Day 1…The Hillbillies hit the Big City

2009 January 1

by vinsonraiders

So, to get our fairly reasonable flights to New York, the caveat was we had to leave San Antonio at 6:20am…yes, am. Nightmare. But the kids did great – we got up at 3:30 and hit the road at 4am. We had no problems at all getting through security at SA. After an uneventful flight (of which Kate slept most of it), we landed in Chicago. I turned on my phone and immediately got my text alert from Orbitz to tell me our flight was on time. Wait, let me read that again? Flight has been cancelled! What? Are you kidding me? Yes, it’s snowing in Chicago, but all the other flights are going out just a bit delayed. Ours? Cancelled.

So we rush to Customer Service and see the 2 hour long line. So, David sacrificed and stood in line while I took the kids to get something to eat. When we got back – I think we still had an hour to go so i got in line and started calling United. We finally got through and they had us booked on another flight, which was awesome. Since I had United on the phone I handed it over to the lady in front of me from Amsterdam (she and her son had been flying for 2 days trying to get to Pennsylvania). After she finished up – we hoofed over to the other terminal and although delayed, we were on a flight! So we really only wound up delayed about 2 1/2 hours.

We got to New York around 5pm or so and took a cab to our hotel: Affinia Manhattan (7th Ave & 31st Street – across from Penn Station). I would highly recommend this hotel. It was an all suite hotel and we had 2 double beds, a small living area and a full kitchen. It was great and the staff was fabulous. The location was great (although a long way from Cathy’s apartment).

We got settled in and then met Cathy at Lombardi’s Pizza, which Cal proclaimed as “the best pizza in the world”. I’m not entirely sure of that, but we ate ever smidge. We liked the atmosphere. They take cash only though so be prepared.

That night we headed back to the hotel and went fast asleep!

Day 1 over.

Later.