Travel Diary

Day One

Hard to say if the days start off early or just very late, but this one was odd. I think I slept from 11pm to 12am, and the day began then and there. I would be up for the next 26 hours if I don’t count the time sleeping on the flight, which wasn’t much.

But it was a drive to SFO parking at 3am. Sadly, my microwave broke right before I left and I was all excited to bring a cooked pot pie with me to enjoy in the parking garage. Yeah, so it would be lukewarm at best, but I was fine with that. Yet, it was not to be as the meal was still frozen inside. The microwave must have busted halfway through. Rats.

I got on the road and did a live blog the entire way there. Why not...nothing else to do. At the garage, a security guard stopped me and needed to see either my boarding pass or the ParkSFO app. Okay, that was new. I didn’t have the app installed so I showed my boarding pass. I guess they are increasing security or something, or preventing others from using their garage for something besides catching flights. No matter. More security is fine by me.

After staying there for about 30 minutes, I took the shuttle to the airport. I had to put on the mask again. (I’m eagerly awaiting the day when that ends. I guess I timed things out well because most of the flight had already boarded by the time I arrived. I reached my seat near the back and the row was empty. However, many rows were empty. I could sprawl out, sure, but there were only two seats in my row. I then moved to the back row where there were all four opens seats. Nice! Once we took off, I just spread myself across all the seats. Easier to sleep that way. It made the flight much more enjoyable. And a fraction of the price of a business class ticket...for more room!

This would be my first time landing in New Jersey at Liberty International Airport. I passed on the trains and buses and just hailed an Uber to head straight into the city. Or maybe it was Lyft. Whichever one was cheaper. I think the time to get there was about 40 minutes, but at some point, I just felt like I should have gotten off sooner in Manhattan and just walked due to the thick traffic.

Finally, I was checking into the Club Quarters Hotel near Grand Central Station. The check-in was quick and I was soon on an elevator heading up to room 2203. The room had an “all cleaned” sticker over the door. That was new to me. Inside, it was nice. Clean, for sure. And as a bonus it had a microwave, fridge, and coffee maker. Yes! All the items were small, but did the job just fine.

After settling in, I headed out again to meet up with a friend to get some food. It would be beers and a burger at the YardHouse. Nice place with a friendly staff. Then it was off to see the “Book of Mormon.” We had standing tickets as they were $40 and regular seats were probably one hundred dollars more just for the balcony. Standing is fine with me. Nice and close to the stage, and it’s really not that hard standing for that amount of time. Despite the insane price, I did get some wine. I guess it’s nice to just have a drink to sip on during a show.

The place only had one restroom per sex and that was a madhouse during intermission. I’ll have to make a note to just go right before the intermission, or just made a dash for it when I’m in standing seats. I waited until I thought the line would be gone, and well, it was not. So long it was that I missed a few minutes of the second act.

For the show, it was quite funny, though I would say it definitely gets offensive at times for no real reason except to just be mean. That part I didn’t care for, but overall, yeah, very funny. It’s worth $40; I would not want to pay more for it. I suppose in the end it’s like getting a duck, you can’t buy one and expect it not to quack.

After that, we headed to a loft party to meet another friend. Since it was a ways away, we took the subway. It was my first time on the NYC subway since 2013. The past four trips I just either walked to where I was going or took Uber. Kind of fun to ride it again.

My friend Jennifer was playing in a band for a 40th birthday party. It took some doing to get access to the party as we didn’t know the host, but they let us up. After some time, the party finished and the place cleared out. My friend Bong took off, and I headed out with Jennifer for some drinks.

The first destination was simply a bar next store. At least it was supposed to be a bar. And I imagine it was. It’s just that the outside suggested it was a pastry or coffee shop and closed at that since it was pretty dark. But the door was open and there was a lady inside taking reservations (and likely acting as gatekeeper). We got on a list, but after a few minutes sitting, it was just going to be too long of a wait.. We headed to another part of the city and it was a similar situation. Just a door with no markings, but up a flight of stairs was a tiny bar that had maybe five customers. Pretty cool though. It definitely had a New York City vibe to it. We stayed there about an hour and chatted and tried a few different drinks. Was really a cool experience.

When that was done, it was nearly two in the morning. I said goodbye and walked back to my room and crashed. I was exhausted after such a long day.