We left Montgomery on Sunday morning, December 28, already packed and ready to start our journey. That morning was really just coffee, breakfast, and the quiet routine I do when I know we are about to be away from home for a few days. I took Maverick around the block for a walk, the same way we usually do in the mornings. He had no idea what was coming, but I did, and I wanted that little bit of normal before we got in the car.

We left for Atlanta with my car sitting at about ninety percent charge. By the time we pulled into Peachy Airport Parking, it was down around thirty, which is exactly what I had planned. The drive itself was quite easy, much easier than a normal drive to Atlanta; being Sunday and during the holidays probably helped. They have indoor parking at parking loation, and each space has a regular wall outlet. It is not fast charging, but it is enough to trickle charge while you are gone, which is kind of perfect for a trip like this. I plugged in, grabbed our bags, and we took the shuttle to the airport.

Security at ATL was weirdly easy compared to how it used to be. I did not take my shoes off. I did not pull liquids out of my bag. Nobody else was doing it either, and everything just… worked. We went through with Thomas, no issues, and made our way over to Concourse C, gate C6, to wait for our flight to LaGuardia.

We all got sandwiches to eat before boarding and sat across the way from our gate because it was so crowded.

We heard the pre-boarding announcement. That was it.

We heard other flights get canceled. We heard other flights get delayed. We heard gates changing. But we never heard anything else about our flight. We were sitting in the vicinity of the gate, but not exactly in the gate area. Erika finally walked up to the desk to ask what was going on and, in the fifteen minutes between that pre-boarding announcement and when she got there, they had closed the door and given our seats away. The flight was gone.

We were shocked. There is no other word for it. The gate agent marked us as volunteers so we could be rebooked, which at least meant vouchers, and they gave us three hundred dollars per ticket. That part was nice, but it did not change the fact that we were suddenly stuck.

They put us on the eight o’clock flight to LaGuardia, so we waited. A lot. I fell asleep for a while in the terminal chairs with my head on my bag. At some point they moved us from Concourse C over to Concourse E. We dragged everything over there and waited some more. When boarding was closer to time, we realized we did not have seat assignments. We went up to the desk and were told we were on standby.

That was not what we had been told earlier.

Six people from our original flight had been moved to this one. Three of them got on. We did not. So there we were, close to nine or ten at night, walking out of the concourse, riding the train all the way back to the main terminal, exiting security, and going back to the Frontier desk. Even they could not believe what had happened. We had been bumped from one flight and then left on standby for the second. They got managers involved and eventually found us another flight, leaving in around an hour, but this one was to JFK.

We took it.

That plane did not leave until close to eleven thirty, and we did not land in New York until a little after one thirty in the morning. We were wrecked. We got a Lyft from JFK straight to our hotel, which only took about half an hour and felt like the best decision we made all day.

We rolled into the Radio Hotel sometime around three in the morning. We had a great suite, with a king bed on one side and a pull-out couch on the other, separated by the bathroom. Thomas had his own space, we had ours, and even though it was raining and overcast and we could not really see much, the views from the eleventh floor were already promising. We collapsed.

We did not wake up until well after ten.

Once we were upright, we got coffee, figured out our plan, and took the one train down to the Met. We joined a public tour that was meeting in the lobby, and for about an hour and a half we were walked through different parts of the museum by a guide who clearly loved what he did. Every guide has their own favorite pieces and their own stories, and it meant we saw things we probably would have walked right past if we had been on our own. When the tour ended, we kept wandering. We saw the armaments. We checked out the newer wing. The museum closes at five, and with about fifteen minutes left, we made our way back down to the front so Erika and Thomas could run into the gift shop before it closed.

Food note: Thomas and Erika got hot dogs and a pretzel ($5) to share from the street vendors. We quickly ate them while waiting in line. 

From there we walked into Central Park. We went past the Alice in Wonderland statue, around the ponds, and over to Strawberry Fields to see the Imagine mosaic for John Lennon. It was already dark by the time we headed toward Times Square, which was exactly what we wanted. Thomas had never been to New York, and we wanted him to see Times Square at night before New Year’s Eve turned it into something else entirely.

We found John’s Pizzeria and, somehow, managed to get on the wait list in the middle of absolute chaos. Erika and I grabbed a drink at the bar while we waited, and I remember how absurdly good that felt. We were exhausted, but sitting there in Times Square, drinks in hand, felt like a tiny victory. Before we had even finished them, our table was ready.

We ordered a big pizza, drinks, a salad, and dessert. The weirdest thing happened. There was a wood screw in the salad. I am not exaggerating. A literal screw. We showed it to the waiter and he was horrified. He comped the salad, the drinks, and the dessert. We paid for the pizza and tipped well because the service was great and everyone was doing their best. John’s is in an old church, it is loud and packed and fun, and I would absolutely go back.

We stumbled upon a Broadway souvenir shop next to John’s Pizza—Theatre Circle. The staff was friendly and engaging. We bought stickers and postcards and a Playbill notepad for The Flowers.

