A fun visit on Janet's birthday in NYC

Day 15   Sunday, February 3, 2019  NYC and flights home

Janet is blowing out a birthday candle at a restaurant on Times Square, where we had lunch with Kurt Anderson, son of Mary Anderson, Janet's Facebook friend from Huntington Beach.

We did not pack our luggage and put it into the hallway the night before, so we needed to pack before breakfast. We didn't plan to depart until 10:00, so for us the morning was relaxing. We got to admire our sunny, frontal view of NYC while packing, and we finished the bottle of champagne.

We went to the buffet for breakfast. We ate at the aft of the ship, with its beautiful views of the Hudson River and the New Jersey Palisades. When finished, we just remained there for quite a while using our cell phones for updates on e-mail and Facebook and national news.

We finally departed the ship, but we didn't know we were going to be in a long, 45-minute line to get to the Customs check. During the long line, we drank the remainder of the red wine from the night before. Luckily, it was not too cold!

Eventually we completed the process and got out onto the streets. We needed to walk up 48th St. from the ship at 12th Ave to 7th Ave, which is where the restaurant was that we agreed to meet Kurt Anderson. Those are long blocks between the avenues, but again, it was pleasant weather.

Our restaurant was Dos Caminos. It turned out that Kurt organized the opening of this restaurant as a top manager in a company that owns and opens new restaurants. Thus, he knew all the staff there and had a big discount.

What a fabulous conversationalist and interesting guy! He told us his scuba-diving stories, his European travel stories, his family stories, his restaurant-business stories, and his New York City-living stories. We had a huge guacamole pot as an appetizer, and Janet and I shared fish tacos. What a wonderful lunch and visit with this active fellow.

We then strolled around Times Square for a few minutes before arranging an Uber ride to LaGuardia. There, we needed to wait for a few hours before our flight. Chicago Midway Airport was fine during our layover, and soon we were home to Cinci. We got home at about 1:30 am on Feb 4. All great! Another incredible trip together!