90ish days of summer

ARLINGTON, Va. — Later this afternoon, Jeff and I are taking the bus up to New York City for a three-day weekend extravaganza in the Big Apple.

As was the case with our spring break roadtrip with Esten, we have a lot we want to do and see, but only so much time for everything. As was not the case with our spring break roadtrip, we’ve meticulously planned out EVERYTHING that we’re doing in New York — even down to the subway/bus/walking routes we’re using to get to where we need to be.

I haven’t been in New York since 2004, when my high school newspaper adviser took six of us young eager journalists there for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association‘s Gold Circle Awards. We spent spring break there and, as well as I can remember, stayed in Manhattan.

Before that, my mother has taken me to New York twice — once when I was probably four or five, and then again in 2001, three months before two planes flew into the World Trade Center and made their indelible mark on history and foreign policy. Each of those trips lasted at least a week.

Now, Jeff and I have three days to explore Central Park, wander Lower Manhattan and the financial district, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, take the Staten Island Ferry, visit the United Nations complex, walk along 42nd Street, take evening photos from the Top of the Rock, stroll around High Line Park, people-watch in Times Square, eat at Katz’s Deli (what did Sally order, anyway?), tour the Eldridge Street Synagogue and take a gander around Chinatown.

Ambitious? Probably a bit much. But we’ll make it work, and we’ll have the photos to prove it.

(Disclaimer: No promises on when you’ll get to see those photos. I still have yet to edit shots of the Capitol Building, the Basilica of the National Shrine, Eastern Market and our trip to the beach.)