Day 01: Brisbane to New York

No joke, I won the lottery. The international long haul economy seat lottery with a prize of an aisle seat with a spare beside me on a full flight from Brisbane to LA and then again on the flight from LA To JFK.

Jos & Ben...

However, the excitement quickly disappeared when Ben decided that it would be a "great idea" to sit next to Aunty Kay on the flights, meaning that his mum & dad ended up winning the seat lottery instead. Oh well, I could be bitter & twisted but he was actually a pretty good flight companion so I guess my entry for "Aunty of the Year" just got a major boost. Before the flight I ran into a former work colleague Steve, who was heading off with his family to Canada. We had known that we were both flying out on the same day and given our flights departed only 15 minutes apart we thought we'd see each other so it was good that we did.

Inflight music choice - thanks QANTAS

It was rainy and overcast when we arrived in LA but all we really saw was the inside of the terminal for just under 2 hours so it made little impact on us. After making it through customs & immigration and then a security re-screening we made our way back up to the gate lounge we had just come from as our 747 was taking us on to NYC.

We were a little late getting into to JFK and the minute we got off the plane we realized that we have well and truly left summer with it being a brisk 6 degrees C.

Collecting our luggage was a comedy of errors with us moving for baggage carousel 5 to 4 and then back to 5, but thankfully it all eventually arrived.

I had pre-ordered a mini van to collect us and a phone call after we'd collected our luggage and a then a 5 minute wait was all we needed until our luxury Dial 7 mini van arrived. The trip into the city was very, very slow. Not helped by the fact it was just after 6pm on a Friday night. We eventually discovered an accident also had a major impact on our travel time. When we finally arrived at our accommodation at the Courtyard Marriott Midtown East (on 3rd at 52nd Street), we were met by a pair of very friendly ladies at check-in. As P,B & J are here for 3 weeks the girls on reception made sure our room also included a sofa bed. And for New York standards, we have a huge room located on the 29th floor with this as our view-

After getting settled, we wandered around the neighborhood to find something to eat. I stayed in this area last year, so we ended up at a little Italian place down on 2nd. The food was lovely and after we finished we stopped in at the Fairway Market to pick up some supplies for the room.

So after 24hrs plus of travel it's great to be back in a city that I adore...

Posted with Blogsy