Jean Day4

JFK hell, Cafe Frida, Serendipity3, Bloomingdale's, Apple Store, FAO Schwartz, Central Park and Napoleon Dynamite

Well, it seemed like the rain subsided by morning but alas, we trekked all the way to JFK for nothing. We had to take an expensive cab ride because the E subway was flooded. We checked Jean's bag, went through security only to have the flight listed as 'canceled'. Argh! The lines at customer service were insanely long. A gate employee told me I'd need to go to baggage service to reclaim Jean's bag. Margs helped via phone by calling customer service to try to find another flight for us. The woman could rebook me but not Jean for fear her bag would get put in 'unclaimed' status. Thus I worked with Mary at JFK but she said she couldn't do anything with the bag and that customer service was wrong. She then sent me to Allison up at ticketing. Allison tried to rebook us but was unable to get Jean back her bag - held hostage until the next RDU flight would leave. We took the AirTrain and subway home and were back in my neighborhood at 1:30 pm - a hellish three and a half hours.
We stopped by Cafe Frida for lunch. Great guacamole and Jean had flautas. Back to my place to wrap up some work and tasks before we headed out to Serendipity 3 on the Upper East Side. I had their signature frozen hot chocolate which could have served four - they had four straws sticking out of it! Jean had the 'coward's portion' banana split. Yikes! Three scoops of ice cream, fudge, walnuts, whipped cream, cherry, HUGE! Jean did an admirable job but only a few could finish that mound of sugar bliss. Then we popped by Dylan's Candy Bar - two floors of diabetic death, or a kid's candyland dream depending on your perspective. Then Bllomingdale's where we finally made it to the 8th floor where Jean fund a lovely shirt to wear tomorrow since her luggage is being held hostage. We wander into the cool signature NYC Apple store - a glass cube in front of CBS acts as the entrance. Then we went into FAO Schwartz. The big clock and the "Welcome To Our World" song is gone but the big piano keyboard is there! Jean took off her shoes and had some musical fun. We decided to walk through Central Park. The zoo was closed due to flooding - sandbags everywhere. We strolled past Strawberry Fields and Lennon's Image mosaic. I noticed the first red cardinal and looked up to find a woodpecker I heard drumming. Jean noticed a furry round creature napping high up in a tree. Then I noticed a very agile raccoon moving from one tree to another. Very fun creature watching today. When we got home Jean watched Napoleon Dynamite. I was able to install my new rain showerhead. Guess we got the most out of an unplanned free day.