Feature Stories

FlyGirl Blog: The East Coast Visit Draws to a Close ...

AeroChannel FlyGirl columnist Katie O'Brien keeps us up-to-date on her latest travels ...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 6:05 p.m. EDT

Hey, FlyGirl readers! It's been a couple of days since I've updated, mainly because I have not been on the move. It has been so nice, just spending time with my family. The weather on the Cape was gorgeous, and I played tons of tennis. True-to-form for an O'Brien, I also got my first seaside sunburn of '08, despite wearing SPF 857 wherever I go. Not that I'm bitter, but I appear to be wearing scarlet red, oddly-shaped sleeves...which are my skin.

Alas, my break is done, and I'm on my way back to NYC. I'm on the Amtrak from Providence, and it's pretty crowded for a Wednesday. I am wondering if the trains will only get worse, now that everyone's so riled up from the recent AA incident. I still can't believe that happened, but I guess, much like kindergarten, you have to play nice or you don't get to play at all. Even though you paid hundreds of dollars for a ticket.

People are angry ... I'm curious to see how things shake down. I'll get some better insight when I head to JFK on Saturday morning ...

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Sunday, July 6, 2008, 6:10 p.m. EDT

Apparently, even with now glorious weather (I just came in from reading on the beach…life is tough) air travel can still go awry. Surprisey McDonuts had a major delay leaving Providence for some reason related to something technical. I tend to not ask about those kinds of things, because I'd rather not know. Many aggravated people with New England accents sat on the runway for almost two hours. Witnesses report hearing complaints such as, "Get us outta heeyah!" and "We've been in this plane foah a wicked long time!"

Newark isn't much better right now. The weather's alright but there are still some low clouds and fog. Plus, the later it gets, the more people are starting to travel home. Everyone needs to be back at work tomorrow, but it's hard to carry luggage and move quickly when you have a sunburn…I've heard.

More updates from LAX toward the end of the night!

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Sunday, July 6, 2008 1:33 p.m. EDT

Surprisey McDonuts just called from T.F. Green airport in Providence. Apparently it's very quiet there today...things likely won't pick up until late afternoon and evening. His flight's a bit delayed, but he can't stop commenting on how relaxed the atmosphere is there and how nice everyone is. It's true--that's often the benefit of smaller airports. Less traffic means less stress for everyone who works there and more personal care for each passenger. Providence is a great place to be stuck for a bit of extra time. We'll see how he feels once he arrives in Newark for his layover though...

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Saturday, July 5, 2008, 12:50 p.m. EDT

I hope everyone's 4th of July weekend was great! I spent my weekend with family on Buzzards Bay in Massachussetts, and I had a fantastic surprise! I thought that my boyfriend had to work all weekend, and so I was bummed that he couldn't join us…but lo and behold, he walked through my door with flowers and Dunkin Donuts (not kidding…he's got my number) on the morning of the 4th! I had NO idea, and he made it here all the way from LA overnight. He flew LAX to Providence, and so I suppose I owe a big "thank you" to United for staying on schedule even on such a busy travel day!

East Coast weather was actually not so great all weekend, but it was still a lovely, relaxing time. Naturally, my boyfriend (let's refer to him as Surprisey McDonuts) left for the airport about an hour ago, and the sun began shining ten minutes later. Figures. At least I have the beach and the tennis court to distract me now that he's gone!

Of course, I still have you guys in mind (always) and so as a final favor, Surprisey McDonuts will be calling in with some updates from Providence, Newark, and LAX. Good luck to everyone who's heading home from their holiday weekends!

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July 3, 2008, 7:26 p.m. EDT

East Coast updates! I just got word from my friend Adrienne that she encountered disaster in her effort to make her flight to Europe. She got a company car to pick her up in midtown east, and they encouraged her to leave 1.5 hours early to get to Newark.

Forty minutes later, Adrienne's car has only made it to the west village, and word is that it will take an hour to get through the tunnel.

Fortunately, Adrienne has FlyGirl on her side. She remembered my recommendation to go from Manhattan to EWR by train--it's almost always on time, and it takes about forty minutes to do NJ Transit and the shuttle to the airport.

In a flash, Adrienne made the driver turn around and take her back to Penn Station. As I mentioned earlier, that was a zoo. And the check-in and security at EWR wasn't much better!

Leaving Manhattan to go anywhere is a mess today. And the traffic from Boston to the Cape is insane. But fireworks and bonfires are worth it!

Happy 4th, everyone!

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Thursday, July 3, 2008, 2:20 p.m. EDT

I'm on the train to Providence now. I'm not surprised, but everyone in the city of New York seems to be leaving today for July 4th festivities. Penn Station was packed, and people were behaving as though they were monkeys or stampeding boars that just escaped from Disney's Animal Kingdom. There was pushing and shoving and trampling...my life flashed before my eyes a few times. People are really intense about getting their barbeque action.

