New York City Trip

We did end up going to the game! We got into NYC Saturday afternoon. Saturday night we went and had pizza and walked around Times Square and walked through the Super Bowl Blvd. Macy's had this awesome light show on the side of the building. My sister wanted to see Madison Square Garden, so we walked by that. We went into the Disney Store, Toys R Us, and a couple of other stores in Times Square. Afterwards, we took the subway down to the south tip of Manhattan and rode the ferry to Staten Island and back. It was disappointing. I Thought we would be able to see the lights and such, but we couldn't see much.
Sunday, we woke up and did some more sightseeing before the game. We walked over to 5th Ave and looked at some window displays. We walked into Central Park. Since we had time, we took the Subway into the Bronx to see Yankee Stadium. We didn't do a tour, so we just saw the outside. We came back and walked through Rockefeller Center...had lunch at some café along 8th Ave. It was really good. I laughed at their "Guacamole". All it was, was cut up pieces of avocado.

Then it was time to head to the game! It took FOREVER to get there. We left our hotel about 1:30pm, and we didn't get into the stadium until around 4pm. It was insane. The NFL really should have done a better job planning the subway transportation/security into the game, etc. We had really good seats. We were in the upper level around the 30 yard line. However, we were surrounded by Seahawk fans. We were for the Broncos. So, other than the Broncos getting destroyed, it was cool to be there. It was extremely loud - I think the Seahawk fans were louder than the Bronco fans in the beginning. My sister swears it was because we were surrounded by them. By the end of the game, not too many Bronco Fans were cheering...even when they DID get their touchdown. LOL. We stopped at Shake Shack on the way back from the game and got shakes to take back to the room.
Monday was our day of sight-seeing. On Saturday, I saw that New York was supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow. Okay, no biggie, I can handle that I suppose. Well, when we got back from the game, my FIL told me that NYC was under a winter storm warning for Monday. Someone else sent us a text with the winter storm warning notification from the NWS. The 1-3 inches of snow, changed to 5-8 inches of snow. We woke up Monday morning to snow. And it kept snowing all day long. We had a full day planned. We had bought a 1-day New York Pass, so we were able to get into many attractions for "free" with the pass. We started out the day at the Top of the Rock (30 Rockefeller Center). They weren't allowing people to go up, because visibility was 0 and it would have been pointless. Bummer. On to the next stop. We walked over to the Pier 83 on the Hudson River to see about doing a Liberty Cruise. We really wanted to do this - it was a cruise down the Hudson River and around South Manhattan and back. We would be able to see the Statue of Liberty as well. It wasn't running either because of low visibility. Bummer!

We then walked back to Times Square and went to Madame Tussauds, the wax museum. That was pretty cool. It's so cool, how they can they look so much like the real person. Then we went down to the World Trade Center Memorial. National Geographic was in the memorial taking pictures of the Survivor Tree. They asked if they could take a couple of pictures of us looking at the tree. Supposedly it'll be in the April 2015 edition...like I'll remember to purchase that edition!! Then we walked through Battery Park some...by then, there was probably at least 5 or 6 inches of snow on the ground. Our feet were soaked! We walked through the financial district, and ate a crappy lunch at some deli down off of the financial district. We took the Subway into Brooklyn and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. That was very cold and windy!! We came back to the hotel to dry our boots some. Then we were off to go see Grand Central Station. After that, we went to the Empire State Building. That was super cool being up there at night looking at the city with all of the lights. Then we walked by Kleinfield's. My sister wanted to walk by and look at their window display. I was pretty disappointed with their window displays.

On Tuesday, both my MIL and mom called asking about our flight and making sure if was still on schedule. I talked to them both around 9am and told them our flight number and that yes, it was still on schedule. We did get to go to the top of the rock. It was awesome. The views were gorgeous. We were up there around 8:30 in the morning, and I loved looking out over the city. We walked around a little bit more and then went back to the hotel to pack. After that, we rode went to see Bloomingdale and to go to this huge candy shop. We went back to the hotel at 10 til noon to grab our backs, check out, and head to JFK for our 3pm flight back to Indy. Then the fun really began! My sister looked at the flight info again, and it had been cancelled. UGH!!! So we headed to JFK to go talk to American Airlines to find out when we could get out of New York. I was afraid of not getting out on Tuesday, since they had another winter storm warning with more snow and ice today. I didn't have to do much begging...she said she wanted to get us out of New York, so she was going to put us on a Delta flight. It was leaving at 3:59pm from LaGuardia Airport.

So, we hopped a shuttle and headed to LaGuardia. Traffic was horrible, and I was beginning to wonder if we'd make it! We got our seat assignment and got through security and to the gate about 3pm. I went to grab a deli sandwich to eat on the plane, since I hadn't had lunch at. We were going to start boarding at 3:29pm. 3:20pm, and announcement came on and said that flight was cancelled. The plane was at the gate, but supposedly the pilot chose not to fly because of visibility and that it's a smaller aircraft. That crew was not Indy based, and that plane was due back in New York last night...so I'm sure they didn't want to risk getting stranded in Indy. They had a flight leaving LaGuardia at 5:50pm, so we took that chance. What's waiting another couple of hours?? We were supposed to start boarding that flight at 5:20pm. The crew boarded the plane shortly after 5pm. They were fueling the plane and loading all the luggage onto the plane. Good signs, right??

Well, she's getting ready to start boarding, and the screen behind her changed to leaving at 7:30pm. 2 hour delay. By this time, I was really starting to wonder if we would get out of New York last night. The pilot came up and was talking to everyone. The visibility here in Indy at that time was too low, and it wasn't legal for any planes to land. They had to delay the flight until the next block of weather forecast came out. They were an Indy crew, so they were going home. He wanted to get to Indy, just as much as everyone else. There weren't many people on this flight. We basically had a couple of options - wait the delay out and see what happens. Or, we could fly somewhere else and connect to get to Indy. I knew the weather reports were grim here in Indy, so I really wasn't thinking the plane would leave at 7:30pm. If it didn't leave, there was 1 more flight leaving to Indy last night, but then the first flight we could take to Indy was Wednesday at 4pm. The first couple of flights had already been cancelled.

So, we flew to Atlanta at 6:30pm, and were scheduled to take a 10pm flight into Indy. We landed in Atlanta at 9:45pm, get off the plane, and see that the 10pm flight was delayed until 6:30am Wednesday morning. Somehow, we got a hotel room from Delta. I'm not sure how, because another guy that took the Atlanta option did not get a hotel room and spent the night in the Atlanta airport.  I'm definitely not complaining that I didn't have to spend the night in the airport!  Even if we were at the hotel for a whopping 4 hours.   Needless to say, it was an exhausting day, and I was glad to be back home yesterday! I got to my house around 9:30.  21 1/2 hours after I tried to get home!

Now I'm getting sick, and I'm blaming it on walking around NYC in the snow on Monday.  The real kicker is that the flight that was delayed...the one I didn't want to risk!...ended up leaving New York and landed in Indy on Tuesday night.  Had I risked that one, we would have been home Tuesday night...when we were supposed to, but just later!

Wow, this was a novel, but that was my trip to New York. Props to you guys if you read all that! LOL