Our plane arrived a little late today but our bags popped out and onto the carrousel almost immediately. We made our way to the ground transportation area to catch the private car Nicole had reserved. We were told that the Taxi line could be upwards of an hour and that a private car is only slightly more without the line. It was a great choice. Our driver, Jennifer, who her work refers to as JLo, was awesome. She was a super fun, high energy Jamaican woman. She entertained us with stories of driving celebrities and the who’s who of New York while having facial blindness (yes it’s real). Essentially she doesn’t recognize people by their faces so important or famous people get in her car and she has no idea who they are. Sometimes they laugh, sometimes they are offended; either way it made for great stories.

We made our way to the condo we are staying in in Kips Bay. It’s a basic little studio apartment and will work well for what we need. It’s on the 11th floor so it is hot up here but all we need to do is shower and sleep so we’ll buy a fan today; good enough for us. We decided to lay down for 30 minutes since neither of us slept on the plane. That 30 minutes turned into 2 hours. That was fine though, because we both needed the sleep big time.

After our much needed nap we made our way out to NYC. Our first stop, a neighborhood brick oven pizza by the slice restaurant for lunch. We ordered margherita pizza slices which were delicious. After that we pretty much spent the day wandering around New York. We made it to the outside of the Empire State building, Grand Central Station, The New York Public Library, a 9/11 Memorial at Bryant Park, Times Square, and the 12th Avenue pier area. We enjoyed a couple beers on the pier before heading out on the twilight cruise.

The cruise was absolutely amazing, starting at 6:30 we were able to see New York transform from a daytime city full of reflective glass to a city of towering, gorgeous, sparkling lights. The Statue of Liberty was front lit so we were able to take pictures. We made our way to an Indian restaurant Tiffin Willi for dinner and walked back to the condo for some much needed shut eye.

A few pictures of the day

(Click them to enlarge)

Up until yesterday at 10am we thought New York was going to be added to that list. Nicole had arranged for us to exchange homes with a user who lives in Florida, but has an apartment on the Upper East Side of New York, around 61st and 6th ave. He was fairly short in their communication back and forth but told Nicole we were confirmed a month ago. Well, on Tuesday he called Nicole to tell her that he had made a mistake and double booked and that a couple of his employees were going to be using the apartment. He apologized but pretty much didn’t give a damn that we had plane tickets, broadway tickets, time scheduled out of the office etc. None of which could be cancelled. This left us with everything we needed for our vacation except somewhere to sleep…which is pretty important.

Nicole, and I this time, went into panic mode and started contacting anyone we could on either Home Exchange or VRBO (Vacation Rentals) to find a home. Nicole emailed upwards of 50 exchanges and another 25+ VRBOs to see if anyone had a home available. She tried to get a priceline hotel for under $200/night but was unable and also emailed our friend Abbe from San Francisco, who just moved to New York, to see if she knew anyone in New York that would exchange with us. She even called Home Exchange to see if they could help. The Home Exchange emails and VRBOs turned up very little other than “We are so sorry this happened, what a jack ass, our apartment is booked”. What did turn up? Abbe and the Vice President of Home Exchange.

Amazing People To The Rescue

First, Abbe. What an amazing friend. She offered to let us sleep in her apartment, even on an Aero bed, while she worked all week. She had no problem letting us completely invade her life. She also realized that she would be out of town the week we were there so after a few days we could have the apartment to ourselves. While we may have to watch Coco, her sweet little dog, at least we had an option. Next, a call from the Vice President of Home Exchange. He felt terrible about what had happened and had found one of their employees who had a home in New York available. Their programmer spends half his time in New York and half in California. Luck would have it that hew was leaving on Friday, the same day we were arriving. He hadn’t rented his apartment out so he was overly generous and told us we could use it while he was away.

What an amazing turn of luck. Abbe, Home Exchange, and their employee DJ have gone above and beyond to do their best to get us to New York without an added cost of a hotel room.

Just a few more hours of sleep, work and packing and off we go. Thanks to everyone who stepped up, our trip wouldn’t have happened without you!