Now I'm on the Amtrak, sitting next to two babies. We're on our third round of Jungle Book highlights, and we've barely passed New Rochelle. Excellent. With all of this mayhem, I can't even imagine what the airports are like.

My friend is flying to Europe tonight for a wedding. I can't wait to hear what the scene is like at EWR!

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 1:51 p.m. EDT

New York is hot. New York is sticky. And I am an idiot.

I'm staying at the apartment of Adrienne, one of my college roommates, but she's out of town on business during the week. The last little gift that she left me on Monday morning was that she blew a fuse in the back section of the apartment…bedroom, bathroom, and air conditioner. Thankfully, I have been out and about in the city and home very little, but it has still been a bit upsetting.

Two days went by, and finally today I just went down to knock on the super's door. I couldn't imagine why he hadn't fixed it yet, but I have now had enough of showering in the pitch black and losing eight pounds of water weight each night while I sleep.

He just walked into the apartment, over to a fuse box (which I'd apparently been walking past all this time…it's right in the hallway, slightly above my eye level), and pressed a button. And lo and behold, the power comes on and the air conditioner springs to life. If I'd been slightly less lazy and jet-lagged, I so could have MacGyvered that thing days ago. Alas.

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Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 3:47 p.m., EDT

Today between meetings I found my friend Jared and we had four hours to kill. So, despite the unfortunate ending to yesterday's stroll, we decided to just go where the city took us. Today was less atrociously humid, so the result was Central Park. It was lovely. We sat and chatted, and then grabbed lunch and sat some more, this time by the fountain at Columbus Circle.

All of these are great places for people-watching, which is one activity that definitely is more successful in Manhattan than anywhere else in the world. We observed an uncanny number of dogs and owners who look scarily alike. We also had some brief but antagonistic encounters with pigeons. What more can you want from a summer day?

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Monday, June 30, 2008, 6:15 p.m. EDT

OK, remember when I was waxing poetic about adventures? Screw that. All day, we'd been tempting fate, walking all over the city in the sunshine when it was supposed to be raining. Well, post-Grimaldi's, we got caught in a flash flood-tastic rainstorm. I look great. Figures.

Heading back uptown to meet some other friends in Hell's Kitchen, my old neighborhood. I look like a drowned, sunburned rat who has walked eighty-five miles today. New York is the greatest.

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Monday, June 30, 2008, 5:32 p.m., EDT

The absolute best New York days are the ones in which you have no plans other than to "enjoy the city." These often lead to some of the most amazing sights, sounds, and experiences. Today, I met one of my favorite friends uptown, and we had the entire day to catch up and hang out. We decided to go all the way downtown to Battery Park, where we sat on a bench for a while, eating apples and chitchatting. Already great. Then, we walked up the East River, checking out the waterfalls, which are the current NYC public art exhibit.

The waterfalls are great…totally dynamic and yet still integrated into their environment. I am a big fan of such works; I always appreciated what the Gates set out to do (despite the unfortunate color palette) and I actually worked on the Garden in Transit project on the NYC taxis last year. So, I couldn't leave without seeing the waterfalls in action.

This has so far led to a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge, and a stop on the other side at Grimaldi's, which is quite famously the best pizza in Brooklyn (although really it's the best pizza in New York). It was supposed to rain all day, and instead, it has been beautiful. I have an unfortunate shoulder sunburn in the shape of my purse, but the day is spectacular. I think every so often, it's essential to have a day with no scheduled commitments, so that you can just take off and wander and discover adventures.

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Monday, June 30, 2008, 12:05 p.m. EDT

I have started every single day in New York with a Dunkin' Donuts coffee. As a New Englander, this is a point of pride for me. I'm fairly certain that most people from the Boston area have had their blood replaced with Dunks at some point, and as a result, Dunkin' Donuts is the best part of being on the East Coast. Genius way to secure your consumer base. In fact, beyond the more obvious answers of "family and friends," I think leaving Dunkin' behind was the most major drawback to moving to Los Angeles…

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Sunday, June 29, 2008, 5:45 p.m.

Ummm, the city is apparently having an identity crisis today, because every twenty-five minutes or so, there is a monsoon that lasts a few minutes, drenching everyone on the sidewalk, and then ends, leaving millions of sopping wet pedestrians with terrible hair all over the sidewalks. You can cower in doorways, you can try to run to the subway, but when it rains in New York, you're pretty much guaranteed to go from "fabulous" to "flash flood chic" in minutes.

Otherwise, I'm having fun taking periodic breaks from work to explore the Upper West Side. I took a long run along the river again (this was clearly pre-rainstorms), and I've also eaten every possible type of food from every possible culture. Only in New York.

