NYC Day Three

Yet another rushed post so I can gain some sleep time.
Today the convention was awesome.
We got to go through the booths and check out a lot of stuff, plus pick-up some freebies. It was really neat to see how many businesses were grounded on the little things in hotels that I don't even notice. Afterwards we moved to the boutique design section.
Incredible.
With boutiques there is so much more freedom. No chain guidelines. Buy what you want. Buy what serves the area and guest the best. Afterwards we scooted back to the hotel so we could check out the statue of liberty. Upon arrival, all the crown tickets were sold out as well as pedestal ones. In other words we could only ride over and cover island ground. I still got some pictures and had a great time. It was here that I was able to reunite with one of my roomies, Kayla.
So great to see her.
We got off and headed to wall street to get pictures with the bull as well as Tiffany's! We quickly caught the subway up to times square and shopped in the new Disney store, cast discount! I picked up the lady liberty vinylmation for a friend and another for a quick ebay resale. We also went in the toys r us. Wow. A ferris wheel?
Really!?
And the little tykes car was a cart! Plus a barbie convertible, toy story, e.t. and firetruck. Once we left we were headed back to the hotel to prep for our dinner with the other scholars and the Umbreits.
Kayla and I discovered I have a small view of the empire state building while skyping with Moorea. We soon hugged and I joined the group to head over to a nice italian restaurant.
While there we got to know Mrs. Umbreit a lot more. She is an incredibly interesting and humble human. I think I also got to know the other scholars more after a bread bowl spill.
Post-Dinner, Craig and I headed down to the World Trade Center memorial. Which is actually a construction site right now. A balloon scuplture, whiff of weed, and a few circles around the block later, we ended up in the PATH station apparently bound for New Jersey.
Nice.
Fortunately we recognized this in time and got off to circle the block lost for a bit more. We finally found a subway and headed to Chinatown - our original destination. After roaming the streets even further, we came upon the Williamsburg bridge (northeast of Brooklyn). The Williamsburg bridge is in Lower East Side/Cooperative Village. Not a very good part of town. At this point we figured we would be the butte of our "police encounter" joke of the day.
After paying a dollar for someone to open a door we ended up at Delancy Street Subway station sitting and hoping to God this would get us to the right place. We finally landed back in Times Square.
Back home.
It has already started feeling like home.
Which scares me because I don't really want to love New York, but I think I do now.
At the convention I spent a good bit of time at the Cornell University table.
Pondering graduate school.