We couldn’t stay in brew city too long because I’m allergic to alcohol and my face turned red just from being around all the beer in the Miller Brewery. Anyways, Madison was our next stop and the first thing we did when we got there was go to a cheese factory. The factory was in a small town outside of Madison called Plain which I thought was kind of funny because it looked exactly like its name, but who knows, there’s probably a lot going on there that I don’t even know about. So when we got to the cheese factory, we found out they stopped giving tours after Labor Day so all we could do is look through the windows and see how cheese is made. Next time we’ll be sure to call ahead of time to make certain we get the full experience. A saying we have come to know and love is; you win some, you lose some and we definitely lost this one. But life goes on and our next stop was an attraction called The House on the Rock which is a house that this guy named Alex Jordan lived in and turned into what I would call Willy Wonka’s house on drugs. The only thing we kept on saying the whole time we were walking through the house was, “This guy is a wackjob”. I guess he has the largest indoor carousel in the world, doll houses, and instruments that play by themselves and a lot of other random stuff from all over the world that I don’t even know about. It was definitely one of the weirdest things I have ever seen and we didn’t even tour his entire house. After that we cruised on down to downtown Madison where we visited the state capitol building and another Frank Lloyd Wright designed building and called it a day.

After seeing Chicago our expectations for cities were high, Milwaukee is much smaller than Chicago so we weren’t as moved by the sites. Although, if you’re big into beer then Milwaukee is the place for you, it was like the Mecca in the 50’s and 60’s. It is also known as Brew City, the four major brewers in the country at the time were all based out of Milwaukee. Baseball fans might put it together now, the Milwaukee Brewers. The only remaining giant still there is Miller. Seeing as how beer is the city’s heritage we had to take a tour of the Miller brewery. The tour was actually pretty cool, we walked through the whole process from producing, to bottling, to shipping. We even saw a room with 500,000 cases of beer in it, probably more than you’ve ever seen in your life, and it’s not like they store it there either, turnover is one day, that means the facility produces 500,000 cases a day. More fun facts: the Milwaukee plant’s production is distributed to only 10 Midwest states, 40% of it going to one city in particular…Chicago. Anyway, we took the tour, tasted some beers and took some pictures. From there we cruised downtown to check out the Art Museum which we didn’t actually go in, but the building was pretty awesome. Last stop, can’t forget cheese, it still is Wisconsin after all. We went to the Cheese Mart and purchases some stuff. That was about it for our stay in Milwaukee.

- Carson

We finally made it to the city on our own terms and we were exciting to see some sites other than the bus. Finally after figuring out the L, we made our way to “the bean” otherwise known as Cloud Gate in Millennium Park and preceded to have fun snapping photos. You know the drill; check them out in the photo section. Adjacent to the bean is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry, although no one was performing; the structure was impressive to say the least. Remember Frank Gehry from the building at MIT, he’s also known for the EMP and the Disney Concert Hall. We made our way to Crown Fountain, for those of you who haven’t been to it; it is two 50 foot glass towers with pictures of faces projected on it, all the while water cascades down the sides and periodically shoots out of the faces mouths. We continued our stroll through the park making our way to another lovely water feature called Buckingham Fountain, just as classy as the palace, but with no lines or fees. As we debated current politics, we meandered down the waterfront towards the Navy Pier. Upon arriving at the Navy Pier, we went to the McDonald’s Ferris wheel which was disappointing for a number of reasons; one being it was 100 feet smaller than the original, two being it was six dollars a person for one rotation, and three being it didn’t stop. On a more positive note other than the great views from the top, the best part of the experience was being one of two dudes on Lieu’s first Ferris wheel ride ever. Also from our unique vantage point we spotted a couple Lamborghini’s in the nearby Crystal Gardens, naturally we went over to check it out. As it turned out the function was some sort of showcase of Italy featuring Lambos, Ferraris, Mazeratis, Vespas, cheese, wine, and fashion. The fashion show provided much needed rest for our feet as we had just walked a few miles around the city, and I’m pretty sure we gave one of the models the giggles which is definitely frowned upon while on the runway. We were laughing the whole show because the models were supposed to be super serious about their walking. It was like watching a little kid walk, they’re concentrating really hard almost surprised they are doing it without falling, but they have the presence of mind that they’re supposed to look cool. After leaving the show we walked part of the Magnificent Mile, ate at one of the nicest and most efficient McDonald’s ever, and made our way back to the campsite to call it a night.

