NYC - Round 1

I'm planning on doing a post per activity on my trip, in the order that they happened. This post will just be the airport and plane ride. I may not get to anything else tonight or tomorrow (since it's Friday... and we ALL know I live for the weekend, right?), but I thought I'd better start before I forgot things that happened. So here goes!

Each of us arrived separately at the airport (thanks for the ride, Matt). I got there first (surprise, surprise... I HATE being late for stuff. And so does Matt) so called Katey to see how close they were. It was then that I realized I forgot my temple recommend, and Matt had just left. I called him to find out if he could bring it back, but we decided that it would be easier for him to mail it to the hotel where we were staying. So I just waited for everyone else to show up so we could all check in together.

Katey and I just before we checked our bags. I found out on this trip that my left eye is a little squintier than my right. Great, one more thing to be self conscious about.

Once everyone arrived at the airport, it turned out I wasn't the only one who forgot stuff. Elissa needed to get some cash.

Here's Elissa, now with her loads of $$$ for the trip.

At check in, Katey was a little worried that her checked bag would be over 50 pounds, which then caused a little competition to see who had the lightest luggage. I think my baggage was the lightest at 42 pounds. And that was with hard luggage! But then, I'm a guy; so really, it's easy to pack light.

After checking in, we found our terminal had been changed. We walked to the new terminal and waited to board the plane.

Katey and Elissa waiting to board. Elissa had her Blackberry, which allowed her to update her Facebook status every hour or so. She also added a bunch of photos from her phone.

Here's me checking stuff in my carry-on. Get used to seeing me in this pose. This is my little black map book (thanks Mary!). Sadly, we didn't use it at all. Katey had done quite a bit of work on figuring out the subway and everywhere we went. And all with a library book. Who knew libraries were good for more than plagiarizing encyclopedias and other reference materials for 9th grade research papers?

For those that don't know, we took the red-eye flight. It left at 12:30 (or as I like to call it, midnight-thirty). And while it probably wasn't so funny to her, Tiffany actually had quite the red eyes on the red-eye. Check it out.

Tiff's red eyes on the red-eye.

After taking way too many pictures of Tiff's crazy eyeballs, we were lucky enough to be the last section allowed on the plane. Also lucky for us, we were all either on the exit row or the row in front of the exit row. On Delta, that means the seats don't recline.

Here I am, ready for a cruddy night's sleep on the exit row.

Elissa and Katey. Katey was exceptionally excited to be on a plane again. I think for the second time ever. (Right, Kate?)

So, because my seat couldn't recline, sleeping on the plane was a little odd... With no reclining to keep my head fixed to my head rest, my head sorta swung around and I almost head butted the lady next to me. Could have been worse... the plane could have crashed, right? But it didn't and we made it! It was interesting once we got to JFK. We got some help to figure out the subway system, and got to our hotel. But that's the next post. :-)