July 11, 2015 - NYC to Philly

Tanya's Daily Blog
Next Trip Departs: Today

Here we go again...

Well I made it! GREETINGS from NYC!

I had my doubts. Yesterday was one of the craziest travel days ever!

Let me start out by telling you that if you ever need to make a connection at London’s Heathrow, then you really NEED to make sure that the connection time is longer than 2 hours... 

Because Heathrow is HUGE, and although I’ve flown into that airport before, I had never had a connection until yesterday.

There I thought that with a layover that was 1hr and 45min there would be no big deal. 

Easy peasy…Well I was wrong! 

From the time that I checked in at the Prague airport they gave me a slip explaining that I’d land at terminal 3 and depart from terminal 5…still no big deal. Right??

Well on the flight I decided to take a look at the sheet I was handed and it was noted that the connection time between terminal 3 and terminal 5 can take 90min!!!

The flight attendants had to give me a Fast Track past to get past all of the lines...which def helped!

Holy smokies pokies! 

I had just made it from Prague City centre to the gate at the Prague airport in less than 60min, and now it was going to take me 90 mins to go from one terminal to another within the same airport! GASP

If you can imagine scenes from the Amazing Race... 
That was me running - yes full on running through the airport. 

There were 6 of us going to JFK from the flight that originated in Prague and aside from myself and a very helpful Peruvian New Yorker who I was so grateful to for helping carry my heavy loaded carry on. 
We ran and ran and ran! 

Luckily and very relieved we made it to the gate and had a quick chance to catch our breath before boarding. 
The rest of the group trickled to the gate and with an older couple arriving just in the nick of time! Whew!

Made it!

Part of my VEGAN dinner on British Airways (Spicy Potato Salad)

More of my dinner (couscous and roasted veggies)

I arrived at JFK a few hours before the kids and Dave landed, and I waited for them and I was so excited to finally see them and give them BIG HUGS!

Reunited!

LOVE

Well, now that I’m in NYC and Dave and the kids have arrived, our first stop after picking up our rental will be going to Dun Well Doughnuts in Brooklyn. 

After that we’ll head into the city and eventually go to brunch at Blossom - awesome food and a future feature for FOODIE FRIDAY!

I’ve got a friend who let me know last night that her and one of her daughters will be in the city tomorrow, so if I could manage, it would be nice to quickly see them and say hi!

Then we have very special tickets to the One World Observation Deck. 
I say very special tickets because this attraction just opened on May 29th, 2015 and the tickets have been selling out!

Later on this evening, we’ll take Cosette to my Grandma’s house and we’ll head just a bit further than Philly for the night. 

And tomorrow we’ll be heading the rest of the way to Pittsburgh for a busy day of fun with Gigi and Family! We can ’t wait :)

Off we go for a fun filled rest of my summer trip!

I'll post FOODIE FRIDAY soon. Waiting on a few pictures to upload.

Catch ya back here tomorrow, when we "really" give you our personal top 5 favorites from the European Rail Trip!

See ya then,
-T

Elisa's Daily Blog
Next Trip Departs in: 5 Days

Home Is Where the Heart Is

GREETINGS FROM NEW YORK!!
After a little more than two weeks of being away, I’m finally home! 

Greeted by my babies at JFK yesterday

The excitement started after awaking after a four hour nap, with only an hour and 15 minutes left to go on my flight.  I was imagining what everyone home was doing - - 
and thinking about the countdown to seeing everyone’s face!!

What a joy to hear those little ones scream “Mom!!” when I met them at Passenger Arrivals!!

Aerial View Taking off in Prague

Welcome Mimosa upon boarding

Let me back track to the fight --
My flight from Prague was wonderful, but as I said on my outbound flight 16 days ago, there’s not much to complain about traveling internationally in business class! As much as I love to travel folks, I really am a flying snob - nothing better than the attention, comfort and travel amenities of priority class.

Coconut soup and caprese salad

Spinach ravioli

Vanilla Ice Cream

Awakened with a delicious meal: fruit, cheese and tomato salad

No one next to me; lots of space; a flat bed; full-sized pillow; comforter; attentive wait service, 3 course meal.  Nothing else like it and for those reasons, I refuse to travel any other way when going overseas.

at baggage claim

Back Home….
I wont lie folks, what I hate most about returning home…UNPACKING! GOING THROUGH MAIL! AND  LAUNDRY!

Being kinda anal, I like to do it all relatively quickly.  I open the suit case and just start sorting the clothes - clean ones, dirty ones, ones that need ironing and get busy.  It’s the less-pretty side of traveling, but, a part of it none the less.

Now, I have a quick turn around on unpacking and re-packing, so what I will do is take everything out of the large suitcase, (which by the way is pretty well shot) and put some of the necessary casual clothes in a smaller suitcase for our upcoming road trip (which begins this Friday) to Niagara and Toronto.  

Toiletry bag is all set as is (with the exception of the international hair dryer), so no worries there.  Monday, my amazing housekeeper, Sheila will be here so she will be her usual invaluable self and help me with ironing and returning all my clothing to its proper place.

Having Dinner with my girls last night

Straight from the airport, we headed out to dinner to one of my favorite local restaurants - Asian Moon. (I'll be featuring this dining location on a future Foodie Friday.)

It was just so great to see my girls' smiles again!

Watching as my plane was arriving into the NYC area

Aerial Views Flying into JFK in New York

So, what’s going on today?  Pretty busy day and weekend in general.
Today is my long-awaited day of pampering!!  I’ll be having a “Mommy & Girls” day with Gianna and Kelsey, starting off first with some Starbucks!  Then we’ll haul it over to the nail salon for a MUCH-NEEDED mani/pedi.  And finally I have a 2pm hair appointment.

I’m sure as late afternoon approaches, jet lag will be setting in, so I will kept a pretty light schedule for the evening.  Thought some take-out and perhaps a movie would be a great option - just hanging with the FAM.

Now, as you probably read (or will read) in Tanya's Blog, her flight from Prague to New York left later in the evening than mine.  She met up with her kiddies and Dave at JFK early this morning so they could begin her All-Star Baseball Game road trip with Dave and Dominic.

Cosette opted not to join them, and so, she will be spending the week with me and the girls, until the cousins reunite on Wednesday. But, never fear, we’ve got some fun stuff planned.

Tomorrow, we’ll head into Queens to collect Cosette from her great-grandma’s (Tanya’s paternal grandma) and we’ll be making a b-line for Adventureland!!  My girls have been patiently waiting for this since school ended last month.  

Our usual tradition is for me, the two girls and my two nephews to go the last day of school, but, unfortunately, with the school’s schedule change this past term, the last day was extended and wound up being the same day I was headed on my European Rail Trip. BOO!

Check out my article about Adventureland.  I’ll be telling you all about the new Rollercoaster, Turbulence Coaster and all the excitement we experience tomorrow in Monday’s blog. (CLICK LINK TO READ ABOUT TURBULENCE!!)

Summer 2014 - Adventureland Amusement Park, Farmingdale, NY (CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION)

After a fun day on the rides, we’ll head back home, but not before searching out some vegan-friendly food option for dinner!

Well, you know the old saying “There’s No Place Like Home!” Well, there’s no question, that being around the people I love is the BEST, but I’ll be honest…I’d rather be traveling! lol

Oh, new addition to the blog…every Sunday, watch out for our new Weekly Wrap Up, in case you missed any great information, articles or other tidbits posted in the week prior.

Here’s to a great weekend!!

-E
xoxo