Naively thinking we had the L all figured out we hopped on the blue train at the end of the line and quickly got off at the Oak Park stop. We walked around pretty much the entire town and indirectly found our way to our desired destination, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. Tickets that day were hard to come by, but we got the last three for the 3 o’clock tour of the complex. With time to spare we strolled down Forest Ave. and looked at several other F. Lloyd creations. For the second time on this tour we had a tour guide named Chuck, I don’t know where I was going with that, I just thought it was funny. Chuck was a very knowledgeable guy, we learned all about compression and release as well as a whole bunch of other fun terms to use at a dinner party. The house was very innovative when you consider the fact that he created it over 100 years ago when he was only 22 years old. Oak Park was a nice neighborhood and it had tons of Frankie’s work in it so it was fun to walk around, but we needed to see the city so we got back on the L and headed for the skyscrapers. I guess I shouldn’t say hopped on, it got a little more complicated than that. See the first day we spent about an hour getting these 1 day “fun passes” which turned out to be not all that much fun because they only lasted one day and we needed 3 day passes. Interestingly enough three day passes are only available to visitors, which was perfect because we were doing just that, but unfortunately the CTA believes that visitors must first go to one of only three locations in the entire Chicagoland area to purchase said passes. I don’t know if absurd is the right word, maybe ridiculous, but either way this makes no sense. Passless, we paid the fair to ride downtown from Oak Park on what latter became known as the first leg of our wild goose chase. We quickly realized that the CTA headquarters in the loop was one of our stops, if any place was to have the passes surely it would be the transit headquarters, but no, it was closed at 4. Next attempt was the official tourist information center a few blocks away. We ran inside and asked the lady for some passes, she said we only sell those in the gift center (Who gives visitor passes as gifts anyway). We checked it out and returned to the lady’s desk with no passes, she replied, “Yeah, everyone tries to get out of here at 4:45 on the weekends; everything in the loop closes early.” Time 4:32. She makes a few calls and locates a few passes in the Mag Mile at some grocery store of all places. At that point Chicago and eBUS live were not getting along to well, but to make things worse on the way out of the visitor’s center, Graham was denied access to the bathroom by some security guard. Spirits were down and Lieu was chanting O’fer, but we forged ahead and made our way to the Jewel Osco (For those of you that don’t know O’fer, it means zero for x attempts which in our case was something like 4 at that point, we were zero for four). We finally were allowed the right to purchase visitor’s passes at the Osco, but at that point it was like 6 at night, the Visitor pass debacle was now behind us. We grabbed a bite to eat at our favorite MacD’s and proceeded to walk around the Mag Mile doing a little bit of shopping to try and salvage the evening.

