we heart new york but remain undecided about jetblue

(posted by Heather with additional comments provided in red by Becci)

As a combo Valentine's Day/Birthday gift - Becci surprised me with a weekend trip to New York City and orchestra-level tickets to Wicked on Broadway. I was delighted and stunned by the time, effort, generosity and thoughtfulness she put into this gift and although the beans got spilled a little early (due to no fault of Becci's and no snooping on my part either) - the little extra time I knew allowed me to go into my favorite planning hyperdrive mode.

Before we even left for the airport, I had lists of places to check out, things I wanted to eat, and other sundry ideas that could have filled a week's worth of time and meals even though our total trip was going to take place over the course of less than 48 hours... Or so we thought.

A minor problem, or a tiny hiccup, if you will, was that our flights were with JetBlue, leaving Raleigh/Durham (RDU) on Friday, 2/16 and returning on Sunday, 2/18. Well - the long and the short of it is - we went to the airport on Friday - knowing that JetBlue had had some problems in the prior few days (people sitting in planes on the runways for upwards of 11 hours, for instance) and we knew the 7:10 pm flight we were scheduled on was slightly delayed (30 minutes). Well the 30 minute delay turned into a 2 hour and 20 minute delay but we finally took off and arrived an hour later at JFK. Where we sat on the runway for over 2 hours waiting to be taken to our gate (and when we finally arrived at our gate, we waited a bit longer for the gate crew to arrive). Well after midnight, we exited the plane into a terminal that literally looked like a war-zone airport with thousands of people desperate to GET OUT. We hadn't checked luggage and were extra grateful for that wise decision when we saw the baggage claim area and spoke to a woman in the cab line behind us who had waited for over 5 hours for her 1 bag. Another guy had been stuck in Chicago since Monday.

As it turns out, our Sunday flight home got cancelled and we got put on a Monday flight which also got cancelled. We then got put on a Tuesday flight which we had no real reason to believe would actually happen. We spend HOURS on hold with 1-800-JET-BLUE and experienced the great weakness of their "work-at-home" call center staffing plan. We looked into other flight options but with it being President's Day Weekend and Chinese New Year, what we could find was limited and outside our price range. And while we considered taking a bus, train, or renting a car - that just didn't seem like the best use of time or money either. So we waited it out, grateful that our situation was part of a national news story rather than what could have easily seemed like an excuse to miss work for a few extra days. And, we did fly home Tuesday morning on JetBlue (having back-up tickets held with US Airways). In the process, Becci made friends with the RDU station manager for JetBlue and beyond ticket refunds and vouchers for future flights, it looks like we might get reimbursed for a great deal of the "extra" expenses we incurred in our extra 36 hours in NYC.

In case you're interested, here's what the CEO of JetBlue has to say about the situation.

All of that aside, it was an amazing trip and we enjoyed it to the fullest... The specific details on how we did that follow:

We are lucky enough to have a great friend (Mary) who has a very kind & generous sister with a gorgeous apartment at Central Park West and 105th St who welcomed us to stay at her place while she was out of town for the weekend (and let us stay an extra night when JetBlue left us hanging). Words cannot describe the beauty of the apartment itself, not to mention the size and view!

On Saturday, we managed to eat (and walk) our way through the city with breakfast at the The Popover Cafe (thumbs up), lunch at 'wichcraft in Bryant Park (thumbs to the side - TomColicchio might need to think about packing his knives and going), and supper at Calle Ocho (thumbs way up - I will dream about the Empanada Dulce and the Cuban Style Bistec for years to come).

Wicked was incredible. Simply incredible. Amazing singing and unbelievable lighting and great seats...

On Sunday, we tried to do some shopping (unsuccessfully) but managed to eat well again and had breakfast Lenny's (thumbs up - an inexpensive deli breakfast), a $24 pastry & hot beverage snack at Ferraro's in Little Italy (thumbs down but not all the way because we were with Becci's "people" after all), checked out some of the Year of the Pig celebrations in Chinatown, went to the Ayurveda Cafe
(thumbs up - a neat, cheap, tasty, vegetarian experience you won't get outside New York City), and then Mary joined us for supper at The Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien (thumbs up - not only good & cheap, but makes you feel like you've got the inside scoop on hip things to do in NYC). Because perhaps we still needed more to eat, we headed to a sit-down deli for dessert (thumbs to the side - company was good, but the food was fair at best which might be why I don't remember the name).

