Your Royall Blogness: July 14-16: Jersey City, New Jersey (Manhattan, New York)

Day 1:

We arrived to our camp site (yes, you read that correctly) in Jersey City around 5 pm (traffic was a little bad). We dropped Leon off at his hotel on the way. He was not allowed at our campsite, plus we did not want to drag him all over NYC. We were anxious about what this urban camping was going to be like. Turns out, it worked out perfect...especially compared to the NYC hotel prices! It was nestled in the LIberty Harbor. The ferry and the metro to get you into the city were close by. The campsites were behind a huge wooden fence and a locked gate which gave us security. There were free showers and brand new washing machines to use. Extra bonus, it was right next to the Surf Shack which was a huge bar that had a sandy beach right on the marina. We headed there for a quick bite and drink. A nice man at the campsite gave us his Metro tickets since he was on his way out. We decided to go ahead and take the subway into Manhattan. From Jersey City, you first take a subway UNDER the Hudson River to the World Trade Center. From there, you can use your metro card on any of the Manhattan subways. This first night, we just explored around the WTC and north to the Tribeca area. We got a NY pretzel on the street and ate it on the way to the first bar: The Silver Lining. It was very unassuming from the street. There was a nice door man who let you in. You then had to walk down these awesome stairs to get down to the bar. It was like a speakeasy with a 3 piece band playing. Candles on the tables, brick walls, and a long bar. It was a great place to start our NY experience. We then wandered to a bar called Woodrow’s. The owner/Bar tender bought us a beer because she was from Main, and that is where we are headed. We stopped at one last bar, got a slice of pizza, and headed back to Jersey on the subway.

surf city

Liberty Harbor

riding the subway!

NYC Pretzel!

walking down to "the silver lining" bar! fancy!

Day 2:

We started our day with breakfast at Tommy Two Scoops near our campsite. We decided that this was not the kind of campsite to drag out all of our kitchen equipment. We both got a bagel for breakfast and grabbed a gelato to keep us cool as we rode the hot train into the city. While we ate bagels, Lane was checking out the gelato flavors and proclaimed. “I’m going to get Pear!!” We felt like two seasoned New Yorkers. This time, we got on the R train once in Manhattan to go to the Times Square area. We wandered a bit, and then went to buy some musical tickets. Our first request was Book of Mormon, but these are just about impossible to get. It is coming to LA though! Our 3 options were: Rock of Ages, Memphis, and Newsical the Musical. We went with the last one, which is described as being a mix of the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live with much more singing. It did not start until 3, so we had some time to kill. We walked from 42nd street north to Central Park. It was super hot this day, so we found some shade to rejuvenate. We caught a cab to the Met. The line was extremely long, and we thought we would only have about 10 minutes once we got in, so we sat on the front steps, people watched, got a hot dog and a lamb gyro, then headed back into the Park. We caught a cab to the theater and made it just in time to grab a pre-show drink at a hole in the wall tavern. Let’s just say the people were not too friendly there, so we downed our drinks and bolted. The show was pretty funny with some highlights being a Christina Algulera (sp?) Star Spangled Banner, a song about gay marriage, a Celine Dion impression (singing the hokey pokey), and the line “without the gays, you’re just Taylor Swift”.

We headed to the nearby Justin Timberlake bar “Southern Comfort” for an after show app and drink. Lane had a Jack Daniels Peach Iced Tea and Jess had a jack and coke. We had deviled eggs for an app. Lane’s are better...

We walked about 20 blocks south to the Chelsea District. We hit up the High Line which is an elevated park where an old train track use to be. A must see/do in NYC! We walked the whole thing (about 15 blocks). It goes right through the Art District of Chelsea so there is a lot to look at, not to mention some of the best views of the city. The old track is still there with trees/greenery on either side. Street performers and benches line the sides the whole way. At the end of the High Line we walked down the stairs and directly into the Standard Hotel’s Beer Garden. We then hit the oldest steakhouse in NYC for some oysters and steaks. Great way to end our time in NYC!!

After dinner we ran to the subway station in the pouring rain and then again to our campsite in the pouring rain. We fell asleep in the rainstorm in the city.

The Met steps

deviled eggs and bacon

New York "balcony"

The next series of pics are from the High Line. One of our favorites in NYC!

Day 3:

The sun woke us up around 8:00. We showered, and slowly packed up while we had laundry going. We sat in the shade and chatted with our neighbor camper. He was by himself from Portland, Oregon. He rode his bike all the way to NYC, camping along the way. He was spending a few days in NYC before he turned around and took the same route back to Portland! We excitedly picked up our pup from his hotel and headed to the Hamptons from some city camping recuperation! On the way out, we actually drove in Manhattan! You hear so any horror stories and we survived to blog about it!