Our last day in NYC. Our flight is at 6 so we agreed to leave the city at 4pm. In the meantime, hotel checkout is at noon but the hotel offers a free luggage hold service. We checked out, had our luggage stored and went to the Times Square Diner for breakfast. It was within a block of our hotel. I loved the inside of this place. It was cramped like everywhere else but still nice.
At this point, we decided to see the store windows we had missed. I found a site online that listed them all along with notes, addresses, maps, etc so away we went. Here’s a post featuring photos and descriptions. New York Post Merriest Holiday Windows.
We saw Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Barneys, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Pretty amazing.
For a late lunch, we went back near the hotel and stumbled on another side street restaurant called McHale’s Bar & Grill. The woodwork in this place was amazing. What a nice place. Take a peek at their website. Unfortunately you won’t see the ornate Christmas garland that was hung all over. All high class Christmas decor. The food was yummy too. We were a little put off by the fact that they told Jim, 1 free drink refill was included with his meal and thereafter a charge. Really? We sat right near the bar and know they have a soda fountain. They charged him $10 for 2 Cokes. Our total bill was $52.80 for Coke, Iced Tea, beef stew, and a bacon mac & cheese.
Off to the hotel we went. We got an Uber cab and began our long unexpected journey to the airport. OK, after all of this we know we went wrong by not giving ourselves longer than 2 hours. I’ll just get that out there. The ride to the airport should only have been a half hour. I’m no expert cab driver or NYC navigator but it seemed like the driver constantly drove into the heart of traffic. Every major street, we were on it. The traffic was so thick, at every light only a car or 2 could make it through. That rhymed. I should be a rapper or something.
We made it to the airport and I was about to cry. We didn’t have much time at all. We checked in, got to TSA, and the line wasn’t too bad but it barely moved. Two of the TSA agents conversed. “Why is this line moving so slowly?” “Well, guess who’s at the X-Ray machine.” “Joe?” “No, Sam.” “Just as bad.” I looked at Jim, let out a deep sigh and pretty much admitted defeat at this point. I pretty much figured, we’re not making it. Years later (it seemed), we made it through security but needed to get to D2 so we could be shuttled to B35. We ran. D2 was empty. My heart sank. A woman next to the gate standing at an ominous door to some stairs asked if we needed the shuttle to B35. She was sweet. We told her about our dilemma, she called someone on her walkie and said the shuttle would be here in a sec. We rushed onto the shuttle with a few other folks and eventually got to the gate via the tarmac. We had to walk back up inside into the terminal gate via ramp.
The terminal was full. We saw a line standing to board. We hopped on the line and then tried to assess if we had time to pee. I’d imagine they’d be boarded by now. We took turns at the peeing thing and then went to the front of the line to see what was going on. The co-pilot is coming from another flight which is delayed. No one has boarded. Everyone is standing around like zombies. We found a seat, got a beverage, relaxed, calmed down, cooled off and were thankful for the delay.
Time to board. No First Class this time (groan). This plane didn’t even have a First Class section anyway. Seats were in groups of 2. Yay. Air blew from the vents. Warm. Uhhhh, hopefully the A/C will kick on soon. We sat for a while, an announcement came on to say there’s some last minute maintenance being done and it should only take a short time. Maintenance? Scary. We waited. And waited. Accouncement. They have to reboot the system so lights and air will turn off. That it did. Darkness. Rebooting this plane made me think that a Speak and Spell was the brain behind the systems. I mean, what’s the deal? Finally, A/C and on our way. All in all, between waiting for a co-pilot, and the “maintenance”, we were 2 hours late. We made it.
The trip to NY overall? It will be a while before we go back. And when we do, it won’t be during a holiday. Although we’ve been there twice in the past, once was just for a night out while we were staying in Riverhead, Long Island. The time before that was 10/2001, just one month after 911 when everyone avoided NY. Hotels were cheap, crowds weren’t existant.
Jim’s Yoda backpack was a big hit. He got a lot of compliments on it.
The weather was unseasonably warm which was a plus but we had to deal with a lot of rain.
I want to thank the MTA for the amusing posters on the trains. There were tons of them but I only took a picture of the 2 I liked most:
Unfortunately these moral posters are needed. I can’t believe what people do. On one subway ride, a woman sat there with music on, no headphones, and was singing. It wasn’t overly loud but too loud enough to the point that it’s rude. How about a sit next to you and blast music you don’t particularly care to hear? People suck.
