peace out

This morning after a little bit more packing, we headed out to see the memorial site for the World Trade Centre. 

Its quite sad to see all the photos and all the signs for the missing people, but after watching so much of it on TV it was good to go there and see where it all happened, the big hole that it left as well is what really stands out, amongst buildings on top of buildings next to buildings there is this very large empty space which is now a very large construction site.

0ur shuttle is coming to get us at 2pm as we are flying out of JFK and its at least and hours drive away from the hotel depending on the traffic. This will be the official start of our long journey home.

When we checked in at Qantas desk today a couple of our suitcases were over 32 kilos, so we had to re-arrange as they wouldn’t accept any bag over that weight. But the lady was nice enough not to charge us for two of them as they were under 23 kilos or close enough to that, not sure how we managed to pull that off.

Just ate my last delicious slice of Pepperoni pizza while in America, back to normal when we get home, I am going to miss the great pizza so much, its never going to be the same again at home. I have really got into these places that combo up the soup salad and pizza. The best of all worlds in the one spot. We really need something like that at home.

While we are sitting here at JFK waiting for our flight to leave (already delayed) we thought this might be interesting.

Total flights taken:15

Hours travelled: we lost count

States visited: 9

Time zones we have been through – Mountain Time, Central, AEST, WST, Pacific, Eastern pretty much all of them

Best airport for free Wifi – Chattanooga (surprisingly, a lucky save)

Best airport for food – California Pizza Kitchen at Hawaii, Vegas and Dallas airports and also Chilli’s at Dallas, all good eating.

Best airport for plug ins, chargers battery stations etc – all of them

Coolest find in airport - they have vending machines which sell electronics, you can buy say an ipod from a Best Buys vending machine which is a chain store over here similar to The Good Guys at just about any major airport.

Worst looking airport – Waikiki Hawaii – needs a serious makeover, but hey you’re in Hawaii so who really cares. Also special mention here for Chattanooga airport which is in the process of a makeover, still the check in counter was pretty bad.

Worst airport for check-in – Chattanooga, the guy there must have missed training day it took us about an hour to get checked in (not joking, lucky we were there nice and early) and even Jason who was waiting with us, was like what is going on here! He was annoyed for us, and even more annoyed when we found out what we were being charged to travel with luggage, yeah who flies with luggage!! We had been expecting it though.

Its been the best trip ever, with 6 suitcases and a carry on each we are finally on our way home to sunny Perth, we are still rugged up at the moment, Roy finally chucked his gloves out, I haven’t gotten rid of mine yet, its still really chilly here, although before we left the weather report was 34 and sunny in New York, 32 is 0 degrees Celsius!! Haha sounds funny.

Things we are going to miss the most not in any particular order – our friends both old and new that we have made on our travels, Pizza, Cherry flavoured drinks (Bec is addicted to them), all the variety of shopping and the price of everything, tipping = great service from waitresses, Roy is going to miss all the sport on tv how is he ever going to live with just 1 ESPN channel when he has had about 5 for the last 6 weeks.

Things we aren’t going to miss, living out of a suitcase, taking everything off when going through airport security, (although we are both professionals at it now) checking into flights 2 hours early, delayed flights, freezing cold weather, packing everything we own into a suitcase and knowing its not all going to fit and deciding what we don’t need to bring with us.

Things I am looking forward to at home, seeing all our family & friends again, CHOCOLATE (the chocolate over here isn’t as good, I miss Cherry Ripe and Boost the most) having all my shoes and clothes with me, sleeping in our own bed, our huge comfy couch.

We have had a great honeymoon, we hope you have all enjoyed our blog and we loved having you all along with us for our travels.

Happy Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all our followers.

This is the CooneysDoAmerica signing off for the final time, America is done.

Love the Cooneys xxxx

some courts in Queens that are not seeing any action at the moment on the way out to the airport.
a parting view of the manhattan skyline crossing the bridge.
ground zero, where the 2 towers used to stand
a part of one of the planes that flew into one of the towers was pulled out of all the wreckage
the greatest store in the world (also the largest apparently)

entry to the subway at Bryant Park of 6th Ave, we walked passed it a few times
bryant park and some snow damage
roy eating pizza...again
the jets new number 1 fan

J - E - T - S Jets Jets Jets

This morning we had a sleep in (yah) and now we are getting ready to go to see the Jets with Leanne and Kleber, we are all very excited.

The good news is that it stopped snowing at some point overnight, so we wont have to contend with that today at the game.

We met up at Penn Station on 7^th Ave and we are taking the train to the game at Meadowlands Stadium.

Its so cold today its not even funny, we have on so many layers of clothes, haha both the boys have pants on under their jeans!! Hehe and more than 1 pair of socks on. We all have at least 4 layers of clothes on and is wearing 2 beanies. 

We make it to the stadium along with thousands of others on this particular train. The train was delayed getting out there due to the snow. The thing that stood out on the way out to the game was that almost everybody was drinking, they were getting loaded on the way. It’s not bad, I think its great, but its different and not something you see at home.

