Austins in the Big Apple5/10- It's Complete!! About This Page:

[statelady01]

Pre Trip and Background:

During the 10 years I have been a married woman, I have always wanted to do something “big” for my hubby’s birthday- frankly speaking, they seem to fall victim to “tradition” and we have never really gone all out for him. On top of this, his birthday at times occurs on Mother’s Day. This year would be one of those days and after Christmas, I began toying with the idea of a weekend getaway to make it really special.

We had always talked about visiting New York City and the more we heard, the more we just daydreamed about it. I went back and forth thinking about cost and our work schedules. Hmm, had to work that out. Just to see what would happen, I put NYC on Travelocity FareWatcher. In the meantime, I told Kevan to ask for April 21 and 22 off and we would maybe just take off to the Ozark mountains for a birthday getaway. It would be a bit early for his birthday but as it was Mother’s Day- there was no getting away that weekend- I had to be with my kids!

I was getting used to the mountain weekend idea when all of a sudden there was a match on AA.Com. The cost of a ticket had dipped from $468 to $221. That’s actually a fantastic price for anywhere out of here. Luckily, we had no food in the fridge so when Kevan went to the store later that night- I got on the phone to ask his mom her thoughts- and she thought it was a great idea- for him to have a “big city” birthday. Minutes later, tickets were purchased and I had also called a few hotels to see what I was looking at in terms of rates in various areas of Manhattan. All this before he came back with a trunk full of groceries.

I ended up choosing the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station- located about 10 blocks from Times Square. It had very modern amenities and seemed like the perfect hotel for us. On top of that I got a super deal so that was a go.

Being the HUGE Seinfeld fans we are, we had heard about the Kramer Reality Tour- led by the real Kramer- Larry David’s neighbor for whom the character was based on. I found his website and checked it out- it had gotten several mentions in the guidebooks and lots of great reviews. Since Seinfeld was going to be on our minds during the visit anyway, why not let Kramer show us around? I booked using the 800 number and we were set for a tour on Saturday, April 23.

Also immediately emailed Angie (poohsgirl) to let her know we would be in town- and see if she wanted to meet me a few weeks earlier than planned on our May Girls Trip. She was definitely up for it and I was looking forward to it. I also called up my good bud Jeannine to let her know we would be in town. I’ve missed her terribly since she hasn’t been working with me at Grand Getaways- but we remain really good friends. She and her husband Tommy offered to pick us up at LaGuardia and take us back- we gratefully accepted. We also made plans for breakfast on Sunday before we flew home.

I decided to keep it a secret and successfully did so for all of about three weeks. We were watching a TV show that featured the Manhattan skyline one night. Kevan said, “ Jeez, that looks so cool.” Before I knew it, the words flew out of my mouth. “Really, glad you think so- we are going there to celebrate your birthday!” Why did I blow it? Argh!! His response was “Oh, sure okay.” After three repeated statements of “ We are going. It’s all arranged!” I finally had to get out our etickets, the Kramer confirmations and hotel confirmation to back up my words. He was totally shocked and immediately went to Books A Million for a NYC city guide. One very excited birthday boy!!

It turned out to be a blessing that I spilled the beans. I got sooo busy in the next couple of weeks I had no time to even think about the Big Apple much less plan what to do and when. Kevan found out there was a Yankees game during our visit so we got tickets to that. Kevan also is a big CNN junkie so he booked us on the CNN tour located at the New York studios. We also tried for David Letterman tickets- but they weren’t taping that week. We love David Letterman so that was a rather big let down., but other than that the plans shaped up really nicely.

Before I knew it, April 20 was upon us and even though Kevan had been packed for days, I was running around that afternoon in a mad scramble to wrap stuff up with work and start laundry.

Coming Up Next: An unexpected loss…

[MickeyMAC]

I'm so glad you started a trip report....I want to know all about it. Great start....more,more,more please!!!!!!

[rescuesk]

Good start but we want more!!!

[Jennifer2003]

Great start Maureen!

Looking forward to more!

Jennifer

[DopeyGirl]

Great start!!! More please!!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Maureen

[GoofyMom]

Alrighty! What's next, Maureen?!!

[lauren-roxy]

Can't wait to read more Maureen!! I love NYC!!!

[MontiMouse]

Sounds like you have some great plans!!! Looking forward to hearing more about it. I have never been to New York City but I hope to make it there one day!

