Non-Diplomatic Immunity

We have already begun the sequence of shots that are required for this trip. If you are planning a journey that will require immunizations, it is best to get going on them no less than six months prior to your departure so that any that require boosters can be accommodated.

Your personal physician may be able to provide you with what you will need or, at least, should be able to make a referral. Travel agents can also steer you in the right direction. There also are specialty clinics that can give you the most up to date information on what you will need based on your itinerary.

For our trip, Susan and I got, or are getting: Hepatitis A & B with boosters, Tetanus, Typhoid and we will take Malaria tablets enroute. The boys already have had the Hepatitis shots as part of their routine physical exams. The Typhoid immunity is available in capsule form and we opted for that method.

After this is all done, there is only one other kind of shot I plan on getting for a while...

The Thanksgiving Trip

Well, we made it!! There and back. As always, New York is a great place to visit.

Previously I wondered (somewhat sarcastically) if we might encounter any delays during this trip... I was very surprised.

It took no longer getting through security in Atlanta than it takes to undress, disassemble everything and get it all put back together again. There was NO line. The flight to LGA arrived early. Security leaving LGA was a bit longer… I would estimate their line to have been 20 to 40 minutes. I say “estimate” because we did not go through it. Susan showed her work ID and we went through the employee line.

Leaving LaGuardia yesterday afternoon, we did have to do one turnaround on the taxiway, but the delay was only about thirty minutes, if that. The flight crew never did specifically say why, but there was rain and fog in Atlanta at the time. That was pretty much the entirety of the delay we encountered… thirty minutes… during the busiest travel period of the year.

Like I said, I was surprised... but I wasn't baffled by it. I can’t help but think that the underlying reason for our relatively delay-free trip was the general absence of severe weather. The timing of our trip (a mid-day departure) was also a factor, although we had no way of knowing it in advance. We learned from speaking with the TSA people in Atlanta that the security wait time was significantly longer in the hours prior to our arrival at the checkpoint. They also allowed that they expected that the wait time would increase again later in the day. Although I have not looked up any data pertaining to it, I think it is also quite possible that more folks than usual chose to drive (or chose not to fly) to their holiday destinations this year.

One thing that I will remain certain did NOT have anything to do with it was the “addition” of the holiday "express lanes” in the sky through military use airspace. If you're curious why I used quotation marks in the previous sentence, check out this recent entry from Don Brown's blog.

*****

Everything we wanted to do got done, EXCEPT for a certain play that we had tickets to see. It was (and still is) among the two dozen or so Broadway productions that have been cancelled for the duration until an agreement is reached between the theater owners & producers and the stagehands. Such is life.

One of the great things about New York is that there is certainly enough to do that we were easily able to replace the missed show with something else. Among the many things we did get to do were: watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, see The Radio City Christmas show, eat dirty water hot dogs, go to Inflation Eve, visit the American Museum of Natural History, walk, ride the subway, eat hot dogs, eat pizza, go to Toys R Us, eat at Carmine’s, go to Nintendo World, eat, shop at Macy’s, go to FAO Schwartz, walk, see the decorated windows along Fifth Avenue and at Macy’s, do the Canal Street shops, walk, and eat. Got to do some drinkin’, too.

Here are some photos (click to see full size). If you want to see more than you hoped for, go to TheTravelPages:

View from the Queensborough Bridge

It DOES keep going...

Kermit from the room

The American Museum of Natural History

There's nothing like a dirty water dog.

Busy Sidewalks-- a video. See if you can spot the Naked Cowboy. Hint: He's the center of attention.

Unlike in Germany, Links Here Are on the Right

In the past few days, I have created and published a website for the primary purpose of posting pictures. (How's that for alliteration?) The site has far less commentary than this blog and way more pictures. I have added pictures from several of our previous travels and, as much as connectivity allows, will be adding a ton to it as we progress on our journey next summer. As with this blog, no sign-in is required... just click and view.

It is listed in the "Links I Like" column to the right and it is called TheTravelPages. You can open it by clicking on its title over there or by clicking right here.

Write to Somebody

The FAA is in sorry shape. You should write to your U. S. Representative and Senators and urge them to fix it. I do not know, however, to whom you should write to urge the fixing of the sorry shape our Congress is in.

Ahhh... Good Ol' JFK

There’s plenty in the news these days about this storied, world-class airport… and, since it deals primarily with the horrendous delays being experienced there, most of it is not good.

I don’t have much in the way of memories of it when it was called Idlewild Airport, but I can clearly remember when its name was changed to the present form. I have passed through JFK on many occasions, mostly during my “Go to Europe as Often as I Can” phase. As I recall from those earlier trips, it was a given that you would depart from Kennedy Airport if you were traveling to Europe from the United States… much like if you traveled domestically in the eastern US, you would almost certainly go through Atlanta.

As a matter of fact, it became somewhat onerous to have to use Kennedy airport. This was compounded by the fact that nearly all flights (at least the ones available to me) from within the US connecting to European destinations arrived in New York at the smaller, and non-overseas gateway, LaGuardia Airport. That meant that you not only had to change airplanes, but you also had to change airports. I have traveled between LGA and JFK via nearly all the modes of transportation that were available at the time… taxi, bus, limo and helicopter. It was fun and interesting… the first three or four times.

Then came deregulation and very shortly thereafter, you could choose from other cities for your European departure point. Most of the major airlines went to the hub and spoke system after deregulation and virtually all of them wound up with at least one international departure from their respective hubs. Some of them still have one international departure from their hub. Like many others, I pounced on the opportunity to get to Europe and back without traveling on or above the Van Wyck Expressway. Among the airports from which I launched transatlantic travels were Atlanta, Miami, Dulles, Newark and Chicago.

The change was refreshing to say the least. It seemed heavenly to be able to get off a domestic flight and board an international flight with your only change in transportation from your arrival gate to your departure gate being a mobile lounge or a driverless train or a moving sidewalk or your feet. After some time and several trips, however, the novelty wore off sufficiently enough to allow the consideration of other factors when deciding upon a departure gateway. I’m speaking of highly important considerations such as the fact that foreign airlines charged about the same airfare as the US carriers did but they didn’t charge for drinks.

For the most part, those foreign carriers operated out of Kennedy Airport. So… for at least a few trips interspersed in that timeframe, it was back to good ol’ JFK. It wasn’t at all bad… in fact it was almost like getting together with an old friend. Many things about it were the same, but some things had changed, too. There were more available flights to Kennedy than before, cutting LGA out of the loop, which was very appealing. Getting from one terminal to the other wasn’t all that bad either. There were busses and short-haul cabs for that. There were also your feet.

Coming back to the US through Kennedy was not noticeably different than it was before, though. I have always found the New Yorkers to be cordial at the very least and very friendly more often than not. To this day, Kennedy Airport remains the only place I have returned to from Europe and been told, “Welcome home.” It has been at least eighteen years since I have been to Europe through JFK. We will not be going through there on this upcoming journey and, from what I see in the news, it’s probably just as well. It seems that there is a move afoot, through massive over-scheduling, to make passing through Kennedy Airport an onerous experience again.

A Milestone

It was on this date in 1994 that Susan and I made the transition from married couple without kids to parenthood. Today, our first born became...

a teenager!!

May God bless him and help all the rest of us! Happy birthday, Lachlan!