An uneventful travel day – the best kind.

After all the nightmare scenario travel stories I’d seen over the holidays, I had been hoping for a calm weather day for travel, and seems like I got my wish. It was a bit nippy this morning when I left home, chauffeured by my kind SIL, Phyl, after a few flakes overnight but otherwise no drama.

I arrived at the airport at 9:00 am and by about 9:07 I had gone through US departures check in, baggage drop, security, Customs & Immigration, Timmy’s and was seated at my gate. So much for needing to be there 2 – 3 hours ahead of time.

My routing was through EWR – Newark, NJ, just across the Hudson River from NYC. As we were coming in for landing, I briefly saw the Statue of Liberty watching over the bay, but wasn’t in a position to get a picture. My grandson is obsessed with it having received a map with man made icons on it for Christmas. He’s also obsessed with the CN Tower and the Parliament Buildings, probably because he’s seen both of them.

I was pleasantly surprised by EWR after hearing all the ribbing that it takes as a less than desirable airport. I arrived and left from Terminal C not the dreaded Terminal A, although I understand the new Terminal A is now open after long delays. It’s got lots of facilities, including a separate breast feeding room which I’ve never seen before (although to be fair I haven’t been looking!), and a plethora of iPad stations and work stations with lots of plugs. I chose the most expensive restaurant in the airport for lunch, no doubt, but it was a nice ambiance and while out of the sea of humanity, it was not too tucked away so still lots of air circulation. Can’t recall choosing my location based on that criteria before. It was a long day with several hours to wait in Newark before my flight to San Juan, but it passed fairly quickly and I was on to the next flight.

The next leg was Newark to San Juan, Puerto Rico where on Saturday I will board the Star Pride. The flight was a little bumpy but I got my nose into my e-book copy of Spare and got 100 or so pages under my belt. I hated to feed the dragon, but given how much chatter there has been about it, I was curious. It’s actually been interesting to read about some of the details of Harry’s life from his perspective. I’m only in the early years so far.

There to greet me in the arrivals area when we landed was Hector from Rico Sun Tours with his “Lois Johnson” sign, such a relief to see at the end of a long day and at 1 in the morning in a city with which I’m not that familiar. And as exciting was finding my suitcase looping around the luggage carousel. I travelled to the downtown area with a couple of other Canadians from Toronto who will also be joining the cruise on Saturday. They are staying at a new Sheraton, which is part of the convention complex which looks gorgeous.

I, however, am staying at a boutique, funky place called Casablanca in the heart of Old San Juan. There is some construction going on and the driver had to back his mini bus up the street to get to the hotel for me. Adventure in travel. The hotel is not my usual standard of travel, but given the prices at the Sheraton I decided I’d rather spend the money on an excursion on the ship and I wanted to be in Old San Juan. And it’s only 2 nights so how bad could it be. I’ll let you know tomorrow after a night’s sleep here.