The second part of
October actually happened pretty early in the month. We got the kids
to the doctor for their annual check up and flu shots. Everyone did
very well. Ronin cracked the doctor up with his “it tickles”
wherever she checked him. Reena is still way over average for
height, a bit low on weight. Ronin and Debrie are about average.
With that checked
off the list, car washed, house cleaned, we packed up our things and
went to the airport. Our kids have known the airport more than any
other kids I know. We seem to travel quite a bit and airplanes
seemed to be a common thing, but this time for Ronin it was very
thrilling. He loved looking out the window and seeing the trucks
moving the luggage around and we were nervous that he would stay up
the whole time. But once we started moving and after a movie, he
fell asleep.
We arrived very
late. It was midnight thirty, but my parents were so excited to see
the whole family. We've met in Disneyworld, Lake Powell, and of
course they've been to our house, but it was Ronin's first time at my
parents' house. My sister and her family came first and brought some
toys. We stayed up, played and ate until 3:00 AM, that's midnight
our time. Yes, we ate. That's my family. I look forward to going
to my parents' house because they are amazing cooks. They are very
big into freshly organic made food. Look into their freezer and
you'll hardly see anything. My dad was a cook for years and flavor
is a big deal. Frozen food is not comparable and not on his list.
I'm very much like him. Dan considers himself lucky to have fresh
ingredients in his food because he hates cooking and I LOVE cooking.
I spend 75% of my time in my kitchen. I was in heaven as I stuffed
myself silly, which was very very bad for my goal of not gaining more
than 35 lbs.
It didn't surprise
me that we chose to go apple picking as part of the family activity.
We went to Linvilla Orchard, one that my family loves going to every
year around this time of year. My parents used to drive out to the
suburb to get free range chickens and fresh eggs as well, but they've
discovered a much closer place for those things. We picked and ate a
variety of apples then we got some fresh apple donuts and apple
cider. It was so crowded and the lines for the hayride was an hour
long so we opted out of that one. The donuts and cider were worth
every dollar. The kids got to see many different kinds squashes and
gourds.
So eating is just
what we like to do. On the way home my parents picked up some live
crabs, then everyone got together and made food for my brother Mike's
farewell. His farewell landed on a fast Sunday, so the bishop asked
him to speak first and then his sisters bore their testimonies as
well :). It was a very sweet and spiritual meeting for us.
Afterward we had an open house type of party and a good number of
people showed up to wish him well, many including our old piano
teacher and youth leaders. It was a beautiful day.
Our time in Philly
felt really short. Dan didn't want to leave Philly without his
cheese steaks of course. That's the highlight for him. He and my
brother and brother in laws went to a new place downtown to get their
cheese steaks and brought back what I think is THE BEST donuts from
the market for us. That was a highlight for me.
With that in our
tummy we set off for Manhattan. This is where the journey on
different modes of transportation started. We boarded the Megabus.
It was the fanciest bus I've ever been on. They had a nice and clean
toilet, tables and chairs for you to sit, relax and they have 2
levels. The kids were so excited to sit on the top level and see
everything from a high view. The experience was overall very fun.
We arrived in
Manhattan shortly after a 2 hour ride on the Megabus. We walked a
few blocks, got on the subway, another exciting way to travel,
especially for Ronin who loves trains. We arrived at my sister's
apartment and again, were all in awe of the place. She lives on the
50th floor and has an amazing view of the Brooklyn bridge
and surrounding area. It was breathtaking. It reminded Dan and I
when we first arrived in Seattle and lived in the nice corporate
housing for a few months. Dan immediately looked at options of
possibly living in New York for a few months while working for Zillow
because they have offices there. He's just like that. Adventurous
is he.
I forgot my DSLR camera. My phone was my only source. These pictures don't do the justice of how awesome the view is from my sister's apartment.
We took just a day
in Manhattan, not nearly enough. We got on the ferry boat to cross
over to Brooklyn, walked the pier at night, ate some amazing New York
style pizza, had some awesome milk shakes and half of us took an Uber
home and the other half, the boys, crossed the Brooklyn bridge on
foot and walked all the way home.
While there we also
looked at shows but the shows listed for Monday were not as exciting.
I was bummed about that but thankfully we had the chance to return
to Manhattan. Before boarding the Megabus again for Albany, we
walked to the 9/11 Memorial, Freedom towers. It was such a touching
moment as we commemorate the day we saw/heard the terrifying news.
As the water runs you can almost hear the voices of the people
falling out of the buildings. We opted to not go inside the museum.
My mom said it's very sad. The images and videos they show inside
will make you cry she said. May we never experience anymore terrors
like 9/11 again.
With that we headed
to New York's capital, really just to my sister's home. Albany was
colder, but beautiful. The East coast is very colorful this time of
year just like the Pacific Northwest. Albany didn't grab my
attention as the most of anything, but it was wonderful to visit and
see where my sister lives. Our time there was much too quick and
most of the time we were trying to decide if we should rent a car or
take the Amtrak to Buffalo, NY where we could possibly see Niagara
Falls if time permits.
We decided that we
would take the Amtrak since our kids have been asking for quite
sometime now about going on a train from Seattle to Portland.
We boarded the
Amtrak. Tears were shared. That would be the last time I see my
brother before he heads to the MTC. I cried, a lot more than I
normally do when we part. It was perhaps the pregnancy hormones that
made it worse. Dan seeing me so sad said “let's extend our
vacation”. He is not starting yet at Zillow anyway because his new
boss is on vacation. So I did a search on Google for Delta Airline's
phone number. This is where the mistake came. I got a number that
is not directly Delta. They claim to work for Delta so I thought
nothing of it. They charged us an extra $600 to change the flight
and then an hour after called back and said the reservation had to be
changed due to some technical difficulty and charged us another $150.
