We have returned from New York. We were back in the house by 1, my journal entry from yesterday was posted by 2, and I was in the recliner by 3 sound asleep until 9 p.m., when I awoke to a quiet house--Walt had already gone to bed! I had more sleep during my "nap" than I've had in one shot since I left Davis! I am reborn. I'm also ready to go back to sleep for the night. This is good!
It had been a miserable night. I just don't know what it is with me and beds. The bed seemed to be very comfortable, but I was in agony at 1 a.m., despite having put a pillow at my back to give it support. I was wide awake sitting in the room's chair with my legs elevated on the bed and trying to listen to an audio book, and then music, hoping I'd fall back asleep.
I finally got up at 4 and used that high tech shower and got ready to leave for the airport.
We met a lot of airline personnel at the 5:15 shuttle. One guy, seeing Walt wearing a blue shirt, mistook him for a fellow employee and got very chatty until Walt acted confused when he asked if Walt had ever "overnighted at La Guardia before." Then he realized Walt was just a dumb shmuck taking the shuttle to the airport!
We were so glad that we had only brought carry-on luggage. The lobby was a mass of wall to wall people, all snaking through check-in lines like kids on opening day at Disneyland. We checked in electronically, sailed right through to the security check-in and then to the concourse with an hour and a half to spare. Time enough for a pastry and some yogurt from Au Bon Pain.
This is the biggest travel week of the year and so both of our flights were "extremely full" (I'm wondering what is the difference between "full" and "extremely full"!)
It was good that we had time for breakfast at La Guardia because there wasn't even food to purchase on the first leg of the trip, from NY to Chicago.
We transferred to a larger plane in Chicago, with less room to sit. The economy seats are ridiculous. You already sit with the chair in front of you practically in your lap--and then the person in that chair decides to recline the seat. Oh you can have "more leg room" for more money--but it's not all that much more room....not worth the extra money.
They did have food on this flight, for a fee. I love the "snack boxes" that they sell to you for some exorbitant amount of money. It's like they go to a sample snack warehouse and pick up a bunch of stuff and toss it willy nilly into miscellaneous boxes. What I had for lunch was two kinds of crackers, potato chips, cookies, cheese spread, and jelly beans. To have something with some sort of nutritional goodness, I had tomato juice to go with it. Since I am unable to put the tray table down in front of me, for lack of space, I had to balance the tomato juice can in one corner of the box that the food came in, balanced on top of my coat, which was in my lap because there was no room in the overhead compartments. And of course, as Walt pointed out, all the foods came in sealed containers that you can't cut open because you can't bring sharp objects on the plane with you!
I was sitting on the aisle watching the in-flight movie, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," and at a crucial moment, the woman at the window had to go to the bathroom, which was a major undertaking, since the snack cart was in the aisle and the woman in front of me was relaxing her chair. I'm just glad that the window woman only had to get up once during the flight. I missed crucial parts of the movie, dammit.
But the most important part was that we reached the Sacramento airport "uneventfully" (I always love "uneventful" flights!). The Sacramento airport has two terminals and we had left on Northwest Airlines in one terminal, and had parked in the garage attached to that terminal, but we flew in on United, at the other terminal, so we had to take a bus from one to the other. I was really tired of packing luggage so Walt took the bus and left me sitting in the shade (warm in Sacramento) while he want to get the car. Good Walt!
We stopped at the post office on the way home, to pick up the mail we had held, and then came home to five dogs, only a different five. Higgins was gone, but his sister, Betty was here. She's also bigger than Freddie. I haven't really had time to get to know her since I went to sleep so soon after getting home!
We had such a great time in New York...but I can only take New York in small doses, so the briefness of the visit was part of why I enjoyed myself so much.
It's good to be back home again.Pictures from the trip are on Flickr.
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