22nd November – a very early and massively surreal start to the day with a 4am alarm ready to get up and ready, drop our cases at the airport, head through security and into Duty Free. I am an anxious flyer without a doubt and that anxiety starts before security. There’s no reason for it, I think I just find it quite stressful as I need to inform them of me having a heart monitor in my chest, which is fine, they just get me to go through the body scanner as opposed to the metal detector scanners … I think the risk is purely that I could set them off rather than any interference with the monitor so I opt for the body scanner!

Our plane ‘Beauty Queen’ was ready for take-off at 9am … my anxiety did kick in a little but generally I was pretty good in comparison to how I’ve been on some flights! The feeling on the plane was still one of utter shock that literally 24 hours before I was on my way to the spa for my birthday and now I was 38,000ft in the air heading to America!

We landed at JFK at 11.30am local time, which was a little earlier than scheduled, greeted as we taxied to the gate with a Virgin Cabin Crew announcement of ‘Local time here is 11.30am, 35 minutes ahead of schedule … and British Airways‘ Haha!

My Hubby had arranged for a Limo transfer to the hotel, which was extremely late in picking us up and appeared to have zero suspension on the car (if you’ve seen the film Uncle Buck, picture the Limo being like his car!) but we weren’t going to let that ruin the holiday! The Limo took us to the wonderful Sofitel Hotel where we had been again upgraded to a suite with a terrace on the 24th floor! They’d also left a chocolate birthday cake for us too which Ryan and I shared as it had been my Birthday the day before but would be his 13th on the Saturday!

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once we had unpacked and gone for dinner at TGI Fridays, we headed to The Rockefeller Centre to use our VIP passes to get to the Top of The Rock Observation Deck. As a VIP, we were able to skip all queues both outside and indoors, priority lift access and the same treatment on the way down!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We arrived there after dark so that we could see the city lit up in all it’s glory. Pointing out landmarks to the boys that you can see from so high up with views of the Hudson River, Central Park and all of the iconic buildings such as Tower One and of course the Empire State Building. It was however absolutely freezing … – 8 I believe! To even take photos on our phones with just one finger hanging out of a glove lead to very cold and sore hands! We didn’t stay up there too long as it was simply too cold to stay out and as we had an early morning planned for the following day, we headed back to the hotel for our first night in New York. Arriving on Thanksgiving was also utterly amazing! Yes, it was extremely busy, which is to be expected but it was so festive, so christmassy, lights and music everywhere. A real feel good factor 🙂

To be continued…..

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments box below or on my facebook page. Check out my social media….links below

Facebook……….Twitter……….Instagram……..Pinterest