October 15, 2010

Another traveling day. Hélène got up at 05:45 and I managed to drag my old body over to the bathroom about 20 minutes later. To maximize sleep, first and foremost to avoid grumpier kids, really, we had decided to have breakfast at the airport after checking in.

We made our way to the rental car return, about 15 minutes from the hotel, and enjoyed the Phoenix landscape in early morning light.

Finding a good breakfast place was not as easy as we had thought. Once we found one waiting times were long. We ended up rushing through security while the plane was boarding. Kids really come in handy from time to time. We were allowed to take the “families with infants” shortcut through security.

Mandatory photo, Marius. This time we flew an Airbus A320. Bummer, really, since US Airways now offer WiFi on their A321.

The plane was full and we were almost last in. Once we came to the door one of the flight attendants told me they had to put my carry-on luggage in the gorilla chamber because the overhead compartments were full.

Panic!

That suitcase is full of electronics. All my cool gadgets, external hard drives, pico projector, Chuck Norris charging station, external batteries etc, etc. I tried to convince her to let me keep it, but there was just no way. Sigh, months of preparing stuff needed to be protected and/or useful on the plane ruined in a few seconds. I quickly removed the most fragile items and let her have it. 15 seconds later I realized I had just handed over the external batteries we needed to keep the laptops running during the entire flight so the kids could do their school work. In addition I was very nervous about all the stuff that could potentially be broken.

I was not happy.

We ended up basing most of the school work on the iPads and that worked well. I did English with Adrian and once he had finished what we had planned to do I made him read and translate to Norwegian an article in the inflight magazine about Ft Lauderdale. Now we both know lots of stuff about how Ft. Lauderdale has come of age and that business and arts are doing well there. 🙂

Flying is not what it used to be. On the 5 hour flight there was no meal but the possibility to purchase sandwiches and snacks. Except that when we wanted to buy sandwiches they were sold out. Lunch consisted of almonds, pringles and M&Ms.

Once we landed at JFK I had managed to lose the baggage tag for the electronics suitcase. However that was not a problem since the flight attendant told me I would get the suitcase at the luggage carousel(!). What!!!?!?! They were sending my stuff through the terrible conveyor belt system. Resistance seemed futile and anihilation certain. I felt like this guy.

Adrian then told me he and Viktor had seen that the suitcase was the second one to be taken off the plane and that they had seen a guy throwing it hard against the corner of the luggage truck. Viktor said it reminded him about the video about United breaking guitars. I agreed.

I was stressed and not very impressed with US Airways. I walked fast towards baggage claim with the family trailing behind me. In the end nothing seemed to have been broken. I could calm down and return to normal, but not for long.

On our way out of the terminal we discussed how to get into Manhatten. Taxi would be expensive and also difficult since we were 5. When we saw the very long taxi line we ruled that on out. We were thinking of taking the airtrain and subway when we spotted a sign for an “Express Bus Service” which could bring us to any midtown hotel. A nice guy informed us about the service and how they would bring us directly to our hotel. Not only that, if we purchased a return at a reduced price we could just call them when we wanted to leave and they would pick us up at the hotel Excellent! We took the return option.

He stood next to a place where nice looking minivans were picking up people. They had to be the ones he was selling tickets for.

Tourist trap avoidance rule nubmber 1: Never assume. Remember that making an assumption makes an ass out of you and out of umption.

Here we are, happy and not knowing what was ahead of us. The photo is taken by a british tourist who also got trapped.

The next bus would be around in 7 minutes and on time a large bus straight out of a 70s movie from Harlem showed up. Something was not right here.

We proceeded to stop at all terminals at JFK until half an hour later the bus was full as an egg. Then a large woman (as in tall with lots of  muscles) entered the bus and started barking orders. Everyone had to get their tickest out and tear off the bottom part. She walked down the aisle and shouted “Tear, tear, tear” I swear she hit a couple of people on the way down. This was starting to feel like a prison camp.

She collected the tickets and snapped at the driver saying that he should stop telling people they could be taken directly to places, since everyone had to change bus. Then she disappeared. We bumped along in New York heavy traffic and used a total of 90 minutes to get in to Manhatten. Iseline at least appreciated the long drive as I played games with her on an iPad.

We found out by listening to other passengers that we would have to switch busses at grand central. We would then be taken from hotel to hotel, picking up people going to the airport at some and letting people off at some.

All-night bus ride, here we come!

What a scam. I wonder how that guy at the airport is able to fall asleep every night. Directly to the hotel, huh?

We hopped off at Grand Central and tried to get a taxi. Easier said than done. We were approached by several unofficial “taxis.” No thanks! We want the real thing now. It was not a good feeling to stand on the side of a street in Manhattan during dark hours with 3 kids and not even have a map of New York available. The iPhone did not get a GPS fix because of all the tall buildings. After what seemed like an eternity we finally managed to get a taxi. The driver was willing to let me have Iseline on my lap and off we went and found our hotel.

We are all pretty tired now. The kids were a nightmare to put to bed, given the 3 hour time difference with Phoenix.

Well, we are in New York, and have a nice week ahead of us. We also learned a few things today.

We are sleeping over at the home of some friends tomorrow, so don’t expect a blog upate for the next 48 hours.

See you around.

Eirik

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