Hello from the Big Apple

21 November 2009

We have arrived, after a long day. Travel days are always long. It began very early. We planned to leave at 4. I was so afraid I'd oversleep that I didn't get to sleep until after 1 and then woke up at 3:30, a few minutes before the timer on the stove went off.

We got the dogs fed. Even they seemed to wonder what I was doing feeding them in the middle of the night.

(this may be the last picture of Higgins!)

Fortunately, we were only 3 blocks away when I realized I'd left my coat at home. After weeks of worrying about the weather and I leave the coat I'd decided would work at home. The dogs thought we were prowlers and set up barking when we pulled back into the driveway.

Finally, we were on the road and found out that if you need to be where the action is in Sacramento airport at 5 a.m., just go to the Sacramento airport! We had a plane change in Minneapolis and both flights were full, so we sat in separate rows. They gave us 2 cookies on the first leg and the teeniest bag of peanuts you've ever seen on the second. Fortunately, I had brought granola bars.

We had a l-o-n-g gate change to make and about 10 minutes to do it in, so it was very good that one of those airport tram cars showed up and we gratefully accepted the offer of a ride. I was sorry that we had no time because they had a lot of really interesting looking shops that would have been fun to browse. And all the people on the speakers sounded like my friend Mary.

At the gate while we were waiting to board, there was a couple there with a Boxer puppy who looked so much like Freddie, except that this puppy (whom they had just picked up that day and who didn't even have a name yet) was only 8 weeks old and nowhere close to Freddie's size (though they guesstimate that he will probably be 70 lbs when fully grown). The puppy fit in a carrier that went under the seat and I thought of how much easier it would have been if we had been able to get Lester to Jeri & Phil when she was that size!

I was worried about the NY leg of the trip because there was a child, who sounded like s/he must have been somewhere between 12-18 months old, who screamed nonstop for about 10 minutes, but finally did fall asleep.

We began to come into New York. I was fortunate that I was on the left side of the plane, the view side, though I'm not sure this picture of the statue of Liberty was worth it!

But this one made up for what I didn't get of the Statue of Liberty.

By the time we actually landed, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

The first store we passed on our way from the plane to outside was a book store with this display in the window.

We took a cab in to the hotel, the same hotel where we stayed when we were last here, to see The Big Voice: God or Merman. I was sad to see that it no longer flew a rainbow flag out in front, and wonder if the ownership has changed. But it's a convenient location even if I have to climb two v-e-r-y long flights of stairs to get to our room.

The cab ride was interesting. We saw a TV billboard for some weight loss program, and the TV in the back of the cab was showing commercials like an ad for Regis & Joy Philbin's new album and one of which was a notice letting New Yorkers know that if you have past due citations for things like defiling a building, not picking up garbage, etc, the city will give you a pass on the penalties for the next couple of months. I felt like a real hick from the sticks even noticing this stuff.

We were both starving, so after we settled into our room, we wandered up 8th Street and found a nice Thai place to eat, where we started with a delicious shrimp and crab appetizer.

After dinner we came back to the hotel and Walt was very nice and went upstairs to bring my computer down for me. I'm doing my journal and he is out taking a walk around the neighborhood--we are both doing things that we love!

It's only 6 p.m. California time, but I'm fading quickly and will be going up to our room soon and try to get a little sleep,.