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There is so much to write about from my two day, one night trip to New York City that I don’t even know where to begin. The sights I saw? The food I ate? The stuff I bought? The insane amounts of walking throughout the city? (Don’t get me wrong, NYC and I are on pretty good terms. But I don’t remember the last time I’ve ever walked so much in such a short amount of time. No taxis for my family and I; it was all about walking or the subway.)

I went to the Empire State Building on my first day, which was so not worth the wait. It was a two and a half hour wait for a ten minute view of the city on the observation deck. I’ll always think of the Empire State Building as some form of mind game/mental torturing place because the line was just endless. It would snake all around separate rooms on a floor of the building, and just when you thought you’d made it to the elevator, you’d be taken up to another floor to repeat the process all over again. The observation deck was on the 86th floor and you had to take the elevator up to the 80th floor and had to wait in line again – for a mere six floors! And then there was a line to get from the 86th floor back down to the ground, which was absolutely awful because by that time I was losing my marbles and had to get out of that building. I ended up taking the stairs from the 86th to the 80th and then booking it out of the building as fast as I could. I don’t think I’ll be going up the Empire State Building again anytime soon.

I spent a good portion of my second day in NYC in Brooklyn. I had lunch at Grimaldi’s, which is billed as the best pizza in New York. I’m no expert on New York pizza, but my God, that pizza was amazing – totally worth the hour long wait in line (the line went around the block!). Topped off with delicious vanilla chocolate chunk ice cream at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and a walk back to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge, I think my time spent in Brooklyn was the best part of my NYC trip.

The craziest part of my trip was the bus ride back to Delaware. Somewhere along the New Jersey Turnpike the bus totally broke down, so the driver had to pull the bus over. Twenty minutes later, the bus was in semi-working condition, which meant that it chugged along the turnpike at approximately 40mph – definitely not safe when the speed limit is 65mph and most drivers drive way faster than that. We pulled over at the next service station and waited until another bus came to pick us up, but there weren’t enough seats for everyone that was stranded. There was a lot of time to kill between buses. If you’re looking for a fun way to spend your night, I don’t recommend chilling in the truck parking area of a service station in New Jersey.

When I finally got on a bus, I got a seat in the very back in front of the bus toilet. The door handle to the bathroom was broken off so no one could get in, but one guy really had to go and couldn’t wait. He broke down the bathroom door and I had to hold the door semi-shut for him so that he could have some privacy. A small line for the bathroom formed, in which I got practice in a potential future career as a bathroom door holder. The last guy, however, managed to push the door shut so he got locked in the bathroom and he spent a good ten minutes trying to jiggle the door of the (broken) handle before he finally kicked the door down. I half expected the door to go flying down the aisle of the bus!

All in all, a very eventful trip to NYC.

I’m headed to the East Coast for my annual trip to visit friends and family. I’ll be hitting up Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York City. I am very excited to see my family and friends, particularly as the ones I’m going to visit are those that I only get to see once a year.

I’ll be away for a little under two weeks, but I should have at least some Internet access as I’ll be staying with friends and I’ll have my laptop with me. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog, however intermittently. As usual, at the very least I’ll have my iPhone with me. I expect to actually get service and 3G coverage this time, unlike my trip to South Dakota, so maybe I’ll wind up blogging from my phone.

This basically marks the beginning of about a month and a half period where I’ll be traveling and without regular access to the Internet, so my apologies for these rather boring “I’m going away and will be without steady Internet access until this date” entries. But I’ll do my best to keep you all posted on my adventures!

I am in the market for an e-reader.

I know, I know. When I first heard about e-readers, I was very skeptical and vowed that nothing would ever be able to replicate or replace the feeling of an actual book in hand. I still stand by that sentiment, but logically, an e-reader makes more sense in the long run, at least for me.

I travel a lot, and I always, always bring books with me. Not only do I travel, but I also move from place to place a lot. Basically, I’m almost always en route from Point A to Points B, C or D. Not having/bringing books is not an option for a bookworm like me, so I have schlepped my books to the ends of the world and back in my lifetime. However, it is not feasible for this to continue. Books are expensive (I have an aversion to libraries, but that’s a long story), books are heavy and books take up space. These are problems I’ve had with books and my lifestyle from day one.

E-readers solve most of these problems. Yes, they are expensive – certainly more expensive than any lone book. But e-reader versions of books are cheaper than print versions, and e-reader books that are in the public domain are free. They are also very light and can store over a thousand books on the device, which solves most of my book woes.

Sounds great, right? But there’s still a problem. I don’t know what type of e-reader I want. Or rather, which type of e-reader is the best fit for me.

I’ve narrowed it down to two: Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook. Both look very good. I’m leaning towards the Kindle, but I don’t really have a reason for that except that it has a longer battery life. Honestly, both look really awesome and I’m completely torn as to which one to get. If I were to get the Nook, I’d be able to get it (relatively) soon. If I were to get the Kindle, I’d be debating whether or not I should wait a little longer and see when the Kindle 3 comes out before purchasing anything, as that release ought to be soon… right?

Anyway. Kindle or Nook? Anyone have experiences, stories, etc with either, or e-readers in general, to share that would be helpful?