was more of a rumor, a shoddy, half-assed story broken by celebrity rag TMZ. I frantically rifled through the radio waves for NPR. There were no new updates by the time we completely lost the signal halfway through New Jersey. We were able to confirm that MJ was dead about an hour after the rest of the world already knew.

We rolled into NYC around 10 p.m., a few hours later than anticipated. We wasted a lot of time trying to find a gas station and bathroom in New Jersey, where apparently no one pumps their own gas. Every place we came upon had an attendant sitting inside a roof shelter. None of these places had bathrooms. We tried a few local businesses, but every place we came upon had signs that indicated that their facilities were private or reserved for customers only.

Driving into the city was very scary. There were two, narrow lanes that twisted and curved constantly. At one point, a guy on a crotch rocket started making weird hand motions at me. They clearly meant something to him, and possibly to all drivers in New York City, but I was clueless. Later, I decided he was probably just prompting me to turn on my headlights, since I was apparently too focused on white knuckle gripping the steering wheel, trying my best to not to kill us, to notice that I didn't have my headlights on. But, who knows. I never will for sure.

Our first night we went to a bar in Jenny's neighborhood in Brooklyn called Union Pool. It had back yard- a patio and a pond that was sometimes converted into a fire pit. She told us it was featured in the movie "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist." We ate some authentic Mexican food during our walk home before heading home to crash hard.

Day one in NYC we spent much of the day wandering Manhattan, blindly looking for the World Trade Center. Both of us searched "Ground Zero" on Google Maps and came up with the same location. It was apparently some phantom address and we spent the better part of two hours traveling to and from the wrong place. But, it was very important that we got there, even if we spent all day looking for it. It's the reason we came to New York, the purpose of the entire trip.









Phil is working on a series of short stories called "Millenium Men." One of the short stories deals with the disconnection he felt from 9/11. Going to Ground Zero and standing on the rubble is key to drudging up some emotion about what happened that day while simultaneously providing shape for his story’s characters.

Phil had a lot to say about what we found there at his blog.

A smoothie and a few Subway stops later, we found ourselves in Times Square. We arrived while there was still daylight, so we got to watch the streets slowly begin to fill with tourists and vendors. Right after we arrived, it started to rain. It was barely a sprinkle, but everyone around us popped open their umbrellas. The rain never really picked up, but our hair does look pretty wet in the photos.
We had sushi nearby, just off the main drag before we headed back to Brooklyn for the night.



Later, Jenny took us a Barcade: a bar that was filled with arcade games from the early 1980s. We played Tetris and drank whiskey sours.


Phil and I waiting for the Subway

We spent another half of a day in NYC: coffee, Good Burger, weird bunny sculpture gardens and The Museum of Modern Art. I think my favorite aspect of the entire museum was an exhibition entitled “Waste Not”, an entire room filled with carefully organized piles of junk. All everyday objects, the stuff was collected from the artist’s mother’s life: shoes, suitcases, bottle caps, legless dolls, bars of soap, pans, plates, tubs, all arranged carefully around the frame of her very tiny house. According to the MoMA website, “Waste Not” – or wu jin qi gong in Chinese – is philosophical concept from China’s past, and security by means of collecting everyday objects was a requisite guideline for survival.

I also saw Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” while we were there. We stumbled upon it by accident, wouldn’t have even seen it if we hadn’t noticed a small crowd of people standing in a corner. It was actually larger than I thought it was. Thirty inches across or so. Much more beautiful in real life than on post cards and posters.


Outside to MoMA

I had some thoughts to consider as we were leaving NYC: 1.) I realized I still haven't decided how I feel about the fact that every single restaurant and cafe in NYC lists the number of calories in each menu item. 2.) It would be exceptionally difficult for a New Yorker to live anywhere else. 3.) I was very comfortable there. I am positive I need to live in a big city some day. Sooner better than later.


Leaving NYC

Though the drive to D.C. was under 5 hours, it felt longer than our haul from A2 to NYC. When we finally arrived, Frank had made us some dinner. We had a little time to relax before we headed out to a burlesque show across town. Frank was afraid that we weren’t going to make it on time, so we got to the bus stop a bit early. Though we were clearly waiting to be picked up, the bus rolled right past us. Phil chased the bus for two blocks, didn’t catch it and we ended up taking the Metro and a cab.

The burlesque show was at a bar that also identified as a “wonder museum.” It was kind of attic-like: creaky and musty smelling. The place was decorated with creepy fortune teller/magician/circus posters and glass cases with eerie objects that included (but are not limited to) two headed sheep, shrunken heads, and a unicorn meets goat creature.
The crowd was just as weird. Top hats, painful looking facial piercings, foot long beards, all covered in tattoos. And they talked about playing Magic The Gathering.
Frank pointed out a gy who looked a lot like one of the twins from the band Good Charlotte was there. He’s 90 percent sure it was that guy, since they are from D.C.

Day two we had Empanadas, vegan cupcakes and cookies before we spent the rest of the day on The National Mall. During my trip earlier this year, I came for the inauguration and I was there to work so I didn’t get to see a whole lot of the city or the main attractions. We visited the Lincoln and Washington Monuments and the Vietnam and Korean Memorials.





We tried to go to The Portrait Gallery, but there was a huge street fair that roped off block after block. By the time we were able to maneuver around it, The Portrait Gallery was getting near closing.

We got Empanada’s and vegan cupcakes one more time before we left the following day.

We got a long term goal (visiting the World Trade Center site) accomplished, saw two cities, two good friends and above all Phil and I didn’t want to kill each other by the end of the trip. It was a good time and I’m glad we went.

Posted just a few of the favorite photos. You can find more here and here.