We decided to take the boys out of school for summer one day early (it's too bad they missed out on all that movie watching, er, I mean learning) and fly to Charleston to visit family. Our flight wasn't until 4pm, so (theoretically) they could still go to school for a half day, granting me time to finish packing in the morning, then leave at noon to head to the airport together. Now, JFK is typically an hour away, two tops if you hit traffic or mass transit snags. But we thought, let's not push it, I'll just pick them up at noon and make our way there leisurely, with low stress, grabbing lunch and maybe a treat along the way. Well. Only in New York will you use up an entire four hour margin to make your flight...
First, their last day of 2nd grade and Kindergarten pic:
The morning went off without a hitch, just a typical school morning drop off. Andy had parked the car near the boys' school so we could drop their bags on our way in and pick them up to head straight to the airport. Judah insisted on pulling this large (mine) suitcase. I think it's because it reminds them of Cheetahs and Wild Kratts.
I came home, finished up packing, even went for a short run. Anyone who knows me well knows I am chronologically challenged, invariably. It's a Miller gene, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, proudly, I tracked the bus locations and knew exactly when I needed to walk out the door and make it to the bus stop in time (11:45AM). I made it RIGHT on time. No bus. Great, a ghost bus. Ok, no worries, this is why I built in extra time, the next one was in 10 minutes. At least I was in good company with other grumbling NYers who needed that ghost bus (wait, did I just say being in company with grumbling NYers was good?). I considered walking to the subway 3 blocks away, but I had my suitcase and a couple of bags, so I decide to wait. Ten minutes pass. NO BUS. Yep, another ghost bus. Stupid MTA app. The next bus was in another 10 minutes. I decide to wait. I don't know why. Just carry your luggage down into the subway, Ash. Geez. The bus finally shows up after 20 min. I get on, it's pretty crowded, and the bus driver appears to be in training, but I ran into a friend who had just returned from Korea with her adopted son so it was nice to catch up with her on our way down Broadway.
I came home, finished up packing, even went for a short run. Anyone who knows me well knows I am chronologically challenged, invariably. It's a Miller gene, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, proudly, I tracked the bus locations and knew exactly when I needed to walk out the door and make it to the bus stop in time (11:45AM). I made it RIGHT on time. No bus. Great, a ghost bus. Ok, no worries, this is why I built in extra time, the next one was in 10 minutes. At least I was in good company with other grumbling NYers who needed that ghost bus (wait, did I just say being in company with grumbling NYers was good?). I considered walking to the subway 3 blocks away, but I had my suitcase and a couple of bags, so I decide to wait. Ten minutes pass. NO BUS. Yep, another ghost bus. Stupid MTA app. The next bus was in another 10 minutes. I decide to wait. I don't know why. Just carry your luggage down into the subway, Ash. Geez. The bus finally shows up after 20 min. I get on, it's pretty crowded, and the bus driver appears to be in training, but I ran into a friend who had just returned from Korea with her adopted son so it was nice to catch up with her on our way down Broadway.
I get off the bus, thinking my mass transit woes are over. It's 12:45pm, 30 minutes behind my theoretical schedule. I had planned to drop my bags in the car too before pick up to avoid dragging them all around the school for pick up, but whatever, I dragged them around to 5th then 3rd floors to pick up the boys. Here they are with their teachers. I probably won't get around to a separate end of year post so the high level summary is that Gabriel had a fantastic 2nd grade year, and Judah tolerated (although also excelled in) Kindergarten:
We grabbed their bags from the car and headed to the subway. Now, I had two options. The 1 on Broadway and the C on Central Park West, both go to Penn Station where we could pick up the Long Island Railroad to JFK. I decided to take the C. In retrospect, I can't remember why. We start walking, each with a suitcase and a carry on bag, up 92nd street. Judah makes it halfway and says he's too tired to roll his suitcase, so I take it. We make our way to the C, drag all of our luggage down the stairs and I see a train just sitting in the station. This is never a good sign. I've been here long enough to know that when it seems like something is up, you pause before swiping in. I wait a minute, and take an opportunity to ask an MTA employee on the other side of the turnstile if the trains are running. "Service is suspended in both directions due to a train derailment at 125th street, you'll have to take the 1 train". Of course I need the 1 train.
We grabbed their bags from the car and headed to the subway. Now, I had two options. The 1 on Broadway and the C on Central Park West, both go to Penn Station where we could pick up the Long Island Railroad to JFK. I decided to take the C. In retrospect, I can't remember why. We start walking, each with a suitcase and a carry on bag, up 92nd street. Judah makes it halfway and says he's too tired to roll his suitcase, so I take it. We make our way to the C, drag all of our luggage down the stairs and I see a train just sitting in the station. This is never a good sign. I've been here long enough to know that when it seems like something is up, you pause before swiping in. I wait a minute, and take an opportunity to ask an MTA employee on the other side of the turnstile if the trains are running. "Service is suspended in both directions due to a train derailment at 125th street, you'll have to take the 1 train". Of course I need the 1 train.
