Arrival in the Apple

We're here! After an inauspicious start in which I realized at the airport that I'd forgotten my ipod, and Gretchen promptly spilled her coffee all over the floor of the plane, we were off. Here is how the flight attendant handled the spill, prompting everyone who came by to either trip or comment:


The flight itself - unremarkable. We flew Virgin America, which felt like the poorer relation of Virgin Atlantic, which I suppose it is. No food provided on the plane, of course, snacks provided by Archer Farms (recognize that brand, Target shoppers?). And while there was a screen at every seat, and lots of things to do and watch, the movies cost $5 or $7 each. Gretchen watched 27 Dresses. I watched, for free, Dave Eggers giving a talk about 826 Valencia. One cool thing, however, was the drink service...it was all done on your screen, so you could just order up as many cranberry juices as you want and the flight attendant brings it straight to your seat. No big cart moving through every few hours. Soon enough (less than 5 hours), we rolled off the plane in JFK, picked up Big Mama and Medium Mama (Gretchen's suitcase is bigger than last time we traveled!), and tried to figure out how to get into Manhattan.

Now, a quick note. Because of circumstances beyond my control like moving and job interviews and stuff, I have decidedly not been up to my usual trip planning activities. No spreadsheet, no grand plan, no carefully researched list of attractions. So, when we got off the plane and were standing there in the arrivals hall, I realized all I had was a scribbled address for our hotel...I didn't know where the airport was in relation to the city, or how to use the subway to get there....nothing. Gretchen usually depends on me for that kind of stuff, and though she's stepped up admirably in the planning dept. this year so far, neither of us knew what to do next. Upon inquiries, we found we could take a taxi for $50, a shuttle for $29, or the airtrain/subway for $7. Guess what we chose?


Judging from the vast, echoing emptiness of the platform, it's not a popular choice. But it worked fine for us, and on the long subway ride into Manhattan we got to a big helping of local color. :) Lots of textbook New York accents, ladies coming back from the beaches in hotpants and high heels, and the sauna-like embrace of the subway air. We kept looking at each other, smiling, and saying "$7!"

We finally climbed up into the city lights,

found our hotel (which will get a post all its own), and had dinner at a neighborhood Italian restaurant aptly named "Lasagna":

Can you guess what exotic NYC delicacy I'm holding up?

Today we will surrender completely to the tourist impulse and take the double decker hop on/off bus tour to get oriented, and begin our attempt to get half price Broadway tickets. (Everything we most want to see, Wicked, Blue Man Group, and Avenue Q, appear to be sold out or at least super hard to get "reasonable" tickets for...)

Ciao for now!
E