Je suis arrivée à l’aéroport !

And I wheeled all four by myself. With ease. Don’t ask me how. It just works.

I’m early. That’s me.

Okayyyyyyyyy…….

Nothing like testing positive for explosives at the French airport.

That was wild. Never happened before. Went through all kinds of extra security measures. Nothing offensive or rude or upsetting – other than suddenly feeling guilty. lol!

All cleared. Phew! I need coffee. And a pain au chocolat before departure!

On board. All set. See you, soon! 💙✈️

Au revoir, Paris! Merci pour tout!!!!!!

And… in flight, I finally watched « Eat, Pray, Love » and wow.

CONTINUED…

After all the extra screening in Paris – which was certainly a bit alarming, I boarded the plane and greeted the crew.

I was lucky to get 3 seats to myself. I didn’t plan on sleeping. These were civilized hours. 12:40pm departure. Arriving at JFK at 4:00pm.

Remind me I said « civilized. »

The original plan was that Thomas had a layover at JFK and that’s why I picked that date. August 20 – a very special date in the family, as it’s my daughter and son-in-law’s wedding anniversary!

Much love to Taylor and Matt today and always!

Love you two! 💕

So, that was the plan, but somewhere along the line, it changed. Thomas no longer had that JFK layover trip. He did not want to burden me with the changed itinerary, he just set about making another plan to get me home. Involving a train. Or two. Three?

Remember how many suitcases I had?

I’m here to tell you there are a lot of escalators getting into and out of New York City’s underground.

New York City, you say? Why yes!

We thought the train was going to Penn Station, but no, it ended at Grand Central.

So we exited onto 44th Street on the East Side (Thomas informed me) thankfully not Times Square as I had originally been thinking when I saw the signs in the station.

Did I mention the four suitcases?

Well hey – isn’t that the Chrysler building?

Now what?

It’s a gorgeous day. If we didn’t have four suitcases I would’ve treated my son to dinner!

Alas – we hopped (!) in an Uber and headed to Penn Station.

The Public Library – as seen from the Uber.

Here we are. Sort of. Oh look! the Empire State Building – with a JetBlue billboard in the foreground! 💙✈️

Nothing like a little impromptu sightseeing! Taking photos whilst wheeling four suitcases through the streets of New York? No problem.

But then we realized we have to cross the street (with four suitcases) to get to the Moynihan Station.

Down another escalator. I have lost count by now. and onto a train with a very WIDE mind-the-gap GAP. And four suitcases.

On board. Seated one behind the other. All four suitcases stowed.

Nice view of the city as we leave.

Heading to Trenton Train Station, where Thomas’s car is parked.

At this point, I turned to Thomas and burst out laughing, saying, I landed 3 hours ago.

And then we laughed harder because had he DRIVEN to JFK to pick me up, we’d most likely still be on the Belt Parkway heading home!

With four suitcases.