Girls Trip to New York – Day One

Last May we were at an event for the hospital that was hosting a live auction.  When we got to our table and started looking through the auction books Mom and I immediately locked in on the item for Fashion Week.  The package included airfare, hotel reservations, and tickets to Fashion Week.  For the two of us it couldn’t get much better!  Thankfully,  my Mom was about to have a birthday and my Dad’s very generous so he let Mom bid on it and win.  We were so excited!  So for the past few months we’ve been planning this trip and working with the organizers to try and figure out which show(s) we would go to, etc.  It hardly seemed real but on Monday our trip began!
If you’ve been reading my posts for long you probably know that I was nervous to leave.  Satan was really doing a number on me psyching me out about something happening and I was pretty terrified to leave Jason and Charlotte here while I traveled to New York.  Thankfully, Jason and I prayed my way through it (with some wonderful prayer warriors here at home!) and on Monday morning I awoke ready to roll.  I did want a picture of C and I though before I left so we took this before naptime..

Our flights went through Charlotte which meant we had to go up and come down twice on Monday.  The flights themselves were pretty uneventful although there was some turbulence that didn’t really help Mom or I relax.  And we did some pretty serious power walking to get to our gate in Charlotte — that airport is really large and doesn’t have transportation between terminals.  It literally took up about 30 minutes to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate and we only had an hour before our next flight.  We got to our gate as they started boarding our next flight!

We had a full flight on the way to New York and we were about a fourth of the way back on a completely full, large plane.  When they turned off the fasten seatbelt sign I stayed seated because there was no way we were going to be able to go anywhere for at least five minutes and everyone in the rows around me had stood up and crowded the aisle.  This is what I usually do and I’ve never had a problem before but this time….. 🙂  I was on the aisle and Mom was across the aisle from me so there were two strangers still in my row.  The lady on the window was significantly older than I was.  When they turned off the fasten seatbelt sign and she saw that I wasn’t getting up she looked at me and said, “You need to get up! I’ve got to go!”  I didn’t really know what to do since I, obviously, could not go anywhere but I stood up in my seat just to please her.  She waited maybe a minute and then started huffing to herself that people need to get out so that they can catch other flights.  The woman in between us said that she didn’t think I could go anywhere and asked the lady where she was flying to.  I started laughing when I heard her say, “Well, I don’t have a plane to catch, I live here, but I have a car waiting for me!”  I just thought, “We’re not in Alabama anymore!” 

So that I don’t disparage all New-Yorkers, I do need to include that since I scooted out of my row as soon as I could I had to wait for Mom to catch up with me.  While I was waiting I saw one of the workers bring a stroller up with the other bags that were carry-ons but there wasn’t room for on the plane.  He sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out how to open the stroller before he got it opened up.  I’m sure the Mom was very grateful not to have to open it herself when she got out of the plane!

Once we made it to baggage claim we began to get nervous again since our last baggage pickup at LaGuardia didn’t go so well.  We both checked two bags (we were going to Fashion Week — there were a lot of clothes!) and our packing ended up with both of us having one bag mostly with clothes and one mostly with shoes.  Either way, our fashion show was first thing Tuesday morning so we were toast if any of our bags didn’t show.  We anxiously awaited our bags and exclaimed happily when all of our bags made it!

We were pretty disappointed though when we got outside to the taxi line and saw that it was pouring down rain.  Thankfully Mom had an umbrella in her purse and the taxi area was covered.  We got in our taxi and headed to our hotel, the Grand Hyatt at Grand Central Station.  It wasn’t as fun driving into the city in the rain but we made it and the bellmen greeted us with umbrella’s so we didn’t even get wet!  It was a very nice hotel with a huge, beautiful lobby.  I regret not taking a picture of the lobby.  We did get checked in and were happy with our room.

Since it was raining we didn’t venture out for dinner and just went downstairs to The Commodore Grille at the hotel.  It was pretty good (we both had soup and salad) and Mom even overheard some people at the bar talking about Alabama football!  We were exhausted after dinner so we went back to our room to read a little before bed.  I called Jason and Charlotte to check on them before it was Charlotte’s bedtime which we learned was a mistake.  She didn’t really talk to me (she would answer questions if I asked them) but when Jason would hang up she would start crying.  They kept calling back but it was bedtime so I finally told her “Night, Night” and had to get off the phone.  Jason said that she calmed down by the time he finished reading her books to her but it made me sad to hear her crying.  I didn’t call before bedtime again so that she wouldn’t get upset.

Next up…Fashion Week!