[Jillybean]

What a great surprise!

Jill

[poohsgirl]

<font color="purple">Ohh, cool Maureen has started her TR!
Hmm, unexpected loss
I'm curious now, more please! </font>

[Grammy Grumpy]

Wow! NYC is on my "Trip Wishlist", but not very high on DH's (LOL). Can't wait to hear all about it. -- Barb

[chezp]

Great start Maureen - I'm intrigued by the "unexpected loss"....

[statelady01]

Weds, April 20, 2005- Thursday, April 21, 2005

Because our departing flight from Fort Smith was earlier than roosters even care for (5:40 am), we decided to have Beverly bring her son, Aaron over to spend the night with us- and she would just come about 4:45 the next morning. This way, she didn’t have to get Aaron up so early to come and get our kids ready for and take them to school.

Aaron and Beverly brought fast food for us to eat as I hadn’t had a chance to make any dinner. Aaron came up to me and asked what was wrong with the fish? Huh? Aaron told me he wasn’t sure, but he thought the fish was dead. We raced over to the tank and sure enough, Nemo- our 3 ½ year old goldfish was well on his way to being belly up. It was absolutely awful because he wasn’t quite there at the gates of Fish Heaven and it was very hard to watch. I made Kevan be 100% sure before we put him out of his misery-and it looked like this time, we were really going to have to say goodbye.

Matthew took this especially hard and ran into his bedroom sobbing. We got very attached to Nemo- he was personable and being a part of our family so long- I boo hoo’ed too. We said a few prayers and he slowly recovered. All of the kids eventually were okay but it took a better part of the night to return order and dry many, many tears.

I finally was packed and climbed into bed after midnight- with the alarm being set for 4:00 am. I was also quite nervous about this flight as it’s longer than ones to Orlando and this made me so jittery I had a very hard time falling asleep. The last time I saw the clock it read 1:52 so I made a mental note to pile on the concealer in the morning as these eyes would be mighty tired looking.

Before I knew it, the alarm was going off. Kevan and I were ready by 4:20 and had the suitcases in the car ready to go. Beverly arrived right on time at 4:45. Quick kisses for the kids- who didn’t stir one bit and we headed to our regional airport. Although I would rather not, this time we chose to park our car there since it was easier than finding someone to take us to the airport at that miserable hour.

I had checked in online the day before so we had boarding passes- and dropped off our bags at the American Airlines counter. Security was easy and the plane boarded soon after. We flew in the dark to DFW and got there about 15 minutes early. American Eagle’s satellite building requires one to take a shuttle to the main terminals- but even this was running smooth so we were at our gate for the flight to LaGuaridia about 45 minutes early. On the way, we heard on the radio that Muhammad Ali was needing a VIP transfer! Kevan got us some breakfast at McDonald’s while we waited as we were both already starving.

After repeated announcements that the flight was absolutely full- translation: get your bodies on the plane quick and don’t bring bags on the size of small kids- we were boarded. Kevan and I immediately noticed that the plane (Boeing 737) seemed roomier and we figured out that this is one of the planes that American took seats out of to give passengers more leg room. WOW! Even though I was a passenger sandwich- in the middle seat between Kevan and some sleepy guy- I wasn’t too terribly cramped.

We took off on time and I had figured that the flying time would be about 2 ½ hours thinking the schedule had tons of time built in for delays at DFW and LGA. To my disdain, we were informed our flight time would be 3 hours, 9 minutes. Aghh!!

They played Ocean’s Twelve- which didn’t interest me in the slightest so I tried making attempts to read People and the in flight magazine. The snack boxes were offered for sale and we passed- $3 for a small box of mini sized snacks- no thanks!

Kevan managed to sleep, which makes me so jealous- I can never do that on a plane. He would totally flip if he knew I was posting this picture- but I am so don't tell him- I think it's funny:




We hit a bit of turbulence which always unnerves me but overall it was okay. About 30 minutes out, we began descent into the New York area and coming in over Manhattan was truly spectacular! We had a view of everything- the skyline, the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. We got these great photos from the plane:


Approaching Manhattan and the Harbor




Manhattan

As we descended more, it got bumpier and the plane was tipping side to side as we landed but even so, we touched down about 9 minutes early.

Coming Up Next: A lesson in Manhattan driving..

[lauren-roxy]

Great report so far maureen! Sorry about Nemo. Can't wait to read more!!