Sometimes I pack too much into trips. It’s one thing to plan a lot into a vacation, but my propensity to try to squeeze as much adventure out of work travel can be a little much.
For the first few years of my conference travel, we would ship the booth to the destination, which involved me relying on the kindness of a friend of mine in our Indianapolis office to pack things up for me. The booth shipping container was big and heavy, and even on wheels, it was too much to ask her to do, and after a debacle with FedEx, I made a plan to get all of the marketing and booth materials moved to Chicago to be closer to me, with the justification of a storage unit cost being offset by me taking the booth as a checked bag saving us $200+ each way for the shipping.
Obviously, an oversized container weighing almost 75 pounds should cost us something to check, too, but since I have Executive Platinum status with American, I get a pass for the most part (check-in staff is usually not thrilled with me).
Having a large checked bag has made me have to recalibrate my complicated itineraries. Before I would devise plans like visiting friends in Fort Lauderdale after going to Orlando or spending a weekend in NYC and flying to Austin, but now I have to be a little more intentional for better or worse.
Conference four of five between Memorial Day and July 4th was in Cape Cod, which naturally made me plan a weekend in NYC before heading that direction. I did end up shipping the booth container to Providence to pick it up after the weekend, which made me free and clear to flying into LaGuardia on Friday.
Travel Planner Nick needs a slap in the face because he booked at 5:59 AM flight. I like traveling early, but that was a bit ridiculous. I barely slept, and then I got to the airport around 4:30. Thankfully, I was quick through TSA Pre, and instead of buying some concessions, I decided to wait for the lounge to open at 5:00, even though boarding would begin at 5:19 AM. I was one of the first people waiting, and it was quite humorous to see how many people walked up to the dark lounge door, with intent, only to almost run into it because it was locked.
Closer to 5, I got up and stood near the door, which caused a line to form, and of course, some lounge lizards thought the line didn’t apply to them. Again, humorous. Shortly after 5, the doors opened, I checked in, and then quickly went to grab a quick bite, an iced coffee to go (two actually…), and I was there to board before 5:19.
I had been upgraded to first a few days earlier, which is a surprise for an NYC trip, but I am sure that has to do with the fact that it was such an early flight. Since it was my day off and not a work trip, I decided to go ahead and get a pre-flight (and during) mimosa.
Once I landed at LaGuardia, I decided to go ahead and grab a second breakfast and coffee in the lounge, and then go ahead and catch transit into the city. I definitely don’t mind the fact that you need to catch a bus to get to the subway, but the MTA really needs to up the frequency of the buses a bit more. They are SO packed it is pretty uncomfortable for everyone.
Once I got into the city and to my hotel, I was thankfully able to check in, and I got settled. I needed to do some shopping for an outfit for The Jellicle Ball on Sunday. So, I hopped on the subway down to the Herald Square to hit some stores there. I didn’t find much, and I walked back up towards Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue, grabbing a Liberty Bagel (salt with bacon scallion cream cheese…yum) along the way. After stopping off at the Nintendo store, which is a tradition, I didn’t find much at Uniqlo, either, and then I just went back to the hotel and took a nap.
I had planned on going to Flex, a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen, to see a friend of mine who was bartending early, but when I went there, he wasn’t there. I soon discovered that my other friend who works there quit on Sunday, and that created a big shift in the schedule. Oopsie. I then went to Empanada Mama around the corner from some food and a margarita. I love Empanada Mama, not only is it open 24 hours, but it is one of the most affordable and hearty meals you can get in New York.
After dinner, I made my way back to Flex and worked my way towards a position at the middle of the bar. Flex is a pretty small bar, which used to be called Posh several years ago. If you’re not standing or sitting at the bar, then you’re kind of stuck in a nowhere zone. My NYC friends Andrew and Jessie joined me, and we had a great time catching up and just hanging out for the evening.
It was well past midnight when I got back to the hotel, with a stop to get pizza, which is not a great idea for my aging constitution. I really had nothing planned until the late matinee of Oh Mary! with Maya Rudolph at 5pm, and I slept in and really did nothing all day. It was pretty glorious. I know I should have gotten out and did something, but when you’ve been to New York the number of times I have, there just really isn’t that much you haven’t done already.
This was the eighth time I have seen Oh Mary!, and it is amazing to me that each of the eight leads I have seen all bring a little bit more and highlight things a little bit differently each time. I think I’ll do some separate posts on both Hell’s Kitchen and Broadway to try to keep some brevity to this already long post.
