*note* – bikini warning. i didn’t expect anyone to actually do this, much less a woman – so be cautious of the bikini in the video.
*note2* – the temperature was literally ZERO and my fingers were completely numb, so i apologize for the shaky camera.

Anyway, we get to Toronto about 7:50. About 45 minutes late. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be so bad but the thing is there is only ONE minyan for Shacharis in Downtown Toronto which had started 15 minutes before. So the decision was made to send the men uptown in a cab to the Boat Shul to daven Shacharis. The Boat Shul is like a minyan factory which has many minyanim during the day. The thing is that shul is a good half hour away, or more with traffic. So that really threw our plans for a loop.

Anyway,back to the bus station; we got off tired but happy to be there and were met by our wonderful and hospitable Aunt Chanie who lives nearby. She also had her husband and coworkers with two cars. We threw everything in cuz we were blocking traffic and flew to her apartmetnt in a very nice building on the 19th floor. She actually rented a second, furninshed apartment for the stay (our and an aunt and uncle coming in later). She had prepared a gorgeous spread of bagels and bread with cream cheese and cereal with milk, coffee and fruit. Really amazing hachnosos orchim, my uncle Frank Jessie and Aunt Sarah (who had gotten there previously) had gone uptown to buy the groceries the day before.

So we ate and drank and freshened up. We were all kind of tired and we tried to relax a little. Problem is everything took a long time and by now, the rental cars that I had reserved downtown were long expired. So I went to Aunt Chanie’s apartmnet and did my magic on the internet, and found a pretty cheap place not far from the boat shul that had two cars available. And they pick up people! So I reserved the cars and sent the driver to the boat shul. Problem is the men didn’t know to expect them because noone had told them. After a bunch of confusion and waiting on both ends, we finally connected the rental car driver with the men and they went to pick up two cars. Problem is my BIL, Aharon only had one piece of Photo ID and this place needed two so in the end, Adiel and Aharon the chosson (who barely slept the day before) were drivers and they were finally on their way home. We’re talking like 11:30 already when we thought we’d be on our way at 8:30.

Back in the apartment, we were struggling to keep the little Kosters occupied. With a little help from Aunt Sarah who took them for a walk and an unnamed black box, they were kept out of trouble. Now, we had to find a third car downtown except there were NONE. Call after call and nothing available. It was getting very FRUSTRATING! And that coupled with little sleep, babysitting the nieces and nephews and seeing the day just waste away put me into a little bit of a bad mood. I gave up on making any more calls. Lo and Behold, Mommy takes over and the first number she calls, Enterprise, has a car available. They are a block and a half away and will even allow the return to be in Thornhill, our final destination! That was good news, especially now that the car rental wasn’t till 12:30, it really gave us more time to return it on Friday instead of the original 8:30 that we thought it would be.

So Mommy gets that car, Aharon K becomes the second driver, the men finally get home (one car got lost along the way), park in the spots that Aunt Chanie had reserved and come upstairs for a quick bite. At this point, Yitzy our cousin had joined us. And finally, finally at about 1:30 we were all ready to go to Niagara. Only about 5 hours later than we had thought. There was some thought to just cancel Niagara and do something local, but we decided to do it anyway. Also SR was flying in to Buffalo and landing about 3:30 and needed to be picked up. So we scrambled into 3 cars (the big Koster girls came with us and we played GHOST and Geography the whole time) and drove to the falls. Adiel stopped along the way for a 10 minute power nap and I got a soda and card for a cell phone that one of the H.com members so nicely lent to us.

We get to Niagara, look at the Falls and walk around a bit. We want to do something as a family, but the car with Aharon and Aharon K went to pick SR and that took a long time dealing with the border and all. They finally came as we were going on to the Maid of the Mist but the two Aharons had to park the car so they ‘missed the boat’ and went on the next one. We snapped pics and then hurried back. We wanted to get back to Toronto in time for Mincha (shkiya was like 8:10 or something) and it was already 6:30.

