So here was the awesome plan-meet at the airport in Baltimore, fly to NYC, fly to Venice, and then spend the day in Venice before getting on our ship and cruising around. But here is also where things began to fall apart a little bit. First of all, I cried like a big fat baby when saying goodbye to my Bohseph. Everyone and their dog (LOL) assured me that he would be fine, and I had found some super great and wonderful people to take care of him while I was gone, but I was pretty sure that I was going to miss his sweet face while I was gone. I totally did, too. I spent at least a little bit of time every day looking at pictures of him on my phone like a total goober.
Boh with his goodbye bone. He didn't even know that he wasn't going to see me for a while!
Second, things got even worse. We got to the airport in plenty of time, and things were going swell, but then our flight to NYC kept getting more and more delayed. It became pretty clear pretty quickly that we were not going to make our flight to Venice. And after a lot of back and forth with the Delta people (who are all on my list), we found that we were going to fly really late to New York and then catch the same flight to Venice the next day. Of course, we would now miss our day in Venice, but at least we would still make our ship. Hopefully.
But first we had to get through the next day and a half of travel. Hours of hanging out in the airport is really boring, especially when you're thinking about how you could totally make in to New York in a car or on a train or a bus or walking in the time that you are waiting for your plane. And once we got to New York, hanging out at the airport waiting for your suitcase so you can go to your hotel is also lame. Especially if, at about 1 in the morning, you find out that the last suitcase may never be coming! Poor Bonnie, who had to live suitcaseless for a day. Anyhow, double ugh to Delta for that one.
In any case, we finally got to the hotel, and slept the sleep of the just. Then we had to decide what to do for a day in New York City! I legit love New York, and Bonnie had never been there at all, so things could definitely have been worse. We could have been stuck in Atlanta! A "joke" that will make more sense once I finish these blogs.
We took the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan and were totally triumphant at riding the subway. I for one felt very smart. Of course, we totally got off at the wrong stop, and then had to wander for a billion years to find the 9/11 memorial. It's very hard to get your GPS to tell you where to go in New York. I guess because the buildings are crazy tall? Any who, we had to ask real people for directions! The horror. But we did accidentally see the Statue of Liberty in the distance, and possibly the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm not sure. But it was a cool bridge. And we saw a very strange art installation that was basically giant inflatable rabbits.
Probably, these are to commemorate the first rabbits in the New World. Or something. Art is weird.
You can't tell because our heads are in the way, but the Statue of Liberty is totally back there.
Finally, we made it to the World Trade Center Memorial. It's pretty amazing. It's very solemn, but also very peaceful. The names of all the people who died both in 2001 and the 1993 attacks are inscribed on the memorial. The memorial is four giant waterfalls falling into a really deep hole in the earth, which sounds weird but is very cool. According to their website, they're the largest manmade waterfalls in the world.
You couldn't capture in pictures how big the memorial truly is.
After the memorial, we tried to figure out what else was nearby that we could do. And I very awesomely remembered that we were pretty near Trinity Church. I have long maintained (if 3 years can be considered long) that the Episcopals have the prettiest churches, and Trinity church certainly goes along with that. It's gorgeous. And it's right in the middle of these super tall buildings and narrow streets, which makes it seem even more beautiful. The cemetery outside is also very cool. It's very old, and has some fancy people buried there. Alexander Hamilton is buried there! He's having a real cultural moment right now (why you always sold out, Hamilton? I want to see you!). The inside of the church is also amazing. I love my church, but sometimes I do feel our lack of stained glass windows.
The outside of Trinity Church, with more of Manhattan in the background.
Even the ceiling was beautiful!
After we left the church, we walked a few blocks down to Charging Bull, which is totally the name of that bull statue near Wall Street. Who knew it had a name? Other things I didn't know before-the bull was made as an unsolicited art installation by an artist in the 1980s after the stock market crashed as a symbol of the strength and power of the American people. But the artist didn't tell anybody about it, he just left it in front of the New York Stock Exchange one day (well, he had to use a crane, because it's ginormous). Then the police impounded it! People were super outraged, because it's awesome, so a couple of weeks later, the city had it reinstalled two blocks away, which is where it still is.
Bonnie is feeling good about how the market is going.
Then we went back to Penn Station so we could ride the LIRR back to Long Island and go the airport. We did get some New York style pizza on our way (it's giant and thin, and people like to fold it in half to eat it, but not me. If it's folded in half, that makes it calzone adjacent to my way of thinking). Bonnie's opinion of New York? She's glad she went, but she wouldn't go back. Fair enough. It's a crazy place, and it's probably not for everyone.
We were almost on our way. But we had one more hideous hurdle to get over first. Which was that we had a voucher for a free taxi back to the airport from the hotel, and so we called them from the hotel when we got back. But they never came! After waiting at least 20 minutes past when they were supposed to get there, we called back, and it turned out they hadn't sent anyone to pick us up! How very dare they! Luckily, the hotel had a free airport shuttle, so they took us. And our driver was super nice. He was from Ecuador, I think, and he was hilarious. He told us all about his family and his adventures moving to New York. He also told us about cool things we should do next time we're in the city. He was awesome.
Once at the airport, things went pretty OK. Bonnie still didn't have her suitcase, and we just kind of had to hope that it would make it to Venice with us. Spoiler alert-it did. Also, Bonnie hugged it when she got it back. One super cool thing did happen, which was that we saw Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel Air in the security line! We did not take a picture of him, but it was still cool.
Then, a couple of hours after that, we were finally on our way! I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older, but I cannot sleep on airplanes anymore! So it was a pretty uncomfortable flight. The nice thing was that there was no one sitting next to me though, so I could use the extra seat to stretch out a bit. But still, not enough sleep. Bonnie seemed to sleep the best of all of us. I don't think Leanne really slept at all! Poor her.
And that is where I will leave you. Stay tuned for the next installment, in which the Black Lung sees Venice from a distance and rides in a murder car.
