NY/NJ Trip - Chicago, O'hare Airport

We left our house at 4:30 in the morning to head to the SL airport. We were told it's always a mad house and that to get through security it was going to take us an hour. So we were more than prepared. Our flight wasn't until 6:30, but they do board a half hour early. We both didn't get to bed until 1 am and then was up again at 3:30 to get all of the last minute stuff in the bags and to get myself ready for the day. We got to the airport and everything was a breeze. Check in, security, everything. We got on our plane and we were the middle and isle seat, so I wasn't able to take any pics of us taking off. It was a 4 hour flight to Chicago. We were both so tired that we slept a good portion of the time. Thank goodness we had an mp3 player that we could listen to while on the plane rather than listening to the loud whir in the plane after we took off. I took some pretty cool pics once we started to decend. We made friends with the lady in the window seat and she let me take some pics. Once we got into the Chicago area the warmth dropped and Matt and I were donning our jackets we brought with us. It was raining when we got there. We were at the O'hare airport for 2 1/2 hours. So we found a food court, sat and ate. And then we found a bookstore so I could get a book to keep my mind occupied on the plane. Then we meandered over to our terminal and we both sat down and started to fall asleep. We managed to see some HUGE planes, and some itty bitty planes (if you can even call planes itty bitty). Once on the plane I had a nice window seat and Matt ended up in the middle. So I was able to get some pretty cool shots of us taking off and going over the one of the Great Lakes and then it was nothing but clouds for miles and miles. So we sat back and relaxed, took a nap, and read.
It was really neat coming into the Newark, NJ airport. There is so much green and water in that state. It was absolutely beautiful to view.
After we landed we found out we needed to rent a car. We landed in Newark around 6:30 est. We spent until 9:30 trying to get a stupid rental car. It was a nightmare. Prices for rental cars are getting to be completely outrageous. Thank heavens for Matt who works for a world wide company and he got a discount, and then his work covered the insurance on the car. So a $400 car for 4 days turned out to only be around $300 or so. That took a good chunk out of what we could spend while there, but it was a necessary evil. As we were leaving the airport I went to type in the address to our hotel and our GPS (we brought ours from home) wouldn't let me type in the address. I was freakin out! How in the world were were going to find our hotel. Finally I finangled the GPS to cooperate with me and off we were. Let me just say that the Parkways, Expressways, Freeways, whatever else they call them there are SO SO SO confusing! Even with the GPS a few times we ended up getting lost, but then nice Mrs. Magellan got us right back out of our pickle. You can't go anywhere there without a GPS we know now. We made it to our hotel and got checked in and found ourselves bored about 10 mins later. So we called our friend who were were there to see and asked him where his job was at. So we ventured our way to Long Island. An hour and half drive from where we were. Our GPS took us straight to the Lincoln Tunnel and under the Hudsen we went. It is amazing! For 1... the roads are skinnier than they are here. And for 2... they dirve FAST! If the Lincoln Tunnel was here in Utah everyone would drive 25 mph through it. Not kidding you. The speed limit through it is 40 mph and everyone went at least 50-60 mph and if you went slower than that you would get honked at and even possibly see a finger. One we all have probably used once or twice in a fit of rage... EAK! Anyway, so off we went. We drove and drove and made it to Long Island. We got there and our friend was finished with his job at this school that was HUGE! It looked like a castle. All of the schools there looked like castles. Jeff, our friend, drove us around the area and was telling us about the 6 boroughs that make up NY and NJ. Manhatten, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Long Island, Queens, and Staten Island. So far we had been through Manhatten on our way to Long Island. We got stuck in traffic there cause a Taylor Swoft Concert had just gotten over with and there were lines and lines of ppl along the street and driving. We made it back to our hotel about 4:30 in the morning. That was quite an adventure.