TBC

Its just taken us forever to get back into the swing of thigns, between sheva brachos, unpacking, getting back to work and trying to get back into normal life, we haven’t had time to blog. But I will try my best now. Warning: As I want to include details (just for you, Leah) and a few pictures which take forever to organize here, the updates will probably be broken up by day. I will try my best to do all the updates as quickly and comprehensively as possible.

OK, so lets start with Tuesday late afternoon/early evening, when we packed everything up, did the last minute things (Shainas gown did NOT come in on time so we used back-up dress) and we loaded the car and drove to the Kosters. We got there at about 6ish and the Greyhound bus was leaving at 8:30 so Aharon K kind of rushed everything a little even though I knew everything would be fine. I gobbled a slice of pizza there while they took the stuff out of the car and waited for the car service to come. When the car came, ALL of the luggage went into it along with me and Yaakov (Koster’s youngest) in his car seat. The rest of the clan, including Shaina and stroller went by train (SR drove them cuz she was flying the next day). We got to Manhattan in record time. Like 20 minutes all the way crosstown. There are for sure less tourists in the summer. The driver dropped us off on an alleyway around the corner from Port Authority (most places are just for yellow taxis) and we waited for the rest of the folks with all the stuff.  Everyone else came like 15 mintues later, and the Manhattan contingent came like 10 minutes after that. We looked like a scene. 11 people and about 50 bags. And we headed downstairs to the Greyhound terminal where we’d be spending many hours in the coming days.

Somehow with huffing and puffing and schlepping we made it to Greyhound terminal at about 7:45 and were like number 20-31 on line.     We had fun waiting, met another frum lady, went to the bathroom and than loaded on. We actually pulled out a few minutes early cuz the bus was COMPLETELY full.  The way there was fun, somewhat bumpy (physically and emotionally) and not without some dramatics from our friendly neighbors who decided it was part of their ‘religion’ to sing loudly at midnight. Whatever. All went pretty well until about 4:30 AM when we pulled up to the border and EVERYONE (including sleeping kids) with ALL of the luggage had to be taken off the bus, declared at customs and brought back on. This was a pain and also caused the bus to come in about 40 minutes late which essentially messed up our plans for the rest of the day.TBC….

1) The aufruf. We haven’t done a Shabbos simcha in the  Lower East Side since Sara Rochel’s Sheva Brachos in ‘98, almost 10 years ago. We had a few aunts and uncles, and a few single cousins. My Shabbos Sheva Brachos was done in Brooklyn cuz it was just easier. But it is apporpriate to have Aharon’s aufruf in the good ol’ LES. However, b’h our families have grown and there is a nice little crowd coming in. Making an aufruf in the LES is complicated because of the fact that A) There is no eiruv. Makes a problem for carrying and for the three families with babies, myself included.  B) there are stairs. I might use the shabbos elevator, but not everyone would and it’s not always on. C), Most of the apartments are somewhat small and it has been a little challenging figurnig out where to put everyone including a few families of 4+.

Then there is the regular planning of an aufruf, who will speak when, what to serve, what to put in the guest bags, where to have the Kiddush, etc. Mommy has been working so very hard to figure everything out and make everyone comfortable. And I’ve been helping as much as I can. There’s a lot of back and forth of who will be staying in which apartment and where it makes sense to eat. I think we are starting to finalize things, but things probably won’t be really final until Friday! Whatever, it’s been a lot of fun though slightly overwhelming ( I can only imagine how much work it is for Mommy).

