We left yesterday at 9:48am from Nashville to New York. That was the precise time on our boarding pass and that was the precise time we departed. Incredible for a US flight that we left exactly on time especially since the incoming flight arrived over an hour late. The flight was uneventful and we landed in NY just before 1pm, collected our luggage and went to find a taxi to take us to our hotel. LaGuardia Airport is a total mess though as they are doing construction and so you have to take a shuttle bus to get to the taxis. We had to take 2 taxis and arrived safely at the hotel and after checking in we went to find some lunch.

S & K headed off separately because they wanted to go to M&M world and they did the NY thing and got a hot dog from a vendor for lunch. The rest of us went to find a coffee shop but it was closed and so we headed to Wholefood Market (the Amazon owned supermarket) to get lunch instead. You can get every type of ready made meal or you can make your own meal or salad as well. After we got the food we headed to Bryant Park and sat on the steps and ate the lunch while watching the world walking past. It was already past 3pm by this point.

H & I decided to stay in the hotel (we are staying at the Millennium Times Square) while the rest of them went to explore Central Park. We agreed to meet up at 6:45pm at the Bethesda Fountain. H & I left the hotel at 6pm but initially walked south instead of north, quickly corrected ourselves and then headed up north. The quantity of people on the streets is just overwhelming though. It was quite ridiculous. We got the fountain (after a fairly brisk walk) right on 6:45pm. M had taken O & C on a row boat on the lake – I was pretty impressed because I didn’t know he knew how to row even (and apparently – as O explained later – he didn’t but he got the hang of it).

We had agreed to meet D (my nephew) and B (his girlfriend) – they both live and work in NY – for a picnic dinner on the The Great Lawn. They had offered to arrange the picnic dinner. A whole lot of groups were playing softball (there are about 8 pitches on the Great Lawn). We enjoyed a relaxed dinner of chicken and salad (and cheese and biscuits) until we were chased off the lawn as they close the lawn at dusk (just before 9pm). We then started the long walk back to our hotel with a stop (not quick because there was a lengthy line) at Grom (Italian gelato) on way back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel at 10pm with everyone moaning about their feet and tiredness.

The good thing is that H & I slept until 7am which was the first decent night in since we got here and hopefully the others did too.

Until tomorrow …

P, M (because he rowed the boat ashore), S & K (because they tried the quintessential NY thing and had a dog from a street vendor), H, C & O.