Hello 2013! Goodbye NYC... - New York, NY
New York, NY
Hoping that the madness of Christmas might have died down a little, we decided to venture up to the Upper West Side to visit the American Museum of Natural History. We got there just as it was opening and it was already packed, but got busier as the day went on. It was definitely my favourite New York museum, with some fantastic exhibits that really appealed to me. They had a huge section all about the Earth, where I was able to make lots of connections to places and things we had seen on our travels. There was an awesome exhibit about the stars, including a mini-movie that we watched in the planetarium - a theatre with a domed screen on the ceiling. Whoopi Goldberg narrated our journey through the universe, it was really cool. There were so many dinosaur fossils too. The whole time we were there, my mind was ticking over about what an AWESOME place this would be to bring a class on a school excursion. The opportunities were truly endless, I wish we had a place this fantastic in Canberra. I think my favourite part of the museum were the mammal dioramas. These halls are world-famous, people might recognise these from the movies in which they have appeared, particularly 'A Night at the Museum'. The animals in these exhibits looked so amazingly REAL, I couldn't believe how much work had gone into their preservation. The detail in each display was immaculate, from the individual hairs on each animal to the painted backgrounds and the dirt, grass and plants covering the ground. It was quite fascinating. After battling through the crowds for a few hours, we decided we'd had enough. There were just soooooo many people there! So we blew that pop stand and took a little stroll across the road and through Central Park. We went through Strawberry Fields, the area dedicated to the late John Lennon, passing by the lake and some beautiful bridges along the way. Feeling much better after some peaceful serenity, we thought we'd give MoMA another crack. As we both had a NY City Pass, we didn't need to line up for admission, thankfully. However there were no backpacks allowed so we had no choice but to join the line for the coat room. After 30 minutes of not moving very far, we realised that by the time we got the bag checked in, it was going to be pointless trying to do the museum in the short time we had left. So we canned that idea, once again. Maybe it'll be 4th time lucky?! To cheer ourselves up, we made our second attempt at visiting McGees Pub and this time - SUCCESS!! This is the pub made famous by How I Met Your Mother. It's not the same pub featured in the TV series, but apparently the design of Mclarens was based on this place. I have no idea how, as I really didn't even see the resemblance, but there was HIYIM paraphernalia everywhere and it was a pretty cool little Irish pub just the same. Their cocktails beared HIYIM related names such as The Naked Man, Robin Sparkles and Challenge Accepted! It was pretty funny. Our next stop was The Ginger Man, a pub with over 70 beers on tap. We tested some out, along with a delicious cinnamon pretzel, and then went to pick up some dinner from The Shake Shack. This burger and milkshake joint started out as a food van and has grown into a bit of an empire, with numerous locations now around the city. After all the build up for this place, I had high expectations and was pretty unimpressed with the burger I had, it was 'a little bit dry' (spoken Dad-style). Nothing special at all. Friday was a day full of exploring, with some much-needed mileage put into the legs. First, we walked through Chelsea to drop off our laundry. They don't seem to do coin laundries here in NYC, which was annoying due to the expense of the drop off/pick up service, but it was also super convenient not having to waste any valuable time doing mundane laundry. We headed Downtown, going through the West Village and TriBeCa along the way. With a few purchases under our belts, we thought we'd check out the 9/11 memorial site. The line there was almost worse than the mayhem at MoMA! Definitely another 'first-thing-in-the-morning' job. We did manage to walk through the nearby St Paul's Chapel, the unofficial hub of the 9/11 aftermath. The place was packed with people and there were many relics and tributes on display. It gave a tiny insight as to what it would've been like for the people of NYC and it was very touching. We walked past Battery Park, which was still closed due to damage from the hurricane, and into the Staten Island ferry terminal, which was PACKED!! We were glad not to be catching a ferry with what seemed like the rest of the city ;) We happened upon Fraunces Tavern, a pub which dates back to 1762 and is the oldest building in New York. We skipped through to the Dingle Whiskey bar, where we sat for over 30 minutes without getting served!! The bartender was run off his feet and although he did talk to us when we first sat down, he was quite rude in the end so we ditched that place and continued on. Next stop, Tiffany and Co! That was lots of fun, but unfortunately no purchases were made - window shopping only. We walked past Wall Street and saw the stock exchange before continuing on to check out Chinatown and Little