Day 2 Friday 30th June - 16 Viking Lane

 Day 2 - Friday 30th June

16 Viking Lane

Weather: Just the same warm summer day, but with the smoky haze.

Got up at 10:00 am this morning! Didn't really sleep till 4:00 am this morning.

Ian and I went shopping at the supermarket in ....... and at a wine store. Both my Master cards work fine! It is strange to see Jews dressed in their black suits, tall hats and beards in supermarkets

This is a lovely property lots of big old trees and plenty of lawn spaces.

It looks like a small country cottage here but round the back you get a better idea of its actual size:-

and in the roof there is a whole other floor with three bedrooms and a bathroom. You can see the windows of that floor at the top here and a small window for the basement at the bottom.

 It has a full underground basement underneath - part indoor play ground for the kids in Winter and on wet days.

We had a really nice dinner - steak that Ian had barbecued, with rice and salad. 

After that we had the Pavlova that Emi had made yesterday. 

Kai spent some of this afternoon cooking Banana Bread for tomorrow's breakfast 

After tea we all watched "The Mandalorian on a big TV in their TV room.

Day 1 - Thursday 29th June 2023 - Arrive at 16 Viking Lane

 Day 1 - Thursday 29th June 2023 - Arrive at 16 Viking Lane

This map shows the trip from JFK Airport to Viking Lane:-

This map shows the location of Ian's place at 16 Viking Lane, Emi & Kai's school - Lakewood Elementary School, Kristy's school Felix Fiesta Middle School and the Nyack Beach at the Nyack State Park where we went for a day out.

Day 1 - Thursday 29th June - Travel to the USA

 Day 1 - Thursday 29th June

Travel to the USA

Weather: Cloudy with sunny spells - cool

We set off this morning at 10:00am to get to the Hamilton bus station so that I could get the Intercity bus to Auckland Airport at 11:30 am.

I had a good comfortable trip all the way up and arrived at 1:30 pm. I got my bag checked in and my boarding pass and then went up stairs to security and the departure lounge where I kicked my heels till 6:00 pm and went through to Gate 17 to be boarded.

The flight was pretty event free, but I made a mistake in having a coffee after dinner at about 9:00 pm and couldn't get to sleep after that. Then my eyes got tired trying to watch movies so I had to give that up and just had to sit and wait in the dark till we got to JFK airport in New York. I didn't feel comfortable for the whole trip but it was my own fault.

Going through security at JFK was surprisingly easy. I got out into the Arrivals area and there was Ian waiting - great to see him again! The old JFK car park is undergoing a marked change since the last time Mary-Ann and I were there. We had to get a shuttle bus to where Ian had parked his car. It took about 20 minutes to get there through a spaghetti of motorways!

I had forgotten how far it was from the airport to Ian's place. The traffic was non-stop and the air was full of smokey haze from the forest fires in Canada! 

Got back to 16 Viking Lane at about 9:00 pm and met Kristy. She looks just the same! The kids were all in bed!