New York, New York

(Anne Marie At The Airline Lounge)

(Getting Ready To Enjoy Her First Wake-Up Coffee Of The Morning)

(Keith Is Ready For The Start Of This Adventure)

After almost nineteen months since first booking this cruise, our adventure has now begun. We awoke quite early Friday morning as we were being picked up at 5:00 AM for the drive from our home over to the airport. The driver showed up a few minutes early and quickly loaded all of our luggage into the vehicle. At this hour, traffic was fairly light so we made good time getting to the airport. We prefer to arrive to the airport a few hours before our flights and this one was no different.

In no time, we checked in for our flight. While we were entitled to check in the number of bags we we had for no charge we did have one bag that was well over the 50 pound limit which we knew and we had expected to pay the associated charged for this overage. We were pleasantly surprised when the ticket agent said that we did not have to pay for the overage.

The line for security was a little longer than usual and they actually asked to take a look at one of our carry on bags. We thought it was to look at one of the many electronic contraptions we had in the bab, but as it turned out it was to look at a gift we had brought with us. They reran that item through the machine and all was in order. From our perspective, we would rather that they check and recheck any and all items that they are concerned about. After making our way through security we went over to the airline lounge where we could relax while we waited for our flight.

The good news is that our flight was on time and we had an uneventful flight to New York other then about 15 minutes of turbulence and we arrived ahead of schedule. After claiming our luggage we were driven from the airport into the city.

It’s great to be back in New York City. Our last visit to the city was in the September of 2007 just before we sailed on the Crystal Symphony from New York City to Montreal.

We checked into the Hotel Elysée which is located in midtown Manhattan, not too far from Central Park. We stayed at this hotel in 2007 for the very first time. With only 100 rooms we enjoyed both the size of this hotel, its ambience and features, and the fact that it is located a little of the beaten path.

For us visiting New York is like coming home. After all, Anne Marie grew up in the Bronx just a few blocks from the old Yankee Stadium and Keith grew up in a small town on Long Island not too far from New York City. Before we met, we enjoyed many visits to Manhattan with family, friends and even on school trips so we have so many fond memories of our time in the city. After we married, we have returned numerous times, including on several occasions with our children. On our last visit, we took the subway to the Bronx where we walked around the neighborhood where Anne Marie grew up and attended a Yankees Baseball Game. For us, New York City ranks up there as one of most interesting and exciting cities to visit around the world.

We enjoyed an early dinner and went to a restaurant nearby called Fig & Olive where we each enjoyed a nice salad followed by a salmon entrée. Afterwards we stopped off at a couple of places and then went back to the hotel where we enjoyed some wine at their club room. We ended up meeting a very nice couple from Houston and we spoke with them for quite awhile.

Tomorrow we look forward to spending the day walking around the city and then tomorrow evening we will see West Side Story.

Today’s Thought For The Day……

“Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life.” Irving Berlin

Keith & Anne Marie