Days 17 to 19: NY

Mark and I landed in JFK at midnight on Wednesday. Mark got a first class seat and I sat behind him in a Comfort+ row. He was very nice and treated me to some of his silver tray meal and healthy glass of Pinot. We waited for our bags and waited even longer for a Lyft as the traffic was unbelievable at 1AM. A quick ride to Sunnyside and straight to bed. Poor Mark's throat started hurting more, then the conjestion started, the nose running and the coughing. He was very excited about riding Lyft bikes to work and seeing his NYC coworkers but ended up working from home on Thursday and Friday, his final two days of work before his 9 week sabatical. I had a great breakfast with my cousin, John, in the city on Thursday morning and spent a few hours running errands in midtown. I had a few virtual Bellingham rental tours, but to no avail. We will wait until August to pick up the hunt again. I cycled to Eoghan's rock climbing gym and we had a great hour trying different bouldering routes and then finished it with a tasty Vietnamese dinner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with all 5 Leddys and their 3 partners. On Friday, Mom and I had a lovely LIRR trip out to Nana and a delicious meal at Emma's restaurant. Afterwards, I had a nice visit with Mary, Charlie and Bonita. We met Sharon and Gerry, our longtime NY friends and previous neighbors, for a drink at The Globe and then dinner at Sole Luna with my godfather, Matty, and his wife, Mary. On Saturday, I headed into town once more for a brunch with my DA (high school) friends, Emilia and Alyssa. We dined at a fancy rooftop restaurant called RH on the lower west side. The weather in NY was hot and muggy for the three days we were there. No rain, but we missed a good few thunderstorms. Cormac graciously drove the four of us to JFK, for our international travel to begin. We are feeling very excited for our long summer and grateful that both sets of parents will be joining us in Ireland. While having a drink at JFK before our flight, Dad noticed liquid spewing from a plane's wing. We thought it was water. When we saw the speed of workers running to it, we knew it had to be fuel. We felt sorry for whoever's plane that was and knew they'd be delayed. We got up from the restaurant, ready to board, only to realize that was our plane!! Our gate had changed, unbeknownst to us. Two hours later we were on the plane, for hopefully an uneventful flight into Shannon!