Honeymoon Blog - 10/7/2008

I guess if you want to get technical, our honeymoon started the moment we left the reception hall, but we took a day in between there to load a moving truck with Alicia’s things. So we don’t really count Monday. Today’s theme was "Welcome to the Purdys." These pictures go along with the blog.

Today, though, was a fantastic start to a new life together. I’m anticipating that the next 9 days will be overwhelming with new sights, sounds and smells. Seeing places I’d only read about or seen on TV or through third-party tales. Finally it will be me that will have the stories to tell.

We began our journey a little later than we anticipated. Today we had planned to leave the Hotel Vienna in Windham, NY, around 8:00 a.m. We ended up leaving around noon. We were both so sleep-deprived after the week leading up to the wedding that sleeping in just sounded like the greatest luxury in the world at the time. We stopped in Cairo, NY, (pronounced CARE-oh) to drop off Alicia’s dress and have a little lunch at Mickey D’s with the kids. We said our goodbyes and headed down to NYC.

On the way we took a 30-minute detour to a little town that I had discovered back in the hills. (Thanks Google Maps!) We took a picture under the highway sign at the entrance to the city – Purdys, NY. Seemed fitting. After that tender moment we made a beeline down to Manhattan where we had to check into our hotel, dump the luggage in our room and then turn the rental car in.

We stayed in the New York Hilton, on Avenue of the Americas (6^th) and 54^th, just blocks away from Central Park and Times Square. There have been a few times in the last 2 years that I’ve actually felt really glad that I’ve spent so much time traveling, since it has afforded me so many free hotel nights and airline tickets. This time I slapped my Hilton HHonors card down with its Diamond status and they gave us a fantastic room on the 32^nd floor. Also because of my status, they gave us access to the top floor breakfast area and free breakfast. We entered our room, enjoyed the view, stayed long enough to drop off our luggage and get directions to National 9 blocks away.

We made it to National after refueling the car and had a wonderful experience where the very helpful young man inadvertently charged me $400 instead of the $100 I was expecting. Of course he was eager to assist me and correct the problem after I brought it to his attention. Now, reread the whole thing, but this time with dripping sarcasm. I decided it wasn’t going to go anywhere, so I’d take it up with National’s customer service when I returned to the room. We walked the 9 blocks back to the hotel. On the way back we grabbed a couple of hot dogs and a pretzel from a street vendor.

As soon as we got back to the hotel it was time to get ready for the grand finale of the night – our orchestra seats at Wicked. I hurried and wrote my strongly-worded letter to National Car while Alicia stood over me asking me if I was ready and reminding me of the time. I scrambled to get ready which involved ironing a shirt and dry-shaving my face. But we were out the door in plenty of time.

The Gershwin Theater is off Broadway on 51^st and was roughly a 6-block walk for us. Alicia was in a beautiful, black, strapless dress with black heels and a red, silky wrap around her shoulders and I wore black slacks, an indigo blue dress shirt and a matching tie. We looked stunning as we entered the theater and made our way to our seats. The show started not long after we sat down. Right as the show started, I whispered to Alicia that I would reveal nothing to her unless she asked. Most of the night, she just enjoyed the look on my face as I sang along (quietly) with the actors and actresses. It was a wonderful experience and an incredible way to officially kick off our honeymoon.

We made our way back to the hotel, stopping on the way to buy “I love NY” souvenirs for the kids. We were both very hungry when we settled down at the hotel, so we ordered a pizza and some assorted gourmet cheese to go with our VGS Chardonnay (thanks Pat and Lois, it was wonderful!) Satisfied and tired, we laid down for the night.

Tomorrow will be an even bigger day. We’re going to see NY and then head to our ship.