Armed with our visitor’s CTA passes and dressed in business casual we arrived at the Ralph Lauren Grill and Bar for a nice Sunday brunch. It was probably the nicest place we’ve been to eat on the tour, but going there for brunch was a smart move because we managed to all eat for less than $50. From the RL G&B we shot down to Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. Another lovely neighborhood, though slightly surrounded by ghettos, we again walked around to check out the sites. Our main destination was the Robie House, another F.L.Wright design. It is known as his quintessential Prairie style house and is recognized the world over as one of the most influential buildings of the century. The only downside of the tour was that the house was still being renovated. We got some pics of the outside so you can get a feel for it, remember he built it 80 years ago when all homes were a Victorian style (Google that for more reading). After Hyde Park we went back to the Loop to take some fun pics of the Sears Tower, it’s really tall. From there we went to the second tallest building in town, the Hancock Tower for a better view of the whole city. The observation deck was closed so all the tourists decided to join us in the Signature Lounge, it was a zoo. Somehow we managed a table next to the windows. If you ever make it to Chicago, drinks in the signature lounge is a must do, if you can try and get a table on the south side windows, spectacular views. We saw a beautiful sunset, the Navy Pier, fireworks at Soldier Field during the Bears game, and a great view of the Chicago skyline. Can anyone guess the last stop during our stay in Chicago? That’s right, PIZZA, did you expect anything less from Carson, and not just any pizza, Giordano’s Chicago style pizza, we polished off the whole pie, it was a phenomenal ending to our stay in Chicago.

- eBUS live crew

Upon my arrival in Chicago at O’ Hare airport, I was informed we had a 45 minute drive to Gary Indiana (the birth place of Michel Jackson and The Jackson 5). I was a little confused, apparently the bus had a few problems. Cruising to Gary in the 89 Camary with Carson and Lieu was not quite as uncomfortable as being smooshed in to my little airplane seat next to a large black fellow, covered in tattoos, iced out, trigger finger missing, and bumping his headphones WAY to loud (he turned out to be a really nice guy). We got to the bus, the internet was down, we were completely lost without Google, and we all knew nothing of this town that was our current residence by default. With three of us and two maps, we still couldn’t decide on a route to our next destination. Using our phone a friend life line, we got some directions from a few folks with internet access. We were all ready to go and…the bus didn’t start, the first time on the whole trip. Parked in a gravel clearing close to a truck stop, dejected we went to bed and decided we’ll fix all our problems the next day.

The next day I woke up drenched in my own sweat, it’s been awhile since I slept on the bus and I forgot how hot it gets. We then had two clear missions, one was to get the bus running, and two was to replace the wireless internet card that had miraculously broken the day before. The bus had recently received a new fuel pump that moves the fuel at a greater rate but the same pressure as the original pump. The problem was that this new pump was making the fuel blow right by the carburetor. Fuel spewing everywhere, bus not starting, both very bad things. There was an auto part store about a block down just right in the middle of what was otherwise a residential neighborhood. It had no parts for our Holly carb, which we assumed was the problem. The guy sent us to Von Senus, where we found Lee who seemed to be extremely knowledgeable guy. Removing the whole carburetor and taking it into Lee at the shop, he decides if it’s not the brand new pump functioning improperly, it might be a float or a squirter. After we purchase a few things for the carb, clean it out, replace it, same thing still happening. We were all baffled, including Lee; our only option left was to put the old pump back in, (only two days old, but less fuel per hour). Though the new pump would have been better because of the higher flow rate, the old pump worked without flooding the engine, which meant the brand new Carter electric fuel pump was defective, right out of the box. All of this was absolutely ridiculous and amazingly frustrating. Mission one, done; kind of… Mission two, we head to a nearby mall which had three Sprint stores in it, at the third one a helpful guy tells us the internet card we needed is not available anywhere in his whole district, ouch. Mission two, incomplete. This was not a great day.

The next morning we head to Napa auto parts where the faulty pump had been purchased. We were met with hostility right off the bat. “We have this fuel pump,” (rude store guy interjects) “You own it! You bought it, you own it.” Carson proceeded to finish his sentence, “The pump was defective”. Another Napa employee helps by exchanging the part, but acts extremely put out by us asking her to do her job. Frustrated with our poor customer service we head downtown. We hit our fourth Sprint store in two days; a very nice lady tells us we need to go to the store five blocks away because they have a service center. Sprint store number five, by this time we know the drill. They check the card, it’s broken, we were told they would replace it, except they didn’t have any more cards. Carson and I team up on this guy who says he might be able to get us one by Tuesday. Like haggling with street vendors, the only play was to walk away, so we did. Returning a half an hour later, the employee feeling bad from the guilt trip we gave him makes an offer. Someone ordered one of our discontinued cards to some suburb northwest of Chicago, he say’s they’ll let us have it if we pick it up. Finally, at Sprint store six, we have a new card! Mission two, complete; (assuming the card worked, it did)! Ecstatic from beating the system we head to Gino’s East. It was really good Chicago style pizza, and you can write on any surface in the restaurant except the bathroom, ironic, don’t you think.

