Hanna's First Trip to NYC/ August 2016
So this blog post is going to be a little different since it would be massive if I put it into one. This is going to be three separate posts instead, starting with NYC. To give a little background info on how any of this even happened, we go back to December of 2015. I've always wanted to fly out to the Pacific Northwest. I've followed Hanna(@Demurela) for I don't even know how long anymore. I was going to book a hotel with a friend and try and get a list of places we could explore. I happened to comment on Hanna's photo and she responded. After a few weeks of talking, everything was clicking together and she said she liked me. I couldn't even believe it since she had been one of my largest photo inspirations for such a long time. She offered to let my friend and I stay in her apartment for the week we'd be in the northwest. After six straight months of non stop talking, we flew out and met up with Hanna at PDX. It was a very, very surreal moment. By the first night, we decided to make it official and start dating. I felt at home for the first time in my life. And by home, I mean in a person, not a place. Fast forward to the night before I had to leave Portland and her, which was the hardest day of my life. I didn't look forward to it and actually considered canceling my flight multiple times. We would have to wait a little over two months before we could see each other again.
August 19th was the day Hanna's flight was coming into Philadelphia and I couldn't sleep. Getting in at 6:18am, I managed to get about an hour and a half of sleep that night. Half asleep, highly caffeinated and walking through the ice cold hallways of the airport, I kept pacing. I couldn't keep still knowing Hanna was landing soon. As soon as she told me what gate she was coming in from, I ran up the escalator and down the hall. The moment we were in each other's arms again, I felt at home. The same feeling I felt when we first hugged in Portland.
Okay so that was a lot of background info. Anyways, Hanna had never been to NYC before because she had never been on the east coast. The day after her flight, we were set on making New York her first taste of the east. Our first stop getting off the train was Grand Central Terminal, which surprisingly I hadn't been to either.
We talked about getting a beautiful view of the city skyline many times, so we decided to head to the top of Rockefeller Center. It was extremely windy but I could tell Hanna was in awe by how dense the concrete jungle was.
Our next stop was Central Park. With skies looking a little questionable, we decided that walking would still be fine. Feeling droplets on our heads, we didn't think anything of it. As soon as we got to the park, it was raining.
There's just something about walking around the city in the rain. You'd think it would feel sticky and grimy, but nope, not NYC. The greens popped, the smell of rain gave such a nice atmosphere and we just kept walking ignoring the water.
It was starting to get late and we still had two more stops to go, one being the Brooklyn Bridge. Hanna and I hopped on the subway and ended up accidentally getting off three stops ahead of the one we were meant to get off of. We contemplated getting back on the subway since it was about 3/4 mile too far, but we chose not to. It was still raining and not too many people were on the bridge walking. Ferries going under us, the skyline and it seeming to be completely silent. The view was incredible.
The final stop we had was seeing the Freedom Tower and the 9/11 memorial.
This photo does the memorial absolutely no justice. It was massive and we actually stood there for a few moments trying to comprehend if this was even real.
And we come to the end of our day in NYC. It was a ton of walking, getting rained on, trying to comprehend if things were real and Hanna's first slice of real New York pizza. We'll be back in NYC but for now, the second part of the blog post will be our Cape May and Ocean City, NJ trip.