We make our way to our seats, and they are awesome, we are 3 rows from the front and right behind the goals. We are all excited for like 10 minutes, the Jets score a touchdown on a long pass and stop the Falcons on the goal line in front of us, then the cold sets in, I have never been so cold in all my life, I thought I was going to cry at one stage, and I couldn’t feel my feet or my hands. But not Roy, he was loving every second of it, but we kept watching the game, then at half time we went to get hot chocolate and food for lunch, the whole time all trying to warm up the body parts that felt like they were snap frozen, Kleber almost fell down the stairs as his legs stopped working! Haha

After half time we all seemed to warm up a bit. 

The Jets were up 7 to 3 the whole game then with 1.38 to go they let the Falcons score a touchdown to lead 10 to 7!! Boooo. The Jets then have a chance to win but the Quarterback throws his 3^rd interception of the day and the game is over.

Still it was a good game, pretty close just a shame that they missed 3 field goals or they could have won it very easily. So frustrating, still we all loved it and it was a great experience, the atmosphere was unreal, the crowd really gets into it and by the end of the game we were joining in with all the chants as well and standing up and cheering on the defence on 3^rd downs. The rules are harder to follow not being on tv, but the boys were there to tell us what was going on.

The train ride back into NYC at least gave us the opportunity to warm up again as they are heated, so that definitely helped the toes etc. Once back in Manhattan we headed to Jims Saloon on 23^rd street with Leanne & Kleber for some dinner and drinks while watching the other football games. We stayed for a while watching the games, swapping stories and having a great time. The girls got a little tipsy on Margaritas.

We all decided to take the subway back uptown (we were headed to 44^th street) and so we finally to got to experience this most famous of transit systems. We only lasted one stop on the subway but packed in all the things you would expect to see on the subway. We had a delay after the first stop due to difficulties on the line (due to the snow), there was a crazy woman complaining very loudly and often about the delay, there was the homeless guy sitting on the bench outside the train when we decided to walk the rest of the way (he smelled so bad, it was like he had shit his pants a week ago and still had them on, so bad). We walked up Broadway back into Times Square which was still busy at 8.30 on a Sunday night, there was still shopping that could be done as places were still open…but we didn’t, we went home and rested up.

Our awesome view from the 3rd row

Bec couldn't get through the turnstile with her ticket - was so funny 

let it snow, let it snow

Saturday today and we actually woke up this morning and went and had breakfast, 1^st time since being in New York! It was the quickest one ever, we had just finished ordering and it had come out, which was good. Anyways then we decided to head into Times Square again and do some more looking around and also some shopping, we also had to go back to M&M World, since we had so much fun there in Vegas. It was on a smaller scale than the Vegas store, but they still had some cool stuff in there.

Today is so so so cold, its supposed to start snowing today, there is a snow storm on its way, and it feels like it will coz it is so cold, the wind just cuts through you when walking down the street. But I am not complaining coz I am in New York.

So we head into a sports store for Roy to get some shoes, you would think it would be easier in America for him to get size 14, but the girl says “we don’t get them in coz they don’t sell very well”. Haha But he managed to still find a few and I got the cutest shoes ever for Isabel, I want them so bad, but they didn’t have my size.

We walk out of the sports store and now its really SNOWING!!! Yah finally, we have been waiting to see the snow, and did it snow. At first it was a nice light snow, ok to walk around in, oh this is fun, everyone gets the camera’s out etc etc.

Then we headed down to Bloomingdales, another massive store similar to Macy’s, we were in there probably an hour, but it was so crowded and most of the stuff we had already seen and bought, so we decided to go and walk down a street and find different things, we walk outside and it has been snowing so much, its everywhere and now its blowing and not as much fun as when we first ventured out today, its so cold as well.

Found a really cute shoe store though whilst in the blizzard so not all was lost! It was nice and warm in there and there really was no need to be out in the snow when there were shoes I could be trying on.

We walked back home in the snow and again it was fun for the first ten minutes and then it wasn’t so much fun anymore, more a mission just to get home and I didn’t have the appropriate footwear to walking around in slushy snow.

We are going out for dinner tonight with Leanne and her boyfriend Kleber, she lives here in New York, lucky thing. (Mark from works sister).

We went to this really cool Cuban restaurant uptown, the food was amazing! Also the company was great we all got on like a house on fire, and ended up not leaving till 1pm in the morning, they had to kick us out! Haha it was a great night.

So we get outside, and of course its been snowing the whole time only now everything is white, nothing is visible anymore, no roads, no footpaths, no trees, any car parked on the side of the road is now buried in snow its amazing everything is just covered in thick white fluffy snow. Its like the white Christmas that you see on the TV and in the movies. Roy and I are like OMG OMG OMG even Leanne was excited as this is her 2^nd Xmas in New York and last year was blue skies and sunny!

