The Big Apple

Thursday morning, along with my boss, I headed to New York for a consortium event which Tufts (a.k.a. my boss and I) coordinated this year.  I was excited about being in the city but not so excited about the traveling.  Thursday turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Robin and I took the Acela Amtrak train to New York -- boarded at 9:20AM in Back Bay and pulled into Penn Station around 12:30PM.  The train was spacious, quick, comfortable, had little waiting, and required no obsessive security measures; I was singing its praises.

(view from my hotel room window)

After arriving in the Big Apple, checking in at the Crowne Plaza near Times Square (what a location!), and a quick rendez vouz with our conference organizer, Robin and I grabbed lunch at a cute little French restaurant (the food was so-so) and took advantage of our only free minutes by walking to Central Park (pictures below).  Of course we had to name all the movies we could thank of which have scenes in Central Park!  Lots and lots of girly movies were named. :)

(Times Square as seen from the entrance to our hotel)

The event itself went well.  We wrapped up Friday evening and caught our 7PM train back home to Boston from Penn Station.  Somehow the 10:40PM arrival into South Station didn't quite work out as planned, and I didn't get back home until THREE A.M.!  It's actually a really sad story.  About 20-30 minutes after the train left Penn Station, a rail worker was struck by a train on our line and killed, consequently shutting down all train service through that area.  That delayed our train by a couple hours.  Then it was slow going for the next hour as the lines were backed up quite a bit.

Finally around 1AM we made it to the stop 30 minutes south of downtown Boston -- the end was in sight!  BUT when the train was trying to leave the station, the engines wouldn't start.  After an hour of waiting (it was now 2AM), Robin and I decided we would get off the train and try to call a cab.  We both started calling numbers (along with 20-30 other exhausted ex-passengers in the station), and no one was available.  A young lady walked into the station and said, "Is anyone going to Somerville? I have room for three."  Robin and I both ran forward and said, "Somerville's close enough."  Next thing we knew, we were riding in the back of a stranger's car at 2AM and laughing about the entire circumstance and how our friends and family would react.  Our new "friends" dropped us off at Harvard Square, we caught a cab to Tufts, and Robin dropped me off at home at 3AM.

"What do I think of traveling by train now?" you ask.  Give me a few months, and maybe I'll have gotten over this exhaustion.  I was on that train so long I could've flown to Europe by the time we made it to Boston!