And, on Monday - a true "bonus" day we didn't expect to be on vacation - we had H&H Bagels for breakfast (thumbs up - but it's a grocery not a deli so no smear for you unless you want to buy a tub) and tried (still unsuccessfully) to do a bit more shopping. We decided to leave the City and try our shopping luck in the 'burbs so we hightailed it to Grand Central Station where we grabbed lunch at the Hale & Hearty Soup Kiosk (thumbs up - we're going to try and recreate the White Bean and Spinach soup at home!) and hopped on a train to Bronxville. Mary met us at the station and gave us her car so we could get to the Palisades Mall that has a Forth & Towne store. Our bad luck with shopping continued (although I did manage to find myself a new pair of running shoes) and we determined that the Palisades Mall is basically the more worn, slightly older (and a bit smaller) sister of the Mall of America. Somewhat discouraged, we drowned our sorrows in margaritas and burritos at Blue Moon Cafe in Bronxville with Mary and then headed to Trader Joe's in Scarsdale. As it turns out, we are much better at shopping for food than we are at shopping for clothing and shoes. Who knew?

We happily stayed Mary's place Monday night and got up at the crack of dawn Tuesday to head back to JFK where - believe it or not - our JetBlue flight took off more-or-less on time. We arrived in Raleigh around 10 am and were both back at work in Greensboro by noon. When we got home just after 5 pm last night, we hadn't seen Ernie since Friday morning and he was beside himself with excitement and spent the remainder of the evening reminding us that he's still a puppy and missed us very much (aka he was a total pain in the butt).

After reading this post - it won't come as a surprise to any of you that most of our photos are of food (I'll try to post some tomorrow) and that other than my running shoes, the only real souvenirs we brought home are two olive oil dipping bowls that match our dishes set.

I must say I'm quite lucky and thankful to have Becci in my life. What an incredible gift (not to mention quite the adventure) this trip was, not to mention a great way to celebrate both Valentine's Day and my first 29th birthday...

So that is the real story, though perhaps she didn't say enough just how good the food was. That heirloom tomato salad at Calle Ocho was heavenly, and the pear and ham combo at the Popover Cafe, while new to me, was delightful. And that burger...wow. I just wish we'd gotten the milkshakes too.

The travel itself was a challenge, but after we resigned ourselves to it, (and I convinced Heather that Jet Blue was not out to get us personally), we sure made the most of the visit. And the food. And our incredible apartment. Did she tell you that Phil Collins lives in the same building? Or that we could look out over the dog park inside Central Park each morning? Or that I watched TV from the shower?

We also made the most of other forms of transportation, perhaps in secret revenge. We rode the metro, once even 45 blocks out of the way. Or was it 120 blocks out of the way? We took a super scary cab across the ice-covered roads into the city, and we walked, and walked, and walked...which meant we saw so, so much (we even walked for awhile with plastic bags covering our freshly painted toes). Heather made all those steps so much more fun...and
she let me hold on to her hand real tight when I was terrified in the back of that scary cab. I love traveling with her. I love all of her running commentary on her surroundings--all day long. Even when they come out as total non-sequiters. I love eating with her. Shopping with her isn't bad, and I love that she takes my "just one more stop" requests in stride. Truth is, I just plain love her.

Perhaps the highlight was Heather's first class funny. One one of our many calls to Jet Blue, she found herself in conversation with Cassidy. Cassidy, likely a Mormon housewife in Utah (Jet Blue outsources their call centers using voiceover IP), was doing her best to explain to Heather what sort of compensation we could expect for our troubles when Heather threw her off with a question. Her response was "well, it is all up in the air." To which Heather said, "Actually, it isn't. Everything perhaps, but your planes, is up in the air."

But thankfully, they too finally ended up there. And we're all back home again ready to line up Heather's 29 candles. Ernie's saving up his breath (or his gas) to help blow out the candles! Or, truth be told, the house! And Heather has moved on to more local non sequiters.