2)The other complicated factor is that this wedding is ‘Out Of Town’. I have not been to an OOT wedding in years. I forgot what they are like. But for us, the family, there is a lot of extra planning going on. B”H, we got that great $1 fare on the greyhound bus.  But there are LOADS of other plans to make in a city that up until a couple of months ago was a completely strange one to me. As the local family Internet / travel guru, obviously a lot of the planning is falling on me. I don’t mind as long as everything works out. So far I’ve saved the family a nice amount of money by researching which car rental is the cheapest and doesn’t charge a drop-off fee to return it elsewhere and doing my homewhere and reserving a nice 3 * hotel on Priceline for $70-75 instead of $110+.  I’m also looking into minyanim, Kosher food and activities to do — in Niagara Falls. Amazingly, my mother’s sister Chanie lives a couple of blocks from where the bus drops us off in Downtown Toronto and she’s being so hospitable and taking care of driving us places and giving us breakfast. This should be LOTS of fun but also a bunch more work to finalize.

Besides for all that, I still need a suit or two for the aufruf / sheva brachos, need to finalize on a dress for Shaina baby, make some shtick for the wedding and arrive early on Friday to help Mommy out. Oh, and also like go to work every day, cook,  clean and do laundry. And take care of my baby.

B’h for being busy with simchos! We’re so excited, just one week and two days left! (and one week till we board the bus. And three days till the aufruf)

The next thing we know it’s Monday night and we have nothing planned. So we just decided to go with the place that we spent our first Shabbaton and sort of officially decided to date (long story for another time for those who don’t know it). Anyway, that place is Stamford which has a soft spot for both of us and is only about an hour away without traffic. So I pricelined a 3 star hotel anywhere in Fairfield County for $75, came out with nothing, but did one for $85 and our offer was accepted!
We were going to the Sheraton Stamford, which is one of the nicest hotels we stayed at together and for a decent price. Than I did a search and the only thing giong on in the neck of the woods was a concert and car show in Norwalk, some 15 minutes away. OK, a possibility. Anyway, we packed up stuff and were on our way!

Wednesday morning, June 25, we stopped to get bagels and barbecue food and headed on our anniversary get-a-way. It was a gorgeous (somewhat hot) day that stayed sunny and nice throughout, very different than some of the days before or after it. We headed onto the I-95 toward New Haven and got to Stamford by 12:30. The hotel room wasn’t ready for us (checkin is at 3), so we did some shopping at a nearby mall (Michael’s is VERY cool and I’ve never been to the one 10 minutes from my house), changed Shaina and hung out. Room still wasn’t ready and we’re getting a drop impatient cuz it was hot and we were both tired. We went to a nearby park, called Scalzi Park. WAY COOL. First of all, some bank was giving away FREE ICE CREAM!!! It was a promotional thing and — it was Good Humor. Delicious, nutty cone and best of all — Kosher! Nothing like a little free ice cream on your anniversary to make everything in the world seeem perfect. Anyway, than we looked at some skateboarders. There’s a special place to skateboard there. I haven’t seen this in YEARS but there were a bunch of people skateboarding up and down here. . Some were good, others not so much. When we finished here, we went to the hotel, it was a quarter to 3 and our room was ready! Needless to say we all felt better after air conditioning, showers and naps!

Some photos to show the rest of the day, Notice in the pictures how it goes from broad daylight to slowly becoming later, the sun setting and getting dark:

 

We took shaina to a gorgeous beach near stamford.

Then we ended up going to Norwalk at about 7:00. At Calf Pasture beach, there was a pretty cool car show and the band. People were sitting around eating, talking, relaxing. Some folks were playing on the playground others were just watching the show. Meir K, you would have loved the car show. Some people were just showing off, others were actually selling their cars right there and the buyers drove off in them! In the concert intermission they gave out awards to some of the cars, not sure for what Here are a few of the cool ones:

We enjoyed Tony Reno playing some classic old songs like ‘New York, New York’, ‘I’m a believer’, ‘Sweet Caroline’ and more. Adiel even sat on the blanket with us and kicked his shoes off too! But Shaina liked it the best

      

About 8:15, when the concert was returning from intermission, I metnioned this would be a good time to start the barbecue. There was a place to grill a few hundred yards down, so Adiel wheeled the baby and I drove the car. During the weekend, you have to pay money for a table but being that it was Wednesday (though it felt like it was Sunday) we got one for free. And we didn’t get there a moment too soon, the sun was setting as we unloaded the car, and as you can see it already started to get dark once we started grilling. And what a barbecue we had!! Shish kebabs, franks and minute steaks plus all the condiments you could want! We enjoyed the food very much especially with the gorgeous view and background music of Tony Reno still singing. Toward the end of our barbecue it was well after 9 and there was no daylight left to see, so we used a little flashlight from Adiel’s tool kit. How romantic . Shaina fell asleep and we finished up just as the police were telling everyone we had to leave. In fact, we were in the middle of bentching when the police car made its announcement and actually WAITED for us to finish!!

