Our trip has begun...early Tuesday morning, November 21, 2006, John and I got on a plane to NY. We left around 12:30am and arrived in NY 6:30am. I couldn't sleep a wink...it was hurting too much to sit in an upright position for so long. I did get up a lot to use the restroom to keep my circulation flowing. I don't recommend flying while 6 months pregnant. At least, I will never fly that far along again.
Here is our traveling companion...Huggy! He is sitting on Pam's bed...this is the only shot we took of him the whole time. We should have brought him on an outing, but we forgot.
Me trying to catch up on much needed sleep. You can see my baby bump! :)
John and I on the train heading towards the city. In was Wednesday, November 22nd, and we were planning on seeing them blow up the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Pam was with us, and she got us on the train for free with the power of her badge. *Side note* We never made it to see them blow up the balloons, because it started to rain.
Today is also a special day for John and I....we have deemed this day, Yogi Day. I got a Kirby at the Nintendo World Store as my gift.:)
John and Pam smiling for the camera as we make our trek into the city.
Here is a picture I took from the train of Harlem. A place we have no desire to visit. A little scary! Although you can't see that from this picture.
Geoffrey the giraffe from Toys 'R' Us superstore in Times Square. It was so cool in there. Ahhhh...to be a kid again!
Here is a section for the new Nintendo Wii at Toys 'R' Us.
"I'm walking here!"
Thanksgiving dinner with the Blancos! Here I am waiting patiently to eat...actually I was starving and close to taking someone's life if they didn't feed me soon. Never mess with a pregnant woman's ability to eat on demand.
I'm sitting with Pam and Carolann. You can see Mike Boy and Susan in the background.
The Blanco and the Baldino family. John gives everyone's name here: http://zablanc.blogspot.com/2006/12/day-3-thanksgiving-family-photo.html
He forgot to mention one person...Baby Cedric. I'm pointing to my belly in this picture. Cedric was there incognito! ;)
Saturday, November 25th...John and I went downtown again with Glenn and Danielle. It was our first time meeting Danielle, and we both enjoyed her company. We started off in Times Square, and we went to the Nintendo World Store....John and Glenn got their cool new hats.
We eventually made our way to the Subway system to head to lower downtown to meet up with Chris and Theresa. We were all pretty much newbies with the Subway. Let the adventure begin!
We survived the Subway! FRESH AIR!!!! hehehehe
We met up with Theresa and Chris, and we have made another new friend. Both Danielle and Theresa are very nice girls, and we all hit it off swimmingly.
We walked to Greenwich Village and stopped in Washington Square Park to take pictures in front of a famous arch from movies. John also wanted to go to the park, because a young Bobby Fischer learned to play chess. Very cool!
Glenn, Danielle, and me...what a pretty day!
Another shot of Washington Square Park...you can see some cool buildings in the background.
Funny name of a restaurant!
As we walk along on our journey through lower Manhattan, we visited the Paul Frank store(pic not shown), so I could get some cute monkey shirts. We had lunch and continued on our way.
We headed over to mack on some delicious, famous cupcakes....Magnolia Bakery. The bakery is shown in a Sex in the City episode and in an SNL short skit. We had to wait in line, but it was worth it. However, some of the bakers are a little disgruntle....John was filming the cake batter being mixed, and she thought her ugly mug was being filmed too. "Lady, why the hell would we want your face on our camera? Get over yourself!"
John and his papa...we celebrated John and John's birthday on Sunday, November 26th. We eventually celebrated John Sr.'s birthday again on his actual day, November 29th. My sweet Boo Boo's birthday was on the 10th of November, but it was nice to celebrate again with his family.
Pam's kitties...Rumer and Poncho.
Here is Tiger....Pam's new addition to her family.
Today is Tuesday, November 28th, and it is our third trip into Manhattan...this time John and I went alone. Later, we were going to see the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
This time John and I were going to see Ground Zero. Everytime we go to NY we say we are going to go, but we never make it. Well, we made it this time! We tackled the Subway system all by ourselves, and we pretty much mastered it. We rule!