Italy. These two areas kind of meld into each other, with dim sum restaurants next door to Italian bakeries. We tested out some cannoli, very sweet but yummy, while checking out some of the boutiques in the area. We eventually made our way to the famous Katz's deli where we had a very late lunch/early dinner. We tried the popular pastrami sandwich, along with the beef brisket and their amazing home fries. I have never had so much meat on a sandwich, nor will I again! It was sooooo delicious but so ridiculously filling. We really needed the walk home to try and work off some of those calories, my stomach was not feeling the best after throwing my restrictions to the wayside for the past couple of weeks. Not long now until we're home and I can get back to normal, looking forward to feeling good again! We got ourselves cleaned up and dolled up, ready for a night of culture at the NYC Ballet, much to Liam's dismay. He was very unimpressed about being dragged along, but I had organised tickets for Alex, Ben and I to see The Nutcracker and he just would've been LAME if he didn't come with us. So we caught the Subway up to the Upper West Side, where we met an excited Alex and Ben out the front of the theatre. We got ourselves some snacks and went in to find our seats, with Liam telling me he was bored as soon as the lights dimmed. Admittedly, the first act was pretty ****. It was more like a play than a ballet, with a bunch of children doing their lame acting-come-miming onstage and only one dance happening right at the end. He was so over it by the intermission that there was no hope of bringing him back. Which was a real shame because the second act was SPECTACULAR!! The costumes, the music, the dancing, I loved every second of it. Although all in all, I was a little disappointed - I have to say I was expecting a bit more from the NYC BALLET (for goodness sake) than an entire act filled with no ballerinas and a bunch of children running around on the stage. C'est la vie. It was great to catch up with Alex and Ben again at any rate, although we were pretty buggered afterwards so went our separate ways for our respectively bedtimes. The next day we successfully tackled MoMA, making sure we got there right on opening and beating the masses. It was a pretty cool museum, with so many different kinds of art on display. The most popular piece was 'The Scream', a painting by Edvard Munch. Despite getting into that particular gallery as soon as it opened to the public, it was already full to the brim. Totes crazy! After spending a good chunk of the day there, we returned to Union Square and had a late lunch at Whole Foods. Whilst eating in the cafe upstairs, a man sitting across the way had a turn, possibly a seizure or something, and ended up lying on the ground. He was pale white and did not look well at all, it was terribly scary. Thankfully, by the time the ambulance arrived, he was talking and able to sit up - it all worked out ok in the end. We headed home, where I ended up falling asleep on the couch, so lame! Liam ducked out to tick another coffee place off his list while I snoozed and chilled out. Feeling sufficiently rejuvenated we got ready for a bit of drink, keen to start exploring the city's 'speakeasies'. These are the hard-to-find cocktail bars that thrived during the prohibition era, and they are still extremely popular with hipsters like Liam and their wives ;) We hit up a place called the Raines Law Room just down the street from our apartment. An unassuming little place that we almost walked straight past, we went downstairs where we rang the doorbell to speak to the host and we placed on the waiting list for a table. We went across the road to Rye for a drink while we waited, a whisky bar with a lovely atmosphere and a female mixologist who splashed and banged around a lot when making cocktails. It was hilarious. After getting 'the call', we made our way back to Raines where we waited at the door while a bunch of people left. It was so funny, with the door being closed in our faces with each group leaving and being told we just needed to stay out there for the moment. We finally got in, and the place was amazing. It was super cozy, like being in someone's house. We sat on a couple of leather armchairs right next to a beautiful decorative fireplace and ordered ourselves a few drinks, chatting to the loveliest couple who were sitting across from us. They were NY locals and they gave us so many tips and recommendations on things we could for New Year's Eve and restaurants we should try. It was so awesome getting to know them, they were just so super nice! When they left, I stupidly told Liam that we needed to 'talk' when we got home, and that pretty much ruined an otherwise perfect evening. I'm not even going to write about that incident, as I would rather forget it ever happened and it is one of my only big regrets from this trip. So let's skip right to Sunday... We planned to spend Sunday exploring the borough across the river - Brooklyn, that is. We caught the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge and spent some time walking across, taking it all in, along with taking lots of pictures. It's a beautiful bridge and provides an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline, as