And here it is – the final post about my Fabulous 40 NYC birthday trip!

Today started as a very early morning so I had time to get up, have breakfast, and finish packing, and get to the airport on time.

I left the hotel right about when I planned and traffic wasn’t too bad (I took a Lyft again), so made it to the airport in plenty of time. The security line was surprisingly short. It would have gone smoother if people realized that it is designed to allow four people to put their stuff in the bins at a time, but there were 3 open places and the person in front of me wasn’t going to any of them. While I can see how this system is supposed to work, another issue is that there is no place to set your stuff while putting it in the bin – for example, I have to open my backpack to take items out – but there isn’t a place (except the floor) to set it while doing so. On the other end of the x-ray there is a place where the bin sits while they analyze it to determine if it needs manual inspection or not. When my bin was sitting there, I started silently cheering for it to go down the belt that doesn’t need further inspection – luckily it went that way.

My flight from New York to DTW was uneventful and even arrived early, which was very nice, as I had a tight connection, so this made the connection possible without rushing or any worries. The middle seat was empty which made for a very nice flight. Grabbed a quick Frosty from Wendy’s at DTW before catching my flight back to Lansing. On the flight from DTW to LAN I knew I was back in Michigan as we hit some rough air (previously known as turbulence), so “Welcome to Michigan, where not only do we have rough roads, we have rough air!” Got my luggage quite quickly (minus my luggage tag, that finally wore out enough I guess that it is somewhere at an airport or in a plane!) and went to my car. I remembered where it was! Then it was a simple drive home and that ended the vacation.

Some closing thoughts.

While walking around and observing traffic in NYC, I discovered several of the problems with traffic flow. Cars would go into the intersection even if they couldn’t get all the way through, so then the light would change and they would be stuck in the intersection and the cross traffic couldn’t go either. I always thought you weren’t supposed to enter an intersection unless you could get through it. Also, pedestrians would cause problems. Often people would cross the street without a walk sign, but mostly they’d make sure there was no traffic and it was fine. However, some times they would just start crossing even with traffic coming, so then traffic couldn’t move at all because people couldn’t wait for the walk sign. Still glad I don’t have to drive in NYC!

I did a lot of walking in these 8 days! Over the 8 days I walked a total of 159,586 steps or about 74 miles! Yikes! On average that is about 20,000 steps/day or almost 10 miles a day! My legs are looking pretty awesome though!

My hotel was perfect! While based on the reviews I was a little nervous about the room size and the noise from the city, as some had concerns with that in the reviews. Yes, the room was a bit smaller than a hotel room you’d find in other cities, but nothing crazy – it was prefect for what I needed. I hardly ever noticed any city noise except for the occasional siren, but I get that here as well. The staff at the hotel were great – very polite and friendly. Especially the desk clerk who worked in the afternoons/evenings. He always had a big smile and a “hello” when I’d come in. Which, from my adventures I came and went a lot! Usually wearing something different each time! The location was perfect as well – right by the main things I was doing, lots within walking distance. It served as a perfect “vacation central” spot to do all my activities from. I’d certainly stay there again.

I’m sure I’ll get asked the general overarching question “Did you like New York City?”. As a city itself, to me it is just another city. It has people, it has buildings, it has stores and restaurants. So do all other cities. I’ll admit Times Square was pretty cool. More importantly I enjoyed the things New York City has to offer – mainly the shows. Someone I was chatting with said they did quite a few shows in a short time and they got burned out and was ready for a break from seeing theatre. Not me! I could have easily stayed another week and seen 8 more shows! The 9/11 Memorial was very awesome as well. Also, when thinking about “Could I live there?” my initial reaction is I probably could based on my experience, but then I realize – that I didn’t “live” there for the past week, I was on vacation. I didn’t have to go to work, have to buy groceries, do banking, etc. So hard to tell how it would be to live somewhere based on a vacation alone.

Prior to the trip I’m sure most of you know I spent hours and hours researching and planning things. Figuring out which activities to do on what days based on location and timing and my projected emotional state. I would obsess about making the perfect decisions for this trip. While, I know being spontaneous can be good for people, I also know that I am most happy when I have a nice plan and things all figured out – nice and orderly. Because of that – I would consider this trip perfectly successful. I can’t really think of anything I would have changed or done differently – everything worked out exactly as I expected.

Now for the post-vacation-blahs. Already as I type this, this vacation seems like a lifetime ago. The memories are that – just memories – starting to fade slowly in my mind. At times almost seems like a dream. That is the hard part of vacations is that they end. It is times like this that I wish I had a partner (not just a friend to go with me, but a true partner/boyfriend/husband) someone who I could share and relive these memories with. While being single is nice most of the time, certain times I do feel lonely.

Well, that is the wrap on my Fabulous 40 NYC birthday celebration! <bows><exit stage left><fade to black>