As the weather man predicted, Thursday was going to be raining all day. From the early hours we were up and by 8am out the door wondering the streets again! First stop was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade which was basically happening at the end of our street, so for a couple of hours we stayed there watching the parade go by… even with the rain loads and loads of people turned up. But after a while of getting drenched we decided to abort the parade….

The next task was to try to work out how to buy subway tickets, and then how to use the subway! First stop was Times Square. A rainy day would have been perfect for shopping, but, with it being Thanksgiving nearly everywhere was closed, so after getting something to eat we took it upon ourselves to try to find David Blaine, who was performing a stunt involving a massive giroscope with him in the air for three days… but unless he had already finished by the time we got there, we couldn’t find him, not even the cops knew where he was… This would end up being the first of many visits to Times Square, and so photos were ‘reserved’ for the following day with better weather!

With umbrellas in full use, we headed back to the subway and further down Manhatten to Ground Zero. Other than a crazy preaching woman who seemed to be shouting and protesting about everything under the sun, the area had a very somber feel. It was hard to believe that the scenes from 9/11 that we’ve all come to know happened where I was standing five years before.

By now it was already getting pretty late in the day, and with the rain still pelting it down it was time to head back. With news that the weather would brighten up for the next couple days, all eyes were on them to get everything else done.

Well, when I say ‘day one’ I really mean ‘day one and a bit’. Tuesday night. 10pm. We were all leaving Charlotte for an eagerly awaited break to New York City over Thanksgiving. With a 12 hour coach journey ahead of us to get there, all we could do is try to sleep.

 After what would seem as a life time on board the coach – which atleast was a decent new one this time, as opposed to the older one we had going up to Washington DC. Anyways, we finally arrived in New York at around 10 – 11am after stopping off at a service station near the New Jersey Turnpike for breakfast, and after the driver drove around the same blocks 3 times trying to find the hotel…

After getting given our rooms and sitting down for a little while, we were all back out again for a coach tour of the city, where we basically went around for the afternoon being shown where we can go such as the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero and such.

The next morning the Thankgiving Macy’s Parade was going to take place, so later that evening we were back out again, this time walking up a few blocks to get to where they were inflating the massive balloons for the following day’s parade. It was pretty cool, seeing them up close, which a load of people all there bustling about! See photos in the next blog post.

Like with my Washington DC blog; more photos will be added along with each blog post, day by day until the end, this trip I took over 1000 photos – so it’s gonna take me a while to sort through and upload the best photos up onto here!

Today there was a basketball game at the university, with the Charlotte 49ers (UNCC’s team) against Hofstra University, to you and me, thats a university up in Long Island, New York. It was a good game, and in true ‘me’ fashion, I took a load of pics which you can see in the gallery, as well as a video clip which is at the bottom of this blog post! In the end Charlotte won, by 8 points (I think!), even though come the end it was getting pretty close!

But, as always, there’s always crazy things happening – and this game was no exception! For starters there was a brass band – with drums – in one of the stands. Every so often they would all burst into tune, normally during time outs and at half time. You’d think a band was just a band though – but they seemed pretty energetic! Even with thier big instruments, all standing in what must have been pretty cramped seating for them, they were moving with the music, from just swaying, to turning around all the time during one song after – er – the chorus? – I’ll call it the chorus… Anyway, for a band, they were pretty amazing…

…there were also quite a few people dressed up as everything, from bears to smooties and from suns to a big nut and bolt… mainly advertising stuff, but at half time they had a crazy little basketball game of thier own – pics in the album, all i can say it was pretty crazy. There was also the Charlotte team mascot – Norm the Niner – who went around, propelling tshirts out of a cannon, or, as the pic shows below (the one on the right) using a fishing rod and a fake spider to scare people!

Friday night Myles’ uncle who lives in South Carolina took us to the Motor Speedway track here in Charlotte to watch a NASCAR race! The race started at 8pm and so was at night which in a way was pretty cool, however as we found out later may not have been the best as it got very cold with the race not ending to around midnight.

 Before the race started we had to go buy ear plugs from a vendor outside the stadium – I would find out the nessacity later when 40+ cars with beefed up engines roar past 300 times – it becomes very noisy, unbearable without any ear protection. Outside seemed a hive of activity in itself, with loads of golf cars racing each other and driving around in groups. There was also the team trailers selling official merchandise along side sponors and thier own adverts and competitions. Of course there was also TV-ness, with a live TV soundstage outside, and a TV-Media village made up of loads of satelitte trucks and trailers, serving to broadcast the race to TV, as well as being a hub for all things media related – rightly called the NASCAR Technology Center.