So we drag our bags back up to the street (G is being a rock star by the way helping me with all the luggage, meanwhile Judah is running out of gas .. mind you we've already walked two avenues and 3 blocks, which is about half a mile), and make our way to Broadway, 2 1/2 avenues and 3 blocks away (another half mile dragging luggage, and an 8 and 5 year old). We arrive at the 86th street station, drag our bags down the stairs again, and see there are delays on the 1 train, naturally because everyone is who needed the C is taking the 1. Oy. Ok, so we wait, but not as long as I thought we would have to, and catch a downtown 1 to Penn station. We arrive unscathed, and need to go buy our tickets for the LIRR. Just as soon as I complete the transaction, check the big track board for where to go, they announce last boarding call for LIRR service to Jamaica (this is the JFK station). Great. We missed the train. The next one is in 30 minutes. At this point it is 1:40pm. Our flight takes off at 3:50pm. Hmmm.
We schlep into Duane Reade and I let the boys get Pringles, shortbread cookies, and M&Ms to keep them distracted. We wait in a line 20 deep with all of our stuff to check out, and finally get back out to the big track board to wait for our track assignment. Judah sits on my upright rolling suitcase like a park bench while we wait. He's like a ticking time bomb at this point. They announce our track and we take off, not because we're going to miss it (they give you 20 min to board) but because I knew we could stow all of our stuff, hit the bathroom, and sit down to tear into the snacks! We did exactly that. It's about 2:10pm, and I'm getting a little nervous because security at JFK can easily take an hour, and we still have to catch the air train once we get off at Jamaica. Providentially, I receive a text message that our departure has been moved back to 4:30pm. Whew, I think.
The train departs on time, and luckily was an express train. In fact, our stop sneaked up on me due to this fact and I was scrambling when the door opened to get all three suitcase, 3 carry on bags and the boys off the train before they closed the door (each stop is about 30-45 seconds). We made it, up a set of escalators, down two long corridors with people movers, to yet another station where we needed to get air train tickets to get to the terminal. One more ride. Miraculously, the boys are holding up and Gabriel continues to help me with all the luggage. Amazing.
We don't have to wait but a few minutes on the air train, and arrive uneventfully to the JetBlue terminal (this includes a few small spats between the boys in the air train which I consider negligible in the scheme of things; they are both experts in which order the air train drops off at the terminals, by the way). Due to the delay we're ok on time but I hadn't seen the security line yet so I wasn't breathing easy yet. Once we walked into the terminal and I surveyed the security situation while we rode the escalator down, I began to relax. Buuut, then I couldn't get the boarding pass QR codes to load on my phone, using JetBlue's stellar Wi-Fi service, so I'm standing at the little roped off things with two tired boys wondering what is taking me so long, and why can't we go get on the plane, but finally I got them loaded. We snaked our way through security in about 20 minutes with no issues. I realized later that the TSA agent let me through with sunglasses on my head and not in a bin, though. Finally, we arrived at our departure gate, and I checked the time. It's 3:45pm. Number 1, this is FOUR hours from my departure from our apartment at 11:45am, and number 2, our original departure time was 3:50pm. Would we have made it? I don't know, but it didn't matter.
It's not over yet. The departure keeps getting moved back due to, first, our plane had not arrived from another flight coming in, and then second when they went to plan B which was waiting on a plane with mechanical issues to be serviced. Just what I wanted to hear. The boys pulled out all of their toys and played all over what I can only assume was a filthy airport gate floor, but I slurped down my iced coffee and pretended not to care. We definitely got some looks with their crashing and banging noises while they took up two rows of seats, and again when they used their headphone cords as weapons, but all I cared about was that we were going to make our flight, whenever it did decide to leave. Notably, Gabriel continued to be really helpful and I was able to leave them both while I went to go fetch the aforementioned iced coffee, with Gabriel in charge of watching Judah and our stuff, and again to watch our stuff when I took Judah to multiple bathroom trips. Before this year, I would have had to drag them and all of our stuff to every bathroom break, every coffee venture, etc, etc.
One bus, two subway trains, one railroad train, and an air train, 2 people movers, 2 escalators, and countless stairs ... We finally left a little after 6pm, over 2 hours delayed. Which means we arrived in Charleston two hours later, way past dinner, tired, and cranky. Who wouldn't have been? The boys actually did really well all things considered. They kiiiind of lost their marbles after we landed and were waiting to get off the plane, but other than that they were troopers.
One bus, two subway trains, one railroad train, and an air train, 2 people movers, 2 escalators, and countless stairs ... We finally left a little after 6pm, over 2 hours delayed. Which means we arrived in Charleston two hours later, way past dinner, tired, and cranky. Who wouldn't have been? The boys actually did really well all things considered. They kiiiind of lost their marbles after we landed and were waiting to get off the plane, but other than that they were troopers.
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| Thankfully JetBlue has free TV ... too bad Judah's headphones broke so he's wearing *my* ear buds |
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| ... losing their marbles ... |
Mimi and DD had chick-fil-a waiting for us and a ride to my Aunt Jan's house, so soon the boys were all good ... and a cold beer was waiting for me there too so soon I was ok too. We were no worse for the wear by the next day when it was time to hit the beach and the pool! It was a rough start, but HAPPY SUMMER!!
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