New York

Some of my most memorable vacations took place in New York, rather New York City. My first trip was in the early nineties with my parents. We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, saw Broadway show (CATS), and visited the Statue of Liberty. I have always felt that I left a part of me in NYC. I’ve gone back several times since, mostly with school trips and once on my own as a last-minute hop on ValueJet (remember them?). None was more memorable, however than when I surprised my bride in Times Square, Valentine’s Day weekend of 2005. She had gone to NYC to be in a wedding part for a long-time friend. I stayed at home, in Alaska, and watched our son through the weekend. Or so she thought. . . What had actually happened was that a good friend of our graciously offered to watch our son through the weekend to make my ploy work. About a week out, I checked airfares to Newark and found that I could get a free round-trip ticket for just 25,000 miles (which I had). I booked the flight and started working the rest. Tickets to a couple shows, dinner reservations, plans for the Empire State Building, and a night at the Plaza hotel. The trip would be extremely short and there was no room for error. My flights were on time (Praise the Lord!) and I didn’t check any luggage, so I jetted to the train station. After spending way too long interpreting the rail maps, I ran to the boarding platform and barely made it on board! They had already closed the doors and were about to pull away! But, they could see I was on a mission, and let me on. Now that I’d made this train, everything else should work out OK. Unfortunately, I was not completely aware of the stops between the airport and my destination, so I almost missed it! Thankfully, I got off, just in time and took a hike up to Times Square.

On the other end of the story, her host for the weekend (another wedding part member) had been in contact with me since I dreamed up the plan. She fed Rachel a story that a friend of hers had a couple pairs of Broadway tickets and she could join her for either of the shows. Rachel chose to go to “Chicago”, which was fine; my accomplice was gifted with the other pair I had bought in exchange for her assistance. Additionally, they had sadly told Rachel that she would not be able to stay with them that last night for whatever good reason they came up. Instead, they delivered her luggage to the concierge at the Plaza - also unbeknownst to her. It was a ton of fun to organize and even more fun to watch Rachel’s face when I jumped out of the wall underneath the marquee of the Broadway Theater at Times Square. She screamed! My accomplice was smiling and I was thankful. The rest of our trip was, of course, history!

Someday, I will visit the rest of the great state of New York - Buffalo, the Adirondacks, Long Island, and many more places I’ve heard so much about. Until then, I’ve already built up some great memories for me to always have a smile on my heart when I think of New York.