So here we are, hanging around in the Qantas business lounge, which I have not seen in a good many years! We’re boarding in about an hour, so doing our best to make good use of the free breakfast goodies on offer, and kinda marvelling at the people helping themselves to free beer. At 8AM! The upgrade gods smiled upon us slightly – for the LA -> New York leg of the flight we’ll have a window seat. Ah well here we go, next stop LAX then on to JFK!
Well, that was all pretty easy! The only wrinkle was right at the start when the flight was a bit late leaving Sydney. But there was a positive side – the flight itself was just under 13 hours instead of the expected 14. As per every traveller’s dread, there was a very young baby on the flight … who proceeded to be the best behaved baby ever, nary a peep out of it the whole time. The seats were comfy, really appreciated the extra legroom in premium economy, and got over the shock of using cutlery made of metal, and drinking out of glass, instead of the usual plastic 🙂
Despite all the horror stories I’ve heard about LAX, it was really easy to get through, perhaps it helped that we arrived at about 6AM local time. We made it back on the plane with plenty of time to spare, ready for the flight to NY. The plane was half empty by this time so it was a more relaxed flight, managed to get a decent snooze. Next minute… Hello New York!
Glad we took the lazy option and booked someone to meet-and-greet us at the airport and drive us to the hotel. Made things easy. The ‘Tryp by Wyndham’ is lovely, room isn’t exactly big, but big enough, very clean and modern, and we look right on to the massive “New Yorker” hotel across the road. We arrived about 6:30 pm, so went out for a wander and started ticking off the tourist things already. Pretzel from a street vendor? Check. Times Square? Check. And I thought Tokyo had lots of neon signs and advertising – doesn’t compare to the sheer volume of Times Square. Also visited Toys R Us with a massive indoor Ferris wheel… Gosh. Found our way back to the hotel a bit later on and just crashed, a bit tired for some reason! But an excellent start to this big holiday adventure.
Dumb things that Australians do on holiday #1: Push a revolving door in the wrong direction… We now know you go anti-clockwise…!
I think it’s true what they say – that preparing for a holiday can create those good “I’m on holiday!” vibes weeks or months before the holiday even starts. We’ve done stacks of searching, comparing, browsing, asking, but most importantly, booking! Flights are sorted, accommodation is sorted, some airport transfers, tours, that kind of thing, all sorted. All we have to do now is wait for it all to start. Only 23 days to go … bring it on!
JVL+PJC 