East Coastin'

My college roommates and I have gotten to visit most of our hometowns and families throughout college, but finally worked out a trip to Philadelphia and the East Coast to visit the Jankowskis! Kathryn lives in Bucks County in Pennsylvania, so we spent our first day exploring Philadelphia, the second day in New Jersey and our third day in New York. Kathryn, Laura, her boyfriend Ryan and I have squeezed a lot of sightseeing in the past few days and had a blast! We are definitely getting to the age where a lot of travel wears us out, but it has been well worth it.

Day 1: Philadelphia

After getting our first Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches from Jim's for lunch, we walked down South Street toward Independence Hall and a lot of American historical buildings. We saw the first ever bank, viewed an art gallery in the Second National Bank, and got a tour of Independence Hall where a guide pointed out the Signing Room for important documents and other historical facts. After this history lesson and the Liberty Bell, we headed to more of the corporate downtown area, checking out the largest organ in the world in the Wanamaker Building, Love's Park downtown and a video wall show in the Comcast building!

Ryan, Laura, Alex, me and Kathryn in front of Independence Hall 

Day 2: Princeton, New Jersey

Tuesday started off with a trip to Princeton University and the college town around it. Kathryn's friend Tory is a senior there and gave us a tour of campus, and my GBN & Torch classmate Nick Jones also joined us! Between our conversations with them and hopping onto a campus tour later in the day, we learned about Princeton's educational philosophy with junior independent work and a senior thesis, as well as "Eating Clubs" for a social scene and fraternal group of friends. Women were not accepted to the university until 1968, and not even allowed in all of the eating clubs until 1993 - an interesting fact to hear.

The campus was comparable to Northwestern, but instead of hipster like Evanston, Princeton was classy and very uniform with stores like Kate Spade and Brooks Brothers lining campus. We had ice cream and dessert at the Bent Spoon, and again at House of Cupcakes since it won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. Then, I got to see my Thea Stephanie and two cousins Kira and Sophia in New Hope for dinner, where all of us met at a nice restaurant and brewery called Triumph! She even brought a vasilopita for us to cut at dinner.

The group on our tour of Princeton's campus

Kira, Thea Stephanie, me and Sophia in New Hope 

Day 3: New York City


Friday morning, Kathryn, Laura, Ryan and I took NJ Transit from Trenton into Penn Station and started off our day at the World Trade Center memorial site. Since it was Ryan's first time in New York, we really got to do a lot of sightseeing and enjoy the touristy occasion. We walked to Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty & financial district, and then walked through NoHo and NYU. Our attempt at hopping on an NYU campus tour failed as the tour was ending, but at least we got to hang out in Washington Square before the rain. We took a nice walk through Greenwich Village to get to the Chelsea High line where we ordered lunch, then hopped on the Subway to Central Park. There, we walked to the top of the Belvedere Castle and enjoyed listening to some violinists in the Bethesda Terrace, even with the fountain off for the winter. With Rockafeller Center as our next stop, we walked up 5th Avenue and window shopped everything we can't afford.

Ryan got to see Radio City Music Hall, which was important because it's where the draft is held :), and then we visited Kathryn's former UBS building from two summers ago to eat at Heartland Brewery. Here, we had a well-needed recoup from the busy day and devised a plan for the night: a fancy hotel crawl of New York. We would go to the nicest hotels we could think of, check out the ambiance and order a drink at their bar. Despite the skyrocketed prices, we just took turns paying the rounds and enjoyed observing the type of people at each bar, what the menu had to offer and even how nice the hotel bathrooms were!

Stop 1 was the St. Regis hotel, where our "New York New York" and "Gora Martini" cocktails were probably the strongest I've ever seen in my entire life. We were the youngest at the hotel by far, but had a nice time hanging out in our own little side room in the lobby. The Waldorf Astoria was Stop 2, with a Peacock Martini and Grasshopper cocktail tasting like mint chocolate chips + Kahlua. We got seats at the bar this time and it was still a very high class hotel, but we fit in a bit more once we started hanging out with the Albanian wait staff and talking about their time and views on the United States. It was a perfect end on our voyage through Grand Central Station en route to Times Square, where we sang in the street and stopped in the Disney Store. Stop 3 was the Marriott Marquis to check out the lipstick elevators and amazing lobby, which thoroughly impressed us all! It wouldn't be New York without some Cosmopolitans, so we ended the night strong and hung out in the 8th floor lounge. "Good Girls Go Bad" by Cobra Starship, a song that Kathryn, Laura and I would sing our freshmen year, was blasting when we walked in the lobby - a perfect token at the end of the night. We made a midnight train back to Bucks County after our 14 hour day, so I'd call it a success.

Me, Laura and Kathryn in the Belvedere Castle at Central Park 

In the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Sipping cosmopolitans in the Marriott Marquis at Times Square- what an ambiance!

On our last day, we met some of Kathryn's high school friends for a waffle breakfast and went to Bucks County's finest Parx Casino for Kathryn & Laura's first time gambling, and of course got Rita's Water Ice. Now, it's time to take a break and relax, watch football and basketball games (even though most of our teams lost), pack for school and prepare for mine and Kathryn's trip to Minneapolis tomorrow! It's been another great vacation with friends and who knows what's in store for spring break!