Ingrid and Tony's Travels

Well someone up there really wanted me to have both a challenging and ‘extended’ birthday.  It is now November 3, my birthday in the northern hemisphere and now we are stuck in Halifax – fog!  What is it with weather in this part of the world?  The short story is that our flight was cancelled this morning and we are now leaving Halifax this afternoon  (she says hopefully), via Toronto and onto New York, so we miss the dinner celebrations tonight that Tony so carefully planned before we left Australia.  After a few tears (both of us) we are looking on the bright side.  One day we will laugh about this -but probably not for a while.  And we will get to have that special dinner some time. But not on my birthday it seems.

I feel for Tony who went to so much trouble organising this trip and planning all these special events. But we were never to know that #Sandy would intervene in New York and that Halifax would also decide to throw us a curve ball.  However, we still remain thankful that we are together and safe.

Loved some of these scenes of Halifax that we decided to share more.

A great day with Steph and James in Halifax.  So it’s best said in pictures – mostly at Peggy’s Cove.

Great big hugs and kisses from Steph (Anthony’s Canadian sister and our Canadian ‘daughter’) and husband James who met us at the airport. We are now in our hotel as it is late at night.  We will do some sight seeing tomorrow and have a nice dinner with the both of them tomorrow night.

At the same time, I confess I have had a Starbucks.  But before you all groan, it was TEA!  And not a bad brew at that.

However we still think we will have to put the yanks and the canuks into what is the equivalent of Consumer Affairs here.  Seriously, how can you be proud of this?

Very false advertising.

Huge plus.  We have made it to Toronto and are sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Halifax.  Great relief to actually get a connecting flight because this was our problem on Sunday.  When we arrived in Boston from New York, Air Canada wouldn’t honour our ticket and so therefore we had to stay put at the Hilton at the airport until the weather subsided.  Boston was certainly hit hard with pelting rain and high windes but we were safe inside a beautiful hotel.

Soon we will see Steph and James in Halifax and if we have to stay there longer till we can get back to NYC, then we are not concerned.  A birthday celebration in Halifax is a good thing! Our apartment should be reconnected tomorrow (Thursday) our time but the next issue  we have to contend with is the flight into LaGuardia which has copped a heap of water so we are not sure whether Delta will/can divert to JFK or cancel.  Fingers crossed.

It’s the uncertainty with our plans literally ‘up in the air’ – and this is how it has been  since we arrived in Boston! However we are grateful we didn’t have to ride out the storm in New York.  Tony had already booked our trip direct from NYC to Canada, but had we decided to do Canada later, we would have been in the eye of that terrible storm. We feel for those who have had a truly terrifying experience. We were lucky and we are thankful we are together and safe.

We’re sitting at Boston Logan airport and fingers and toes crossed we are hoping to get to Halifax.

The past few days have been extremely frustrating and we are still not sure what we will be doing for the remainder of our holiday.  Our NY apartment doesn’t have power and it is very grim in NYC with LaGuardia airport, where we are due to arrive Friday, still under water.  We are still hoping but will know more by Thursday our time.  In the meantime we are hoping to see the lovely smiling faces of Steph and James and will re-assess our situation once in Canada.

Thank you all for your lovely thoughts and wishes.  This has been an adventure and while stressful at times, we are thankful we are safe and well, and that we are together.  I love my husband for what he has tried to do to celebrate my birthday.  If we are not in NYC to do that, then c’est la vie. Just thankful  we are together and that even though it has been a difficult few days dealing with airlines, trudging airports and holed up in Boston, we have been together throughout.  That’s all that matters.

So Delta says  we are good to go – fingers crossed.  As I said in the earlier post the only issue is the Toronto to Halifax connection but I suppose we are now so experienced at dealing with cancelled flights (she laughs) that we can probably handle being stuck in Toronto.

No flights into LaGuardia today so I presume that means the airport has been badly thumped by Sandy.  Here’s hoping that it is operational by Friday when we are due back.
The uncertainty is the only painful thing.  I know our flight issues are the least of the problems by comparison to those that have beset the poor people affected by this shocker of a storm. However when you are so far away from home and are relying on any morsel of information, it can be tough to think clearly about what to do. We have had a relaxing time here and will try to go into Boston proper this afternoon, now that the weather is a little calmer, and check out the sights.
In the meantime, if all else fails, the gym beckoned and it was good to have a great workout to clear the cobwebs.  Terrific equipment here. Love cross trainers that tell you what to do – just like your own automated personal trainer. Not sure our PT, Bren, would appreciate being replaced by a piece of equipment.

Shocking images overnight of NYC which has put a bit of a scare up us both as to what we will find if and when we get back to the Big Apple on Friday!

We also have received advice from Delta that doesn’t fill us with a huge amount of confidence ie that we may not make our connection from Toronto to Halifax – not quite sure what that means but if our experience on Monday is anything is to go by, nothing can be guaranteed in the airline industry here.

So you can see that we are in a bit of limbo at the moment.  We will try to contact Delta later  to see what is the story and if there is likely to be a problem we may hang tight in Boston – go and see some of the sights here and then try to make our way back to NYC by plane or train.  Certainly been an adventure to date!

In the meantime we are heading to the gym shortly to try to work off a bit of the frustration and have a clear head to deal with the next phase.

Importantly, we are fortunate that we were not in NYC overnight.  It would have been a very frightening experience and we are both thankful that we had this Canadian leg organised as the first part of our journey.  Queens, which is where we stayed on our first night in NYC, was fairly badly hit and had our travels brought us to the US on the night that #Sandy decided to pay a visit, who knows what would have happened?

Even the squirrels are scurrying for cover- just outside our Boston digs.

Can’t believe how many of these US TV commentators feel the need to stand in water.  It seems that you cannot gauge how serious is  hurricane Sandy unless you are actually standing in water showing viewers that ‘yes, there is a flood because see, I am standing in it!’

And then there are the comparisons of ‘when I was standing in this same area earlier today it was just a car park or a street and see how it is under water now’.

We have watched all channels, CNN, ABC, Fox and they all have a fantasy with the level of water.  Currently watching a guy on CNN who is standing in water up to his waist in New Jersey and he has just told viewers he has been in that same spot since 3pm and the water has risen to his waist in that time.  Gosh, he’d have to be cold by now!