Saturday, June 28, 2008

A long while later.... The wrap

Well we've been back in Australia for 2 months, yet we've been so slack and never finished the story... It's going to be a shortened version as this far out the memory has faded a little (*sigh*) but I wanted to finish it.

We left Winslow, Arizona on April 21st and followed some of James' mates back to Albaquerque, New Mexico. In the afternoon we went to check out Brian and Catherine's new digs - very impressive - and then went to one of their favourite Mexican places for dinner. Honestly, there is no substitute for real Mexican! And then, despite being well and trully stuffed, at Brian's insistence, we got dessert... I am not sure if I have ever been quite that full in my life.

The next morning we dropped our hire car back and flew out of Albaquerque's Sunport. (no, that's not a typo - they seriously call it that) Being a nice early flight, we arrived in Chicago around lunch time. James' mate Chad picked us up from the airport and once we'd visited a little train shop in Des Plaines and found some lunch (I like Potbelly!) we did the thing that comes naturally to James and Chad.... We chased trains! The boys managed to find a little dead end street that fronted straight onto the tracks, so they set up and started snapping. The battery in Chad's car suddenly dying when we went to move was a bit of an unexpected hic-up, but thankfully the friendly mechanic across the street was more than happy to give us a jump start.

After dropping our things off at Chad's place we went to pick up his wife, Angela. Angela works at The Morton Arboretum, the place is simply amazing! We only took a quick look around, but I was just in awe! That evening we went for pizza and then hung out at Chad and Angela's.

Wednesday the 23rd we jumped on the Metra and took a ride into downtown Chicago. I am so in love with the place! It is just beautiful! From the water taxis to the Tulip lined streets and the Bascule bridges, it is an amazing place and I would have sincerely loved to spend more time there. We shopped in Michigan Ave, checked out Millenium Park and just wandered around stickybeaking at whatever took our fancy.

That night Chad and Angela took us to one of their favourite restraunts - what a treat! There was so many amazing things on the menu that just the simple task of choosing a meal was something I struggled with! James stuck with his theme and got ribs, while I tried an absolutely amazing pork dish. Afterwards we hit the The Cheesecake Factory (don't even think about comparing it to the Cheesecake Shop, it's got nothing on this!) and then went back to Chad and Angela's and watched a highly amusing episode of America's Port. Look out for drunk guys coming in hard an fast in sail boats! I'm quite sure that nobody else is going to get that, but James and I just got a fantastic laugh out of it!

Thursday the 24th we bid a sad farwell to Chicago and, after a nightmare experience at their airport, we took a Jet Blue flight to New York. If you are planning on flying domestic in the US, I would suggest you try them - nice big comfy seats and plenty of leg room, even though you're in cattle class!

JFK looked like it was about ready to fall down, but we eventually found our luggage and someone to show us where to catch the shuttle bus. When our driver arrived we were delayed somewhat while he argued with a black lady about why he could not take her where she wanted to go and tried to explain to her that if she stepped inside she could book her own shuttle. Then came the fun bit. Our van was completely full so I got to sit up front with the driver. Talk about scary! This guy didn't seem to be able to pick a lane so he just drove in as many as he could at once. He also sent text messages, checked his pager and had a chat to his girlfriend in some other language while he negotiated the crazy New York streets. After we nearly took out a pedestrian, I was very glad to be told that we were to be his first stop.

Our hotel, The Red Roof Inn, was on 32nd Street, otherwise known as Korean Way thanks to it's abundance of Korean restraunts. So first night there we went out for Korean BBQ. A very different, but highly enjoyable experience which I would heartily recommend! The waiter even convinced me to eat kimichi - that's an achievement! After dinner we went and explored Times Square. The place is a real eye opener! People everywhere, shops open til 2 in the morning... You name it, it's happening there.

On the Friday we got all touristy and set out for Central Park. I've seen it in movies and I've seen James' pictures of previous visits there, but nothing could have prepared me for the sheer size and beauty of the place. And there was ducks everywhere! Very exciting! We managed to spend several hours there before going to check out the shops in Fifth Avenue and getting some Pop Burgers for lunch - they were so cute! One of the shops we went to look at was the Apple Shop. Bad idea! The place was so packed that there was something like 6 people looking at each product. We walked straight back out again. An interesting point about that particular Apple Shop is that since it has opened,a couple of years ago now, it has not once been closed since. That's right, it's open 24/7 - the doors are never closed. Only in America... And for that matter, only in New York.

