AAAAND here we are – travel day #7! We left on Sunday and are flying home today (Saturday).
We left off in Jim Thorpe, the day after our ski day. We packed up fairly early because Josh really wanted to stop and tour the Martin Guitar factory. We reserved in advance (required) once I had our Jellycat reservations (more about that below, ha).
I honestly was skeptical that this would be fun for anyone other than him, but honestly it ended up being a really enjoyable stop.
Some kids really liked it, others tolerated it, and I thought it was super interesting to see how guitars are made – a lot by hand, though with the help of some technology.
We were there about an hour and a half and then hit the road for NYC, with a quick lunch stop on the way (Subway, classic road trip fare obviously) because we had tickets to the FAO Schwartz Jellycat Diner Experience. I learned about this Experience from the kids, and it is a Whole Thing. You have to get reservations a specific number of days in advance, and then they are released in a 1 hour window rather than a specific time so you have to dedicate up to an hour of your day to continually checking and refreshing for tickets. I remember telling Laura we had to finish recording so I could start attempting!
BUT, I did mange to score the tickets which were “free” — and then proceeded to plan the end of our trip around this experience. It was pretty exciting – you got admitted to a special side door entry at FAO Schwartz and put in a special queue. AND THEN you have the privilege of spending $$$ on limited edition Jellycats (so much for free, haha). ANYWAY, it was exorbitant but the kids kind of loved it and while we won’t be making a habit of it, it was fun.
AND THEN we headed out to C’s Big Bday dinner, featuring Josh’s cousins, brother, niece, plus us — a table for 10 at an NYC steakhouse (this one)! It was pretty exciting and I think C had a blast and felt very well celebrated. (AND he has a friend party coming up too . . . lucky kid).
We were there pretty late and THEN Josh’s brother’s wife came in late (she had been giving a talk in Boston and came in by train). So, we dropped the kids off in our room and continued the night at our hotel bar (walking distance), which felt appropriately glamorous and fun. By 11 pm though I was about to fall asleep at the table so we headed up and promptly passed out.
It was a really fun night and felt like a ‘grand finale’ of the trip!
This morning A joined me at the gym (she did her gymnastics stretches/conditioning and I lifted upper body) and we headed to Brooklyn for a quick brunch with family before heading to LaGuardia. We heard horror stories about insane security lines and got there early — it was nearly empty, which is why I have time to write all of this before our plane takes off!
TRIP SUMMARY:
HIGHLIGHTS: omg, many!!! Galentine’s with Laura and Kathleen, shopping with Lani, fun family meals with my sister & parents, going through a mortifying but entertaining box from my past (95% of which has now been recycled), cheesesteaks in the city, skiing, fun dinners in Jim Thorpe, and the NYC experience above. I also slept a lot. (I miss running, I really do; I do not miss waking up early to work out on vacation).
ISSUES: I think we’re done with Budget rental car company (we’ve had a number of meh experiences); our bags got stuck in FLL; crazy allergies at my parents’ house as usual. Oh, and non-ideal ski weather the first day, but I think we made a smart move by having just J/C do a lesson that afternoon.
REENTRY: I think this will be . . . okay! I have some catchup time built into tomorrow and Monday – we don’t have a ton planned. As usual I am THRILLED to arrive home on a Saturday and have some buffer (poor Josh is on call tomorrow though!).
My car is still being fixed though which is less ideal, but will figure that out. I am (as usual) looking forward to getting back to usual routines. I don’t feel like I had terrible self-care on this trip though (got some activity most days; ate reaaaasonably normally — well maybe except last night which was totally worth it; slept a lot; drank maybe every other night and generally just 1).
OVERALL: Despite some trepidations I’m glad we took this trip!! I don’t know if we would travel during this time frame again, but maybe for part of the week.
2 Comments
The new post pandemic LGA is heavenly (I have lived in NY for 26 years and for the first 21 I never imagined saying LGA is heavenly). I don’t think I have ever waited in a line there since it was redone.
Such a fun trip! And you are getting out before the blizzard hits tomorrow afternoon.
Sounds really lovely! I’ve had meh experiences with budget too, better luck with hertz and avis. Good luck with re-entry! I have stopped taking my computer on vacation and still received 4-5 obnoxious “time sensitive” (only to the people who sent them) work emails while I was gone. It really irks me the degree to which we are expected to be perpetually available at my job. Would delete outlook off my phone but I worry more about re-entry. There’s probably not a great solution to this.