Sometimes you just throw caution to the wind...

I was invited to New York by a new friend. We met on the set of the independent film that shot here in our little corner of the boondocks. We had a lot of fun, and did a theatre reading at the coffeehouse in town. She recently produced a benefit run of The Vagina Monologues off Broadway, and invited us out. I wanted to go. We couldn't afford it. I really wanted to go. My boss/friend said, "One of these days we should go off together and do something again." I told her about New York. We decided to go.
We flew out late on a Thursday and rode the subway for TWO HOURS to the Jazz on the Park Hostel on the Upper West Side. The next day we rode the subway to Ground Zero and looked around. Then we walked back up through the financial district, Chinatown and Little Italy before catching the subway back to the Hostel. We sat in the coffeehouse there and visited with people from all over the world until evening, then we went to Times Square when the lights were on. We walked around some more and found a cool Italian restaurant and had a late supper. Then we headed back to the hostel to watch the younguns party.
The next morning was terribly rainy. We called one of the shuttle services and hired a car and driver for two hours. It cost less than a bus tour, and we were much drier! We went to the Museum of Natural History for a little while, then back to the hostel to change. We took the subway to Soho and ate at the Soho Cantina. Mexican cuisine, to DIE for. Very, very good. Then we stopped for coffee and went to the pre-show Vagina Carnival! The show itslef was fantastic, and the little girls from Minnesota cleaned up on the door prizes, woot! After all that, we were invited to the cast party at Brother's Barbecue just up Houston. It was an awesome time. We rose early to discover our airport shuttle had overooked due to Daylight Savings time, so we hailed a cab and got a ride to JFK. It was great. We got there in plenty of time and did some airport shopping, then bounced back home via Detroit. Too bad the layover wasn't long enough to catch the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. Oh well, next time out...
All in all, the trip was incredibly cheap as far as vacations go; less than $400 for my share of plane, food, and tickets, etc. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but it was so great. One more thing to chalk up in the list of experiences, under "drive a race car" and "audition for a VH1 special." Life's a banquet!