The next morning, the new fuel pump goes on, we take the bus for a test drive. Victory, the old girl is running like a champ, better than ever. No longer being stifled by not enough fuel; Mission one complete! Mission two, the internet, complete! Back running at 100 percent, in time to go have some fun and see some stuff. Between the bad pump right out of the box, and the Sprint card crapping out it ended up essentially costing us two and a half days. Hopefully the rest of my eBus live tour will go a little smoother.

- Graham

Good thing we left Buffalo when we did because we broke down somewhere in upstate NY on the Thruway. Yada Yada Yada, it was a fuel pump problem and I fixed it in what felt like 30 degrees on Saturday morning, took a nap, jumped back on the road and headed to Cleveland in the early evening. We had to make it there in time to get sleep for the big day at the park on Sunday.

The park open at 10 but we slept in a bit and arrived there at 11 with plenty of time to get all the great coasters in before it closed at 8. It was a nice day but pretty cold, which was actually good because the lines we’re not that long, at least in comparison to Magic Mountain in LA. Speaking of MM the whole day was a comparison to me, a battle of the best coaster parks in the country, more on that in the conclusion. I’m pretty sure we went on all the best coasters there, but I’m not positive, Pete will have to let me know. Anyway my favorites were Maverick, Millenium Force, and Top Thrill Dragster. We didn’t stay until closing, but just about, we left at 7. However we did stay long enough to ride both Maverick and Top Thrill Dragster two times each. Besides all the thrills that the coasters provide, the views of Lake Erie were pretty cool too. It was a whole experience going to Cedar Point, great location and great coasters. So the ultimate comparison, MM vs CP, I’m still undecided on the overall results, they are both so fun, but I do know that the X at Magic Mountain is still the best roller coaster I’ve ever ridden.

We only had one day to visit the city of Cleveland because my brother is coming in to Chicago on Tuesday. With another epic 8 or so hour drive to Chicago from Cleveland we didn’t want to have an intense day touring so we just went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For all you Seattle readers, it’s a lot like EMP. I actually liked it better than EMP because it had so much more to see and learn. Don’t get me wrong, EMP is cool, but the Hall of Fame is pretty fun. Maybe I just like Rock and Roll a lot and therefore I thought it was really cool, I don’t know. After seeing all the artifacts and listening to all the songs I got a pretty good idea of some music I need to download in the future (legally of course). Well, after the Hall of Fame we went back to the bus to prepare for our last two man journey.