I didn't agree with this and said to call me back when they can
change the flight to where we need it to be, which is leaving out of
Philly. To make the story short they went ahead and charged us $775
dollars and booked our flight leaving from Newark. I was very
unhappy when I saw the receipt confirmation. At that moment I also
realized that the receipt looked suspicious. That the people I
called did indeed lie about being Delta. I had Dan call them on his
phone. He asked and they said they were Delta. I decided to go on
Delta's website to check again for a phone number for customer
service, something I should've done in the first place rather than do
a Google search and get a scammy third party. When I realized this I
realized what a big mistake this whole thing was. Our train would
not get us to Buffalo in time for the flight home anyway and Delta
would have to help us find another flight home. I put aside the mix
up and dealt with Delta and got our flight changed. They were
understanding and got us on the next available flight a week later.
Scored for staying longer with my family and having more time with my
brother and also seeing a show at Broadway. Not cool is the next
several hours on the phone straightening out the mix up with the
third party I called. Fly Tech is the name of their company.
Beware, they are scammers. I spent hours at the hotel in Bufflo
trying to get my money back. It involved waiting for this manager,
this department and that department, all made up I'm sure. We
contacted our bank to report the fraudulent activity on our card by
Fly Tech for that unauthorized charge of $775. I continued to wait
to talk to their “very busy” supervisor and was told I would get
a call back from him. I never did and the next several days I tried
to put it aside and enjoy Niagara Falls and other things we did.
More on this story later as I'm still waiting for the refund to show
up in my bank. I'm told it will show up tomorrow. Hours on the
phone hopefully will pay off for my mistake.
Niagara Falls. Wow!
What a beautiful site. It couldn't have been a better day. It was
warm and sunny but of course it was misty near the Fall so a
sweatshirt was needed for all. It was all worth it. We even thought
if we had to pay $775 extra for another week it would be worth it as
well. But no extra charge is still nicer:) We spent a few hours
walking around near the Falls and then paid a little extra for a
close up tour. We got wet. It was such a beautiful experience.
We headed back to
Albany with the intention of stopping in Palmyra but everyone was
zonked out while Dan drove passed it. When I woke up we had long
passed Palmyra so that'll be another trip. I've been there many
times but the kids haven't seen it so we'll have to return there
sometime. My sister was happy to see us again and she and I had a
fun time playing Bunco with some ladies in her ward. We rented a car
from Buffalo and then took another rental car from Albany to
Manhattan again to see my other sister and her husband for a brief
moment before they headed to Florida for Disney World. We took over
their amazing apartment and we got to see Wicked on Broadway!!!!
There is truly no better place to see Wicked than on Broadway. I was
in heaven. Truly amazing. Because Gershwin theater only does
Wicked, they had lots of time to rehearse and fine tune everything so
that every part of the musical was absolutely fantastic. My brother
was such a big help watching the kids for us. We enjoyed our 2 extra
days in Manhattan.
The next 3 days were
spent in Philly with my parents. Back on the Megabus, this time,
lower deck with tables. If buses were more like this, I would ride
it more often. Philly was a nice and toasty 70 degrees. It was so
wonderful being with my parents and my brother before he heads to the
MTC. Mike and Dan got some more cheese steaks and my mom and I went
Christmas shopping and donut tasting with the girls. We had our
final buffet meal, Mike's favorite thing to do, and then made our way
home.
I had the chance to pop in on a friend and visited her and her twin boys as well.
Our flight home was
not as smooth as we had hoped. No adventure is ever smooth riding
but that's what makes our family so fun. We embrace all craziness in
the name of memory building, not too many families can do that. Our
flight had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia. You might think, why
Atlanta? Well, because that was the only available flight that had 5
seats. We got to Atlanta smoothly, but after a 2 hour layover we
were informed our flight from Atlanta to Seattle had been suspended.
The fraud department at Delta saw something suspicious about our
reservation and saw how many times it was changed. Too bad that I
gave those guys from Fly Tech too much information and they tampered
with our flights too many times. Delta asked us to show our credit
card that we used to purchase the flight and it turned out that our
credit card did not match the one on file. Because? Well those guys
used their credit card to pay for the flight difference which was $15
per passenger to change the airport location and then they turned
around and charged us $775. Hence, the last credit card was theirs.
OMG I was so mad, but even madder was Dan. He called them up and for
the first time in my life I heard words that came out of my husband's
mouth that his mother would not approve of. More time had to be
spent investigating where the root of the problem was and Delta again
was very kind to put us on the next available flight. Our kids were
restless. They wanted to be home. But we had to wait an extra 2 ½
hours and we didn't get in 'til 1:00 AM. Our friend Travis was kind
enough to pick us up from the airport. We were very grateful and
glad that I've been giving his daughters voice lessons so he was kind
enough to return the service. The guys from Fly Tech told us they
would refund us the charge of $775. We are still waiting on this
refund and will update you soon! What a crazy ride it was but
looking back we were so glad to have stayed. Dan loves New York so
much he wants to take our family there to live for a Summer and he
has been obsessed with the idea of possibly retiring in his 50's so
he could travel more. He's been looking into investments, almost
nonstop :) He loved having almost 2 months off and has loved all the
time he had with the kids. He enjoys waking up without an alarm,
making food for the kids and getting them ready for bed. I've been
milking every part of it, too of course!