Here is a picture I took of the Brooklyn Bridge. Next time I would like to walk across it...it has a pedestrian area so you can walk on it.
People reading the timeline from that dreadful day in 2001. Even though it has been five years, Ground Zero still has a very sad, empty feel to it. :(
The Daily Show had Tom Waits as the guest....I wasn't impressed! Too bad we didn't have tickets for the next night....George Clooney would have been there. That would have been cool...oh well, it was still fun seeing Jon Stewart in person and watching a live recording of a show. We had fun! The wait in line sucked for my pregnant belly though.
After the Daily Show, we met up with Chris and Theresa for dinner. We ate at a place called Vnyl(this is how it's spelled). It was cool, and John and I both liked our fried chicken dinners.
I took this shot as we were walking down Times Square heading back to Grand Central to catch the train back to Tarrytown. It's Harmony's very own bar! ;)
While John was sleeping and trying to get over his cold that he has had the entire vacation, Pam and I went to breakfast at Strawberries. We stopped down at the water afterwards to look at the fog swallowing up the Tappan Zee bridge. Here are some seagulls hanging out.
On Thursday, November 30th, John and I went to Mike and Carolann's house in Fishgill. It was a very nice house...I love the yard! Here is Toby sitting on my lap while John and I chat away with Carolann. We waited for Mikey, Tyler, and Mike to come home, so we could all eat dinner together. Later on, John and Mike played Madden '02, and although close, Mike won. Poor Boo Boo! :(
Our final day in NY has arrived or so we thought. It's Friday, December 1st, and like two ships passing in the night, we got to hang out with John's grandma for an hour before we had to leave for the airport. It was my first time meeting her, and John hasn't seen her since 1996.
John's grandma, Emilia, is full of a lot of spunk for a woman who will be 90 in May. She walks a mile and a half everyday for exercise. I think that is so cool!
Okay here's the situation: Mike picks up John and I to take us to the airport. We run into some traffic, but we eventually make it. I called in a head of time to Jetblue to see if our plane was delayed....it was by an hour and a half. It was raining and windy in NY, but the real problem was the midwest was getting slammed with a blizzard. Augh....I hate waiting!
First off, John and Mike were convinced terminal 4 was our drop off. I said I saw a sign that our terminal should be 6. They didn't listen to me, and they were wrong!!!! Luckily, the air train came to our rescue and took us to where we needed to go.
John and I checked in, had some dinner, and took a shuttle to our gate. We get there, and we find out we are now delayed three and a half hours....are you kidding me! I'm not a happy camper, because my belly is already hurting, and I half to be in an upright position for a long time. John and I read a little and then decide to go for a walk. As we are walking back, we look at the monitor above, and we find out that our flight has been cancelled.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! We waited all this time just to be turned away! We were stranded at JFK...not a place you want to be stuck in. We were told to call the airlines and re-book another flight. Apparrently, communication is not a strong point of Jetblue. We were told on the phone, after waiting 15 minutes of being on hold, that we need to go to the service center. Whatever, so we went! Long lines and frustration, from the lack of communication, was getting to us. The natives were getting restless! It was entertaining at least hearing all the grunts and grumbles from the stranded passengers.
Finally, we talk to someone, and they get us booked for the same flight tomorrow night. Now the new challenge of finding a place to stay for the night. We try Chris and see if Theresa can take us in, but after long discussion of getting there, we decide to call Pam. I wasn't going to attempted the Subway with bags and then walk through a long stretch of Brooklyn. No thanks!
Pam was our savior! She was fine with coming to get us and take us back to her place. We stayed another night in NY, and we had more time to spend with John's grandma and other selected family members. We weren't happy about staying another day, but at least we had shelter and we were safe.
The tired, weary travelers attempt to leave NY a second time. Success! We waited at our gate, that was leaving on time, to take us back to Colorado. The only hiccup was the ground traffic for the planes to fly out. We were 30th in line to leave, so 45 minutes later we take flight for home.
A long trip in deed, but we had a lot of fun. We got to experience lots of new things this time around, and next time we visit NY, we will be a family.
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