- Carson

After rounding third base so to speak by leaving Boston we began our final leg of the adventure back home to Seattle. Finally we were heading West on I-90 after months of East on the 10 and North on the 95. Actually it was the Mass Pike, but officially I-90, anyway. That reminds me, in case you didn’t know, almost every freeway you want to go on in the northeast all the way to Chicago is a toll road, so keep cash available. We drove through MA in the early evening and we were able to see the beginnings of fall in the northeast, it looked pretty cool. It’s weird being from WA where all the trees have needles instead of leaves like all the trees of the northeast (coniferous instead of deciduous if you want to get technical). So we made it through MA and took a break in Albany for a nap in the evening before making the big push through upstate NY to Buffalo. It took a while, but eventually we made it there and quickly went to sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The next day we woke up and headed to the number one attraction in the area, Niagara Falls. Not really knowing where to go we just started walking around and followed signs to the falls. Eventually we found ourselves in the state park and next to the observation deck. For just a dollar we were able to walk out on the deck for a better look at the falls. Our dollar also allowed us to go to the bottom of the falls where we could climb up some stairs right next to the crashing waters. We pulled a few ponchos out of the recycle bin and headed up the stairs for a closer look. Let me tell you, we were defiantly unprepared for the events that transpired. I’m not sure if it was a particularly windy day or if maybe there was an exorbitant amount of water flowing but we got drenched with spray from the falls. Our ponchos helped a bit, but we were soaked. Skater shoes were a bad choice that day, after the hike they weighed about 10 pounds each. There are some good pictures of the fiasco if you want to check them out. After the monsoon we did a little more walking, we crossed the rainbow bridge and the American border to check out the view of the falls from Canada. What we determined is that Canada got a way better deal on the falls. All the best pics are taken from Canada, probably what you’re picturing right now is the view from Canada. We took about 50 pictures or so and then walked back to America, but not before getting a magnet and some Canadian candies. Funny side note, it costs 50 cents to get out of Canada by foot. We walked through the state park a little more, took a few more funny pics and eventually made our way to the car to head back to Buffalo. I could spend a couple paragraphs trying to explain in words how spectacular the falls were, but it’s a lot easier if you just look at the pictures. (A picture is worth 1000 words, right?) We left Buffalo after only seeing the falls because we had to make it to Cedar Point in Ohio before the weekend was over, otherwise we would have to stay another week to be able to go to America’s Roller Coast.

- Carson

Did I just wake up from a nightmare or is summer really over? I didn’t realize it until we woke up in Boston and I was freezing my butt off. This trip has come a long ways since 115 in Yuma, AZ. We might have to switch out the AC unit for a heater for the home stretch. To get a feel for the city, we thought a duck tour would be a fun way to see the area and kind of plan out our stay in Boston. The tour was a little overpriced, but our guide was funny, told a lot of jokes, and everything in Boston was wicket so it was worth it. We met up with my uncle’s friend Steve afterwards for a bite to eat and he invited us to stay at his house which we obviously accepted seeing as how we haven’t had a house to go to in a while. The plan for the next day was to walk the Freedom Trail and see all the sites, but before we got started, there was a huge crowd standing outside a church downtown so we had to investigate. We found out there was a movie being filmed and that Dane Cook, Kate Hudson and Alec Baldwin were on the set. There’s a picture of Kate in our picture section if you want to see how pretty she is. Boston is a lot smaller than New York City so after walking the Freedom Trail which was like five miles long, we saw most of the sites. They included: the Boston Common, the old State House where the Boston Massacre occurred, the USS Constitution, Paul Revere’s house, the North End, the Bunker Hill Monument, and Beacon Hill.

After that we headed off to America’s first college, Hahvahd, to beat up some smaht kids. We didn’t actually beat up any smaht kids, that’s just a line from one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting. During our self-guided tour of Hahvahd, a friend of a friend that lives in Boston called to meet up with us for drinks. Her name is Karin and she’s a very nice girl. The next day wasn’t one to write about because it rained all day, but I did have a chance to play tennis against my nemesis, Steve. I thought about letting him win to be nice, but my competitive nature kicked in and I was able to persevere in the end. There’s always next time Steve. On Wednesday we met up with an old friend, David Tarr, at MIT where he goes to school. He’s wicket smart. David showed us through some labs at MIT, we saw some crazy stuff like a fully autonomous vehicle meaning it controls itself by learning on its own. Good luck in the Navy David. We couldn’t leave Boston without seeing a Sox game at Fenway Pahk, America’s first ballpark. I never thought I would actually get to see the green monstah in real life, next time I’ll have to sit up there. The game was pretty boring, but it got interesting towards the end with the Sox down one in the bottom of the ninth. With one on and one out, David Ortiz (Big Papi) was up to bat which means you’re in trouble if you’re the opposing team. He already hit a home run earlier in the game, but for the icing on the cake, he hit another one to win the game and everyone went crazy. What a way to end our visit in Boston.