Sorry if some of the photos are blurred. With it being night time, and the speed of the cars it was difficult to get good photos.

Anyways, onto the race itself, which was great, we had pretty good seats, close to the track, just past the corner of turn 4, allowing us to clearly see the pit lane aswell as being abloe to see the start / finish line and the majority of the track. Along with a ton of crashes, a few of which happened just in front of us, and a couple I cought on camera, the cars were going so fast the majority of the time taking photos was a challenge! I resorted to video for the majority of the race, which you can see a short 3min video at the bottom of this blog post.

All in all it was a great night, seeing the race was great, and some of thier equipment, such as after a crash having 2 trucks with jets which sounded like an airliner landing!, which blew all the debris off of the track, as well as the crashes of course! And how a guy went from 42nd place – to 2nd!

Well, the second day we woke up at 8am for an early 9am start to make sure we didn’t miss out on anything! To start with, we headed across the street to the Old Post Office, now used as a food court where once again we got security scanned…. Once in though, we headed to the far side to get to an elevator to get us up into the bell tower so we could overlook the city in all its glory and get some shots looking out over the cityscape.

After that we started wondering around much of the same areas as the day before. The weather was much better today, bright blue skies and by mid afternoon turned to be pretty hot indeed, well into the high 20′s, especially with walking around non-stop all day. Aswell as re-visiting the Washington Monument, White House and WW2 Monument, we also saw the Jefferson Memorial, which was very grand and impressive. Following on from that and after seeing several US Government Helicopters flying very low past, we decided to wonder across the state line in Virginia to have a peak at the Pentagon. However, while ripping my jacket on a barrier we ended up turning back after we read signs which prohibited photography… and… with how the US is with security, especially with it being the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, we thought we would be better off if we headed back!

By this time it was getting pretty late in the afternoon, so, along with getting something to eat and heading for another look at the White House to see George, and more importantly to get some better photos than the previous day, we then headed back to the hotel to sort through the photos again. By this time I was fast approaching the 600 barrier of photos for both days so far. That even we headed across the street outside our hotel to the ESPN Zone. Now, as I’m obsessed it would seem by all this media related, this was my media fix for the trip. Along with a shop where I got a couple goodies, it was mainly a sports bar with 700+ screens! and arcades on the bottom floor, all by ESPN, Disney’s Sports Channel.

Anyway, after that we had a quick wonder around to see if we could get a few pics of DC at night, which we didn’t really, and then headed back to the hotel room yet again, for yet another early wake up call Monday morning at, well, this time it was about 8.30am but we got out around 9 or so, so all was good. Monday was never going to a be a full day as we had to be back to the hotel around 5pm to get the coach back, and anyway, it was mainly a day to get souveniers and such like. It would seem DC relies alot on mobile vans to sell souvieners by the roadside, so our plan was to wonder around them and buy some stuff… until something happened!

You see, the North Koreans decided that on that same day they were going to go crazy and test out one of thier nukes… making George Bush a very busy man and having to cancel his tea party with Tony. Either way, while wondering towards the White House (which happens to be where alot of the souviener vans are located) after taking some pics of the FBI building, we notice the road blocked off… so we waited for… well.. under a minute… until we noticed a motorcade or cars giving it all they’ve got to get to the fastest speed possible while turning out of the road where the White House is. Yes, I am talking about President Bush’s motorcade! Along with several police cars, bikes and a crazy amount of secret service (I think – Myles will correct me if I’m wrong on that) vehicles such as 4×4′s, vans and an ambulance were two limos! I got a few pics which are below to show you, a few of which have a few guys staring at me – probably thinking – if you take a pic we’ll kill you… while a guy in the back of one has a sniper-type gun…

After that excitement was over, we started getting bits and bobs to buy to take back, and sooner rather than later after wondering around them all, getting something to eat it seemed as though the time had flown by and we headed back to the hotel where we waited… sooner or later the coach arrived, we got on, we traveled… watched a movie… and a agonising 8 hours later we arrived back in Charlotte at around 1am.

So that was the trip. A few pics are below, but alot more are in the gallery, such as pics from the Mall area, Capitol Hill, the Monument, WW2 Memorial, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the White House and alot of oyther places! Check them out by clicking the piccie below.