Joey
Campus: Orland ParkProgram:
From: Hammond, IN
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In my free time, I enjoy traveling, photography, movies, outdoor life, hanging out with friends, and pretty much everything in the artistic realm.
Previously on Real Life...
After spending some time in Atlantic City, it was time to head north toward NYC. I stayed with my friend Jason in Marlboro, NJ, which is about 45 minutes south of NYC. I got there around 6:00 and we hung out for a bit and ordered some pizza. This was also Monday, May 22, which was the 2-hour season finale of my favorite TV series 24. That started at 8:00 and we watched the entire thing, then hung out the rest of the night talking about old times in college.
The next morning we had a bit of a slow start and got to NYC around 12:30pm. We rode the bus in and were dropped off at the Port Authority in Times Square. First, we walked to Central Park and spent a little bit of time there. We went and saw the Bow and Gastow bridges which have been made famous in many movies featuring the park.
Afterward, we walked around a bit, making a stop at The Trump Tower and other random stores along 5th Avenue before we headed for Rockefeller Center. Once we got to 'The Rock', we took the journey to the top of the observation deck and took in a beautiful day over NYC. I took a bunch of pictures while Jason videotaped the entire experience. After we were done, we headed down and looked for a subway to take us to lower Manhattan.
We got on the subway not long after and headed south toward the financial district. We got off a few blocks from Ground Zero and took the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island. I got some of my best photographs from here! The ferry also gave us a nice view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. When we got to the other side, we got off the boat and got right back on to head back into NYC.
Once back, we stopped at Subway and got a bit to eat before heading to Ground Zero. Once there, it was a sobering site. Ground Zero today looks like a gigantic basement. There wasn't much to it other than some semi-exposed subways that were running at the bottom. There is a tall 7 foot fence around the entire perimeter of the property and no postings are allowed. There was a very small area designated for that. The flag that was draped over the rubble of the Sept. 11 tragedy is perched within the hollowed crater and still flies, although it looks worn and raveled. When we finished visiting the site, we took the subway (which still has the WTC sign posted underground) back north towards Rockefeller Center and Times Square.
It was sunset by now, so I made my way back to 'The Top of the Rock' and took some beautiful night photos. After I finished, I headed down and we walked to Times Square. The lights there were amazing and reminded me of Las Vegas. Huge LCD screens line the buildings and people are everywhere. From there, we headed back to our bus and made the trip back to New Jersey. We got back to Jason's around 12:30 at night, hung out for a bit, then called it a night. The next morning was going to be a big day because I was picking up my friend Tim at the airport in Newark, beginning the third leg of my journey...
...TO BE CONTINUED
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Next on Real Life...
Well, I think that I have found a way to combine two of the greatest places on Earth...and I only need about $1,000,000 dollars to do it. Do I have any takers? But it would be a great investment!!! Here's my thoughts...
When it comes to Chipotle restaurants, I'm a nut for it. I mean, I am CrAzY about it! I work four days a week at my job and at least two of the days consists of lunch at Chipotle. It has all of the attributes that I look for in a restaurant...which include...
- Consistency: There is nothing that I love more than going to your favorite restaurant, getting your favorite meal, and having it taste just as good EVERY SINGLE TIME!
- Healthiness: Chipotle has all the ingredients that I need. It has meat, it has mild salsa (the veggies), rice, beans, the works.
- Affordability: The meal that I get from Chipotle costs $7.65 at the Orland Park restaurant, and $7.37 at the Merrillville restaurant. I can eat an entire burrito bowl and have it get me through the whole day!
- Location: Fortunately for me, I worked right by the Chipotle in Orland Park. They just recently opened a restaurant in Merrillville, but I still have to drive 15-20 minutes to go there. That one is the closest to my house.
Below, I have provided what I prefer for MY burrito bowl at Chipotle...
- Rice
- 1/2 Black Beans, 1/2 Pinto Beans
- Steak (the more the better)
- Mild Salsa
- Sour Cream
- Cheese
- Guacamole
So anyways, back to the Chipotle / Baskin Robbins idea...