So driving in New York, if you haven’t heard, it can be very tricky and usually nerve racking. Also if you haven’t heard our rig including the trailer with the car on it is about 50 feet long and goes from 0-60 in maybe 10 minutes. Needless to say these facts do not compliment each other very nicely. Knowing all of this, we decided to leave our spot in NJ at around 10 to avoid NYC traffic, thinking we could be in Newport, RI (our next stop) by maybe 3 AM. Well we actually left at more like 11 because our movie ran a little later than expected. Anyway the punch line is that we got lost a few times and made several wrong turns creating about an hour and half delay in our schedule, plus the hour later we left. So by 3 AM we had only made it to New Haven, CT which then became a great place to stop for the night and the next day. Actually it was really good because one of my cousin’s favorite pizza places in the Northeast is in New Haven. We slept in and did some work around the bus and headed into town to check out Yale and get a bite to eat. Yale was pretty awesome, just the buildings alone impressed me plus the town was really nice. After the sun went down we went to Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria and began waiting in line. Apparently it is well known that Pepe’s is a really good place, not to mention the fact it was Friday night. So we waited in line for a while and talk to a really nice local guy and his family. As time passed the eBUS live story unfolded to them and they were really excited. Apparently the kids were talking about doing the exact same thing, I mean exact, they wanted to buy a school bus, convert it, and travel the country. They were really nice people and it was fun to talk to someone that was so interested in what we are doing. Eventually we got in and ate our pizza, as advertised it was really good and currently is in contention for best pizza in the country. The family we chatted with in line actually paid for our pizza, it was the nicest gesture we have received on this trip thus far. We took a picture with them, check it out, they are awesome and they single handedly put CT in the top spot for “state with the nicest people” so far in the trip. That night we drove to Coventry, RI to prepare for the day in Newport.

We got to Newport early in the morning and took a nice little walk/hike along the cliffs at the waters edge. The views were amazing and the mansions we walked by were gigantic and over the top, but impressive. After the 8 mile walk we were pretty tired so we found a nice place to get some food in town, right next to the Tennis Hall of Fame. After lunch we walked around the hall of fame a bit and watch some of a match that was being played on the grounds. I’m not really sure how excited Lieu was, but with his tennis background hopefully he liked it, I thought it was pretty cool. I know the soccer or basketball hall of fames would be cool to me. Anyway we then went to the Breakers and took a tour of the most luxurious home in Newport. In today’s dollars it cost $150 million to build, it has 70 rooms, decorations nearly on par with Versailles in France, and the Vanderbilt’s only lived there in the summers. Fun fact: at the height of the family fortune they had accumulated more wealth than the entire United States treasury. I thought the Breakers was pretty crazy but Lieu wasn’t impressed, ask him about it. After the Breakers we just walked around the Harbor area a little and checked out the shops and the people. I felt left out because I didn’t have a white sweater draped over my shoulders, just kidding, but that area is very rich and exclusive. Newport was a really nice area though, I can see why all the rich people live there.

- Carson

After Labor Day weekend we just had a few things left to do in the city before we left. First and foremost we had to eat some authentic Brooklyn style pizza. As recommended by our tour guides and the NYC locals, Grimaldi’s under the Brooklyn Bridge Overpass is supposed to be the best pizza in town, apparently people wait like 5 hours for it. Knowing it was a popular place we decided to try and get in for lunch on a weekday to avoid the crowds. It wasn’t that busy and the pizza was amazing. I’m not yet going to make a call as to the best pizza in the country, but Grimaldi’s is in contention. After Grimaldi’s we took a nice little stroll across the Brooklyn bridge, actually we were exhausted from walking all week but somehow we managed to make it across the bridge and capture a few photos on the way. From there we headed to Times Square via the subways. We met up with Lieu’s Aunt and Uncle again for a drink just before going to Phantom of the Opera. I had seen a few theatre performances before, but none on Broadway, and for Lieu, it was his first Broadway style show he had ever been too. The show was great as predicted and the singing was amazing, we wanted to see Jersey Boys but apparently you have to buy tickets a few months in advance for that one. Anyway, we got our Broadway experience.

