E is for Errr?!

Oh well, I have been stuck on E for a few days now and it seems high time to move forward. I considered EWR (The airport that we landed in to get into New York/Jersey) - that sounded very forced, or "Excitement" - but that one seemed so mundane. So well, Errr it shall be ;).

New York Day 1:
We left cozy and warm Dallas to be rudely thrust into the cold winds outside Newark Airport. Though we were sort of prepared with warm jackets for the kids etc, that's not quite enough for a total feeling of comfort. We took a taxi to the hotel (which I discovered was not in the best location :( ), to settle in the room for a bit. After braving the cold to get a bite for lunch, we spent the evening with an ex-colleague and old friend enjoying the night view of New York as seen from across the river at Hoboken. Also included was dinner at a Japanese restaurant featuring a Hibachi show.

At Hoboken

New York Day 2:

We assumed our tourist avatars and went off reasonably bright and early on Day 2. The one saving grace of the hotel in spite of its slightly sad location was that they had a shuttle service to Times Square. Our first stop at NY was weirdly enough Starbucks as it was c-o-o-o-l-d! Waited in line for the 3+$ coffee (will not complain about CD prices again at least ;)), and hot chocolates for the kids, and then set out to see the American Museum of Natural History. Why we chose this one - it features in The Night at the Museum (that the kids had seen on TV) so they knew about some of the exhibits already :P. Plus I didn't think the kids would really understand or enjoy the art museums all that much. 

Yes yes dinosaurs again :)

Strike a pose!

I forgot to mention an interesting incident at the ticket counter - the lady at the counter told us that we could pay "whatever" we wanted to as we reached in the afternoon and wouldn't get a full day there. Needless to say, we were completely flabbergasted and had to have a quick discussion to arrive at a decent sounding figure. There was so much to see, and to do it some amount of justice we stayed until closing which was about 5:30. Then it was time to head off to find some dinner and hit Times Square in time for the bright lights and displays :).

The standard Times Square photo :)

We didn't hang around too long as we had an early start the next morning for our Niagara Tour.. more on that in my next entry, and caught the shuttle back to the hotel.

Fastest Holiday Plan Ever!

So this is how it usually works.. I decide(ok with "some" consultation) where we should go a few months in advance of the holidays, research research research... and make the bookings whether on Club Mahindra and driving down as we usually do, or else go to a place like SOTC and make bookings through them with a clear idea of what we want to see and do. That is what we opted for, when it was our first overseas trip with the kids and I didn't want to take chances with making too many arrangements online on my own.

This summer holiday planning started the same way.. a few months back I decided that we could try to make it to UK/London/Scotland.. unfortunately only started checking out stuff properly a couple of weeks back, to find that it's pretty much too late to make any bookings in London through RCI which is what we wanted to do. So that put London plans on hold(hopefully for 2014) and started looking around for other ideas. To my horror, a lot of the Club M locations also were filling up soon. But thanks to their new and clear interface I could see easily exactly what was available where.

We have been putting off a trip to the north wondering if the kids can take the longer distances involved, but within a few hours of checking out the resorts(we have visited most of their options in the south) - I made an impulsive decision that since S is going to be FIVE by this summer, it's high time we try it out! So with a short stopover at Delhi, we are going to be super adventurous and check out locations like Corbett and Binsar, and the great outdoors this April. Booked a hotel in Delhi solely based on tripadvisor reviews (not to mention their great responsiveness on their FB page - which is also a first for me. Not only that, we decided it's time the kids experienced a long train journey, so we are going by the Rajdhani!! Phew!

And this also always happens, that as I'm planning one vacation (where I may have missed the ball a bit with the planning in advance :( ), I start thinking about all the forthcoming vacations in the next couple of years and where all we might want to go. In that context, if someone has experience with planning through RCI, do leave me a message.