After dinner, we walked over to Bryant Park, where the holiday market was still up. Erika and Thomas found a shop selling little handbags and clutches with different phrases and designs on them, and they spent a long time digging through them, laughing and picking things out. We watched the Zamboni circle the ice rink and took in the whole winter skating scene.

From there we went to Grand Central Terminal. Grand Central is one of those places you just have to experience in person to understand the scale. We went to the Whispering Gallery and did the thing where one person stands in one corner, the other stands in the opposite corner, and you can hear each other through the ceiling. It is still magical. In the main terminal, someone was proposing, and the whole place erupted in applause. I showed Thomas the ceiling, and the small patch they left untouched during restoration so you can see how dark it used to be.

We got back to the hotel a little after ten or eleven. It was a long day, but it felt full.

Tuesday we were up at eight. That is normal for us. We layered up because it was cold and took the one train all the way down to Battery Park. We looked out at the Statue of Liberty from the ferry area and walked through Battery Park itself, though a lot of it was under construction. Thomas wanted to go out to the statue, but the timing just did not work, and after standing there for a while he realized it was not really worth sacrificing the whole day.

We walked toward Wall Street and up to Liberty Bagels. I had an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese. Thomas went for a French toast bagel with birthday cake cream cheese, which was basically dessert in bread form. From there we took the train up to the New York Public Library, sat at a table outside the library with our bagels, and decided what we wanted to do next. The library had the Treasures exhibit and a New Yorker exhibit. I went through Treasures and while Erika did the New Yorker one Thomas and I took a break and I checked in with my former student Rosalind.

I was texting back and forth with Rosalind, who works as the behind-the-scenes photographer at Saturday Night Live. We pushed our meet-up back to one thirty, which worked out perfectly. She told us to meet her under the NBC Studios awning. When we got there, she waved us inside, took us through security, then through another layer of security, and out a back door where the Rockefeller tree was glowing in front of us, completely empty of tourists on that side. Just us and this enormous, lit Christmas tree.

Then she asked if we wanted to see Studio 8H!!!

The place where Saturday Night Live is broadcast, we got to walk on the stage. We saw the sets. We went under the low beam that says “Watch Your Head” with “Farley” scribbled next to it because Chris Farley used to hit it all the time. We stood where Lorne Michaels sits. We met Wally, the cue card guy. We went up to the writers’ room on the seventeenth floor, where the tracking sheets from when Ariana Grande hosted the week before were still sitting on the table. I cannot properly explain how surreal that was. SNL has been a show I have loved for as long as I can remember. It was an absolute treat!

We headed back out to the street and saw Sak’s Fifth Avenue and FAO Schwartz holiday window displays. Thomas got a second pretzel from a street vendor ($6). At some point in our trip we also walked past The New York Times. 

From there we went to H Mart in Koreatown because Rosalind suggested it. I bought shrimp chips, which sound terrible but were incredible. We walked to Madison Square Park, saw the Flatiron, and figured out where to eat before our show. We landed at Perfect Pint in Times Square. I had a burger. Thomas had fish and chips. Erika had French onion soup. We warmed up, had drinks, and caught our breath. It was exactly the break we needed from the crowds and cold. 

We grabbed gelato after that at Amorino Gelato and walked to the Walter Kerr Theatre to see Hadestown. I did not really know what I was walking into, but it was beautiful. The lighting, the sets, the music. It was all so well done.

Wednesday we slept until about nine. Instead of the train, we walked down 181st Street to Fort Washington Park to see the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge. I had a children’s book about it when I was little, and seeing that bright red lighthouse under that massive gray bridge felt strangely emotional… It was a good fond memory from my childhood. It still has a working beacon. It is still there!

We went back to the hotel to change layers, then headed back into the city. Thomas and I went to the American Museum of Natural History while Erika went to the Folk Art Museum. Some of Natural History felt dated, but the space and marine exhibits were great. Thomas got another pretzel from a street vendor, and I got one too ($8). We met back up and grabbed drinks at Whole Foods before heading up onto the High Line. We got a little turned around on one of the branches, but eventually found our way down to Chelsea Market.

Chelsea Market was where we stopped and settled. Erika and I shared a charcuterie board and drinks. Thomas had Japanese Mexican fusion nachos. We talked about the day and warmed up. After that we took the train down to the Financial District and walked to Wo Hop in Chinatown, ordered food to go, and took it all the way back up to the hotel.

We watched the ball drop on TV. We could see the fireworks out our window in Washington Heights. Midtown was chaotic, but we were far away from it, warm, full, and together with some of the best steamed dumplings I’d ever had in my life!

Thursday morning a Lyft picked us up around nine thirty and took us to LaGuardia, which is so much nicer than JFK. Thomas got Shake Shack and Erika got mexican at a small restaurant near our gate. We shared chips and salsa. We flew to Atlanta without any drama, got back to Peachy where my car was sitting at about seventy percent, and drove home. We stopped to charge in Auburn and made it all the way back to Montgomery.