well as the Brooklyn shore. We caught the train up to Williamsburg, the trendy hipster area, and spent the day checking it out. We kicked things off at the Brooklyn Brewery, where we decided it wasn't too early to sample a few of their fine ales, and we partook in a marathon game of Spit. It was seriously never ending! We then went to a gorgeous little restaurant called Colette for a scrummy brunch and spent the afternoon moseying up and down Berry Street and Bedford Avenue. There were so many cute little homewares shops, clothing boutiques and cafes, we really loved it and happily spent some money collecting goods as we went. Once it got dark, we realised it was definitely time for another beer so we headed to Barcade, a Brooklyn bar filled with old skool arcade games... genius! Liam was excited about this place, but a little underwhelmed with the selection of games there. Although there were some classics among them, there weren't too many from our 'era'. It was still a really cool place though. We went back to a Japanese place we had walked by earlier in the day for dinner - Ramen Yebisu - where Liam was very excited about the prospect of indulging in some Yebisu, a beer he fell in love with whilst in Japan a couple of years ago. We ordered some ramen to go with the beer, and he wasn't impressed with either. After all the amazing microbreweries we have visited, Yebisu no longer stood out unfortunately, and the ramen wasn't up to his standards either. Some people are hard to please! I'd never eaten ramen before so it was ok to me, although the noodles were exactly the same as 2-minute noodles back home. We finished eating and I went to retrieve my credit card to pay... only to realise I did not have my bag with me. Slight panic kicked in as I tried desperately to retrace my steps. I remembered putting it down on a shelf to put my jacket on as we were leaving Barcade, but couldn't remember whether I picked it back up or not. We tried calling the bar to see if anything had been handed in and the girl on the phone was so rude. She wouldn't even check the shelf for me to see if it was still there as they were just 'too busy'. Total BS. So we ran to the subway and went back to Barcade as quickly as we could and sure enough, there was my bag, sitting on a shelf right next to the door. THANK GOD!!!! We have certainly had someone smiling down on us during this trip, without a doubt, and I am so truly grateful. We retrieved my bag and headed home for some chill out time (before I had the chance to lose anything else!). Monday was New Year's Eve. We spent the morning checking out the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a massive place that proved very difficult to get out of! There were so many galleries, we probably only saw half of them but picked the ones that interested us. They had a couple of special exhibitions on - a photography display exploring the illusions in photos and an Andy Warhol tribute. Once we'd had enough of that place and managed to find out way out, we tackled the Guggenheim Museum. The building itself is worth going to see - it looks like something from outer space. It's a great set up to view the artworks and the galleries were full of Picasso's black and white works. Pretty cool stuff in there. We headed home to relax for a bit, making a detour to Forever21 to find myself an outfit for the night ahead. I freakin love that shop, don't know how I'm going to live without it!! I also grabbed some champers to help set the mood for the evening's celebration. We cracked it open and had some nibbles with our bubbles while toasting the new year with our families over Skype. We are so lucky to have such amazing technology at our disposal - it's made being away a little easier, knowing that we can still see each other and chat pretty much anytime. It was a really lovely way to kick off our night. When we were finally ready to hit the town, we hit things off with a drink downstairs at our local, before scoping another speakeasy in the East Village. Angel's Share was accessed by going into a Japanese restaurant, going up the stairs and opening a random broom-closet-looking door. Hilarious. The cocktails there were amazing, most of them having a Japanese spin on them due to their location. By the time we left there, it was after 11pm so we knew the next spot would be where we were going to count down to 2013. We went into a few places, none of which appealed to us (particularly the $50 cover charge?!), and settled on a place called Ugly Kitchen. It was playing good music, the crowd was pumped and they were going to show the ball drop on the big screen, triple win. They even gave out some party favours like hats, streamers and blowers just before the countdown which added to the fun. Midnight came, we screamed the numbers back from ten while pumping our fists into the year and welcomed in 2013 with gusto. It was awesome. Shortly after the countdown, we decided it was time to mix it up and head to another location. We strolled the surrounding area, stumbling upon Jules Bistro which spruiked 'LIVE JAZZ' via the flashing neon sign out front. We could hear some awesome beats coming from within, so in we went. It was a pretty small place