More about our last US trip

...that has found its way to my scrapbook pages. It's cool to see all these pictures again, they bring back so many memories of good times!
These pages are about New York City mostly.

Times Square was so much smaller than what we expected!! You see it in the movies, you see it in the news, you see it on New Year's Eve... it was a must-see for us! Just a little advice, don't go to the MacD's there, we've never ever seen one that was this dirty and unsafe. I couldn't believe my eyes and even Jan refused to use the bathroom there. We went around the corner, there's a little Irish pub, and boy, that was a nice place!

The "fashion district" was high on my list of places to shop at, so I did. It was incredibly hard to choose though! My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the vast choice they had!! Beads, buttons, fabrics, oh and did I mention beads???

But take the subway just a few blocks west and it looks like you are in a different city altogether. Lots of green, less high tall buildings, just a feeling of more open air and umm, a somewhat relaxing feeling. Of course I visited The Ink Pad, the one and only rubber stamp store in Manhattan!! This was where I was meeting up with another online friend and it was soooo much fun to see each other in real life! We had a good chat, and she drove us around in NYC to see some highlights. Or maybe she wanted to let us feel what New York traffic was like... Mission accomplished I'd say!! LOL! :-))

I just like taking pictures, and bridges somehow have a special draw to me and my camera. :-))

 

That was it for today, folks!! I hope you enjoyed it!! 

Yes, I am in the US again at this moment, and when I'm all over and done with the jetlag I hope to find the time and energy to blog about the new adventures!! :-)) 

Hugs,

Wezz 

Close encounter of the US kind

Hi all,

bet you are all getting really anxious to read about the rest of the trip!! Well, let me tell you, it has been a hectic few days!! And would you believe it, we're already 7 (seven!!!! that's a whole week!!) days into our holiday???? Wow, this is just going waaaayyy too fast!! Instead of 3 weeks I wish we could be here for 3 months!! LOL!!

When we got our car (yes, the suzuki...) we went straight ahead to tackle the NYC Friday afternoon traffic. Ya know, when they all head up north to "upstate NY"... Just the direction we were heading of course. But Jan had really done his homework and printed out a whole road book with maps and everything, and wrote down all the numbers/names of streets and highways and expressways we needed. Traffic was heavy, but not worse than rush hour in Brussels. Once we had New York behind us we were quickly on our way to head to Connecticut. The first stop we made along the way was to get us a cell phone so we would be able to call everyone we were gonna meet and maybe for hotel reservations along the way and stuff like that. My cell phone actually works in the US, but for some strange stupid reason I couldn't get the card alone. Noooo, of course not, I needed to buy a phone too, even though the card works in my phone. Duh!! Isn't that stupid?? The shop owner of the Radio Shack tried it in my phone. And he and his co-workers kept checking out my european phone. "oh, look, they did this another way than we're used to".... Well, to us at least it was funny, since we both work for telephone operators. LOL
We went to the Starbucks next door. I had heard so much about these already that I REALLY couldn't pass up the chance to go to one and so soon too!! LOL
But then, I made a mistake, probably the first of many. Since we had almost nothing in the car to drink, I ordered two large coffees. Oh man!! I shouldn't have done that!! I should have remembered that US portions are a LOT bigger than european ones!! This was at least the size of two regular cups for us, so we had to take them with us in the car coz they were just too big to drink right away. Lucky they do have good cups that really keep it warm for a long long time! While we were there I had to try out the cell phone and called Jennifer, the first one we were gonna meet on our trip. Hey, I had to try the phone right then and there, what if something didn't work? I'd have to be able to take it back to the store I bought it to get it sorted! But no worries, it worked perfectly, talked to Jennifer, tried calling Christi and we arrived at Jennifer's house that evening. The dog came running out to greet us. She showed us the room that would be our home for the next 3 nights and had dinner just about ready to serve. We met her wonderful husband Bruce and son Zach (sp?) plus dog Petey and a few cats. They all made us feel right at home!! :-))
Driving up there we really enjoyed the landscape and were totally amazed at the amount of roadkill alongside the interstate roads. We just about cracked up when we saw a sign that said "FOOD - McDONALDS"... We looked at each other and laughed "since when is McDonalds a synonym for food????? LOLOLOL
And funny enough, we passed that same sign at almost every exit on our way. (ggg)

More later guys!! Hopefully soon!

Hugs,
Wezz

And the cat came back...

