The Fourth in New York

After Scott had purchased hand sanitizer from the local grocery store, we headed off to catch our bus to New York. It was full of old people who thought any comment made was hysterical and kept pointing out "Swans" (they were really ducks).

Once we got to NYC Ashley wasted no time in getting us on the subway train that only stopped at the stop we wanted in the evening. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, we enjoyed walking miles to get to Madison Square Park and the Shake Shack for their delicious burgers, cheese fries, and shakes. We were successfully able to ward of the pigeons trying to swoop down and snatch our food, unlike others who kept yelling and swatting and staring down the pigeons. We were waiting for one guy to roll up a newspaper and give the bird a spanking.

After our tummies were full we walked a few blocks to the Highline. It is a new park that just opened up which is built on the elevated platform where the old industrial trains used to run. Trains haven't used it for awhile so it was growing over with weeds and vegetation. They decided to make a little walking park out of it - and it is very nice. There are lots of places to rest and get a good view of the city. You can even catch some rays on a few of the big wooden lounge chairs that are there. After the Highline we made a quick trip to Chinatown and Little Italy where Scott tried to speak with a native Italian and was depressed to find out how much Italian he has forgotten. Ashley, however, was very impressed with his language skills. We then took the Subway up to Times Square and caught up with our bus to take us to the boat.

Where to start with the boat excursion? We boarded the boat at 5:30 and had a four hour wait until fireworks. We took a quick nap on the deck chairs until the DJ arrived and by DJ we mean Douche Jockey. Seriously, he had no idea what he was doing and was the worst DJ ever. I think he was just a friend of the guy who's company was DJing on all of the other boats too. We felt like we were back at a Hillcrest Junior High stomp. Some of our favorite quotes from him include "We're the funnest boat in the hawbuh" and "Show the othuh boats how much fun wea havin." He tried starting conga lines and danceoffs but the only people who bought in were the thirteen-year-olds and a super drunk Alabama guy who kept requesting Thunderstruck. At one point he was simultaneously drinking beer, red bull, and water. The DJ finally obliged to his request only after drunk guy proclaimed "We WERE the funnest boat in the harbor" on our way back to the dock.

The fireworks were good.