It's a long (and probably boring) story. (That should be the title of this blog.) But in a nutshell, we thought we might not manage a senior trip with Malachi at all, and then we thought we might manage to find a time this summer before his mission, and then we thought we might do it in December, and then we thought we couldn't possibly fit it in in the six days between the end of Sam's BYU classes and the Finals he'd need to be back for, and then suddenly it was Thanksgiving and there were cheap flights available to Greece in a few weeks, but on the right days, and it seemed a little crazy to go so far, for so few days, on such short notice, with so much else going on…but then we thought about how GREAT it has been to spend uninterrupted one-on-one time with our older boys at this age precisely when they DO have so much else going on. And we decided life was not going to get less hectic anytime soon, and that a short time in Greece would still be pretty amazing, and we bought the plane tickets!
(Traveling) beggars can't be (traveling) choosers. So the logistics of the travel were not ideal. But late flights and long layovers meant that we would find ourselves in New York City with ten hours to kill before our next flight. And on Malachi's birthday, no less! So we researched "long layovers in NYC" and saw that plenty of people manage trips in to the city from the airport, and then it seemed it might be fun to have a little extra leg of our trip to enjoy!
We planned a few things we might do, but the best part came totally unexpectedly the day before we left. Sebastian texted me saying he was in Washington D.C., heading to New Jersey.
(Time out for an explanation about Seb. Now that he works for United Airlines, he has free flight benefits again. He can fly free on United anywhere and anytime there are open seats on standby. So every time he has two days off, he just flies wherever he can around the country! He has no spare money, and he's not even old enough to rent a car yet, so he does not actually VISIT those places around the country. He has gotten good at sleeping in airports. But he goes to all these different airports and watches planes and sees what he can see on the flights in and out, and he loves it! He will sometimes fly all the way across the country and immediately all the way back just for fun! So I am never surprised anymore to get a text saying "Hi, I'm in Honolulu!" or "Hi, I'm in New Jersey!")
I said, "Oh, we are going to be in New York tomorrow! I wish we could see you!"
Seb said, "I have tomorrow off too. But United doesn't fly to JFK."
Sam (who went to Newark on his mission) said, "It's an easy train ride across the river from New Jersey."
And so it was settled! Seb slept in the airport (actually I think he rode around on a few more flights first and then ended up back in Newark) and then rode the train in to meet us at Union Station in New York the next morning!
It felt like so much could go wrong. But nothing did. We found Seb. We had fun with him all day. Then we said goodbye and rode different trains off in different directions, and we both got back to our airports in time for our flights out. A miracle!
I don't know anything, really, about New York. (This is not a "what to do in New York City" post!) I did go there one time when I was young, and we saw the Statue of Liberty and maybe some of Central Park. But Sam had been there as a missionary (just for a special Mission Conference or something) so he knew sort of where things were, and some of the things we could see. Other people gave us good recommendations too. But we didn't really care what we did besides just walk around and see what it was like to be there!
We tasted some pastries at Dominique Ansel bakery for breakfast (Malachi's birthday breakfast!) and everything was really good!
Saw lots of famous buildings.
The pretty Christmas tree by the ice rink at Rockefeller Center! I've seen that in movies.
It was pretty cold. But not HORRIBLY cold. With a hat and scarf on, it was bearable.
We just peeked in the lobby here
Inside a fancy department store…
…which sold dresses like these!
A tiny, bike-powered Amazon truck! I knew my boys would like that.
St. Patrick's Cathedral all decorated for Christmas
We had super good pizza for lunch. Sam has missed this kind of pizza, which is almost (but not quite!) the same as the "New Jersey pie" he liked so much on his mission.
We rode the train down to the World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial, which was interesting to see. I remember learning about the new building, One World Trade Center, with these boys back when they were little and so interested in skyscrapers!
It's so tall!
Reflecting pool, surrounded by names from people who died in the Twin Towers.
We stopped for hot chocolate at a Belgian chocolate place…the owner was speaking French with someone and it made me miss Quebec!
By the time we rode the train back to the airport, picked up our bags, and got back through security, the sun was starting to set. The city looked so pretty in the pink sunset light!
We finished up Malachi's Birthday Cake (angel food cake from our celebration the previous night—I stuffed the last of it in my bag before we left, and it somehow survived well enough for us to eat it while waiting for our flight to Greece!).
And that was our NYC adventure on Malachi's 18th birthday! I'm so glad we got to spend it with him and Sebastian, doing such fun and interesting things!
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