Happy Fourth of July!

Derek had a friend in town for the weekend and we all decided to go into the city to watch the fireworks and eat dinner. His friend spent a year in Korea and really likes Korean food, so we went to Koreatown, which is a few random blocks around 32nd street between 5th and Broadway. First, we actually went to a street fair, but didn't stay long. Although we did watch a ShamWow imitator trying to sale fake ShamWow towel things. We passed Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, though I didn't get good pictures of them, and the Post Office. We ate an amazingly delicious (and super huge) meal at a Korean BBQ place.

Then we walked down 34th street to 12th avenue to find a place to sit for the fireworks. Macy's did the fireworks over the Hudson this year, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Hudson sailing up the river. They said you could see from anywhere below 59th street and had specific access points, all of which were suppose to provide pretty good views. When we got there it was already really crowded and we found a spot to sit, where we thought we'd have no problems. We were behind a lot of trees though and a good amount of the fireworks were blocked by the trees. I mean, you could definitely still see, but it was also definitely an impeded view. Still, overall, it was a cool show and really enjoyable. They had 6 barges shooting the fireworks, so it was almost like watching 6 shows at one time. Derek saw the smile faces and cubes and stuff but I missed them somehow. Probably because I was trying so desperately to take good pictures around the trees but failing miserably.

Leaving was crazyyyyyyyyyy. It was just a huge sea of people and everything was crowded in a way I've never seen before. Of course I had to pee, but every public restroom that was still open had HUGE lines. McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King...lines down the stairs and out the door. It was insane. I ended up going in Penn Station, where the line was just as long, but moved pretty quickly. There was a fight between the old lady in front of me and the crazy lady behind me about a girl (who was not either of their kid) who was crying and wanted to skip in line. It took us an hour just to get to Penn Station, so we missed the 11 PM bus, and had an hour to kill. We walked to the bus stop, which conveniently has a bar across the street from it, and the boys had a beer while we waited. We finally got home around 1 AM and it was so nice to get in a comfy bed.

Picturesssssssss

Post office

The Postal Police. They have a lot of vehicles and a security guard. I don't know why but apparently a lot of security is needed.

 

Derek and his friend faking enthusiasm for the camera. 2 hours is a long time to sit on the pavement and wait. They were selling plastic light up things and there were these light up sticks that played this beyond annoying music. I think at this point the little girl beside us had her butterfly stick playing for a good 30 minutes.

The crowd around us

Fireworks!

 

Here you can see how the trees were in the way...the fireworks are happening behind them. Really, you could look to the left or right and see pretty much everything that was happening so I should quit making a big deal out of it.

 

The insane crowd of people leaving the area

Yeah...we are...haha

Couldn't get any good pictures because we were being rushed by crowds but the red, white, and blue Empire State Building