Mr. T Goes to New York

At the end of February, we decided to brave the Chinatown bus and make a trip to NYC with Tommy. At 4+ hours, it would be Tommy's longest road trip thus far, and, being the Chinatown bus veterans that we are, we knew it could be dicey and unpredictable. But our frugality (or is it cheapness?) won over, and we were up for an adventure. So we signed up for Eastern Travel's five-star, premium service bus, knowing we could realistically expect 2-3 stars, and below-average customer service. All in all, it turned out to be fine. Tommy slept most of the way, and there were only a couple of mishaps along the way - communication and customer service are not the strong suits of the Chinatown bus service...

Late night arrival - we rolled into Manhattan late on Friday night, and Tommy seemed ready to hit the town. These pics were taken at 12:55am. He felt right at home in the City That Never Sleeps...

Good morning to ya! We took our time getting out on the town the next day due to Tommy's late night rampage. Here he is with our view from the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in the background.

After our lunch with Tita Liz, Stephen, Cousin Vanessa, and Colin, we lay down for a quick nap (anyone see the Matrix Reloaded homage?). Sorry we didn't take pics, we're lame. But you can see some on Vanessa's Facebook profile if you have access...

Tita Liz and Stephen volunteered for babysitting duty, allowing us to enjoy a kid-free dinner and re-live our pre-Tommy annual visits to NYC.

In the lobby of the hotel.

We took the boy to the entrance of Central Park before heading home. Only had time to look into the park, but next time, we'll explore it with him.

A quick snack while we picked up the luggage on the way to catch the bus home.

On the bus home. This ride went fairly well. He slept most of the way as we drove into a snowstorm. The real excitement happened in New York before we even boarded the bus. It seems some riders who bought tickets for the 1:30pm bus had been waiting 2 hours when our 3:30 bus arrived. We made our way to the front as folks argued back and forth about letting us on because we had a little one versus letting on those who had been waiting for 2+ hours. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and we made it on thanks largely to one lady who had a six-year-old, too. Whew! Then it was a matter of settling in until Tommy fell asleep and continually declining the bootleg DVD's offered by the man sitting in front of us. Good times on the Chinatown bus...