We are finally on our way, I am feeling a little sad, the images of my kid's upset little faces won't leave my mind. I pray they sleep well, and wake up refreshed.
I have never traveled outside of the United States before, I am feeling a little nervous and worried about how well I will tolerate the long flights ahead of us. Our flight leaves just before midnight and arrives in New York at 6:00 am, (4:00 am) Utah time, we hope we can get some sleep. After landing at JFK we have a 9 hour lay over, we are planning to go see a little bit of New York during that time. The flight goes pretty well, considering... I am so thankful for the extra seat, I brought a couple pillows along in my carry-on and I can lay down with my knees bent up towards my chest. Although doing this creates a pulling sensation, as if my in-betweens are being stretched, it sure beats sitting. Unfortunately, I get very little sleep, my mind is full of too many thoughts. I arrive in New York, the hardest part about the flight is the last 20 minutes, while descending the rules of putting your seats up-right, and wearing your lap belts, forces me to sit in a position that is the most uncomfortable. It is only for a short time, and once I can stand, I feel great. When the nerve gets aggravated, my muscles around the nerve become very tight and irritated as well. Getting off the plane, I had no tight muscles, or stiff hips, and I avoided a flare in my in- betweens. One successful flight down, and one very long flight to go.
It had been raining in New York, when we stepped outside it felt like we were getting sprayed by a very warm mist, it was very humid and smelly. My hair and humidity are the worst of enemies, I don't exactly know why, but unfortunately after only 10 minutes my hair had taken on a life of it's own. We were in New York earlier this year for a specialized MRI, it was in January and it was super cold, I think I like New York better cold. In January we were unable to get some of the things done we had hoped to do so, our plan was to go see some sites that I regretted missing.
The plan was to go to Central Park, and visit the 9/11 Memorial Site. We were a little more comfortable this time getting around on New York's public transportation. After putting our carry on bags in a baggage storage facility, we purchased our round trip train tickets and metro card, and boarded the train for Penn. Station. From Penn station you can catch several subway lines to get about anywhere in Manhattan. We arrived at Central Park just after 8:00 am, it was everything you imagine, with big trees, and very green landscape, full of bridges, and trails, and lakes, and fountains, with a ton of joggers, bikers, and people just strolling through. Central park runs along 5th avenue and Central park West, from 59th street to 110th street. We entered the park off 72nd street, my favorite sites were the Bethesda Terrace & Fountain, and The Minton Tile Ceiling, hopefully we can upload some pictures soon. We spent over two hours exploring the park. We covered maybe 3 miles or so of trails. I wish we had more time to spend but we needed to get down town for our 9/11 Memorial reservation. We ended our walk at 59th on the corner of Columbus Circle, we passed by the famous Tavern on the Green, and on the corner of Columbus was The Trump Towers. I love the "Apprentice" I could now see the solo walk from the front doors of the hotel, to the waiting car parked on the street for the celebrity, just after receiving the famous line "your fired," and see the street that the car drives down as the celebrity makes their last remarks. It was so surreal, the streets are really very narrow and on TV it seems so much larger.
We caught the subway at Columbus Circle and headed downtown. It seems everyone had the same idea, when we got off the subway and up to the street, there were people everywhere and we all seemed to be heading the same direction. We were a little early for our reservation, so we stepped inside a restaurant for a slice of New York style pizza, Yumm! We followed the arrows that directed us to the Memorial Site this went on for block after block, finally, we see the entrance. Oh wow, there were weaving rows of people probably about 50 rows deep, we felt a little worried that we might miss our flight if we got in line, but it seemed to be moving along, so we went to the back of the line. After a couple of security check points with metal detectors, and one hour later we were finally in the 9/11 Memorial site. I think this site was laid out very well, I think it's a wonderful tribute to all the lives lost on that horrific day, and for loved ones and the survivors to have a place for reminiscing, and healing. I will also upload these pictures. Pictures really do not serve the purpose of the magnitude of this unbelievable site, it is really worth checking out for yourselves. We start to exit the 9/11 Memorial site and my husband realized he didn't have his backpack, panic sets in, we think about were we may have left it, it had his borrowed iPad in it. I told him I think you may have left it at the security check point. He runs over to a security officer and explained our situation, the officer radios the security check point and we learned it was left behind, and someone will bring it out to us. While we are waiting he explains how leaving a backpack laying around can raise alarm with the security, because they never know the possible contents. There are no bathrooms or garbage cans on the 9/11 Memorial site, specifically for security reasons, they really are doing their best to keep everyone safe. A security officer brings the back pack and before turning it over asks what items we had in it, when we said iPad he hadn't noticed that was in there, but the other items matched. Whew, So glad we realized, before walking out of the exit. We find our way to the subway and head back to Penn Station to catch the train back to JFK.
I used our train ride to call and check-in at home before we left the country. My husband's mom said, when she got home from taking us to the airport, all of the kids were sound asleep, and they all got up and got to school just fine. I called my sister in-law she was going to have my three year old for the day, she said he was running around happy as could be. Good, now I can travel with peace of mind, everything seems fine back home.
In New York everything is very fast paced, my problem is if I try and keep up with that pace, I become very sore and everything in-between becomes very irritated, I've learned I can't walk very fast or I end up in big flare. In New York everybody walks, and they walk fast, and when me and my husband are out walking, and we watch much older people, and women in extremely high heeled shoes passing us by, it's a little bit of a reality check for this debilitating condition. It is very hard to keep up with this city, and one day I plan on returning with my kids, and I pray I will fit in with the busy streets of New York. Thanks to my husband for being so patient, it's probably very frustrating walking from place to place at my slow pace.
I am on my first international flight ever, the reality sets in, we are really doing this, we will arrive in Turkey in 10 or so hours. I'm not sure what to expect, but I know one thing we are in for some major culture shock. The airplanes are much larger, and the seats offer more room, I am still thankful for our extra seat, I get through the first hour tipped on my hip, I'm starting to get pretty uncomfortable so I take my medications that were prescribed to me before leaving, and lay down, within minutes I am fast asleep. I was pretty disappointed after waking up that only a hour and half had gone by, I was hoping to sleep most of the flight, especially since I didn't get any sleep the night before. I pulled out the nook, I thought I could check in on Facebook. Then we learned that Delta doesn't offer WiFi on international flights, but will start in January, Bummer! So I pull a book out and start reading. The flight went well with the help of medication, the extra seat, and my husband's lap, I was able to keep my pain levels from spiking. Good news, the flight attendant announced our flight was running ahead of schedule by a whole hour, that is one less hour of feeling confined. I was so excited that traveling was almost behind us, and that I managed the pain fairly well, so much better than I had anticipated. However, I had gotten very little sleep, I thought sleeping wouldn't be an issue, especially since we were traveling in the night. I think I only slept for around three hours over the last 48 hours. I was very exhausted by the time we finally touched ground in Istanbul.
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