Day 61: Goodbye New Jersey, Hello New York

We shockingly got on the road at 7:15 so we could get into the city early and still have a majority of the day to go explore. I was impressed by our early wake up, that hasn't happened since the first week. Obviously we were pretty excited to get to NYC - but I don't think anyone could have been more excited than Jason, who was entering his hometown.

After a tour of his neighborhood, blasting Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind, we moved all our stuff into our apartment the was donated to us for the next 2 days. Since everyone now knows about my love of cupcakes and the likes, the first stop was Crumbs Bakery, which Jason wanted to take me to right away, knowing it was one of the best (which it definitely was). Then we took a stroll through Central Park and kinda all split off to do our own desired site-seeing after that. Luckily the city is super easy to navigate with the grid system and the streets being numbered.

My day consisted of going to Dylan's Candy Bar, Times Square, Madison Square Garden, back to Central Park, and then to Serendipity.

Dylan's Candy Bar is crazy! First off, it's the most candy I've ever seen in one place in my entire life. Second, it's 3 floors. And 3rd, it's the most ridiculously priced candy I've ever encountered, so my trip there was definitely more looking than indulging. After that I wandered down to Times Square.

I encountered a number of things in Times Square. Found the Naked Cowgirl, but not the Naked Cowboy. Of course saw the NBC, Late Night Show, and ABC studios. MTV was surprisingly so unnoticeable I passed it a few times and had to literally look up the address and still then it was not noticeable, which surprised me. Tons of lights and signs and craziness. And the amount of people was insane!

We all met back up around 6 at the boathouse in Central Park to meet with a woman and to talk about FACE AIDS and the ride with her. After that discussion, we all broke off again. I went to Serendipity with Claire and her sister Jill, who had been doing an internship in the city. Another one of Claire's friends also met up with us. It was nice to have some time with other girls again, didn't realize how long it'd been that I really have been with more people than those on the trip. Serendipity is known for its frrrozen hot chocolate, so of course I got one. And it was AMAZING. Really the first souvenir of the trip - a tin of the frrrozen hot chocolate mix. Maybe some of you will be lucky enough to try it when I get home...

Great day. On another note, people always say NYC is a bigger, dirtier Chicago, and I have to say I've never in my life seen rats in Chicago like I saw walking home - they are gigantic. So you make the call.

Day 60: Goodbye Pennsylvania, Hello New Jersey

GTL (Gym, Tan, Laundry)! Just kidding, New Jersey as we saw it was nothing like the Jersey Shore. Anyways, we unfortunately were forced to drive into Princeton, New Jersey because it rained literally alllll day and the roads were extremely wet. Like I said before, Mike and I barely escaped the death trap of Lincoln Drive before, and none of us were about to attempt to escape it again in the rain. We made a good call, it just kept raining and getting worse.

So not much to do on a rainy day then. We drove through the campus and town a bit and I ended up wasting a lot of time in a bookstore, reading about cupcakes - go figure. Once our hosts were around though things picked up. We ended up making ice cream, which was awesome, and we all took some part in making dinner. I miss cooking. Anyways, that turned out to be really fun and a good way to pass the time.

The daughter of our host just got back recently from a 6 month stay in Ghana so that was really fun to talk about with her and compare our experiences. Man, I miss those Fan Chocos and Fan Yogos - basically it's frozen chocolate milk and frozen strawberry yogurt in a bag and they are the only cold, dairy products available in the country and the best snack ever. Very fun hosts and experience in New Jersey despite the weather.

Day 59: Exploring Philly

We went into the city as a group today, covering pretty much everything it has to offer. First we went and saw the Liberty Bell which I didn't realize was in it's own little museum. And a fun fact about the bell is that the crack was manmade when they were trying to fix another small crack, sorta interesting. Also toured through Independence Hall and one of the U.S. Mints. The Mint was pretty cool (no pictures allowed though). There have been so many different coins made! I remember when the state quarters started coming out and everyone was going to collect all 50, they were going to be soooo rare. And now, they're everywhere. But no worries, through 2021 they're coming out with another round of National Park quarters, one for every state.

After we finished up with all the history type stuff, we headed for the good stuff - some Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches. I should pretty much just turn this into a food blog since that's what it's pretty much become, but it's the best part. We went to Jim's Steakhouse - they were SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD! Made me like Philly a little bit more.

