Weekend: Time in transit

Lots of adventures this weekend!

My husband and I met my brother and his girlfriend for dinner at Aquavit in New York on Friday night — an item I could then cross off the Summer Fun List. My husband and I went to this restaurant for our third date a great many years ago, so it’s always a treat to eat the signature goat cheese ice cream (served in the form of bird eggs cradled in a dessert-pastry nest) and enjoy one of the few two-Michelin starred restaurants run by a female chef.

We took the four kids to the Mid-Atlantic Air Show in Reading, PA on Saturday and saw all sorts of fantastic military planes and equipment. We also met World War II veterans. We tried to impress upon the children how cool this was, to talk to a guy who actually served on a submarine in the war, as this won’t be possible in a few years. But the kids seemed more impressed by the tank that was part of a battle re-enactment in a French village (which the Germans won. I sort of assumed the powers organizing the battle would play to the crowd…but no.) My 12-year-old tried out a rotary phone in an exhibit of old communications equipment and was flummoxed by the concept.

On Sunday I flew to Miami. The primary purpose was to give a speech on Monday, but on Sunday I met up with Sarah and we recorded a handful of together-in-one-place episodes of Best of Both Worlds! (Sorry, no pictures. We forgot.)

Getting to Miami went smoothly: there was no traffic Sunday morning to the airport and the flight got in early. When air travel works, wow. It was only about 5 hours from my house to recording with Sarah. Getting to Reading (and into the air show itself) involved battling incredible crowds, but we found a place where a guy was charging people $10 to park on his lawn close to the entrance, thus saving us at least a 30 minute wait for the shuttle bus. I approve of those economics. (Frankly, I suspect he could have charged more.)

Getting home from NYC on Friday night on the other hand…We had originally planned to take the 9:05 p.m. train back to Philadelphia, but this was total wishful thinking. We were still in the middle of the menu then. So we let that train go, and decided to get the 10:05. We took off at 9:35, got a taxi, and promptly got stuck behind some 5th Avenue closures.

So we hopped out at 9:45 somewhere around 5th and 44th and started walking. I knew this was a terrible idea, and I think my husband did too, but somehow the two of us doggedly kept marching, intent on trying to make this train — he with his overnight bag (he’d come from London that morning) and me in not-really-walking shoes. We missed the train of course, as physics would suggest would happen with trying to get to 32nd and 7th while wading around crowds of people, but not before making ourselves really uncomfortable in the process.

So while we were figuring out what to do, I stopped by the restroom, and when I emerged, he had a different plan. He decided we should take New Jersey Transit out of the city at least, and then Uber on the other side to increase our odds of getting a driver who wasn’t mad about the distance. So we raced to get on a 10:11 train that was departing right then. We jumped off at Secaucus and successfully got a ride to Philadelphia’s 30th St. Station, arriving at midnight, where we picked up my car and finally made it home around 12:30 a.m., about 24 hours after my husband woke up.

The 4-year-old bounded awake at 6:20 a.m. but YouTube kept him entertained until we could finally haul ourselves up and start the trip to Reading.

I ended the weekend on a high note. Not only was recording with SHU fun (we should do that in person more often!) I then realized the hotel my hosts booked in Miami was right on the water. I walked on the sand, took myself out for Cuban food, then did my Sunday night email clean out while staring at the waves from my balcony. This definitely improved the experience. I did hope to run on the beach this morning, but I woke to a gigantic south Florida thunderstorm. Oh well.