Heading to NYC to Meet Our New Grandson!
As most everyone knows, it’s been a long, long time of pandemic and quarantine. Like many families, we haven’t seen our son and daughter-in-law for over a year. A cruise to Norway was “rescheduled” for Alaska and now that one has been cancelled because Canada won’t allow cruises to sail through their waters. Another trip to Scotland was moved to this summer and that may not happen.
But, it hasn’t all been grim here. Thanks to FaceTime, we have been able to keep in touch with our NYC family and play Monopoly, Word Chums and other games.
We’ve known for a while that there would be a grandson arriving in early March, 2021 and, thanks to shared photo albums, we were able to see various scans to see how he was growing.
Obviously, we wanted to go to New York for the actual birth but NYC had very strict COVID regulations including testing, quarantining after arrival for several days and taking a second COVID test. New York is pretty expensive to just hang around a hotel for several days so we decided not to go…yet.
Meanwhile, I got my first COVID shot on February 15, knowing that sooner or later we would be able to travel…somewhere.
On February 27, DH had his first COVID vaccination.
March 7, our grandson was born! Of course, he is the cutest baby…ever! On March 11 our son was taking him to his pediatrician and got a notification that NYC would be opening on April 1 – no more quarantining! Of course, I immediately started looking for a hotel and train tickets. A Hilton close by had very reasonable prices – about $100 a night including tax! I scooped that up right away, of course. They must not have heard that tourists would be flocking back to New York in April. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had enough points with Amtrak to get free train tickets.
March 15, I got my second COVID vaccine.
On March 17, I got this email from our reasonably priced Hilton Hotel
We hope that you are doing well. We are reaching out to you with regards to your upcoming (April 8 2021) reservation with us. Unfortunately the hotel is closed for arrival. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you. We can help you make a reservation with our sister property below at the same rate and dates or we can cancel your reservation for you. Please tell us how you would like to proceed.
I wasn’t feeling well from the COVID shot and this wasn’t the kind of news I wanted that day. I looked up the sister site and it was up near Murray Hill. We used to stay there years ago and the commute to get to our son’s took too much time – we need to be closer!
So, I got our old favorite, Club Quarters which is semi-close to where we want to be for not too much more money.
Because we’ll be a little further away, I need to get a steroid shot on Monday, April 5, and I will need to write Bee’s Knees 8.
To be continued, after the trip!
Scotland ~ Glenmore Forest Park: Day 2, August 27, 2017
Sunday morning, August 27, 2017. Temperature: 50°-63°F
I slept for 10:52 but I guess that’s really over 2 days since the “sleep” on the plane wasn’t great.
At 11:00 – I realized I left that expensive GH that I’ve been babying for over 20 hours, out on a shelf in the bathroom for 12 hours. At least it’s cool in chalet! I must have been exhausted last night. It still looks clear so I hope it’s ok.
We found that the Thunder in the Glen is going to take the Strathspey Railroad today for a bit of whiskey tasting so decided not to take that again, at least until later in the week.
Samantha Faircliff, of Cairngorms Brewery, which produces a beer especially for the occasion, said thousands of people come to the village to see the bikers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37194250
Figured out the French Press for coffee again.
The refrigerator is very cold. Milk has ice in it. I put GH in that insulated Rubbermaid lunch thing to keep it from freezing.
Trying to decide what to do. We decided against TreeZone Aviemore
High in the trees at Rothiemurchus, TreeZone is the ultimate Aerial Adventure Course.Zip wires, balance beams, hanging platforms, tightropes, scramble nets, white-knuckle bridges and gap jumps are set in the ancient Caledonian Pines of the Cairngorm Mountains. TreeZone is an unforgettable activity for adventurers of all ages.
Went out riding around, though Aviemore and the bikers. I took these as live photos so the movement of the bikers could be seen but the movement doesn’t show up here 🙁
We went past Loch Alvie, Alvie Estate…
Alvie & Dalraddy are traditional Highland Estates 4 miles south of Aviemore near the village of Kincraig in Badenoch, the geographic centre of Scotland. The Estates extend into the Monadhliath hills from the River Spey, famous for its fishing and whisky and overlook the Cairngorm Mountain range in the Cairngorms National Park.
We drove around a bit past Loch Alvie
We ended up at Glenmore Forest Park Visitor’s center. Got brochures, had a bit to eat and coffee… and ice cream 🙂
Text from Michael about FaceTiming.
We got back home and FaceTimed. Interestingly, the connection was better than at home. We showed him the apartment and chatted.
The people next door playing loud music – oldies, Beatles and such.
Tom discovered trouble with kitchen drain. The part over the dish drainer was draining into the silverware drawers.
He tried some self-repair and we decided this wasn’t really his job and we should get the staff handyman to come in in the morning. <sigh>
Very heavy rain. The Harley folks still had fireworks even in the rain.
I tried to upload sermons to church website but those weren’t going anywhere. Tried 2 different browsers, twice each. Maybe too many people online.
At 11:30 PM, I got an email “D preached all 3 [services] today, but his traditional and CG messages were different. He wanted the 11:00 sermon posted (I had uploaded the 8:15 to Dropbox, but since deleted it). I’ll edit the 11:00 one once I can get access to the server again. CG audio is up and the CG video is uploading to YouTube as we speak.”
Maybe it was just as well that at least the 11:00 didn’t upload since it would have to have been deleted anyway.
Bedtime about midnight. Still pouring rain.