Oh the Joys of Traveling..... On a budget!?!?!

So for what ever reason whenever Nick and I travel together everything ALWAYS goes wrong! Take our honeymoon for example... there was Hurricane Gustav, our shuttle bus got in an accident, many delayed or canceled flights, and so much more. One good thing that came out of that trip was that we were bumped on our way home and thus had free round trip tickets. We decided to book a trip to New York, thinking that with out air fare this trip would be cheap, right? Wrong!

We left Bellingham Friday afternoon. Got half an hour away and Nick realizes he didn't bring his cell phone. Get nearly to Vancouver and Nick realizes that neither of us packed his shoes. Had to go to Fred Meyers and buy him new ones. Also forgot swim suits, but stores don't sell them this time of year. Wake up 6 am on Saturday morning and got to PDX at 7. We were flying with US Airways, or US Delays as Nick likes to call them. Our flight was half an hour delayed because our flight crew had "A rough night" and showed up late. We were just happy that they showed up unlike our return trip from Jamaica where they forgot to schedule us a pilot. This put us in Phoenix 15 mins before our next plane boarded on the complete opposite side of the terminal. We rushed over there trying to get our seats changed so that we could sit next to each other. Right as we got there, they called for volunteers to get bumped. Nick sprinted to the desk and they told him that they only wanted a single person.

We land at JFK at 8. After collecting our luggage, we took the airtrain to the subway. Turns out we went the wrong direction, so it made the subway take about twice as long. We got off the subway, walked up to the road, expecting to get lost and wonder around trying to find the World Trade Center. Surprisingly, we entered the street and couldn't have been closer to it. (So we flew into JFK, but stayed by the Newark airport which is in New Jersey NOT New York because we thought it would be way cheaper).


Our plan was to have a somewhat healthy meal before getting on the train to go to our hotel. So where do we eat? The first hot dog stand we find (which was gross by the way, but Nick had been waiting to eat there). We walk down to the PATH station (the train) and the tickets booth only takes cash and all we have is cards and of course there are now ATM's around. After looking like dorks for a while we decide to buy a different type of ticket that will work as well.

We board the PATH and I ask Nick which stop we need, only to find out he has no idea and didn't print off a map. I pull out our hotel confirmation and find that there is no address or phone number on it. We try to get off at some random stop, but another passenger that was listening in on our conversation stopped us and said that we were a long way away from the Newark airport and to take the PATH all the way to the end. He also informed us that from the last stop to the airport was only $25 by taxi.

Once at the last stop we go straight to the information booth where we are informed that we are a LONG ways away from our hotel and that the next bus comes in 20 mins and it'll take two hours. Since it was already 11, I decided to make the executive decision to take my Mother in Law up on her offer "If you ever get scared jump in a taxi and I'll pay for it" cause there was no way I was going to walk that far or take that long of a bus ride with all my luggage.

Three after our plane landed the guy at our hotel informs us that it's going to cost us at least $50 a day in taxis to get back and forth from the city. We ask if we can cancel our room and he says that since we booked through expedia there are no refunds at all. Now we have to decide if it's worth it to spend nearly $250 in taxi's to get back and forth (which take at least 1 hour each way) or if we should switch hotels and stay in the city for $300 plus. So much for our BUDGET
trip!

Apparently we should have spent the extra money teaching Nick how to read a map cause our hotel defiantly is not within walking distance from the PATH as he had thought! But at least he took the time to plan this part of the trip while I was in Kenya so I'm trying not to give him that hard of a time! That doesn't mean I wont tease him later though or that you guys shouldn't either!

So now here we are in our hotel room that is SO close to the Newark airport that we hear every plane that lands as it shakes our room. The bed is ridiculously hard, but hey, it was it was cheap right??