Destination Unknown: A week with NYC

I have officially been in NYC a week...well, including our trip to Maine! I find it amazing that in that short amount of time I have so much to recap on and have literally just been waiting to find the time to get a chance to blog about it. So enough waiting, let's get to it! Because so many things have gone down since I got here, I somewhat broke it up into sections to fully see the crazy busyness that has entailed! Oh, and I added some pictures at the bottom for you to enjoy :)

MSU Football:
I got in last Thursday which was the same day MSU had their first football game. Obviously, the only thing to do when you are living with a fellow bulldog (Mike Davis) is watch the game..... at a bar called nothing other than "The Junction"!! Apparently there is a group of NYC bulldogs that meet for all of the games and so we fit right in and made new friends over some beers! Not a bad first night in the big city!

MAINE:
On Friday, Mike picked me up and after swinging by to get Duane, we started our 6 hour drive to Portland, Maine to meet the rest of our crew and camp out. A road trip with two guys, you can imagine how those conversations went....let's just say, I was educated on a variety of topics. Night one consisted of some drinking, making friends with the rest of the crew I met, and a long night of snoring...after all, we were with 3 men. Saturday we got up and hit the beaches for a little while before having an incredible lunch of fresh lobster and beer on the pier listening to live music and following it with, none other than, ice cream! Stuffed, we headed up another 3 hours to our cabin close to Baxter State Park and Mt. Katahdin.

The cabin was amazing!! Huge three bedroom with a large backyard to a private dock on the lake with the endless sky above us, aahhhh. Plus, it didn't hurt that we had an astronomer and his high grade telescope with us or an aspiring photographer (Andrew Dullas) that takes awesome pictures to document our adventure! After grilling up some burgers, we played some drinking games, hung out on the dock, and took in the incredible scenery/experience. After nursing some hangovers Sunday morning, a couple of us decided to make the hour drive to the park to get in a hike. About 45 seconds in, the bottom dropped out and the rain did not let up the entire trek to the waterfalls. Surprisingly, as soon as we got to the waterfall to have some lunch the sky cleared up just long enough for us to have a bite and a beer before it started all over again as we hiked back out. While being completely soaked from head to toe for the hour drive back sounds miserable (and somewhat was), the view and hike itself was so worth it. Once we got back to the cabin, we settled in for a night of more drinking and cooked up some fresh lobster. Monday we got up bright and early to go white water rafting down a class V river and then headed back down to Portland to stay the night before heading back to the city on Tuesday.

It was a weekend full of fun, new friends, good food, camping, hiking, rafting, thunderstorms, stars, and unforgettable experiences!

PLAYING TOURIST:
Tuesday night, Mike had a friend come in town so Wednesday I got to play tour guide to an Aussie...from India. It was an interesting, but fun-filled day! We hit up the Frick Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, saw some "Gossip Girls" filming, walked a ton, and then ended the night with some Broadway. We decided to pay the extra $40 and got 3rd row seats to "How to Succeed in Business and Not Really Try" staring Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. It was a comedic musical and worth every penny. Pretty amazing to be able to see Harry Potter himself only 5 feet away from me! I also may or may not have fallen in love with one of the other guys in the production....too bad after semi-stalking his website I found out he was only 19, damn it!

US OPEN:
After working all day Thursday, we hit up the one and only US Open! Because of the rain on Wednesday, the matches were cancelled so we ended up getting to see Roger Federer play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. While there was some steady mist and an hour rain delay, Federer pulled it out in only 3 rounds. We also got to see Will Ferrell and Matthew Perry on the big screen. Not too bad for a night of golf.

So, as you can see, it has been a pretty crazy hectic, amazing week thus far! I'd like to say I'm getting good at the subways, figuring out what is N,S,E, and W, and the difference between uptown, downtown, midtown, etc. It has definitely been a learning experience and with a week left before heading to Fairbanks, there is a lot that lies ahead!

beach in Portland, Maine