Then we went to the Art Museum to work off our lunch by running up the stairs from ROCKY. Of course we had to do the famous Rocky stairs and snap a couple pictures with his statue.

Then everyone headed to the Phillies game while I wandered through the surrounding neighborhood a bit more and just relaxed. Great way to end another jam packed day.

Day 58: Back to Pennsylvania

We scheduled a late departure time today thinking we only had 32 miles into Philadelphia, which ended up being 39. Mike and I somehow managed to escape death on Lincoln Drive (literally worst road ever). We even pulled off, found a cop and asked what was a better way and he told us we had to take Lincoln - ugh. But we made it all in one piece. Mike also managed to dent some guy's brand new looking BMW when he rode over a rock and it flew every which way. Oh well, we can't control that....

We are staying with a wonderful family at a church for the next two nights. We had a great dinner with them and of course great conversation. Not much time for exploring today but we'll take advantage of our rest day tomorrow to cover Philly.

Day 57: Goodbye Maryland, Hello Delaware

Into Wilmington, Delaware today putting another 57 miles behind us as we rode to our presentation site. Getting to the presentation on time was the concern of the day after we had to be driven over a bridge on construction, Claire's tire got stuck in a grate causing her to wipe out, and Mike popped two tires. But we managed to pull it all together and get there with time to spare.

This presentation was really fun to give, as the audience consisted of a group of our peers from The University of Delaware and the staff of AIDS Delaware. A huge thanks to the staff of AIDS Delaware for setting up the presentation, housing, and dinner. They are awesome! Anyways, after the presentation a few of the girls showed interest in starting their own FACE AIDS chapter on their campus, so overall I'd say we were pretty successful in relaying our message.

Day 56: Back to Maryland

After a mini-vacation in D.C. it was time to hit the road again. We had a grueling 38 miles to get to Baltimore (just kidding - it was a pretty breezy ride). Anyways, the day was kinda uneventful. We took our time leaving around noon and had a lot of navigating to do to get out of the city. Other than that, the day was pretty straight forward, crossing back into Maryland. We're right on the harbor, so after a nap and shower I went exploring around the harbor.

Unfortunately, Charm City Cakes was pretty far - too far of a walk, so they're getting nixed. Their windows are all blacked out anyways, it would have been solely for a photo op in front of the store.

Day 55: D.C. Finale

I woke up to discover the day would be too short to see everything I still wanted to see. So I got creative and decided to get my run in while I site-saw. I mapped out all the memorials and monuments I hadn't seen yet and set out for a 6 hour extravaganza.

I started at The Smithsonian National Zoo. Wandered around there for a bit and obviously through the reptile house. Then I ran over to The Ghana Cafe. Unfortunately, they weren't open yet, and I was pretty bummed after looking at their menu, I could have definitely gone for some Red-Red for lunch. Still pretty cool just to look at the menu and laugh at my first attempts at eating most of it over 2 years ago while I studied abroad in Ghana.

After that I headed towards The Lincoln Memorial. Maybe I'm biased being from Illinois, but I think The Lincoln Memorial is by far the coolest one, with Jefferson being a close runner-up.

After seeing Lincoln, I wandered through the mall a bit and stumbled upon The Vietnam War Memorial, The Korean War Memorial, The World War I Memorial, The FDR Memorial, and The George Mason Memorial. Eventually I did make my way over to The Jefferson Memorial as well. On my way back I also ran into The Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I'm sure there's still a ton that I missed, but I was pretty impressed with my abundance of sites for the day.

After my long day out exploring, we gave another presentation about the ride. It's always the most fun to finish up with a question and answer session. I love having the chance to answer individuals' questions from a personal point of view and also to listen to the rest of the group's answers. I think we learn a lot, and a lot about each other, during the presentations as well maybe hearing answers to questions we don't necessarily ask amongst ourselves.

Then I did get the chance to try yet another cupcake shop, Hello Cupcake. This was definitely right up there with Georgetown Cupcakes... Very impressive. Then I was able to meet up with the IWU crew once more before I departed D.C. We wandered through Adams Morgan and were shocked by the amount of people on the streets. We also experienced the famous Jumbo Slice pizza. Literally the biggest piece of pizza I have ever seen, and it was actually pretty good.

D.C. was an amazing city and I loved exploring it. I had a great time and some more great friends to meet up with along the way. On to Baltimore tomorrow!