packed with people and one of most amazing bands I've ever seen. Master trumpeter Shareef Clayton and his band were rocking that place to its very core, the music was infectious; the atmosphere, electric. We had the best time there, bogeying on down until the wee hours of the morning. When the band called it a night we followed suit, deciding to end our amazing night on high note. Although we did manage to squeeze in some late night calories from Ray's Pizza on the way home... what's a night out on the town without a greasy stomach liner, right?! What a way to welcome in the new year, it's definitely a night I will never forget. We had a very slow start to New Year's Day, making the most of the year's best excuse for a serious sleep-in. Once we were finally up and about, we headed west to Pier 49 where we embarked on a 3-hour cruise around the island of Manhattan. The first half of the cruise was a real treat. We sailed around the downtown and midtown areas, soaking in the iconic NYC skyline and getting up close and personal with the Statue of Liberty. Looking at the city from the river, you could see exactly where the main roads were, as there appeared a void in between the buildings and skyscrapers... it was like square portions of a towering cake - brownies, even - sitting pretty on a platter, perfectly spaced out. Trust the foodie in me to refer it back to food, haha! Once we passed the Upper East Side and headed around the top half of the island, it became a little boring as there really wasn't much to see up there. The second half of the cruise dragged on until the sun went down and we saw the city lights transforming the skyline - that was pretty awesome. In hindsight, I think we only needed to do the 2-hour cruise which effectively did the exciting part of the cruise twice, reversing direction and heading back around once it reached the Upper East. But anyway, we finally arrived back at Pier 49, a little cold and a lotta hungry. We were keen to tick another eatery off our list, The Spotted Pig in the West Village. However we got there to discover a 2-and-a-half-hour wait... not gonna fly on this particular night. So we headed back to the apartment, grabbing some essentials from Whole Foods along the way, before deciding to keep it local and test out ABC Kitchen for dinner, which was directly under our building. The food was delicious and the walk home was a breeze, we didn't even need to wear our usual one thousand layers which was a nice change! Feeling very satisfied, we chilled out on the couch and enjoyed some quality tech time. The next day was all about ticking as many things as we could off our list. We started by getting ourselves down to the 9/11 memorial early to try and beat the crowds. The long-winded entry process was tedious due to the construction encircling the site but we finally got there. The nearby Freedom Tower is rising rapidly and will soon hold the title of NYC's tallest building. The footprints of the Twin Towers have been transformed into two pools, with waterfalls cascading from the bronze parapets where the names of the victims have been inscribed. The surrounding area is filled with beautiful trees and gardens, making it a peaceful place for people to come and reflect on the tragic events of the day. It was a humbling experience. Next, we hit up the not-so-peaceful Century21, a shopping outlet which apparently, most of the New York tourist population had decided to visit too. We didn't stay long, with Liam's patience growing shorter by the second. We headed to the West Village to try our luck again at The Spotted Pig and we were seated straight away. This place is known as 'the gastro pub with a Michelin star' - and it did not disappoint. We shared a few different menu items and the food was soooooo yummy, with the stand-out dish being the sheep's milk ricotta gnudi, little dumpling-like balls of pure indulgence. Delish!! We didn't dilly dally when we realised we had been undercharged for their seriously overpriced drinks ($12 for a glass of - albeit amazing - hot mulled wine) and scooted across to the Empire State Building. We joined the end of the very long line and snaked our way inside. After queuing for about half and hour, we discovered we still had an hour-and-a-half wait ahead of us so we scrapped that plan and headed to Grand Central Station instead. What a beautiful place that was, with its spectacular architecture and crowds of commuters bustling from here to there, such an iconic New York experience. We got ourselves a couple of Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes to nibble on while we took part in some serious people watching. It was the best!! We also checked out the 'Whispering Gallery', a square corridor area where the arched design of the walls create a pretty special acoustic anomaly. The arches enable a person's whisper to be heard by someone standing in the opposite corner. Liam and I tested it out - it totally works and it was really cool! I don't fully understand the technical reasoning for it, but it was a very cool party trick just the same. We found out next stop within the terminal, another old school cocktail bar, The Campbell Apartment. Now this place was cool. It was once the private office of 1920's