After eating Chipotle, my sweet tooth usually kicks in. Don't get me wrong, if you have never had a burrito bowl from Chipotle, you probably will not be able to finish your first one in one sitting and I am usually very full afterwards...but there is always room for ice cream! Most of the people that I go to Chipotle with tend to need a little bit of sugar afterwards, perhaps to counteract the salt intake of the burrito bowl. So my solution is this...make The Chipotle / Baskin Robbins combo.
I know some of you are reading this and you probably think I'm nuts, and if you know me already, then thinking that wouldn't necessarily be wrong. Corporate America is constantly looking for ways to increase profit and reduce costs. It is just the nature or the beast. Many fast food chains have combined their restaurants in an attempt to save on the overhead costs of wages and infrastructure. So far, I have seen combos of TacoBell / PizzaHut, Long John Silvers / A&W, Kentucky Fried Chicken / A&W, and Donkin Donuts / Baskin Robbins. I have also seen Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and Subway stores inside of big box retailers, such as Target and Walmart.
My hope is that someday I have the winning Powerball, or MegaMillions ticket to win the gold and start my own chain of Chipotle / Baskin Robbins restaurants. But of course, you can't win without buying a lottery ticket...
The next morning, Wednesday, May 24, I picked up Tim at the airport in Newark, NJ around 10:15. He got off the plane, walked outside the airport, and I was waiting in the parking lot. We headed north past NYC into Connecticut and Rhode Island. We stopped for a few hours in Rhode Island, saw the URI campus a bit, and hung out with some fishermen catching squid in the ocean. I, of course, went on my own adventure and found a few starfish in the water. After a while, we left and headed up to Boston.
We got to Boston around 7:30pm, checked into our hotel, got ready, and left to Cheers. From the outside, Cheers looks exactly like it did on TV, but the inside is different. It was pretty small and not a lot of people were there, and NOBODY KNEW MY NAME!!! After we left Cheers, we walked to Boston Commons and just went sight seeing. We got a little lost walking in Boston, but eventually we found our hotel.
The next day, we got up and went to Fenway Park for a tour at 12:00pm. The tour lasted about an hour and was a lot of fun! After that, we took the Freedom Trail which takes you past all of the famous landmarks of Boston, including the cemetaries where John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Mother Goose, and other notables are. Also, we went to where the Boston Massacre occured. Later that day, we went to a Boston Red Sox vs Tampa Bay Devil Rays game. Sox won! After the game, we left Boston and drove to Scarborough, Maine and stayed the night.
When we got to our hotel in Maine, we discovered that it wasn't really a hotel! It was someone's house! And we were getting there at 1:30am!!! The tiny town we were in was completely dead and the front door was left unlocked for us. On the counter was an envelope with my name on it and a key to the bedroom upstairs. WEIRD!!! Me and Tim laughed the whole way up and tried to keep as quite as we could walking up the 120 year old creeky staircase!
The next morning we drove to Portland, Maine and had lobster. We left Maine and drove down US 2 for about 300 miles through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and into upper New York. We stayed in Lake Placid New York and got there about 11:00pm. It was a little rainy and foggy and the drive was a little nerve-racking. We left in the morning and headed for Canada.
We crossed the Canadian border around 1:00pm and headed towards Toronto and Niagara Falls. We passed through Toronto and got to the Falls around 7:00pm. We walked to the falls and Clifton Hill, saw a lot of the attractions, the falls at night, went to some gift shops, and went back to the motel.
The next morning, we drove back to Toronto to go to the Blue Jays vs White Sox game at the Skydome. The Sox won and after the game, we left and headed for Windsor, Canada. We got to Windsor around 7:30pm, checked into the hotel, went and took night pictures of the Detroit skyline, the went out for the night barhopping. The bars there were pretty cool, especially if you like clubbing. We couldn't get into any clubs because Tim was wearing cargo shorts and they refused to let him in. How retarded! We went to three or four bars and drank and socialized, then went to the Casino. Tim lost $20 and I broke even. Then we went back and went to bed.
The next morning, we crossed the border back to the U.S. and went into Detroit to see the Tigers vs Yankees game. The Yankees won and I got to see Randy Johnson pitch! He threw a 6 inning no hitter, so the game was pretty exciting. After the game, we headed home. We caught a little bit of rain as we got close to the Indiana border, but we made it home in about 4 hours. Everything went well and smoothly and I had the time of my life!!!
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