All in all it was a wonderful day, the weather was gorgeous, and it was so wonderful to spend that time away from day to day life. It was an added bonus that our little Shaina was with us (and we did try to get rid of her, but there were no takers ). We headed back to the hotel and enjoyed being in a nicer hotel than we are used to. Here are some cute shots of Shaina in the morning.

 

Thanks to all those who remembered our anniversary (I dont remember anyone’s anything) and called / email to wish us well. May all of our readers have happy anniveraries, birthdays, Fathers and Mothers Days and good regular old fashioned weekdays with the ones they love close  by.

For more photos, ONLY THOSE WITH FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS, go to  http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=621261774#/album.php?aid=29755&id=621261774

For the second year in a row, we flew down to Adiel’s Mom for Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful to see her, her husband Jim and Adiel’s sibs, Amanda and Alan. We spent Shabbos with the Wargas like we did last year and the other days shmoozing, eating, watching TV and shopping. Mom was so gracious and bought us loads of Kosher food so we had plenty to eat and drink during our stay. Thanks Mom!

The time flew by too quickly and it was time to say good-bye to dear Mom. So we woke up early Monday morning and Jim drove us to the airport to catch our 10:00 flight. We got to the airport and checked in with plenty of time to spare. OK, good things are going great. We get to the AA gate and theres a 45 minute delay. I wish they had told us about that earlier cuz we could have slept an extra 45 minutes, but oh well. Then they make an announcement that it might be even longer like 11:30 or 12 because of bad weather conditions in NY. At this point I start getting a little nervous, and Adiel calls his school to tell them he won’t be making it in to teach. Next thing we know, they are giving out this little card to each person which says ‘we’re sorry for the delay or cancelled flight, please call this number so they can assist you’. Not a good sign. About 20 minutes later, the announcement comes ‘we are sorry but there is no window for us to fly into NY and the flight has been cancelled. There is no room on any other flights leaving today, the best we can do is get you on a flight first thing tomorrow morning’. So everyone is all up in arms, calling people, waiting on the lines, asking questions, etc. Adiel and I were just laughing. I called the number they gave and after waiting for about a half hour, they finally got us on a US Airway flight to Charlotte, leaving at 2 PM which then we could get a connecting flight to NY at 4:10 (and would get us home at 6). It was only about 11:30, but it was the best we could do and at least we’d be getting home that night.

Wall street Journal article about the delays, it menitons Atlanta.

OK, so we knew we had a couple of hours to kill before heading to Charlotte. So we collected our luggage back (quickest luggage retrieval ever) and headed to the Atrium in the airport which is big and gorgeous and had a place to plug in the laptop and charge. We chilled and used the computer and shmoozed, repacked some of the stuff to take out deli meat and cereal to munch on, and noted on how many army people there were. All of a sudden some guy comes out in tne middle of the atrium and claps his hands and says ‘Attention Ladies and Gentlemen!!’ and we were like ‘uh oh’. But then he says ‘These troops are heading back to Iraq today’. And all of a sudden tens of soldiers just follow him, carrying their backpacks. And everyone that was in the atrium – literally hundreds of people stand up and cheer. It was like attending our very own Veteran’s Day Parade. Brought tears to my eyes, and made the waiting almost worth it.

