~The Bayleaves~: Travels II

Cruising at flight level 220

The travels for this lone Bayleaf continued. Since I last posted, I've been to: San Antonio, TX; Orlando, FL; Worcester, MA; New York, NY; Montreal, QC; Toronto, ON; Chicago, IL and Winnipeg, MB. Whew, I'm tired just remembering them all. I'll try not to bore you too much...

Me, remembering the Alamo. It looks bigger in the movies!


The Riverwalk San Antonio. Awesome!!

I jumped on a bus that took me from right in front of my hotel to a block from the Alamo Plaza. Toured there and checked out The Riverwalk. The weather was beautiful to explore everything. Beware of "The Original Mexican Restaurant" on the Riverwalk; it's originally disgusting. Blech. Seriously.

Didn't do much in Orlando. The Disney/Universal Studios/Sea World stuff was all terribly expensive. Besides, who wants to go by themselves, anyway? I read by the pool at the hotel.

I was only in Worcester (pronounced Woostah if you're a local) for 1 night. I tried to explore there a bit, but there's not anything to see there. I was disappointed when the venue was changed from Boston. Bummer.

Trev and Erin met the plane at JFK in New York. It was very, very cool to see them. They took me all over the place the next day. Trev, you need to email me the pic of you and Erin sitting in the front of the Pilatus!

Bros in Time Square

This one's for Ree! We thought you'd get a laugh, Babe.

WTC Memorial. The Freedom Tower is under construction

Erin and I on the subway. Who needs a map when you have an Erin?

Central Park

Life-size Lego Chewbacca at FAO Schwartz. (He's the brown one.)

You can read, right?


30 Rock: I can hear Jack Donaghy's wise words in my head.

We saw: The World Trade Center site; Time Square; China Town (tasty lunch there); Little Italy (delish cannolis there); Central Park; FAO Schwartz; Soho; and a bunch of other places that are now a blur in my mind. I have tons of memories from there and will not try to rehash them all here.

We were, however, like 3 gophers popping up and down the subways all day. Only, one gopher had a gun. Somehow, the subways felt a little safer when I was with the gopher with a gun. Seriously, though, Trev and Erin were AMAZING tour guides and even better company. Thanks again for letting me crash at your place, guys. I enjoyed all of our talks as much as anything else. I think it made me realize how much I really miss you both.

We met up with Traj in the city the next day. Three of the Bayly bros in Manhattan. Crazy. We missed you, Treg. Had a late lunch and a nice chat together near and in Rockefeller Plaza, respectively. Trev took my luggage in his car so I wouldn't have to lug it on the train. I didn't know Traj also rode the train into the city, however. It was raining cats and dogs and I was dragging a 45 lb bag all over Manhattan (during rush hour) to get to Grand Central Station to take the train to Trajan's house. I probably looked as foolish as I felt. I ended up melting, yes, melting the wheels on my brand new suitcase from dragging it all over. Oh well. I survived NYC, but my bag did not.

I stupidly didn't take any pictures at Trajan's house. I had a great time and loved seeing the nieces. It really felt a little like home to be around them, and it was nice. I needed a dose of home, to be sure. Thanks Traj and Lauren for the hospitality, food, games, Skype, and everything else. We've got our fingers crossed about the U! (With apologies to Trev and Erin for possibly stealing them back again.)

I must say, it was odd to wake up in New Haven, Connecticut on Tuesday morning, and go to bed in Toronto, Canada via New York City, and Montreal, that night. I took the train and subways back from Traj's place to JFK, flew to Montreal and was there for 5 hours before continuing on to Toronto at 11PM. Long day. I was tired of jumping trains and subways so I didn't venture out from my airport hotel to downtown Toronto. Maybe I should've, but I really felt weary of subway and bus maps.

Navy Pier, Chicago.

I foolishly agreed to ride into Chicago with some co-workers that had a rental car. I enjoyed a true Chicago deep-dish pizza for lunch, but then they wanted to go dress shopping. I figured I'd check out The Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue). Little did I know, it's only "magnificent" for women, as the whole street is lined with high-end shops, and I would be held hostage for hours. Unfortunately, they ate up most of my sightseeing time. I should've just walked the couple miles to Navy Pier. They did eventually drop me there. I explored the pier a bit, saw Millenium Park, and drove past Soldier Field before riding the bus and train back to my hotel.

Oddly enough, I ended up being in Chicago at the same time as Dad and JoAnn. They were staying at JoAnn's cousin's house and invited me over for dinner on Sunday night. It was a delicious home-made meal and I was shocked at how generous and friendly her family was to me. They were extremely kind, especially in driving 45 min each way to pick me up and drop me off from my hotel and their house. Salt of the Earth people. Wow!

While driving from the Winnipeg airport to my hotel, I saw a hangar marked with "Western Canada Aviation Museum." I hoped my hotel wasn't far, because I wanted to walk back and check it out. Luckily, it wasn't far, and I did. Warning: if you are not an aviation nerd like me, the next pictures will bore you...