tycoon John Campbell and it has been fully restored to its former glory. We indulged in yet another amazing cocktail concoction whilst reflecting on our day's adventures. After that, we headed home to freshen up and suss out our dinner options. We were keen to try Ippudo, a recently opened Japanese restaurant specialising in handmade ramen. We called ahead to see how crazy the wait time was... two and a half hours. As we'd had an amazing lunch, we weren't super hungry and thought the place must be really good to be THAT busy, so we decided to head east and put our names on the list. While we were waiting for a call back, we walked a few blocks over to check out McSorley's Old Ale House, another of New York's original saloon bars. Established in 1854, this pub didn't have the extensive beer options we'd experienced elsewhere. Instead, you could choose between two - light ale or dark ale. That's it! The floor was covered in sawdust, adding to the atmosphere of it all, and their method of cleaning the glasses left little to be desired. Good beer, though. After a few rounds, we were summoned back to Ippudo where we were certainly in for a treat. We were lucky to be seated along the bar surrounding the kitchen so we got to watch all the action unfolding, which was AWESOME. The way the chefs prepared the intricate dishes was mesmerising, with some plates featuring so many elements it took almost ten minutes to assemble them. I could've sat there all night and watched them, I absolutely loved it. The kitchen staff and the wait staff had a constant flow of Japanese banter going back and forth, calling out orders, cheering when new diners joined the room, the vibe was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Liam said all the ramen places in Japan were like that when he went there too. Anyway, our food was (obviously) spectacular and well worth the wait, with the stand out dish being the pork buns. We loved them so much we ordered another serve for dessert, which totally pushed me over the edge on the fullness scale and forced me to waddle home. We kicked sunny Thursday off with a visit to the Empire State Building. Fun fact - that place has 73 elevators!! Crazy. The view was awesome and we listened to a few snippets of the entertaining and educational audio tour, before having to head back inside due to the freezing arctic wind - my fingers (even though I had gloves on) just couldn't handle it any longer!! We proceeded to split up for the day. Liam had a list of coffee places he wanted to try out and I was on a mission to find some nice leather boots and really rake through my favourite store, Forever21. Not sure how I'm going to love without that place. I went to the Chipotle Mexican Grill (chain restaurant/fast food) for lunch - delicious burrito bowl, don't know how I'll live without Mexican food either - and whilst I had great success at F21, I failed miserably on the shoe shopping. Stupid massive calves! We met back at the apartment at sunset to get ready for night at Madison Square Garden, where we were heading to watch an NBA game - New York Knicks vs San Antonio Spurs. With both teams at the top of their divisions, we were in for a well-matched face off. And we were not disappointed, it was freaking AWESOME. The pre-game experience was slightly marred by the fact that we tried to buy beer from four different stadium bars without any success, due to the staff strictly enforcing their rule of only being able to accept passports as a form of international ID, our driver's licenses were not sufficient. Liam managed to find a moustache lover though (not hard in the US!) and twirled his way to a round of PBR's - win! The whole experience was just excellent - it was more than just a game of basketball, it was an EVENT. The chick singing the national anthem at the beginning had the most incredible voice, she brought tears to my eyes. The in-game entertainment included dancers, stuntmen and some very talented wheelchair basketballers, what an inspiration. It was a pretty close game, with the Knicks really getting pumped towards the end and streaking ahead of the Spurs to finish up 100-83. After the game, we completed another 'tick-it-off-the-list' mission - White Castle for sliders and chicken rings. It was TERRIBLE, I seriously reckon the only customers they get would have to be stoned to stomach that rubbish. We gave our food away to a random at the table next to us (he was stoked!) and went to find a food cart for an authentic New York hot dog. Of course, when you're going about your business, you pass a million of them on your way, but when you actually want to order food from one, you can't find one to save yourself!! Haha, we eventually found a cart and ordered a very ordinary hot dog and a pretzel that tasted like a hot dog. Definitely not recommended, but hey - we ticked it off the list and could go to bed satisfied with that knowledge :) Friday was our last full day in NYC!! It felt a little surreal... We started the day with me getting us lost. I do not understand how, after two weeks, I still didn't have my bearings. Ridiculous and hilarious. Anyway, Liam was heading to Grand Central to sort out his razor and get a shave and I, to Bloomingdales, in my seemingly endless