Ok, so monday I was doing some research at the library when I get a message from a fellow vagabond about a flight deal, this time it was with JetBlue. I walk over to the nearest computer and start looking. The promotion was to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. Any flights on tuesday and wednesday, 10 dollars one-way or 17 roundtrip + taxes/fees. Ok, where to? To maximize the deal, I’d fly out tuesday, and back wednesday. That ruled out long flights like west coast trips. After some thought, I decided on New York City. I hadn’t been there in a while, I wouldn’t need to rent a car, and I wouldn’t spend long on the plane.
Next, I found a great deal on hotel on 95th street, a block away from Broadway and near the middle of Central Park, $67 including taxes.
From JFK to my hotel, $7.25 airtrain/subway, and same back.
Not bad for next day travel and 20minutes on the net 
I switched my wednesday work day to tuesday (I typically commit to work only wed&thurs). Som already had wednesday off of work, so the timing worked out perfectly.
So I go in a bit early on tuesday, work a full day, then head home. There, my roommate Mark drive Som and I directly to the airport. Isaac my other roommate, graciously offered to pick me up on wednesday:)
Getting through the airport with simply a backpack was a breeze. Dulles looks so much better now that they have finished remodeling it and adding rail to the concourses. Upon arriving in JFK, we noticed lots of signage celebrating JetBlue’s 10 year birthday:)
When we got to the hotel, it felt like something out of hippyville. Each floor had different color walls. Some were orange, others were green, our newfound friends from Tokyo one floor down from us were yellow, the lounge was purple
That evening we walked down Broadway street. This city never sleeps. At the end of the night stopped in “Hot & Crusty” for some Manhattan style pizza. mmm mmm good:)
The next morning we took the subway to midtown and walked to Times Square. We had breakfast at the McD’s allowing for a great view of the square. The second floor was heavily decorated the NYC iconic theme, including a replica of the city.
After breakfast we went to learned more about Times Square at an information center, which included the New Years Ball that I’ve seen drop so many times in TV, and in person years ago with Angie.
Next we cruised through more of Manhattan and over to the NYC Public library.
Then up Avenue of the America’s to walk through the Rockefeller Center and see the NBC studios.
More sightseeing and eventually walked by the Apple store on the way to Central park. Had a great time in the park, such a beautiful piece of nature, surrounded by iconic skyscrapers and advertising blitz.
Including food, hotel, subway, and airfare, it ended up costing less then $100 each of us for a wonderful, last minute experience in NYC which didn’t interfere with work or any other commitments
Luckily I had Tyler as my skipper the first few races and he taught me the basics. I didn’t do very well on my first day, usually coming in last, second to last, though we did take first place for one race:p Here are a few pictures from the doc and boat. You can see the small boats we raced, called JY’s and Bahias. Basically 2man sailing boats. At one point we almost turned one over :p Lucky for my cell phone, we never completely capsized, though it felt like we sat at 45 degrees waist up over the side of the boat for an uncomfortably long time :p