Once the matinee was done, I considered going out again, but I had an early meeting on Sunday with the Hilton Vacations group, and I decided I would just call it a night and be up for breakfast before the meeting.
Back in January for my first work trip of the year, I was staying at an Embassy Suites in Tampa, which had a Hilton Vacations timeshare person posted outside the nightly happy hour to try to snag people for timeshare meetings. Typically, I would just say an immediate no to this, but I decided to go ahead and listen for 500 Hilton points. They talked me into paying $399 for three nights in New York, and for anyone who has ever booked hotels in New York, you know that you’re lucky to find a hotel there for $399 a night, let alone three. The only real penalty is that you had to sit through a 90 minute salespitch to buy into Hilton timeshares. The other benefit is that after the meeting, even if you don’t buy in, you receive 75,000 Hilton points and a $100 coupon for a future stay. Remember I said I am now a slut for points? Well…
I did a little research on the whole process, and I went in with no intention of signing up for a timeshare, and while there were certainly some things they said that were interesting, I just didn’t see a point for it currently while I am still traveling so much for work. It was a pretty intense salespitch, and even after having three different people talk to me to try to convince me to buy in, they finally figured out I wasn’t going to budge, and they sent me on my way. Instead of the $100 coupon, I opted for more points, and in the next couple hours, 85,000 deposited into my account. Mission Accomplished.
I then got ready to go The Jellicle Ball, which is the ballroom reimagining of Cats, which I have never seen but really didn’t have a high opinion about from everything I have seen and heard. I had a seat on the stage, which is why I wanted to have a nice outfit to wear. Overall, The Jellicle Ball was a lot of fun, but Cats is still not that great of a musical.
After the show, I went back to the hotel to change, and I then went out to meet friends for the evening. Of course, I ended up staying out later than usual, ate pizza again, and I was a little sleepless and listless (re: hungover) when I got up to catch the train to Providence on Monday morning.
I have taken Amtrak into NYC before, but I have never taken it out. I’m also pretty sure this is the first time I have used the Moynihan Train Hall, too. Compared to a lot of United States train stations, it is very nice and has lot of food and retail options, but someone along the way made the decision to not have any seating in the terminal, probably to keep the unhoused from camping out, but since I had gotten there a couple hours early because the World Cup had put pressure on all the transit options, it meant standing around or sitting on the floor.
The boarding process was fairly easy, and the trip to Providence was uneventful. The train station was under construction and a little worse for wear, but I had to then Uber to pick up my rental car to then go pick up my booth container at FedEx and then drive to Cape Cod to the conference hotel.
While I had spent some time in Connecticut earlier in the year for a conference trip, this was my first time in Providence and also the Cape Cod area, and while I cannot say I spent enough time to either place to form an opinion, I cannot say I am quick to add either place to my list of future places to visit.
Providence seems nice enough for a smaller city, with some of the “old world” charm you expect from New England, my time downtown both getting off the train and to see Supergirl in IMAX (this as a mistake, I thought I was buying a ticket to the theater near my hotel), didn’t really wow me. It honestly felt a little like Indianapolis, if Indianapolis hadn’t gotten rid of most of its historic architecture.
Cape Cod, well… I was there for three days, and it was a torrential rain storm for two of them. The resort we were at for the conference was less than impressive, and it takes a lot for me to actually be annoyed with most hotels. On the final day, the sun did come out, and I was able to see some of the attractiveness you’d expect, but this was most definitely not the knockout beauty that was Santa Barbara.
I do understand that “Cape Cod” is a lot of towns thrown together, including Gay Mecca, Provincetown, and the town I was in is not considered remotely near the bougie heights of that. However, to be completely honest, it felt like Tennessee with oceanfront views. It reminded me of the drive from Knoxville into Pigeon Forge onto Gatlinburg, without most of the tourist traps.
One final note on Providence, the airport there is one of the worst I have been to, though nearly all of the problems are because it is under major construction, which I hope for their sake is almost done. The terminal is split into two prongs, and if you’re in the prongs with my gate, there are no restrooms, which means you have to hike over to the other side. Half of the terminal hallways is blocked off for construction, which means there is not enough seating or walking/standing space, and it just become incredibly uncomfortable waiting for your packed flight.
It seems mean to slag an airport for problems related to improvements, but my lord, whomever planned this construction needs fired.
That pretty much wraps up the middle part of my June travel. I am currently finishing up the writing of this on my flight back to Chicago from conference five. I am home for a few days before leaving for Miami for a non-conference work travel. I will likely lump those two together. A spoiler: I hate both the Orlando and Miami airports. 😀