So we get a cab back to our hotel and we get dropped off at the bottom of our street so that we can go and play in the snow for a bit! Even though its freezing cold, its snow and who can resist! We were playing around in the snow on 5^th Ave at 1.30 in the morning, there hardly any cars and those that were around were travelling very slowly in the snow. We threw snowballs at each other and wrote our names in the snow. It was strange to be on 5^th Ave and it be so quiet, because during the day its so busy with cars and people, almost eerie, but we had a lot of fun doing it.

Lets hope tomorrow clears up for the Jets game and also so that we can fly home for Xmas as they have been cancelling flights all day out of New York (about 300 according to the news), so the reality of our flight being delayed/cancelled is a real possibility and starting to sink in.

A good Friday

It was Friday all day today and we spent the day at Macy’s, sounds funny that we were there all day but it’s that big, about 8 floors of stuff and at least 2 of them were devoted just to shoes. We didn’t even get through the whole store, but we got to all the bits we wanted and came out with a few hundred bags of stuff. Roy had to make a trip back to the hotel after lunch to drop off all the bags, coz they were too heavy and were making it really hard to shop, so we could keep going.

On the way to Macy’s we passed by Bryant Park which has another skating rink, and big Christmas tree, they also have lots of little stalls there selling local art etc, but most importantly was the hot chocolate stand which was exactly what was needed to warm up the body on a very chilly morning. It warmed up to about 34 today (0C), it’s a little chilly out and about in New York City.

We got home from shopping at around 4.30ish and it was already dark and while I rested my feet in the room Roy went out to pick up the tickets for the Knicks game tonight, luckily its only about 4 blocks away so it wont take him too long.

Tonight we went to the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, which is so huge. They played the Los Angeles Clippers. We got the best tickets, we were 5 rows from the front and in the middle of the court so we could see everything that was going on. We also had prime viewing for all the celebs that turned up as well. We spotted Matthew Modine (Memphis Belle), Anthony Anderson (The Departed, Transformers 1), Howard Stern (Radio DJ), Spike Lee (Director), Albert Brooks (Arliss), and there were a few others there with sunnies and caps on, obviously famous but not anyone we could tell straight away. We were sitting amongst them all and also some of the players girlfriends etc. We had servers all night as well, so we didn’t have to get up and get anything, they brought it all to us and they were very fast , it was awesome!

The game was great, it was close in the end and the Knicks came from behind in the last quarter to win by 3 points, it was a nail biter, right down to the last few seconds, which was good, we were worried that they were going to lose in the beginning. It was a great atmosphere and the crowd were right into it.

We then walked back through Time Square again, some of shops were still open at like 11.30 at night, that’s not right! Haha but we still took advantage of it. Loading up on snacks again we headed home for the rest of the night. Catching the weather forecast for Saturday tonight, snow is on the way, YAY!!!

A small section of Times Square, photos just dont do it justice

Matthew Modine and Anthony Anderson looking out for free tshirts being thrown out to the crowd

Spike Lee and Baron Davis showing some love


Bryant Park



Knicks legend Walt Frazier (special commentator)

New York City

Today we went back to 5^th Avenue and just shopped all day long! We didn’t even get through every single shop, we did see all the ones we wanted to though, including Louis Vuitton and Tiffany for Bec J

We had so many bags by 5.30 that we had to come back to the room to rest for a bit and get rid of all our bags, as it was making it really hard to shop for both of us.

We had lunch today at TGI Friday’s we have seen them all around but that is the first one we ate at, the food was really good.

We went to Central Park this morning and also to FAO Schwarz the big toy store that has the giant piano in it from the movie BIG, I am sure you know what we mean, it was fun, there was so many cool toys in there.

Funny story, we went back to check out some more shops after our little break, got some more shoes! Yah! I love this place. Then we decided to go and see Saks on 5^th Avenue, which was 9 floors, spread out men, women, fragrances, handbags, shoes etc etc. I wasn’t overly impressed with the store, it was nice but to be honest some of the areas were really messy and I would have thought it would have been better considering where we are.

So Roy and I decide that it would be quicker if we split up, since men’s are on 3 floors and women’s the same, we were going to meet back on the 6^th floor, well somehow that didn’t happen, we both kept missing each other, then I decided ok I will wait for Roy at the bottom of the elevators, coz he’ll come down eventually, so I wait, but Roy is already doing the same thing on the 6^th floor. Then I decide after about 15 mins that I will go back up, so I scouted out the 6^th and 7^th floor, but still managed to miss each other, then the store is closing so I have to leave the store, and I wait outside the store for what feels like the rest of my life, then finally after I had a mild panic about what had happened to Roy, he comes out! Phew! I thought I had lost him in New York.

We decided to get some Italian food and head back to our hotel to eat, our feet needed some rest after a full day of shopping.

In the NBA Super Store - Roy was in heaven there
"The Plaza"







He is all made out of lollies - yummo
Central Park - the sun even came out for us

My little pug! Awwww