On our way back to the hotel we sought out a little pub called The Australian and celebrated Anzac day in true Aussie fashion - with a proper Aussie beer. We had tried to find a service to attend, but they all required you to have RSVP'd to the Embassy well beforehand. It was nice to be around people who had 'normal' accents for a bit! That night we found a cute little Japanese place a few streets over. I didn't love the food, it was done a bit different to what I'm used to, but it was a nice little place. Baskins did nicely for dessert.

Friday was also the day that the Canadian band kids arrived. Like over a hundred of them. From that minute on the hotels lifts suddenly became far more difficult to catch and the food and seats in the breakfast room went so much quicker.

Saturday the 26th was serious shopping day. In the morning we started in Chinatown where we were offered everything from handbags to sunglasses. Also stumbled across the funniest name for a shop ever - Shoegasm! From Chinatown we continued on into SoHo and then NoHo. In a disturbing development, James bought more stuff than I did. I had decided to wear my little flat work shoes that day and boy was that a bad mistake.. Those shoes were not made for walking and my feet felt like they were on fire, making for a very unhappy Heidi.


We spent most of Sunday morning in Macy's filling in the blanks for all the stuff I hadn't managed to find elsewhere. A discount card we got just for being tourists came in real handy! The mission was then on to find a certain pair of sunglasses I really wanted, but had stuggled to find in the colour I wanted. We made the trek to the Oakley Shop and I was so excited when I finally got what I wanted. James also managed to get a nice shirt.
Margie and Simon arrived from Washington in the afternoon and after they had a quick powernap we met up and made our way to 42nd Street to see the Broadway version of Mary Poppins. The show was simply amazing and I am even willing to admit that I cried at one point. Funilly enough, there was a group of Australians sitting behind us. After the show we settled on an Irish pub and despite all of us saying we weren't real hungry, managed to order starters and meals and go away feeling like we were about to burst.

Monday morning we woke to the awful sight of a wet, rainy New York City. Considering it was supposed to be the day we went and did touristy things like the Brooklyn Bridge, we weren't real excited. After a bit of phone tag, we met Margie and Simon at Starbucks (so James could make sure his brain was working) to plan what to do with the dismal looking day. The Brooklyn Bridge, Ellis Island and Lady Liberty all got ruled out and Margie suggested the Gallery of Modern Art. But everyone else in New York had decided to do the same thing and the line to get in was about a mile long. Undeterred, we deployed our umbrellas and set out for the next museum. Sadly this particular one was closed on a Monday, as was the next one! We eventually found a museum that was actually open and didn't have a line to get in and jumped at the chance.

Lunch was in a little diner just off Fifth Avenue and boy were the meals huge! I don't think any of us managed to finish. After checking out Grand Central Station, we traipsed back to Times Square and decided to split up for a bit. We needed to buy another bag to fit all our extra purchases in and I still had a little bit of shopping I wanted to do. After freshing ourselves up a bit, we braved the rain once again and walked the couple of blocks down to Margie and Simon's hotel. I remember lots of cocktails, good food and a lot of laughter. It was a nice way to spend the last night of our honeymoon.

Tuesday was a sad day. We got ourselves up bright and early to pack and had no time to do anything else before our shuttle bus arrived. We fought our way through the throngs of Candian band kids who also happened to be checking out and our much less crazy driver provided us with a far more pleasant trip back to the airport.

Our American Airlines flight left JFK on time, but unfortunately this did not set the tone for the rest of the trip home. After arriving in LAX and getting completely confused by the worlds worst set out and most ridiculous airport, we finally arrived at our terminal only to be told that our Air New Zealand flight was running at least 4 hours late. They managed to squeeze us onto another flight, but it still left about an hour after our original flight and as such we missed our connection to Brisbane.

We eventually departed Auckland at around 9am and thanks to a fairly empty flight, we managed to get upgraded to premium economy. Made the whole debarcle a little better, but I still think I'll be boycotting Air New Zealand in future.

We had a fantastic trip and would only change one thing - to make it longer!