The next day we woke up a little late but once again made our epic 2 hour journey to the city this time ending up at the Met. Apparently it has the largest collection of art in the Western Hemisphere, so it’s one of those things you have to see, but there is so much you can never see it all. I have about a 1.5-2 hour attention span at Museums so we cruised through most of it pretty fast. Unfortunately for us the part which I was looking forward to most was closed, the 19th century European Paintings. Most likely people reading this will be more familiar with that part of the museum when remembering Thomas Crown’s adventures at the Met, and if you haven’t seen the Thomas Crown Affair put that on your NetFlix list. Back to the story, after the Met we cruised to the top of the Rockefeller building for a mere $20 a piece, but the views were spectacular. (Check the photos). Lastly we had to peruse the shops of Canal street to look for any fake items we needed, replicas of products made by Rolex, or Louis Vuitton, or Gucci, and so on. We didn’t purchase much and we headed back to the bus, exhausted.

Some unmentioned highlights of New York
We witnessed five or so performances ON the subway trains as they were moving, highlighted by the Mexican guitar/accordion duo, the break dancing group, and the A capella singing couple. We also saw countless other performance from Michael Jackson to a crazy contortionist. We had lots of great pizza, walked hundreds of miles and rode the subways for thousands. At Coney Island there is a game called Shoot the Freak where you shoot a live target with paintballs (we didn’t play). There was a man preaching on the Ferry one morning. We spent a total time of 18 hours in one week commuting. We witnessed several occurrences of drama on our commutes: girls crying about boys, guys yelling at their phones to other guys, countless drunk people, and so on. A few key lessons: don’t use your MTA card unless you know for certain that you are entering at the correct place, otherwise you have to wait 18 minutes to use it again; Half price tickets is a scam because only the $120 seats go on sale for $60 but the box office sells other tickets for $40 or less if you don’t care about how close you are; all boroughs are much safer than they were 5 years ago; not all subways trains run at night; MoMA is free on Fridays but madness ensues; the Met is pay what you wish; pizza generally is by the slice (except Grimaldi’s); reserve tickets online to the late shows at least two months in advance; and cabs currently only take cash. New York was crazy, but it was a great time, I’m sure I’ll be back there many more times in my life.

- Carson

Saturday turned out to be a really nice day so we started out with a trip to the beach, Coney Island. Actually we went to Flushing, NY in queens to go to the US Open, but tickets were unavailable, then we headed to Coney Island. It’s not so much an island, more of a beach/boardwalk in Brooklyn. If you’re from the west coast you might know it best as the location of the world championship of hot dog eating or maybe where the first roller coaster was built and is still operating. Needless to say after walking around the boardwalk for a bit we had to ride the rollercoaster. The coaster is over 80 years old so that fact right there is enough to scare anyone, but on top of that, the car you sit in is heavily padded on all sides, which makes you wonder. Thank goodness for the padding because as we quickly found out it is 100% necessary. It basically felt like I was getting beaten up, it knocks you from side to side and from front to back so fast you don’t even have a chance to catch your breath and regroup. It was the craziest ride ever, Lieu was drooling all over the place because couldn’t close his mouth due to the constant screaming throughout the ride. By the end I was crying from a lot of laugher and a little bit of pain. It was completely worth it and if you ever get the chance to ride it, take it. We also had to eat Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, or should I say Lieu ate. The best part of Nathan’s was the gigantic sign on the outside that served as both the Hall of Fame and the countdown clock to the next World Championship of Hot Dog Eating. If you’re an avid ESPN watcher you may have recently seen Chestnut dominate Kobayashi in the annual challenge by devouring 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