I'm heading back to Murray Hill now to visit with some other friends. Tomorrow will be a fun day. If the weather clears up, I'm going to view the city's latest public art project!

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Saturday, June 28, 2008, 2:56 p.m. EDT

New York is one of my favorite cities. I lived here for three years before moving to LA, and I still miss walking to a deli in the morning to get coffee. Summer in New York provides especially fun options—things are going on in all of the parks, there's great outdoor theater, and everyone scowls less than they do in the wintertime. The air smells distinctly of hot garbage, and everyone carries an iced coffee. But it's also ridiculously hot, and I have to admit that the relentless humidity here is making me miss LA.

I'm spending today and tomorrow on the Upper West Side, after being in Murray Hill/Gramercy for the last two days. I went for a run this morning in Riverside Park, and I quite literally ran into two people that I know. Which is really the best part of NYC—it's the smallest huge city in the world.

I'm already walking faster, multi-tasking more, and sporting my "Subway face" on all public transportation, just so no one messes with me. Old habits die hard.

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Thursday, June 26, 2008, 6:03 p.m. EDT

I love New York. I really do, and because it’s been a while since I’ve been here, I sometimes forget how deep that love runs. But I’m back and having a great day. Slept off some of my jet-lag and then got all decked out to meet my friend for lunch. This is what’s great about Manhattan—you have to try. People want to see effort in your fashion choices, whereas in LA, if you did more than find a dirty t-shirt on your floor, you’re trying too hard. In NYC, going around the corner to a bodega for coffee is a black tie occasion.

I grabbed a Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee (ah, east coast gem!) and then went to Bloomingdale’s to meet my friend for lunch and impromptu handbag shopping. This is all while putting off the work I’m supposed to be doing.

I walked the thirty blocks home just because I can, and now I’ve got my feet up (forgot that fierce shoes + thirty blocks = pain). Time to do some work before meeting up with friends later….potentially way later. I’m gonna have to push this jet lag down, if I’m going to keep up with the city that never sleeps!

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

We landed only about an hour late in NYC. I have no real stories from the end of the trip, as I was completely out cold for the final hour. I am still in a half-stupor, but we’re deplaning soon. The trip was great…smooth, uneventful, good temperature in the cabin. I just would have voted for one more round of drink service and a slightly less expensive movie. But the conversation was better anyway. Time to grab my bag and get on the A to Manhattan!

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Thursday, June 26, 2:02 a.m. PDT (5:02 a.m. EDT…we’re almost there)

My moment of panic during the turbulence sparked a great conversation with my seatmate. He’s a rabbi in NYC and he runs a school, and we had a great chat. I’m always a fan of good airplane conversations. They’re hard to find, but when they work, they sure can pass the time. It’s his first flight on Virgin America, and he’s quite impressed by the design and by the RED system. Actually, I think there’s a joke in here somewhere….a rabbi and a shiksa walk into an ipod…

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Thursday, June 26, 2008, 1:15 a.m. PDT

It got too late to be providing chipper video commentary…both because others were not in the mood to observe it and because I started to get a little plane-hair from napping. No need to record that. Anyway, I was just woken out of a sound sleep by something rather incredible. There was a huge bump of turbulence, which sent a flight attendant tipping over and made me inadvertently grab the arm of the gentleman next to me, who was previously a near-stranger. (We’ve since bonded). I happened to look out the window, and now I’m watching a huge lightning storm happening about a mile away. We’re above the clouds, and I can see the great flashes and bolts originating in the layer of gray and shooting toward the ground, lighting up the sky. The area below us is unaffected, and the juxtaposition of the red blinking light on the wing and the lightning in the distance is jarring. I don’t know…nature is just humbling sometimes.

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 12:15 a.m. PDT

I began this leg of my journey with a video blog. Who knows how that will come out. It’s quite disconcerting to walk through the airport while filming myself with a handicam, attempting not to run into anyone…all the time constantly panicked that I’m going to be stopped by the TSA because of my suspicious behavior.

People are starting to sleep now on the plane, so I went to the RED system. And I found something very sad. I haven’t flown Virgin America for about five months, and in that time, they have begun charging for all of the movies and TV shows on the system. This is unfortunate, as I used to get in some intense consecutive 30 Rock action and then finish with a movie. Clearly this is one of the ways that Virgin is implementing new fees to cover fuel prices. But no, Richard Branson, I will not pay $7.00 on a plane to see 27 Dresses.

The upside to this is that the only free content available is a series of short films made by college students from around the country for CampusMovieFest. Some are cute and some are deep and some are a mess, but all are about five minutes, so I don’t hold it against any of them. High five, Virgin, for supporting young artists.