Okay, so the cat had to wear a collar she didn't like. We just didn't realize how bad she didn't like that.... We had brought her home on Monday evening from the vet, and she was wearing her new collar. On Wednesday I needed to go out for an hour or two and had checked the cat before leaving. You already KNOW where this is going, right????? Riiiighhhht..... when I came home she was proudly awaiting me with a look on her face "look what I got off!! Isn't that great?!" oooohhhhhh noooo, she had managed to get rid of the collar and got the stitches out again too!!! aaaarrrghhh!!
Back to the vet with her!!! She figured she needed to take drastic measures with a cat like that, and gave her a white netted stocking with holes to put her legs and tail through. Now that's a fashionable cat!!! White net stocking on black fur, and white legs!! I know it wasn't funny for the cat, but boy, that sure was a sight to see!!! Right before taking her to the cat hotel on Thursday we had her checked up on again by the vet on Wednesday evening, and thank goodness, she could take off that stocking. Happy cat, if it weren't for the collar that she still had to wear....
On Thursday evening we dropped off both our cats at the cat hotel they have been going to for the past 9 years and finished our packing for our big trip to the US.
The vet will check up on the cat at the cat hotel (it's actually the vet they always work with so that's no problem) and will hopefully remove the stitches on Monday (that's today!! I hope it went alright!).

We had made arrangements for an airport service to pick us up at home at 7:30am. So I put away my last minute things and poured myself a nice cup of coffee. The doorbell rang. Airport service?? It was only 6:50am?? Yep, airport service, we needed to leave as soon as possible coz there was a big fire at Brussels airport and who knows how busy it was gonna be. The road to the airport had been blocked for a few hours coz the building on fire was too close to the road and it was a maintenance place for airplanes. There were 4 planes in the building and because of the kerosine there was danger of explosion. By the time we got there the road was open again, the fires were out but the building had collapsed. Phew!!! Lucky our flight wasn't scheduled any sooner!!
Since 9/11 airport security has gotten a lot tighter, and especially for flights to the US. I don't mind, better be safe than sorry. They just do what needs to be done.
So when we went to check in we already got a bunch of security questions to answer.
One of them being what the address is of your first night's stay. Man, I can't believe how many times I had to give that address!! On the plane we got several forms to fill out, and don't make any mistakes coz you gotta start over!! Of course, I scratched out something, and that was no good, so "here's a new form to fill out, please". Thank you. I'll do that. LOL
At least the plane wasn't full, so I had some extra space to lay down for a nap. I could pick a better spot to watch the movie if I wanted that. Except where the US marshal was with his prisoner. Chains on his feet, and handcuffed. Creepy guy, btw.
When we arrived at JFK ariport in NYC we had to give the address again, have our picture taken and fingerprints too. Electronically, not the old fashioned way with ink. No, this was a tiny scanner, just big enough for your fingertips. Impressive.
We were all waiting in line to get this done, and out comes the US marshal, his prisoner and the marshal's deputy (?). They bypass the whole line, get yelled at by the guy at the counter to stay behind the yellow line and wait their turn. HUH?? That's a prisoner!! Surely you don't want a guy like that hanging around at a big airport any longer than strictly necessary??? And wouldn't they have known that he was coming? The crew was informed, so why wasn't there someone waiting to escort him off the airport?? I thought security was so important? That struck me as odd, to say the least.
By the time we got through customs and claimed our bags I wanted something to drink, a soda, or some water. But no such luck, not in that part of that large airport. Not even a vending machine. So we took the airtrain (never thought something like that would exist!! An airtrain!! How funny!) that took us to the other side of the airport where the rental car companies were located. We were all excited coz we had booked an "all american car", a Chevrolet Blazer (or equal), to travel in true US style. And we got the "or equal", and they gave us a Suzuki. Duh!!! Our dream of driving in US style shattered!! It's still a nice car though and it won't spoil our holiday one bit. It may even have added to the fun, coz now when we see a Blazer, we point at it and go "that's our car!!" and laugh.... LOLOL
The staff at the rental company was so kind to let me buy some water from their vending machine in the back for the employees, coz there was no other way to get something to drink. And off we were!!! Our 3 week trip in a car had started!!
Wooohooo!!
It's getting late now, and I'll have to catch up with the past few days and our experiences some other time. Hope you all enjoy reading it though!

Hugs,
Wezz