After Coney Island we went back to the City and walked around a bit. We cruised through Little Italy and Chinatown just to check it out. It looked pretty cool but it was a zoo because it was Saturday night so we didn’t spend too much time there, plus we were on our way to meet up with my cousin, Bregan, for a drink at McSorely’s, the oldest pub in Manhattan. I’m not the biggest beer drinking and Lieu is allergic to alcohol, but McSorely’s was pretty cool. We then went to a nice little patio bar in Union Square and hung out for a bit. It was good to see my cousin and Becky. We had a few laughs and we got a few insider tips from true New York locals, I was particularly excited about all the pizza places Bregan suggested. It was a late night for us, we left the city at 12 or so and some trains were closed and the ferry doesn’t run regularly so we ended up back at the bus at about 3. The next day we slept in late and did laundry and whatnot around town. We needed a break to get some sleep and catch our breath from the fast paced life of the city, plus we had big plans for Labor Day. Lieu will tell you all about Labor Day…

After failing to get into the U.S. Open on Saturday, I knew I was going to regret not seeing Roger Federer play and that I might never have a chance like this again. When he is done with his career, he will be the greatest ever. The Mariners were also in town for a three game series with the Yankees which was a big deal because they’re both fighting for the lead in the wildcard race. So the plan was to see both tennis and baseball on Labor Day which meant we needed to find tickets fast. On Sunday night we started doing some extensive research on Craigslist for the cheapest tickets we could find. I made a few phone calls and it was done. We just had to trust that the people we talked to wouldn’t flake out on us. Monday morning we had to wake up relatively early to pick up tickets to both events. The transactions went so smoothly we even had enough time to stop by a popular bakery to have cupcakes for breakfast. People were waiting in line for these cupcakes before the store even opened, I couldn’t believe it. We lost track of time having one of our usual deep conversations and had to rush to the Mariners game. This was a great game to go to because Roger Clemens was pitching for the Yankees. I think he gets paid a million dollars every time he starts a game which is just ridiculous. Just as we found our section, we heard the crack of the bat and quickly walked through the tunnel to see the ball go over the wall. Ichiro just hit a home run off of Clemens. I was excited to see my homie do so well against one of the best pitchers ever.

 

Other than that, the game was pretty standard except for the incident that began somewhere in the sixth inning between a drunk kid and three innocent girls that were sitting next to us. This was not your average drunk dude; this guy had persistence and determination. He stood through three straight innings working as hard as he could to impress these girls. After a while the crowd began to take note of this situation. Somewhere in the bottom of the ninth, a guy from a few rows back decided to get involved by yelling out, “Give him ya numba, he’s been workin hard all afternoon for it.” At that point the baseball game was pretty much over and everyone around us decided to focus their attention on the developing situation by cheering on the kid. The same guy who yelled earlier saw things weren’t going too well and decided to help the kid out again by shouting, “Come on, take a chance on life.” The nearby crowd began cheering expecting a happy ending by the girls giving him their number, but unfortunately this story has a sad ending because no numbers were exchanged which led to the crowd booing the girls. I’m glad we went to this game because they ended their nine game losing streak and lost the other two games against the Yankees.

 

Next up was the U.S. Open where we got to see Roger Federer play against somebody I don’t know. To be able to see someone this good play is like watching Michael Jordan take over a basketball game, but something must have been wrong with Roger because he ended up losing the first set badly. It didn’t help that his opponent probably played his best tennis ever that set. Of course Federer turned it up a notch and won the next three sets with ease. I have never seen anyone as good as him and I don’t think I ever will, unless I come out of retirement. Do you think I could beat Roger if I still played today? Please leave your opinion on the comments page. My aunt and uncle were also there with a couple of friends so it was nice to see them and talk about the match afterwards.

New York was crazy, but it wasn’t quite over for us, part 3 of the series is coming soon.

- Carson