Got woken up at 7am (ughs...I'm not a morning person) to hug my cousin goodbye before he went off to school as this was our very last day in Wisconsin!!

I tumbled back to bed but as tired as I was...I was woken up by the wonderful smells of muffins and pancakes...


My aunt made pancakes from scratch (no pre-mix) and she made 3 special ones for -

Melissa (that's me...duh)
Adrian (my bro)
David (my uncle)

Haha...it was only when we placed them on the table that we realised that it read as "Mad". LOL. We are mad but the pancakes were maddeningly good, especially on a cold winter morning. Slop on magarine and maple syrup! Slosh on a rash of bacon or a sausage and I'd be in breakfast heaven. There were muffins too but those were lovingly baked by my aunt for us to bring with us to the airport. With the 'wonderful' weather, planes do tend to be delayed or flights cancelled in Chicago so these were to tide us over, just in case. Thank goodness all of our flights were on schedule!

After 2.5 days of chillaxing with my relatives, we landed in New York City. The contrast was evident right from the flight from Chicago to La Guardia - the passengers were hooked up to their blackberries and 80% of them were dressed in business suits.

I was expecting rude people but our taxi driver was very nice and he was soo happy when we gave him a $5 tip. However, my 'rude' awakening occurred when we checked in. The front desk lady was horrible. I can't believe she's in the service industry. We changed rooms 3 times before we got a room that had 3 beds but even then, the phone didn't work and the shower could never be closed completely. The hotel room felt and looked grubby...I even found a small ball of chewing gum on the bathroom floor. Thus, I can safely say: People, DO NOT stay at the Hotel Pennsylvania unless you're on a budget. Nonetheless, the location of the hotel is fantastic! It's about 4 blocks away from Times Square (see pics below).

How cute is this stretch limo? Damn adorable!! Look at the background...yes...the sign "Subway" is up in neon. Only in New York.

Even the Police has it's sign up in neon. Flashing neon, if I may add. Well, considering how EVERYTHING else is up in neon, nobody would notice that there's a police station if it's sign wasn't up in neon.

We headed back to the hotel after this short visit to Times Square as we're going to have a full day tomorrow!