Day 1 - July 18, 2001
SFO to New York

“Good Morning, this is your 5am wake up call. Have a pleasant day.” This was day one of our grand trip over seas. The agenda a simple one: get to New York City and spend the night. However, as one must learn to crawl before walking, we had to get to the airport before we were going to get any ware. Quickly the showers went into inaction and group prepared to leave for the airport. Now given that three of our group of five were teenagers it was pretty good that we left only 10 minutes behind schedule. And if anything, the 10 minutes were more of a help than a hindrance. The hotel did not officially start its breakfast till 6am, however when we left at 20 till, they at least had enough out so each of us had a muffin and yogurt. If only our flights were later so we could have experienced their “better than the rest” included breakfast.

When we arrived at SFO after our short trip we quickly got down to business. Since Becky had the fast approaching flight we dropped her off first and wished her luck. We then proceeded to check into our flight. At 7:30am our flight pulled away from the gate and we were off and on our way to NY. Amazingly we were only number two in the queue to take off and were quickly on our way. Beyond that the flight was quite uneventful. They served a decent breakfast and the movie made the long flight bearable. Finally at 3:30pm we arrived in NY and experience JFK International.

JFK cannot be described; it can only be experienced. However, I will try and relay how my experience went. First I must say that I had some expectation for the airport. Considering one always hears its named dropped, I thought it would be interesting. I mean how bad can some place be that almost everything flies thorough and is always mentioned in the media (tv shows, print ads, etc). Well, to say the least, I was greatly disappointed. As I got off the jet way expecting some great concourse I was greeted by the exact opposite of my ideals. The terminal we landed in had definitely seen better days. It’s grayish color, narrow walkway and lack of windows made it feel dilapidated. When we arrived at the baggage claim area, any pointers to where our bags might appear were greatly lacking. And then there was the heat and humidity. Combine NY in the summer and a small room full of people and it is not a pretty site. To say the least I was not the most comfortable in my sports jacket. Eventually our bags appeared and we started our next task; store our larger bags over night at the airport.
While it’s sounds rather easy, especially after traveling thorough Europe, the process of locking up two bags can be quite difficult. First we discovered that while we landed at terminal 8 our flight tomorrow and the bag stowage facility was in terminal 3. So how does one get between the terminals? Train like Denver or walking like Chicago? No, there is a bus that circles the airports crazy roadway system. Terminal 3 was quite different than terminal 8. While it appeared much nicer and closer to my ideals for JFK it was also packed. After countless lines for elevators and security check points we finally reached the storage facility and left our larger bags. Now all me had to do was get into the city.

It may not have been the best choice but we decided that since we were in NY we had to try and take the subway into town. Then again it was also a cost savings of over $25. As before, one needs to take a bus to get from JFK to the subway. The frequency leaves much to be desired though. After waiting some time at the stop we finally saw our bus flash by since it was full. Another bus eventually came and took us on its winding paths through parking lots to its final destination of the subway station. After watching 4 trains going the other direction pass, our train final arrived and we were on our way into the city.

Our subway stop was perfect. It was only a few blocks away from the apartment where we were staying and the walk took us through a neighborhood of shops and restaurants that we visited later that evening. The apartment was easy to find and we were quite happy to arrive since it was approaching 8pm. We headed out for a brief dinner near by and then settled in for the night since tomorrow would be a big day.