Day 1: The Longest Friday

It has certainly been the longest Friday we have had in quite a while. A smooth start to the trip: out to the airport without the usual M5 disasters and even a minimal wait at check in. Breakfast with the farewell committee, aka Sarah and Gran, and then it was off through Customs and up to the Qantas Club for a leisurely wait for the plane... or so we thought. First crisis... Chris had misplaced his passport. Though both of us remained very calm as I went through the stuff and Chris retraced his steps, we were very stressed. Would this mean no holiday? Arrgggghhhhh! But no, there it was all the time, it had fallen down the side of the seat in the Qantas Club, partially obscured from view... Boy have we both watch our passports for the rest of the day :)

The flight from Sydney to LA was fairly eventful including a late departure. We had fabulous seats in an exit row just opposite the galley, where we witnessed meal service akin to Fawlty Towers. They were all over the place and it took over an hour and a half to serve the economy cabin. Then, add to that the fact that there were a total of three medical emergencies during the flight and people were scurrying here there and everywhere. Did manage to grab some shuteye though and then off in LA, through the very fancy electronic system at Tom Bradley International, before reclearing security and walking back on to a different plane for the 5 hours to New York. By this time it was midnight Sydney time and we were very tired, so dozed a good deal, especially as there was no where near as much drama on this leg. 

And so here we are in New York. The airport shuttle entered Manhattan at 32nd Street, but felt the need to go all the way up to 96th Street dropping people off on the way before making us the last stop. You can imagine the traffic on Broadway at show time on a Friday night... so the trip from airport to hotel took two hours in total. Be the hotel is lovely, the room clean, small and comfortable and we went out for a walk to get our bearings and grab something to eat. Feeling tired now so hoping for sleep. No pics yet, but there will be tomorrow.:0)