NYC: Day 1

We're in NYC. :-) The computer, for right now, has limited capability, but at least is online for the moment. What a bummer, because I already feel like posting some pictures from today! If it "gets well" from whatever it has, maybe I can get them downloaded... I swear, this 10 month old machine is driving me crazy!

But, we had a good, slow day today. We really needed to after all the things that happened the last few days. I knew it was going to be hectic, but it was about 100 times more than I thought it would be. Not even a minute to breathe! We had to pull a few all-nighters dealing with paint, cleaning, running out of room for our stuff in the storage container and everything else that could go wrong that did. Kai was such a trooper through all this, so we are trying hard to make sure she's enjoying her time here. As gross as it is, we had to go to the airport with less than 4 hours of sleep, wearing dirty clothes and not showered for 2 days because of non-stop work mentioned above. Our plane was cancelled due to a bad storm on the East Coast and United told me they rebooked us on the next available flight 3 days later. Luckily, the ticket agent "did us a favor" and rebooked us on a Delta flight 3 1/2 hours after the original. Too bad we won't get United miles now, because our travel agent intentionally booked us on Star Alliance airlines so we'd get United's Premier Status halfway through our trip. But, it did allow us to take advantage of SFO's shower facilities for $37.50 for the 3 of us. Ouch!

Since we flew in late last night, we slept in and ordered room service. Something we can't really afford to order, but I think we earned it. After that, we had to move to a different room because the hotel didn't give us the right size bed...which makes a difference when all 3 of us are in it. But, most of all, I want to get what we paid for. The hotel's not quite like what the web site pictures looked, but it's nice, and we are now in a corner suite with an awesome view below us of Time Square and Central Park and the Hudson River in the background. Then, we walked around, went to the top of Rockefeller Center, the M&M's store (for a custom color blend to send to Caitlin), the American Girl store (luckily, Kai didn't insist on getting a doll) and of course, Whole Foods (per our normal protocol, if available) to stock up. We really feel like this city sucking our wallets dry. We already broke our rule of not staying at a large, expensive city more than 4 days (we're staying 5) and our complete budget for this leg was spent just on this hotel. Oh well! I haven't gone crazy with shopping (yet!) and promise myself that we'll take is easier when we get into our camper in Europe.

Since neither of us have been here, it's pretty cool to be around all these places you've heard about. Besides that, the atmosphere doesn't seem very different from San Francisco, just larger. Maybe my perspective will change when we venture out to see more of the city tomorrow.