Hello Stampers
It isn’t always about stamping and this is another non-stamping post. I am a little (ok few months) late in posting this. I like to chronicle some things… and have found myself looking back to get dates, names of hotels, etc. from past adventures. This is another one of those “I want to capture some information posts”.
I decided to go to NYC for a night with three goals:
One – see Hamilton on Broadway.
Two – walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.
Three – stay at the Archer Hotel in a room that looked onto the Empire State Building.
I know… such specific items. I get ideas in my head and well…. it is like an itch… I have to scratch it. 🙂
This trip would turn out to be an adventure. Leaving Toronto, I knew there was a massive snowstorm looming the following day. I went down on a Friday morning with the intent on coming back Saturday night. One other thing I should say, I went for my birthday and there is ALWAYS a snowstorm on my birthday. I like to pack my bags and do these things on my own. No agenda, other than what I want to do. This isn’t the first time I have done this. In the past it was just for a day, but this time I wanted to see a play.
Getting to New York was easy peasy. I landed at 10:00 am, got a cab to the Archer Hotel and luckily my room was ready. Weather in New York, was perfect. Not a drop of snow on the ground, and cool weather, perfect for walking. And that I did. I walked from the hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge (3.3 miles one way), over the bridge and then headed back up Broadway. Did some shopping en route (bought a St. Paddy’s Day t-shirt from the Greenwich Fire Department – best purchase), stopped for something to drink then a late lunch / early dinner. By 3:00 I had walked over 18,000 steps. I don’t mind saying that my legs were like rubber.
When I got back to the hotel, I showered, changed and headed out to the theatre to see Hamilton. It has been ions since I saw a play, never mind one on Broadway. I might make this a somewhat regular trek (but in better weather…. more on that to come). The play was great and well worth the trip.
One of the features of the Archer Hotel is that some rooms look out onto the Empire State Building. What a view.
The next morning, I got up, had breakfast, did a little bit of shopping and despite my return flight being at 5:30 pm, I decided to head to the airport, due to the looming weather in Toronto. I was flying business class and decided to make use of the lounge (note.. cashed in Aeroplan points so in Air Canada’s eyes, I was not important).
This is where the real adventure began. When I checked in I was told that my flight was one of the only ones that would go that day (relief). However, as the time ticked by, flight after flight got cancelled, including mine. The last flight of the night was the only one to depart and it was full. I ran into 3 other female travellers and we bonded together. Air Canada said they couldn’t do anything for us until Tuesday morning (at the earliest). We decided to book the train from New York to Union station leaving Sunday morning at 7:00 am. There were two other ladies in the lounge that were travel agents (they were on the last flight that took off), and heard us talking. They said there is no way we should spend 12 hours on a train on Sunday. They pulled out their laptops and were able to find us flights from La Guardia to Buffalo the next morning. We cancelled the train tickets, handed over our passports and credit cards and booked the flights to Buffalo. Now what? One of the girls was in her early 20’s and had never travelled on her own before, another was from Montreal and the third from Toronto (the girl from Montreal and the one from Toronto knew each other). So we ended up getting two hotel rooms, and made our way out of the airport at 11:00 pm. I shared the room with a total stranger. I know!. I told her to call her mom to let her know my name, phone number etc. All was good.
The next morning we got back to the airport for 5:00 am (yes we had something like 4 hours sleep) and made our way to Buffalo. Thankfully, the mom of the girl that I roomed with was going to drive to Buffalo to pick up her daughter and she happily picked up 3 total strangers as well. She brought her other daughter with her to keep her company on the drive. Now this could only happen in Canada… in the car there were 3 definite different nationalities / cultures travelling together. We laughed in the car and kept saying this could only happen in Canada. None of us questioned the travel agents… happily handed over credit cards and passport to strangers, without question, shared a room with a total stranger, and the kicker, didn’t question anyone as we all drove across the US Border together. We handed the Border Guard our passports, we were obviously not related, were all in the US for different timeframes, some spent $$, some didn’t. Yes we had to explain the situation to the Border Guard. He took pity on us and waved us through.
The mom dropped the 3 strangers off at the Hamilton GO station, I made my way home to Brampton, the other girl to downtown Toronto and the 3rd girl ended up getting a flight from Billy Bishop to Montreal. By the time we got home on Sunday around noonish…. there was no snow left on the ground.. it was a freak storm.
The next morning, I arranged to have flowers be sent to the mom that picked us.. she didn’t want to take any money from us.
What is my lesson learned. People are good, travel sucks right now and I don’t think I will do a day trip on my birthday again, until next time. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by,Elizabeth, Your Stampin' Up! Demonstrator
www.StampScrapAndMore.com