The past few days have been insanely busy, but none as insane as our trip home.

We left for the New Haven tran station around 7am, caught a 7:55am train to Grand Central, and arrived around 9:40am. We then hopped a cab over to LaGuardia for an 11:59am flight. Boarded the plane and sat on the tarmac for over 5 hours due to weather delays in Atlanta. We should have been back to Jacksonville at 4pm, but we didn’t even leave NYC until around 5pm. We finally arrived in Atlanta around 7pm and despite being told we were automatically rebooked for a later flight to Jacksonville found that we were not booked on any flight that evening! The only flight to Jacksonville that was open was Monday morning. So we asked for a flight credit and the gate agent (a supervisor) said that the airline would reimburse us for a one way car rental. We headed straight down to ground transportation and found that there were NO one way rentals available!! We’ve been through this routine in Atlanta before, so we went to the ticketing counter and tried to figure out what options we had. They were able to put us on a 9:45pm flight to Orlando that was delayed by about 30 minutes, so we took it. At least there would be rental cars in Orlando and we could get home. Well, our Orlando flight got delayed until 2:30am. Not very promising. We figured we may as well get on a Monday morning Jacksonville flight at that point, but it wasn’t available. There were no open seats to Jax until Tuesday! The gate agent suggested that if we had confirmed seats on a flight we should be on it. So we waited and waited and waited. We tried to catch some shut eye but the airport was such a nightmare. 2:30am came around and we were told (SURPRISE) that our flight was cancelled. And still no flights were open until Tuesday… to ANY Florida city!!!! We started walking and calling all of the car rental companies and finally found that Thrifty did have a car available. We confirmed that Air Tran would pay for our rental and got our car around 4am. After being up 22 hours we took turns driving the 6 hour trip to Jacksonville. It was so horrible! We finally got home around 10:30am, stinky and exhausted. I called into work to give them an update and was going to try to get a half day in still, but when Matt tried to wake me up around noon I was in such a deep sleep that there was no way it was happening. I slept until Matt woke me up for dinner and still felt like I hadn’t slept at all.

But our trip wasn’t all bad. In fact, we had a great time! The wedding was fun and we also managed to see a lot of sights along the way.

Welcome to New York (sign at LaGuardia Airport)

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station atrium

New York Pizza… yum!!!

Tunnel to the train station in New Haven

Saratoga National Historical Park

Farm House at the site of the Battles of Saratoga (used as headquarters and lodging)

Matt near a replica cannon

Saratoga Monument

Home of General Philip Schuyler

Fort Ticonderoga

French monument at Ticonderoga. The sign reads: Near this spot stood Louis-Joseph de Gozon Marquis de Montcalm on the 8th of July 1758 with a small force of French troops and Canadian volunteers he prevented the capture of Fort Carillon by defeating a much superior British and Colonial army under General James Abercrombie. This monument erected in 1927 to honor a brave and gallant gentleman.

Firing the cannons at Ticonderoga

Just in case you didn’t believe we were actually there

Keyhole at Ticonderoga (I just thought it was really cute!)

I added Matt’s name! LOL! :p

Matt passing through the entrance to the fort

Now we venture into the great mansions of the Hudson Valley!

Clermont (home of Robert Livingston… Mr. Livingston, I presume) – one of 5 who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, swore in President Washington, and co-developer of the first viable steamboat

Wilderstein (home of Thomas Suckley, descendant of the prominent Beekman and Livingston families) – The home was last lived in by Margaret (Daisy) Suckley who was also the cousin of FDR. She gave him his famous little Scottie named Fala.

Vanderbilt Mansion Hyde Park (home of Frederick William Vanderbilt, grandson of the famous Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt) – gorgeous home, but not nearly as impressive as his brother George Washington Vanderbilt’s elaborate home, the Biltmore. Hyde Park is only 55,000 square feet compared to 175,000 square feet at the Biltmore

Springwood (home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt)

Gardener’s Cottage at Springwood

Just hanging out with FDR and Eleanor

Final resting place of the President and the First Lady

Springwood Stables

FDR named one of his horses “New Deal”

Val-Kill (home of Eleanor Roosevelt after FDR’s death)