But all of these distractions actually took longer than we had realized, and all of a sudden we checked our watches and it was 12:40, and our flight was at 2, so we knew we had to check in already (again). We go to US Airways, wait online, try to check in with our e-tickets and it didn’t let us. Tried again and again, it just wasn’t working. The minutes were ticking by and all of the agents were busy. 12:50, finally the guy asks what we need and we explain the situation. He looks and looks and says Adiel has an e-ticket but you don’t. Uh oh. After a whole bunch more of searching, he says ‘Oh, I see why because your name is spelled Esther, but the American Airways representative wrote it as Ester.’ Grrr. How frustrating!! The guy had to make a whole bunch more phone calls and we’re just watching the clock tick by. What further exasperated the situation was that we knew we had the ‘SSSS’ on our ticket, which for those of you who are not airport-security savvy, means that they put you through the highest security possible because of the ‘last minute tickets’ that we booked. Extra time for frisking and looking through our stuff that we just didn’t have!! The guy finally lets us go at 1:20, a mere 40 minutes before our flight. We still needed to wait through the regular and extra security (including the whole ‘shoe take off’ fun) and take the escalator up and down and the train 4 stops to the proper concourse. AAAHH!!! We check the screen, and the flight to Charlotte is leaving on time. Time to put on the jets and hope for the best.

We fly through the airport and b’h the security line (while long) is moving. We get through within 15 minutes and get the whole extra security treatment. Fly down the escalator, the train just came, run up the next escalator and get to our gate at 10 to 2. Phew. One look and we knew we weren’t leaving on time. The terminal was packed, noone was lining up anywhere to go on any plane. Lalalalal. Of course there are no seats either, people are just sitting and spacing out, but I find one isolated seat and adiel stands. We hear the announcement that the plan from charlotte just landed so it will still be a good 20 minutes before we can board, but ‘they are going as quickly as they can’. Why couldn’t they have just posted that the flight was leaving late – it would have saved us a lot of agmas hanefesh….
Whatever. The plane boards around 2:30, doesn’t actually take off until closer to 3. Our connecting flight is at 4:10, but at this point, we realized there are probably delays up and down the East Coast airports and we’re just happy that we’re going to IY”H be that much closer to home. We touchdown at 10 to 4, but being that we’re in the back of the plane, it takes a while to get out. We exit the plane at 4:05, a mere 5 minutes before our flight home is scheduled, and lo and behold we’re standing right next to the gate that we are supposed to be leaving from. What hashgacha! Of course, a similar scene is greeting us and instead of a ‘final board call to New York Laguardia’ with a few last people heading down into the plane, we see a terminal full of bored looking people checking their watches. ‘Here we go again’. The new boarding time is 4:30, and we actually do board then but the plane doesn’t take off until 5:00. Still – we were on our way home and expecting to land at around 7 PM, only an hour later than we were originally scheduled (and 7 hours later that we had really originally scheduled). My wonderful sister and brother in law who took great care of our car and even replaced the battery (long story) were going to pick us up as soon as we landed. We munched on the deli meat and cereal for dinner and played a computer game together. Before we knew it, the plane was starting to descend, it was about 6:45 and I could just smell the NY air…and the pilot comes on and says…we are beginning our descent – to Baltimore!!!

WTH?! Apparently NY wasn’t letting anyone land at this point because of bad weather (fog) and they were refueling in Baltimore. We land and stay put for a long time and the pilot actually comes on and says ‘To be honest I’m not 100% sure what’s going on, I’m a pilot, not a politician, and we want to get home too, but we haven’t been able to reach the Baltimore airport to find out where to refuel, probably because there are so many planes that are doing the sajme thing. I will let you know anything as soon as we do, and we appreciate your patience.’ I really liked his candor and honesty. The flight attendants started passing around drinks and pretzels and everyone waited on line for the bathrooms. Boy did I feel sorry for the people with little kids.

I’m getting exhausted just remembering this. Long story short, we sat and waited and than refueled abd waited some more. I thought they would cancel the flight altogether and kick us off the plane, and we were already discussing the possibility of renting a car and driving the rest of the way