pursuit of the perfect pair of boots. Much like bears, I believe they may not exist. We got on the yellow subway line instead of the green - my bad - and Liam had to get off and make a transfer. Sorry babe! I made it to the shopping mecca a little while later and very much enjoyed the relatively calm state of this upscale department store. It was certainly a far cry from the mayhem of Macy's, it's cheaper sister store. I tried on boot after boot, even dabbling in a $1300 pair of Christian Dior's, but still nothing that was quite right. I was supposed to be meeting Liam at the Korilla food van for lunch and got terribly lost trying to catch the subway there. It all ended up being way too hard and I walked the whole way instead, Liam was not impressed with the wait. Sorry again sweetheart! By the time I got there, he had already eaten and the line up was too long to bother with so we headed downtown, continuing the boot search at Lord and Taylor's - unsuccessfully - before heading to Chelsea Market. There, I scored a super cute pair of vintage flats from the flea market, got a delicious crepe filled with goat cheese and zucchini for lunch, doughnuttery goodness for dessert and we sampled some glorious flavoured balsamic vinegar, picking up a bunch to take home with us. We did some more exploring and shopping in the West Village and then went downtown to tackle the chaotic Century21 shopping outlet in an attempt to pick up a new suitcase... we successfully navigated the ridiculous crowds and got out of there as quickly as possible. We went home to drop off our purchases and contemplated what we should do for our last night... decisions, decisions! It was way too difficult to make one. We ended up going back to Eataly, the Italian supermarket-come-bar-come-restaurant, and popping our names on the wait list for a table. We went upstairs to have a drink at the rooftop bar, another tick off the list, and decided we would go somewhere else for dinner instead. We wandered around, looking for something to jump out at us. We considered Craft, Gramercy Tavern and Bar Jamon (which we couldn't actually find that night, after walking past it numerous times over the past two weeks) and ended up at Old Town, our local downstairs bar. I think it was a very fitting place to wrap it all up. We had a drink, got some grub and headed home for our last 'sleep' in NYC... (not sure that people actually get any decent sleep with all the noise!!). We got a very early start on our last day, not that we had much say in it, with the street noise kicking off even earlier than usual. It took some time to pack up all four of our suitcases and give Victoria's place a quick once over in preparation for her return. But we got there and when we did, we headed out from our little haven in Union Square for the very last time. We went to tick off the last of Liam's coffee joints - good coffee for him and GREAT hot chocolate for me - and got bagels for lunch from Murray's Bagels. The tripadvisor reviews warned us that the service was terrible but their awesome bagels ensured many return visitors. They were right. When we got to the front of the long line, our bagels were pretty much thrown at us from behind the counter, it was actually quite hilarious and so very New York! We picked up a few last minute things - gifts, PS3 games, bike helmet, almond butter galore and not one, but TWO pairs of boots! - walking through the West Village and around our local area. We went back to the apartment to try and fit all the extra bits and pieces into our luggage before Victoria arrived to check us out of her place. She was so super lovely and it was a joy staying in her beautiful apartment, it was the best location we could've chosen. She gave us some advice on the best way to get to the airport, which we were thankful for as it was a much better route than we had planned to go. It meant a bit of hike to a different subway station which normally we wouldn't mind, but with all of luggage, we opted to catch a cab to the station. I'm so glad we did as it ended up being a fair way and we were able to tick one last thing off our list - catching an iconic yellow cab in the Big Apple. Double yay! We hopped on the A train which took us all the way to the airport, where we then had to transfer to the Airtrain to take us to our terminal. That's where things started to unravel. We needed to get to terminal 7 which was the second last stop. The train randomly stopped a number of times mid-terminals for seemingly no reason. We got to terminal 4 and nothing happened for AGES, we just sat there on the train with all the doors open and no one around to ask wtf was going on. There was another train opposite us in the same situation, people were getting really anxious and we really didn't know what to do. Should we get off the train? Should we get on the other train? Should we try to find an employee to get some information? Finally, the people from the other train all started to get off and head down the stairs. We still had no idea what was happening, there was no communication from the station whatsoever, it was extremely frustrating and such poor form considering it was the airport train (FFS!!) and obviously everyone had flights to get to. A man