My friend, Deyoung Yap, from Western Michigan University had moved to Stamford, Connecticut after living in Chicago. He had been asking for me to come visit him for some time, so I finally decided that my mom and I should go and visit him before he moved to Pasadena, CA. It took us over 12 hours to get to Connecticut. I did the driving around New York City, which was horrible, as it was rush hour. I thought the drive through New Jersey was gorgeous. I never realized how hilly and curvy the roads were through New Jersey and around New York City. We got to Stamford, CT shortly after sunset, which made it hard for driving. I called Deyoung to let us know we were almost there. He lived at 1 Reynolds St in Stamford. When we got to his house, it was dark. I called him again and he said he was out looking at cars. We were shocked that he was doing that when he knew we were coming to visit him.
We got inside his house, which was a mess, since he was moving to California in the next few weeks. He had no toilet paper or food, so we all had to go to the grocery store to get that. We both thought that was strange, too, especially when he knew we were coming to visit. We went out to dinner with him the first night at a restaurant in Stamford.
Deyoung had to work on Friday, so he dropped my mom and I off at the train station and we took the train into New York City.
The first day in NYC, we walked around Rockefeller Center, by Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and through Macys, etc. Security was quite tight on the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island tour. We couldn't go inside the statue this time. We took the train back to Stamford in the evening and had to take a cab ride back to Deyoung's house.
Deyoung had other plans on Saturday, so mom and I took the train back to NYC for the day. The Gonyos had told us about this guy, Gary, who gave tours of the World Trade Center disaster site, so we set up a time with him. He gave us a very informative tour of the site and what happened on 9/11/2001. I will never forget the terrorist attack on the twin towers in NYC in 2001.
Mom and I had a wonderful lunch at the Tavern on the Green in Central Park. We went to this restaurant back in 1987 when we were in town. We had to walk around Strawberry Fields, which was right across the street from where the Beatles star, John Lennon lived and was murdered.
We were going to spend an extra day with Deyoung, but after him not spending much time with us, we decided to leave the next day and go to Hershey, PA.
On Sunday, we drove to Hershey, PA, to go on a tour of the Hershey plant and surroundings, as well as the hotel. The lanterns in the city are in the shape of a Hershey kiss. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Hershey. The factory tour was excellent. They even gave us a Hershey bar at the end of the tour, which was an added bonus.
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