Friday, 9/4

We begin with a not perfect routing to NYC, as in the late flight to Boston, a few hour layover, and then on the 1st flight of the day to EWR. The reason being my Airbnb host was going to be out of town for my planned arrival date (Sunday). So he told me if I could get there Saturday morning, I could have Sat night for free and the place to myself. After fiddling enough with Google flights to make it work, I gladly accepted.

I took an Uber from my office to IAH for $45 (vs. $60 in a taxi). Arrived around 5 pm and looked at my phone to find a series of alerts from UA that my flight was delayed anywhere from 1 to 4 hours. We eventually left 2 hours late, which I killed in the KLM Lounge drinking and watching TV online. The UA flight up to Boston was reasonably enjoyable, I alternated between napping and talking to the girl next to me who was relatively new to Houston and heading home for the long weekend.

Saturday, 9/5

We landed in Boston and I was promptly kicked out of my prime napping place by a really rude Massport employee – guessing that’s the main qualification for working there – who told me I couldn't stay on the secure side. So went back to the public side and joined all the other people waiting on flights. I did a couple hours of work I didn't get to on Friday and then re-cleared TSA. Since the flight from IAH qualified me for baby UA status (Silver), I asked the GA if she could manually add me to the upgrade list (because I saw there were still more seats than people on the list). She said the system wouldn't let her do that, but she gave me an E+ seat. Hey it’s something, right?

I slept the whole flight and took NJ Transit from EWR to Penn Station and then walked to my Airbnb place, which was only a few blocks away, around 30th and 8th.

The Airbnb apartment/shoebox





Once I got settled, I went out for a nice long walk up to Central Park and made a visit to the Met. Since it was the first weekend of the month, I was able to get free admission with my BoA credit card as part of their museums on us program. After the museum, I walked back to the apartment, and clocked ~100 blocks of walking that day.









Still exhausted from barely sleeping the night before, I didn't do anything, just watched a couple episodes of TV drinking a couple beers from the 7-11 and turned in early.

Sunday, 9/6

I woke up around 8 and went for a run for a couple miles down to the edge of the Hudson River and a bit along the High Line. On the way back, I stopped off at the Trader Joes in Chelsea for some food. Once I got back to the apartment, I had decided I wanted to do my normal search for local breweries. I thought about Brooklyn Brewery, but decided it was a bit too mainstream since I can get most of their beers in Texas. I settled on Finback Brewery, a small place nestled in a residential area of Queens, which wasn’t too difficult to get to via subway and a bus.







Their IPA filled beer list was delicious, and very much up my alley since I love IPAs. After trying ~4 different beers and hitting the credit card minimum, said goodbye to the friendly bartender and headed back. I stopped at Central Park to enjoy a bit of the evening before going back to the apartment.

Monday, 9/7

Today was my day to go to the US Open. I rolled out of bed and walked a couple blocks to get a coffee, and then back to get ready for the day. I took the subway out to the tennis complex, and while I didn't know exactly where I was going when I transferred, I just followed people in US Open t-shirts.

Spent until around 5pm watching tennis, a sport that had slipped my mind. I used to play casually in high school, but have paid very little attention since then. One of the things I quickly noticed were how more upmarket than usual the food and drink options were here compared with other sporting events I'd been to. But would it have killed them to have at least another beer option that wasn't Heineken?



Gotta love women's tennis...



Saw Andy Murray practicing



Also stopped into the Amex Fan Experience area which was moderately interesting, but the cardholder only area on the 2nd floor had food and drink to pay for that wasn't any better looking or a better value than what could be had out in the food court.



I stopped and grabbed a dollar slice on the walk from the 42nd St station back to the apartment. I figured I'd be going out for lunch both days in the office, and was going out with a friend on Tuesday night, so I'd get my fill of better food then.

Tuesday 9/8

Today was a pretty quiet day. Woke up and went for a run before work, and walked to my office to be there around 8:45am. My company's NY office is located right in Midtown near Bryant Park, which was about a ~15-20 min walk from the apartment, which normally wouldn't be too bad but it was pretty warm, high around 90 degrees today.

Not much to report other than enjoyed a delicious bibambap bowl from a restaurant on 40th St, and then trekked up to near Columbus Circle for happy hour with a friend. We went to Valhalla, which is a craft beer bar with a great selection, and probably average pricing for the city. Most beers were 6-7.5% and $7-8 for a pint and cool atmosphere.

After a couple rounds I walked the long way back to the apartment to figure out what to pack and what I was leaving in the closet at the office.

Wednesday 9/9

It was even warmer this morning than Tuesday, since it was lacking that "morning cool" before the heat of the day. And nearly as humid as Houston. And I'm about to hike ~15 blocks with two suitcases and a backpack. I walked to the office in my running clothes and reassembled myself there. All packed, and with my dress clothes hanging in the closet at work waiting for my return, I was ready to go.

It was a pretty slow day, broken up only by a walk up to 56th and 6th to get some Halal Guys for lunch (delicious!) eaten in the park, and a mid afternoon break for Starbucks and a visit to the bank to get cash.

The mixed bowl - $7



Our big boss (CEO) was in NY for a couple days, so they had planned a happy hour for 5:30. I figured I'd have time for 1 pint and then head to JFK. I went back to grab my stuff and by 6:10 was headed into the 42nd St/Bryant Park station to take the F-E-Airtrain combo, an uneventful trek that took about an hour.

Arriving at the EY checkin counter at Terminal 4 wasn't too bad as they had lots of podiums open. For some unknown reason I couldn't checkin online as it kept saying I needed to put in additional information, but once I did, it didn't register so it wouldn't let me move forward. Oh well. Once I got through checkin, where I was quoted a sum of ~$2000 to upgrade to J (haha!) I went to go stand in the longest TSA line known to man. While EY doesn't participate in PreCheck, once I got to the end of the line they were filing people into the Pre lanes anyway. So long line, but don't have to go through the nude-o-scope or get undressed. I was finally airside at 8pm.

Wingtips Lounge

Wingtips is the only Priority Pass accessible lounge in T-4 and also functions as the premium lounge for about a dozen airlines, including EY, until they finish their own lounge. They enforce capacity controls on PP and other card holders during the peak evening rush, but I was allowed in after about 5 minutes and a busy flight was called for boarding.

Hot food was on offer, rigatoni pasta and vegetable curry of some sort. The pasta was pretty forgettable and the veggie curry wasn't bad. Self serve bar and a really good bottled beer selection. They had NY microbrews, to Tiger and Corona, to the normal swill.



I stayed here catching up on texts and calls until boarding was called in the lounge. By the time I got down to gate A4, they were on boarding group 3, and I was group 4. #perfecttiming