from the other train told us that there was a shuttle bus coming. At this stage, we had been delayed for around 45 minutes and we were getting stressed. We still didn't know why the train had stopped or why it was necessary to get a bus. But we followed the sea of people and luggage and saw a bus jam packed full which was about to leave. With less than 2 hours until our scheduled departure, we yelled at everyone to squash in as we HAD to get on that bus. I have no idea how we managed to get our four suitcases on that bus, which was already bursting at the seams, but we did. We asked an airport employee whether it would be quicker to catch a cab and he told us the cabs would not take us between terminals, the bus was our only option. The bus then drove back to terminal 1, FFS, where it started the beyond-frustrating journey to all the terminals around the airport. At each stop, it was complete chaos with passengers trying to manoeuvre their luggage on and off the bus through all the people piled on top of luggage and each other. At one stop, there were some people who refused to let the bus close its doors because they wanted to get on, but there was physically no room for them. They had just arrived and wanted to get to the car park, they weren't even trying to get flights like the rest of us. A colourful screaming match ensued, between those imbeciles some very angry passengers. It was sooooo frustrating, they cost us quite a bit of precious time and caused a lot of unnecessary stress. They finally moved and we were able to continue the painstakingly slow ride to our terminal. After close to an hour on the bus from hell, we finally arrived at terminal 7. We ran to the Qantas desk, where the girl was shutting up shop. It was a couple of minutes past 6pm and our flight was due to leave at 630pm. She looked at us in horror and asked if we needed the Sydney Qantas flight. We nodded and begged her to check us in. She quickly got on the phone to see what she could do, while we crossed all our fingers and toes on desperation... to no avail. They had already closed the baggage off and weren't willing to let us through. It was the most horrible feeling, we were both looking at this woman through a cloud of tears as she explained what we would need to do next. We headed to the ticketing desk, where we hoped we could catch another connection to LAX, but our only option was to be put on standby for the same flight the following day. Liam absolutely broke down, the poor poppet, and the lady was nice enough to say she would do what she could without charging us a change fee, she clearly felt sorry for us. We were both so gutted, with the build up of the day and our impending homecoming crashing down around us. But the most important thing is that we were safe and we were together. In the big scheme of things, what's an extra day?? Not a big deal at all, and I kept reminding us of that fact with many pep talks over the rest of the night. We made our way to an airport hotel where we ordered some Indian takeout to our room and wallowed a little before counting our blessings for all the positive experiences we've had and putting things into perspective. We got to the airport before midday on Sunday, where we amused ourselves with a Monopoly marathon (for the record, Liam won) before the check-in desk opened at 230pm. We waited anxiously for the gentleman checking us in to sort things out from his end. Finally, we were given the thumbs up, accompanied by boarding passes to go HOME. We were both so very excited about seeing our families, we weren't even worried about the 30-hours of travel ahead of us ;) Once we were able to board the plane, we were delighted to discover that we had exit row seats in the premium economy section! This meant roomier seats, lots more legroom - footrests, even! - and fancy little fold out TVs. The guy Liam was sitting next to, Gordon Uehling, was highly entertaining and semi-famous. He is a former tennis pro and now heads up a tennis training centre, coaching the likes of Novak Djokovic and Christina McHale. He was showing us videos of himself and Ric************ playing doubles against Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe on Ric************'s private island, it was full on! He was the closest I came to seeing a celebrity on the whole trip. After forcing myself to stay awake until it was Australian night-time, I popped a sleeping pill and got a pretty solid seven-and-a-half hours before landing in Sydney on Tuesday morning. And can I just say, Qantas are a fantastic airline to fly with - highly recommended!! After managing to avoid McDonalds for our entire three months away, our first meal back in the country at Sydney Airport was Mickey Dees, accompanied by a good ol' VB. Class all the way!! Haha. Needless to say, our American/Canadian adventure was the experience of a lifetime, it was absolutely epic. We shared countless memorable moments, shopped, drank and ate up a storm, played the tourist card as well as getting way off the beaten track... and our relationship is all the more solid for it. In saying all that, there's certainly NO PLACE LIKE HOME! We hope you've enjoyed this snapshot of our journey and look forward to seeing you all soon :) The End.