From Chicago to Weehawken: A Day to Remember

The day was Tuesday, July 31, 2007. My wife at the time was almost five months pregnant with our firstborn and we were headed to New York City for a few days before our family reunion which was in Washington, D.C. My wife had an ultrasound that day and that's when we found out the great news - we were having a boy. Imagine my surprise... I thought it was going to be a girl. After our trip to the hospital that morning, we rushed home to finish packing our bags so we could head out to Midway Airport.

We had an early evening flight into New York's LaGuardia Airport. I believe the flight was supposed to leave at 6:15pm out of Midway Airport and arrive around 9:05pm into LaGuardia Airport; we were flying through ATA that night. Needless to say, neither of those things happened. Our flight out of Chicago was late by at least an hour, so we didn't get into New York City until after 10pm. At this point we'd already had a long day and we just wanted to get to our hotel. The problem was this - our hotel was in Weehawken, New Jersey. We were staying at the Sheraton Suites there because the hotels in Manhattan were out of our budget at the time and staying in New Jersey was the best way to make the most of our trip to New York City without the high costs of staying there.

Now it's about 10:25pm. I was going to get a cab to our hotel. I knew it was going to be high, and I was prepared to spend about $50 for the taxi ride. Again, at this point I just want to get settled. We grab our bags and leave the airport and head towards the line where you wait for a cab. After about five minutes the cab driver tells us that it'll cost $100 to go to New Jersey. We were astonished. I was like there's no way I'm going to pay $100 just to go about 7 or 8 miles. Without a cab to depend on we did the next best thing... take public transporation.

One of the things I love about my wife is that she's very resourceful (probably picked up some of that from me). So we found out how to make connections to New Jersey and thus began our nightly adventure. We took the M22 bus from LaGuardia Airport which was going to take us into Harlem; more specifically 125^th Street in Harlem where we would transfer to the A line. Somewhere on our bus route we noticed that there was a hole in one of our luggage bags.

So it's around 11pm or 11:15pm at this point... with a hole in one of our bags (not big enough for anything to fall out, thank God)... a pregnant wife... and a long day already behind us, we get off the bus at the train stop, proceed to take the elevator downstairs where we await the A line. The subway in New York City was just as crowded after 11pm as it would be at almost any other time of the day outside of rush hour. That was no surprise to me given I've been to New York before, but this was my wife's first time, so she's enjoying the experience (as much as one could given the circumstances). The A line comes after about 5 minutes, and we're going to 42^nd Street into Times Square. We're getting off at 42^nd Street to go to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. From there we would take a bus that would drop us off in Weehawken, New Jersey.

By this time it's a little after midnight. We'd been traveling for about an hour and a half. We're hungry and tired and ready to go to sleep but we continue to keep moving. We get our fare together for the bus, which was relatively inexpensive and catch the bus going through Weehawken, New Jersey. At about 12:20am we pulled off and out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, headed through the Lincoln Tunnel, and crossed into New Jersey. The bus stopped right in front of our hotel and we were thrilled to get off at about 12:30am and see the big red lit sign saying Sheraton Suites. We'd finally made it to Weehawken and New York City and now we can finally rest!

After two hours of commuting what would have cost us $100 only cost us $13 total between the both of us. Needless to say we were happy and thrilled to put our bags down, lay on the bed, and enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet before sleep came down upon us. The next time we visit New York City though we definitely plan to fly in earlier and stay in the city if at all possible... maybe we'll even fly out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport into New York's JFK Airport, just to switch things up a bit.